Friday, September 28, 2012

Nikon D600, Epson R3000 and Canon PIXMA PRO-1 First Look Report

I’m happy to report that I have some great new products on hand that I’m reviewing with full reviews coming to this blog in the near future. In this article I briefly mention each of the products and what my first thoughts are after unboxing and playing with them a bit.

Canon PIXMA PRO-1

Canon PIXMA PRO-1 Photo Printer
Canon PIXMA PRO-1 Photo Printer (Adorama, Amazon, and B&H)

Oddly enough, this is the only printer that Canon’s Certified Professional Service (CPS) recognizes as a pro printer! While I’m skeptical of the inks compared to the wonderful Lucia EX inks found on my Canon imagePROGRAF 6300, early signs show that this is a nice high quality personal photo printer.

If you stick with the included disk, the setup is a snap. In addition the port setup feature worked seamlessly so that when I went to my Mac (running 10.8.2), I was easily able to add this printer without having any USB cables connected to it.

I’m already finding the lack of a LCD to be very frustrating and unnerving. This unit is also crazy big (about the size of Epson’s legendary 3880). These gripes aside, it creates nice warm images out of the box that look stunning on Ilford Galerie Prestige Smooth Pearl Photo Paper.

It’s going to be interesting to see if this printer can hold up well against its large format big brothers and the mighty Epson R3000.

Epson Stylus Photo R3000 – No wires required

Epson Stylus Photo R3000
Epson Stylus Photo R3000 Inkjet Printer (Adorama, Amazon and B&H)

When you set up this printer you quickly find out why it won the PC Editors Choice award – it’s just so darn easy to set up. From the time I got all the wrapping paper and tape off of it until the time I was making my first print was about 10 minutes on Windows 7. When I tried to install it on my Macbook Pro some of that work done on Windows could be leveraged so I end getting it working in less than 5 minutes.

Out of the box, both Mac and PC printed perfect color matched prints from Photoshop CS6 that were identical despite being printed from different computers and operating systems. The Ultra Premium Luster is a great photo paper and great profiles are included with the printer to get you productive in a hurry.

This printer features the same ink set as the legendary Epson Stylus® Pro 3880, but it is a higher resolution printer featuring the same AccuPhoto HD2 imaging technology as the 4900. This coupled with its roll support, smaller droplet size, and overall user-friendliness – I’m seeing why this printer has been so well reviewed – it’s pretty awesome!

I like this printer so much that it’s already taken on the roll as my everyday printer.

Nikon D600 – Plenty to be excited about!

Nikon D600 Digital Camera with 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR Lens
Nikon D600 Digital Camera with 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5G ED VR Lens 
(
Adorama, Amazon, and B&H)

One thing I love about Nikon is that when they announce something, it’s typically on its way to resellers (unlike the other company that announces 6 – 9 months+ before availability). It was just a couple weeks ago that I posted my press release article on the D600, and now I have one in my hands.


ISO 6400 is usable
D600,f/5.6 @ 56 mm, 1/125, ISO 6400, No Flash, AWB, Handheld

My first impressions of this camera are very positive because it’s very well built (feels like a smaller D800 and as solid as a 5D Mark III). The kit lens in the unit I tested isn’t shabby either!


Very nice dynamic range
D600,f/11 @ 85 mm, 2.5s, ISO 100, AWB, Supported, No Flash

This bad boy generates images that are 6016x4016, which is definitely more pixels than most real people need. However, unlike the D800 it’s not a ridiculous amount so this camera is definitely more forgiving handheld than the D800. The lossless compressed RAW files were up to 33MB and JPEG’s went up to about 13.6MB, so that’s quite a bit bigger than even my 5D Mark III files. 

D600 Sample Image - Scone
Excellent detail and sharpness even with the kit lens
D600,f/11 @ 85 mm, 5s, ISO 100, Mirror Lockup, Supported, AWB, No Flash

D600 Sample Image - Scone 100% View
100% view of the scone above shows that there’s plenty of megapixels for cropping

This camera is impressing me early on because it offers a reasonable price with great image quality in a feature packed body that is as fun to use as the D7000. It’s certainly feeling like the camera that most D800 owners would probably enjoy more as their every day camera.

Conclusion

Fun times ahead as I’ve got some great products that make my life easier from capture to print. I hope you’ll join me for my reviews when the become available!

Thanks,
Ron

Other Articles You Might Enjoy

If you liked this article, you may also enjoy these:

Disclosure

Canon and Epson have provided me with printers and paper for the purpose of reviewing the products mentioned in this article. B&H loaned me the D600 kit.

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission which helps to support this blog. Thanks for your support!

NOTE: This site requires cookies and uses affiliate linking to sites that use cookies.

If you enjoyed this article, please support future articles like this by making a donation or saving money by using my discount coupon codes. Either way, your support is greatly appreciated!

This blog is intended for freelance writing and sharing of opinions and is not a representative of any of the companies whose links are provided on this site.

The opinions provided are of Ron Martinsen alone and do not reflect the view of any other entity

No comments: