Ultimate print quality, ink jet or dye sublimation?

[mjs1973]

Hello,

While I am seeking for an high end pro grade photo printer, I have only considered ink jet printers (mostly the Epson Stylus 2200) so far because of the print size limits typical to dye sublimation printers (the models that I knew could only print 4x6 pictures or 5x7 top).

Now, I just discovered the existence of the new Kodak Professional 1400 dye sublimation printer (which can go up to 8x12 prints). While this printer supposedly hit the market in late october 2004 I never saw one in store nor could I find a review somewhere.

In a perfect world, I'd like a dye sublimation printer that would produce 11x14 prints but it doesn't seem to exist yet and I consider that I could live with the 8x12 size limit of this new Kodak. Also the few reviews that I could find on others (olders) Kodak dye sublimation printers are all very very positives.

Which lead me to ask, does any of you guys are familiar with the dye sublimation technology and do you feel that it is superior to the ink jet technology regarding print quality? Finally, can these printers be calibrated as easily as the typical ink jet printers?

best regards

Seb

I have some prints hanging on my wall that I printed on a Fuji Pictography 3500, and one from and Epson 2200. I didn't spend a lot of time on either printer as they were not mine, but the Fuji blows away the Epson as far as I'm concerned. Maybe if I would have spent more time on the Epson, and uses some paper that was designed for the Epson inks I could have gotten some show quality results from it. Check out Ebay if you're interesed in the Fuji. I saw 2 of them listed for $1000 with no reserve a couple 3 weeks ago, and nobody bid on either one of them. If I had the room and made enuf prints to justify it, it would have been well worth the cash IMHO. That's a lot of $ compaired to the Epson, but the print quality is incredible.

[Seb]

I have some prints hanging on my wall that I printed on a Fuji Pictography 3500, and one from and Epson 2200. I didn't spend a lot of time on either printer as they were not mine, but the Fuji blows away the Epson as far as I'm concerned. Maybe if I would have spent more time on the Epson, and uses some paper that was designed for the Epson inks I could have gotten some show quality results from it. Check out Ebay if you're interesed in the Fuji. I saw 2 of them listed for $1000 with no reserve a couple 3 weeks ago, and nobody bid on either one of them. If I had the room and made enuf prints to justify it, it would have been well worth the cash IMHO. That's a lot of $ compaired to the Epson, but the print quality is incredible.

Hello,

Thank you for your imput. I have been looking at the Epson 2200 for a while and from what I have heard, this printer MUST be used with Epson papers especially designed for it. Otherwise, it appears that the prints may be plain awful. Now I can't tell you how true it is as I don't have the experience but this might explain the results that you have gotten with the Epson.

Thanks for the hint on the Fuji's. I sincertly appreciate but I don't have the space nor the knowledge to operate these machines.

regards

Seb