Hi Marksparks,
I got the CX6600 a few weeks ago to replace my Lexmark z42 (had the 3200 before that). I think it is just a redesigned version of the 6400 which I`d had my eye on for a while. But why not go for the latest model, prices are the same, and it`s a nicer rounded shape (although still fairly big - I had to have a move round to fit it on my desk).
My reasons for changing were exactly the same as yours, ink price, and the need to a scanner as I`d taken some underwater photos on holiday and wanted to put some on my website. I hadn`t needed a scanner for ages, as I normally use a digi camera, but the underwater one was 35mm.
I`d been holding off getting a new printed for ages, just running the Lexmark on black only as I refused to get another colour cartridge for it. Anyhow, this was the excuse I needed to get a new one. :)
I got mine from Amazon for £126 incl free delivery, they`ve always seemed to give very good service when I`ve used them (choose the super saver option - I`ve found it still comes just as quick normally - this was ordered late thursday night and arrived Monday morning, not bad with the weekend in between).
As for the printer, I find it`s very good. It can be used standalone without the PC turned on, so good if you just want a quick photocopy of something (it does photocopies in colour or B&W with just one button press).
If you had a digi camera but no printer, then you could print them on this using the card reader on the printer. It prints an index print of what`s on the card, then you colour the boxes in under the ones you want to print (a bit like filling a lottery ticket in), scan the index print, and it reads it and knows which photos to print. I tried it once and it does work, although I get most of my prints done in Asda if I need a proper photo from a digicamera, as the price has fallen so much recently it`s just as cheap (or cheaper) to get it done on proper photo paper.
The only thing I read in a review which sounded strange was the it said you could see small marks on the paper where the paper feed had held the paper, which I foudn strange. But I did see this on a photo of a sunrise I took, which had a lot of dark colour in it. They were very tiny pinprick type lines down the page, but really, you had to hold it very close to see them, and at a normal distance you`d never notice. Plus it`s probably exagerrated by the photo having lots of very dark (nearly black in places) colour in it. With a normal photo with lots of colour I doubt you`d ever even see it.
One of the other things that sold it to me was the individual ink pots, it`s got to be better than throwing a combined cartridge away that might have some of one colour left in it. This has been proven with this printer as if you look at the ink monitor screen there`s a lot more yellow left than the other colours (although ink seems to be lasting pretty well up to now). Epsons have a good reputation for print quality and cheapness of ink, so should be economical to use.
The memory card reader is a nice touch too, especially if you don`t have one on your PC already, as it shows as a "removable disk" in My Computer, so can be used to get things onto your computer directly, it`s not just usable with the printer itself.
The USB connection should be no hassle with a newish computer (it works on USB 2.0 if your computer can take advantage of the extra speed - or it will just connect slower on older versions). It doesn`t have a parallel port connection though, USB only, which shouldn`t be a problem on a PC 5yrs old or less (and very old computers probably couldn`t run it anyway).
The way the cable connects inside the lid of the printer (as mentioned) is no hassle, you only have to do it once when setting it up. I guess their reasoning for it is it may be used in an office / small business environment, where you could get somone kicking / tripping over the cable, so because it is plugged in inside the printer and held in cable grips, there`s less chance of someone damaging the plug or connection should they trip over the cable. It`s not really an issue at home, but could be something that could happen in an office I guess.
Thoroughly recommend it !
Here`s some the scans of the underwater photos I was on about as an example (scaled down to web quality though). Only the underwater ones are scans, the others are off my digital camera:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.sedgwick/photos/galleries/galleryibiza/
Mark. :)
This item was edited on Sunday, 31st October 2004, 11:32
