Test Drive: Epson Stylus C86: Color Printer
By Jeffrey Hastings -- School Library Journal, 10/1/2004
Epson America, 3840 Kilroy Airport Way, Long Beach, CA 90806 (800) GO-EPSON www.epson.com/ Windows 98 and up, Mac OS 9.1 and up. $99.
Every week it seems someone walks into my office and breathlessly asks how they can get some quick photos taken. While I can easily set up my colleagues with a digital camera, one thing I've never been able to supply them with is a decent print. Problem is, even our best color printers can't reproduce digital pictures very well.Enter the Epson Stylus C86. This little printer knocks off printouts of routine text jobs lickety-split, but can also turn out surprisingly high-quality photographs on a variety of paper-stock formats. The best part is it retails for around a hundred bucks.
The printer comes with a software suite that's easy to install on machines running Windows 98 or later versions, or Macs running OS 9.1 and up. The image-handling heart of the software package is called Film Factory, which allowed me to import pictures from my digital camera, then gave me all of the basic photo-editing and enhancement tools needed to tweak the shots for printing. Film Factory has a few artistic extras, too, but is simple enough that even occasional users can intuitively import, doctor up, and crank out great looking pictures.
The unit uses a matched line of ink-and-photo paper stocks known as DURABrite, which insure quality, long-lasting prints. Fifty sheets of 4" x 6" DURABrite paper costs about $9, and 20 sheets of 8.5" x 11" paper retail for about $12, but better deals are easily found on the net. The same goes for DURABrite ink cartridges: you can replace any of the three-color cartridges individually for about $12, or buy them as a trio for $36. The standard black cartridges go for around $23. I'd recommend spending at least $99 to stockpile an ample supply of cartridges and paper. Why? Once your colleagues discover your little "digital darkroom," the demand for prints is sure to go way up.
The affordable Epson Stylus C86 makes quick work of routine printing and also delivers quality photo prints that look like they just came back from the lab.
Jeffrey Hastings is a school library media specialist at Highlander Way Middle School in Howell, MI; hastingj@howellschools.com ; (517) 548-6293.
