First test
PRICE: £229.99
EPSON.CO.UK
Epson’s latest 3-in-1 unit can scan, copy and print onto paper and CD/DVD, promising great versatility for the keen photographer wanting to make images at home Epson Expression Photo XP-970
SPECS
› Prices £229.99, maintenance box £8.99, single inks £9.99, multipack £59.99, XL cartridges £16.49 › In the box Printer, one set of ink cartridges, mains cable, set-up guide, CD software (Epson Scan 2, Epson Print CD, Epson Easy Photo Print) › Ink technology Claria Photo HD › Inks Black, cyan, light cyan, yellow, magenta, light magenta › Printing resolution 5760x1440dpi › Printing speed 11secs for 10x15cm › Paper formats A3, A4, A5, A6, B5, C6, letter, 10x15cm, 13x18cm, 16:9, user defined, legal › Media handling Plain paper, rear speciality paper media feed, thick media support, CD/DVD › Scanning resolution 1200x4800dpi › Interfaces Wi-Fi, ethernet, USB, Wi-Fi direct › Compatibilty Max OSX 10.6.8 or later; Windows 7, 8, 8.1, Vista, 10 › Other features Touchscreen, SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot, PictBridge, wireless PictBridge, red eye removal, photo enhance, direct print fromUSB › Dimensions (wxdxh) 47.9x35.6x14.8cm › Weight 8.7kg › Contact epson.co.uk
Printing photographs at home is rewarding, and means you have control over output and media choice (it’s immediate, too). But not everyone has the space or the commitment to run a dedicated photo printer, so a multi-purpose unit like Epson’s XP-970 has appeal. Its six individual ink system gives high-quality photo output for up to A3 prints, and it can copy and scan up to A4, too. Add Wi-Fi, phone printing, an easy-to-use touchscreen and an attractive price, and the XP-970 is an interesting proposition. Epson makes its printers dead easy to set up, and the XP-970 is no exception. It takes a few minutes to remove all the tape, load inks, and go through the process of head alignment and testing before connecting it to your network, but you are guided and prompted every step of the way. You need a few sheets of plain A4 paper to go through the various head and ink checks, and box opening to print-ready takes fewer then 30 minutes. The printer comes with a set of six standard-size cartridges designed for printer set-up. When you need to replenish, there is the option of buying XL cartridges with the potential to save money. I started by making test prints on Epson Photo Glossy and Epson Premium Lustre, letting the printer and the supplied profile take control over colour. The results were ok but seemed to lack punch – especially the Premium Lustre, which looked quite poor – so I made my own profiles using X-Rite i1 Studio. The results were much livelier showing better colour accuracy, superior saturation and greater contrast. If there is an issue with printers like the XP-970, it is a relative lack of support in terms of ICC profiles from third-party paper suppliers. Most
ABOVE Fotospeed’s Art Fibre 300 was used for this atmospheric scenic
draws the paper in, and printing starts. Printing is fast, taking a little over 30 seconds for my A4 test prints, and it’s very quiet as well. After achieving high quality output on Epson papers, I got more adventurous and tried Fotospeed Platinum Gloss Fibre 300, and two from Hahnemuele’s Natural Line range of matt papers (Agave and Hemp are also tested in this issue). Again, I went through the custom profiling service before making colour and monochrome images that I checked over using daylight lamps. Overall, I was pleased with the
paper brands offer generic profiles for their materials but this is usually for dedicated photo printers, so you should check profile availability before investing in a pile of paper. Brands like Fotospeed and PermaJet do offer a free custom profile service for their papers, so this is probably a good way to go. I was using photo papers, so I fed sheets one at a time through the rear paper slot. In contrast to many printers, you press print and then wait for the printer to ready itself and it tells you when to load the paper. The printer then very smoothly
Epson XP-970’s output. Contrast and colour saturation were good without being over the top, and accuracy rated highly; all in all, a range of scenes were nicely reproduced by the unit. If I were being super-critical, however, there were a couple of images that I would tweak slightly and reprint. Black & white output was also decent considering there is only one black ink (there are three in the Epson SC-P600) and I thought tonality was pretty good, from deep blacks to clean highlights with smooth mid-tones. WC
Verdict The XP-970 is a very decent printer that is home friendly, withWi-Fi capability and a compact footprint. It’s capable of high-quality output, PROS Easy set-up, user friendly, versatile, small footprint for an A3 printer, fast CONS Needs custom profiles to show off its best efforts although customprofiles are advised if you want to get the best prints. It’s great value and versatile, too, offering A3 output, CD/DVD printing, direct printing fromSD cards and document scanning – all for £230.
ABOVE The six supplied ink cartridges are designed specifically for printer set-up only, and the XP-970’s LCD touchscreen is clearly laid out and simple to navigate
54 Photography News | Issue 73
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