Talking with dolphins (Epson Stylus C40)

Member Name: Plymyphil

Product:	Epson Stylus C40
Date:	24/01/04 (523 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Good quality images

Disadvantages: Dolphins, Dolphins, Dolphins

In a recent television series looking at the one hundred experiences people want to accumulate before they die, sitting up high was swimming with dolphins. Now, I can sort of understand that - if the opportunity arose I wouldprobably take it. However, just listen to the sounds they make - this is not the hauntingly echoing sounds of whales that with a little accompaniement from electrical instruments sells music CDs to help you relax. No! Dolphins sound irritating. Basically a dolphin clicks. Now, I'm sure dolphin lovers everywhere are getting ready to shout me down - they're intelligent - they have superb vocal communication - all of this I accept. But - the fact remains - they just click!

And so I arrive at the only negative point about this budget printer - it regularly does dolphin impersonations. The first time this happens you'll look over, startled and bemused, possibly raise a wry grin having heard about it here first. As time goes on though this will irritate. I'm sure moments in one's life a conversation with a dolphin could be magical. The thing is though - you opt for it. You book a holiday where it's a possibility and then hand over a disprapportionatly large sum of money for the priviledge of swimming with a bottle nosed clicker. With the Epson C40SX - you do not have the luxury of choosing. Every once in a while .... clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclick clickclickclick ... clickclickclickclickclickclickclick ... whirrrrrrrrr and then it begins printing again.

Now, I have no idea what it is doing when it goes through this strange and irritating procedure but it must be something to do with the cartridges or ink as they whizz to the right hand side of the cover and then come back after all the clicking. (Answers left as comments would be appreciated - the more ridiculous the better - personally I think they might make the ink out of the vocal chords of dolphins and every once in a while the charged
particles harken back to their wetter days beneath the ocean!)

Ho de hum - that's my introduction over.

The rest of the printer is remarkably uninteresting. It produces good quality images for a fairly cheap price. For those who like to compare specifications - here are the details.

SPECIFICATION
8 pages per minute mono
3.9 pages per minute colour (I say slightly less - maybe a couple but who really counts?)
Resolution: 1440dpi X 720 dpi (Enhanced so not a genuine resolution but the enhancement is superb.)
Internal RAM: 12Kb (This is tiny and make this a personal printer and not suitable for networking.)
Printable media: Envelopes, plain paper, photo paper, iron-on transfer, transparancies - index cards.
Paper sheet feeder: Holds 100 sheets
Works with: Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000. (I don't appear to have any MAC OS drivers on the CD but I would expect it would have some available somewhere - double check if you are a MAC user.

The printer is a dream to set up. It comes with one of those wonderful huge colour posters. One side shows you how to attach the printer to the computer and install the software. The other side shows you how to change the ink cartridges. The installation was a dream on Windows 98 so I expect would be even easier on more recent machines. I would put money on there being an XP variant of the drivers too but check before purchasing if XP is your operating system.

This printer is too expensive to run for text in my opinion. It is more expensive than our HP printers for example on ink. (Cartridges are about £25.00 each but they do not last long for as many pages as an HP cartridge.)
For photo printing though this is ace. The price for a photo printer is acceptable and the quality of the images is superb - in my opinion easily as good as print technologies costing twice as much.
The colour matching is accurate and the vibrancy of the colours is a real pleasure for
a printer of this price. (We paid just over £100.00 but I believe they can be purchased for just under £100.00 now. This is still on shelves and available so definitely worth looking at if you are in the market for a printer mainly for printing out photographs.)

The software that comes on the installation is easy to use and the accuracy with which it predicts the end of an ink cartridge is superb. (Often these are not doing anything clever but in this case the printer really does know when an ink change is imminent.)

The printer comes with a delightful piece of Epson software for printing photographs. In essence it lets you point to a folder on your harddrive and then specifiy your printing needs. You tell it how many photos on a page - what type of media - and then what quality. It does the rest. Resizes the image, rotates if necessary and then prints what you requested. For photo printing this is one of the best bundled free applications I have seen.

OVERALL
The printer is expensive to run for black pages of text - stick to Hewlett Packard for that in my opinion. It produces superb quality photographs for such a budget printer and I have seen far more expensive printers doing no better. It also has a great software package for printing photographs and therefore makes this whole process easy. It is lightweight and does feel flimsy. As you open the front cover which catches in the centre the edges bend before it releases and opens. Slightly cheap feel over all perhaps then but if budget photos is your thing then this is a great choice of printer. Just watch out for the dolphin conversation - irritates the hell out of me.

Thanks for taking the time to read this opinion. I look forward to any comments you may leave - Phil

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