Fujifilm ASK2000 - a fast event printer

Which Printer for Event Photography?
by Simon Towler

Event photography has evolved from being just another way to earn some money, into a whole contemporary subculture. Instant photo printing is the technology that has enabled modern event photography. The printers used in eventing today are a class of machine known as “Fast Event Printers”. A fast event printer is a dye-sub unit that takes a roll of media 6″ inches wide and produces its maximum-size print in less than 20 seconds. These machines are about as closely related to the small dye-sub photo printers used at home as main battle tanks are to the mini metro. This month I tested seven of them for NewPhotoDigest, giving some thought to how you might choose between them. This is what I found.

Current models of fast event printer include the Copal DPB6000, Fujifilm ASK2000, ICI ImageData OP1000, Kodak 6850, Mitsubishi CP9800DW, and Sony UP-DR200.

PRINT QUALITY

I’m going to stick my neck out in this review, and suggest that print quality is not an important factor. All of the photo printers on test here are capable of producing photo quality your customers at any event will be perfectly satisfied with. There’s not much to choose between them, and the choices would be personal and highly subjective. A photographer’s eye will clearly see differences, but their customer’s won’t. The Sony UP-DR200 though, does deserve a special mention for its paper-based media and its ability to produce matte prints from the same roll as gloss.

PRINT SPEED

Event photographers are obsessed with speed. They need to make every sale they can in as little time as possible. If you’ve got, for example, 700 people at an event, and just a 90 minute window to offer them prints, then your maximum revenue possibility is to make and sell 700 prints in 90 minutes. Every second counts. The speed of your printers is not the only factor here. Arguably it’s not even the most important factor. But it is something eventers focus on.

All the printers on review here are fast. That’s the class they’re in. It proved very difficult to make speed comparisons between them. However, I did find that the manufacturer rated speeds were reliable, at least as a comparitive measure. In the real world, average times per print are very different when producing multiple different images, and it’s problematic to isolate all the factors in this.

The Sony UP-DR200, though, does take the laurels as the fastest event printer on test, although the ICI Olmec OP1000 and Kodak 6850 weren’t too far behind. If there’s one printer that could be faster, it’s the Mitsubishi CP-9800DW, but it partly makes up for that with its ability to maintain average print speeds over long runs.

MAXIMUM PRINT SIZE

These machines divide into two categories of maximum print size: 6″x8″ inches or 6″x9″ inches. All event photographers in the UK can agree that one of these sizes is the optimum for eventing – but not which one! The Sony and the Kodak are 6″x8″ machines, producing standard 6R photo sizes. These, their users say, are easy to find mounts and frames for. The other printers go up to 6″x9″, which matches the aspect ratio of digital camera images. Event photographers that use these say they can print 6″x9″ images straight away, without having to waste extra seconds editing the crop.

The debate as to which is the better size for events is an irreconcilable schism. Choose your preferred print size before you choose your printer! (6″x9″ users will tell you their printers can do 6″x8″ too. But the 6″x8″ folk say this is a cheat, and uses 9″ inches of ribbon anyway!)

OTHER PRINT SIZES

UK photographers claim they can charge more for 6″ inch prints.

Interestingly, in the States 5″x7″ is a common size for event photos – photographers there offer 6″ inch prints as an up-sell. If you want to sell 5″x7″ in the UK, all these machines will do it (although they may need spacers), except the Kodak 6850, which requires a special irreversible conversion to 5″x7″, and then can’t do 6″x8″ prints.

DRIVER COMPATIBILITY

None of these printers can print by themselves, you need to attach a computer for that. Compatibility needs to be checked. They all ship with drivers for Windows XP, but how about support for Vista and the Apple Mac? (A lot of event photographers use MacBooks, or laptops with Vista.)

All the manufacturers featured here now have their own Vista drivers available for these printers. If they’re not in the box with the printer, your dealer may write them to CD for you, or you can download them from the Web. Mac drivers are also available for all of them, except for the Kodak 6850 and the ICI ImageData Olmec OP1000. (However, the OP1000 is the only one of this current crop to already have a fast direct driver in ExpressDigital Darkroom, the workflow software used by many eventers.)

In summary, if you absolutely have to print from a Mac, avoid the ICI and Kodak machines. If you’re an ExpressDigital user and need to pare every precious second off your print times, consider the ICI Olmec OP1000.

PHYSICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Having dealt with print size and compatibility, we now examined our test machines for another important set of properties: weight, dimensions and ergonomics.

It’s in the nature of event photography that you will have to manhandle your printers around – into the gig and back again. That’s one of the reasons why eventers use as few printers as they can get away with (just one, if possible). It’s also the reason most of them avoid excessively heavy units.

When it comes to weight, fast event printers fall into two broad categories – heavy weights and lighter machines. Heavy weights weigh 25Kg+ unloaded, while the lighter machines weigh significantly less – around 20Kg at most. The market for event printers favours the lighter machines.

Three machines here are heavy-weights: the Copal DPB6000, the physically identical Fujifilm ASK2000, and the Kodak 6850. They all weigh 25Kg. (Kodak do have a lighter machine, the 605, but not in this class.)

Of the lighter machines, the Sony UP-DR200 wins the laurels for lightest of the bunch at 17Kg, while the Mitsubishi CP9800DW is not far behind at 21Kg. The ICI Olmec OP1000 is a 44-pounder, a perfectly manageable 20Kg. If weight is a crucial factor for you, choose one of these three lighter machines. They’re built just as well as their heavier brethren.

If weight is important because you’re going to lift the machine, then ergonomics come into play here too. The dimensions need to be grabbable, and there need to be plenty of grab points built into the housing of the printer. Any assessment of this must be a bit subjective, but having handled them all my personal opinion is that they rank in ergonomics exactly as they do in weight, with the Mitsubishi and Sony being the most carry-friendly, the ICI machine holding the middle ground, and the heavy-weights coming in later.

PRICE, WARRANTY AND SUPPORT

The prices of these machines, the amount of media included with them, and the warranty periods offered for them, vary so much over time as to make comparisons difficult. It’s a constantly moving target. So instead of looking at what you get for your money, let’s consider what backs it up.

Fast event printers are mission-critical equipment – when they’re down, the eventer’s business is interupted, and he’s losing money. So what’s support like in the UK for these machines, if you need a warranty repair, out-of-warranty repair, or just help, assessment and advice?

It’s difficult to assess objectively. In my experience, though, Fujifilm have shown an edge in the levels of backup they provide for their machines. Help is provided by their Photofinishing Help Desk in Bedford, where their own engineers are also based. Bedford has been known to be quite proactive in resolving customer issues with individual ASK 2000s. And this is one of the main things that distinguishes the ASK2000 from the hardware-identical Copal DPB6000. First-line support in the UK for the DPB6000 is provided by the dealer who imports it.

ICI Olmec are also UK based, and have always had the confidence to offer a standard two-year warranty with their OP1000 PrintBox, which is anyway a legendarily reliable machine.

The Kodak support process always moves inexorably toward resolution of any issues with individual printers, but the price of their spare parts can be eye-wateringly prohibitive.

Sony offer a well-thought-out PrimeSupport package, mediated in the UK through dealers and third-party engineers.

Mitsubishi also offer a professional-level warranty with good backup, ultimately from their own engineers(if necessary).

CONCLUSION

The seven printers on test here represent a fair selection of the fast event printers currently available in the UK. They are all excellent machines, well designed, well built, high performance, high quality and great value for money. Each of them has some unique selling point that will make you as an individual choose it rather than any other. Whichever one you choose, you won’t regret it. Happy eventing!