CompuServe Thread

Well, I just got the Canon BJC-600 and I LOVE this printer. For the price ~$600 you can't find a better printer! The Primera is a Great printer, but I've heard printing costs are a bit prohibitive, not to mention the base price of the Primera (without the dye sub.) is $200 more. I'd stay away from the HP550C… The HP1200C is a nice printer, especially if you get the postscript option. The color printing may be a shade better than the BJC-600, but not enough better to warrant the cost. (except if you need postscript.) (The BJC-600 prints a bit better on plain paper than the HP.) The BJC also beats the HP500 in text modes, so you probably wouldn't need to keep the HP500. I use a switchbox and about 20' of cable between my PC, Amiga, Panasonic 1124 printer (for labels only now, but it was a good printer for it's time!), and my BJC-600. The Primera base price doesn't include the dye sub. kit. And, last, but not least, no blank stripes on the BJC-600, if you use Wolf Faust's driver! Bob Comer — Flying high and fast with my A1200HD'030 on Autopilot! From Cheyenne, Wyoming U.S.A.

I've been able to use the BJC-600 here at the store in side-by-side trials against the HP550C, and as I've said before, the kindest I can say about the HP engine is that it's old. The BJC-600, while not a replacement for the 800 series, seems to have a similar multi-cartridge arrangement for printing color. A bunch of testing materials states that the per-page cost for the Canon is less than half that of the HP550C, and lower than the 1200C (and the tiny ink/printhead carriage won't shake your table across the floor). Since initial availability of print cartridges is limited, I'd suggest buying two off each color and four black carts to see you through the initial wave of cart replacements ($8 each). The print quality is fantastic, and that 20% higher resolution (360 dpi vs 300) makes for some incredibly smooth continuous tones. I'm not even going to try and compare it to a dye-sub printer (if you can afford the per-page cost, buy it), but it's currently king of the hill among color inkjet printers. As for driver support, there is supposedly a 600-series driver already out in one of these libs. I'll test the Epson LQ-2500/2550 emulation this weekend, should have some results to report next week. If all else fails, _that_ driver is out for the Amigas. Thank you for your time. Peter

Judi, I have both a Primera (with the dye sublimation option) and an HP500C. In the thermal wax mode the Primera does an excellent job of printing graphics, but print quality is, to me, unacceptable on photographic images in the thermal wax mode. In the dye sublimation mode, all of my printing has been done using a DOS machine because at the time I bought the dye sublimation option about a month ago, the driver for this mode for the Amiga was not available. Fargo will not sell the dye sublimation mode driver for the Amiga separately from the Photorealistic Upgrade kit, which means that the Amiga driver costs $250 from Fargo. (The Photorealistic Upgrade kit also includes a plastic cartridge, 10 sheets of the special paper required for dye sublimation printing, and a dye sublimation capable ribbon good for ten prints.) In dye sublimation mode the Primera produces prints that approach, but are not quite equal to, photographic prints –colors are rich, accurate, and resolution is better than the 203 dpi specification would suggest. With regard to your questions: (1) Yes, I believe you will have problems using the Primera with two short cables and a switch box. The Primera seems to be very sensitive to parallel cable length and switch boxes. I could not get the Primera to work at all using two short cables and a switch box. Removing the switch box and hooking the Primera directly to my Amiga immediately brought things to life. (2) The dye sublimation kit is now available for the Amiga from Fargo ($250) but you should be aware that on the Amiga, this driver only works with selected pieces of software which include DPaint IV, Brilliance, and Image FX. It will not work with AdPro. I believe that even with the above software the maximum number of colors output to the driver is 4096 but someone can jump in and correct me if I am wrong on this. (3) The Primera does not produce blank strips in either the thermal wax (normal) mode of printing or in the dye sublimation mode. Summary: The Primera is a very good printer for graphics in the thermal wax mode and gives remarkably good results in the dye sublimation mode on photo images. Premium (high gloss) paper is required for good results in the thermal wax mode. The Primera will produce good monochrome on the high gloss, premium paper, but in my opinion the HP500 is better for B&W printing. Tom