Epson PictureMate Dash PM260 Compact Photo Inkjet Printer (C11C694201)

Amazon Customer Reviews

(5 out of 5)

Best new toy I've gotten in a long time

Had to buy a photo printer on very short notice without the usual amount of research. Was attracted to this one because it's a dedicated photo printer and it uses an all-in-one cartridge. The other printers I considered required either special photo cartridges or multiple color cartridges to get photo-quality results. There's nothing that irks me more than the price of ink, and I didn't want to be continually buying replacements. This Epson promises 150 pictures from a $35 cartridge and will prorate the cost of the cartridge if you don't get them all. As for the photos, I'm astounded at the quality and color correctness. The results surpass most photo labs I've used. I decided to do some post-purchase research and found that this printer is the only one to rate superior on a popular electronics rating site. I agree ... it does an amazing job.

(3 out of 5)

Beautiful pictures, but poor value

The photos printed on this paper look really great. They look just as good as something I would have done professionally for a standard 4x6. However, the amount of toner in these cartridges doesn't appear to be anywhere near what they are promising. I got the printer for Christmas (it comes with a cartridge), along with this ink/paper replacement pack. I have printed exactly 102 photos, and have gone through both the starter ink cartridge that came with the printer, as well as the replacement ink cartridge. Now I am left with about fifty pieces of paper and no way to print on them. I am not printing anything unusual (just a bunch of photos of our kids), nor were the photos taken at a very high resolution (5M - not sure if that matters).

So, that would make the cost of printing each photo about $0.38-.40/each, and that doesn't include the cost of the printer itself! I love the convenience of being able to easily print photos at home, but it comes at a high price when you can get it done online or at a local retailer's for $0.12-.20/print. I guess that's why they can afford to charge so little for the printer.

Quick follow-up as of 9/7/08:

I let the printer sit for a few months - just hadn't had time to print anything lately. When I tried to print some photos yesterday, the color looked awful and there were banded lines on it. So I put in a new cartridge, but the photos still looked bad. The troubleshooting guide recommended cleaning the heads 2-3 times. I cleaned the head 8 times per the instructions, and it did look better, but still had the lines. The instructions say:

"If repeated cleanings don't help, you can also turn the Epson Stylus off and wait at least six hours or overnight (this allows any dried ink to soften)."

I let the printer sit overnight, and did another head cleaning this morning. The quality still wasn't back to normal, so I tried another head cleaning...at which point I got an error message that the ink level was low, and that you can't clean the heads with low ink! Mind you, this was a brand new cartridge, and I hadn't even printed any photos on it, just did several cleanings. Since I couldn't clean the heads, I just started printing pictures. The first several came out with the lines, but after that they looked pretty good.

Anyway, I still like the photo quality and the convenience. But I probably blew through $10 worth of ink cleaning the heads. So, my advice to you is if you buy this printer, try to print to it fairly often so the print heads stay clean and not gunked up.

(5 out of 5)

Epson PM 260 Dash vs. Canon Selphy

This past weekend we borrowed my friends Canon Selphy and my wife fell in love with it and asked me to buy one for her. So after checking online and reading various reviews, I saw that the PictureMate had a higher rating, more features, printed much faster, had a lower cost per print.

Based on all of those reviews it appeared that the Epson was a better quality unit so I bought one.

After printing the first photo with the Epson, it was apparent that all of the reviews were correct. This is a great printer with lots of options and is extremely easy to use.

Just to test the difference between the Selphy and the Picturemate, I printed the same exact photo that I had from the Selphy and compared it to the PictureMate. There is a major difference between the two. The Espon print was MUCH brighter and had much more detail than the Canon. As a professional photographer, I was really amazed at the quality this little printer.

Another real nice feature of this printer is the size of the screen. It's a large 3.6" screen and is extremely easy to navigate. The Selphy had a tiny screen and wasn't near as user friendly.

(5 out of 5)

Only one word for this printer....

I simply can't add anything to the reviews and description of the printer as found on Amazon and elsewhere, including accolades from a number of magazines and websites. This printer is AWESOME!

True transportability, and the quality of prints EXCEEDS what I have had printed at commercial locations by a long shot. The ONLY drawback of course, is the limitation of 4X6 prints... but for what I'm using it for, it's PERFECT!

After buying here at Amazon, I suggest going to Epson's site and purchasing the special Accessory Kit [...] which includes two full ink/paper kits (150 prints each), AND a carrying bag for the printer.

[...]

Best photo printer I have ever used... and inexpensive as well!

(4 out of 5)

Nice, but as advertised, it only does 4x6 prints

For those of you doing holiday photo cards, something to keep in mind is that this printer does not do 4x8, it only does 4x6 - which seems kind of strange...from my uneducated view it would seem pretty simple to let the printer print another couple of inches. Other than that, it is fast - about three to four times faster than my HP Photosmart 3300. The Epson also produced a noticeably nicer picture that the HP; using the same HP photo paper in both printers. Whether connected to a PC(WinXP), Mac(OSX10.4) or directly from an SD, printing was painless. As long as you go in with the realization that this is very much a single purpose printer, you should enjoy it as much as I enjoy mine. -1 star 'cause I believe it should do 4x8 as well.