Kodak; A Trusted Name in Cameras... and Printers!

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Reported by Sarah Moore

I have never been the person in my household to make decisions about printers... my husband is a self proclaimed "geek" and that is typically his department... and as every geek worth his or her salt knows, Kodak is not the first name you think of when you think of printers. Cameras yes... but not printers.

Which brings me to the Kodak EasyShare 5300. What intrigued me most about this all-in-one printer was the Kodak name. Our last printer was an HP officejet 6110 all-in-one. A decent printer... but the cartridges were running us $40-50 a pop! And the photos were only so-so... nothing I was ever thrilled with. Like many of you, we were in the market for something new.

What first impressed me with the Kodak EasyShare 5300 was the marketed ink cartridge price. $9.95 for black and white and $14.99 for color. The "why" behind this is the way the printer has been designed... on my old printer the ink cartridges contained a "printer head"... the little piece of the cartridge with the plastic cover you have to peel off, but on the Kodak EasyShare the printer head is actually a permanent part of the printer. You install it separately and calibrate it like you would a new ink cartridge. This never needs replacing... thus the savings in ink cartridge production.

I should mention that the calibration was sort of confusing. It required a great deal of trouble shooting to get the printer head installed... but the web-site's troubleshooting FAQ's contained the information we needed to get it working properly. But I was glad I had an "in-house technical consultant". Oh... and to just amend Colleen's article... you CAN use 8 1/2 X 11" paper to do the calibration (she said it was a "con" that you needed the 4X6" paper to do this task). It will prompt you to use the 4X6... but you can still use the 8 1/2 X 11" paper. I would imagine however that the quality of paper makes a difference in the calibration process (which involves scanning a printed page). I took note in my initial tests of the printer that paper quality is imperative to it's performance.

So let's talk paper... Kodak recommends that you use their papers... and the best of their papers of course. I was given a sample of Kodak's "Ultimate Paper" (a standard bright printing paper... not a photo paper) for my tests. In the picture below you will see the difference... now if you set the print quality to "best" and use the Kodak Ultimate Paper you will get a vivid, color rich image. But if you set the quality to "fast draft" and use a standard copy paper you will get a very inferior image. Of course the BEST image is on the right.

When using even the "best" setting on standard copy paper the image is significantly diminished. But when using the "best" setting and the Ultimate paper, even a color copy of a printed image (same setting and same paper) is an almost exact match (see below). So my suggestion is to use a standard cheap paper for everyday stuff... but buy a ream of the Ultimate Paper for those times that quality is imperative.

One test I tried without success was printing on vellum... every time I tried the printer announced there was a jam. Then the paper could come out undamaged... It was as if the printer didn't "see" the thin translucent paper. I will be contacting Kodak to trouble shoot the problem... so check back for an edit when I get an answer.

Clear labels, Stampin' Up! colored paper and Whisper White papers all tested with great success. A change from my last printer that had a jam every time I tried to print on colored SU! papers, or any thicker cardstock.

Now as for photos... I would be using Kodak paper regardless... you want your photos to last and to be their best. what is really amazing is that this printer has a dual tray... 4X6" and 8 1/2 X 11". The trays also store paper so there is no need to switch back and forth... just push the 4X6" paper tray slot into position when you need that feature. Also of note; this is borderless printing! Your photos really look like they came from your local photo lab. The quality is awesome!

Another really cool thing... something that always bugged me a LOT on my HP was that whenever a picture had white in it the white part always looked odd... but this printer features a clear glaze that gets put on in the white areas... so there is no difference in the texture or glare of the picture.


And the copier... well it's great... in color or black and white, it looks wonderful. Here is a copy of a little bag of Candy Corn... wouldn't that make a cool background paper on a Halloween card? Keeping the candy in a bag kept my scanner bed clean, and the quality looks just like a photograph!


Let's talk about the scanner...

I scanned in this image of my Grandmother, her baby brother and her mother (who died when she was a child). This is one of the few photos that exist of my Great Grandmother, so it's very precious to my family. How wonderful it is to be able to scan the damaged picture, fix it in Photoshop, and make quality photos for my other family members.


The final prints turned out wonderful! One tip... the original image was very thin and brittle, so when I first attempted to scan the image it came out very orange. I placed a piece of cardstock behind the image on the scanner bed and the problem was corrected.


Some random nifty ideas...

As we've mentioned before, his printer has a 4 x 6" printer tray. How easy will it be to print sentiments at the bottom of a card front now! I can print the 4 X 6" size, and just lop 3/4" off the top to get a 4 X 5 1/4" card to mount on a 4 1/4 X 5 1/2" card! So easy!

I always heard you could print on Twill Tape with some printers... well... it's true, and it's easy! Just print the phrase you want on thin cardstock. Make sure you print the phrase in Landscape (horizontal, not vertical) format. Run a line of double sided tape style adhesive (I used Mono) down the phrase and cover it with a piece of twill. Now run it through the printer again! Voila!

I really have very little to say that is negative. In my experience it runs quieter and faster than my past printer and works great! White the initial calibration was a bit of a trial, Kodak was terrific with technical support. Their website was all we needed to troubleshoot. I guess the biggest con for me is the noticeable difference in print quality (compared to my HP) when I printed test pages on standard (cheap) copy paper in the "normal" setting. But the other features, and the amazing photo quality really outweigh the negatives for me. My tests with "best" quality printing selected and the Kodak Ultimate paper or Kodak photo paper were pretty darn great.

All the basic stats on the printer can be found HERE. One other amendment to our past reviews (as told to me by my handsome in-house Geek Squad)... you can print up to 8 1/2 X 14" paper (Melissa said 8 1/2 X 11") . I know a lot of you have asked questions in the comments I have tried to answer them in my article... but with all the contest entries we're bound to have missed some. So feel free to email Kodak; contact info HERE. They have a wonderful customer service dept.

The Kodak EasyShare 5300 All-in-One Printer is availible for purchase wherever printers are sold. Or at the Kodak website HERE.