Epson PictureMate Dash PM 260 Compact Photo Inkjet Printer Reviews

• Best new toy I've gotten in a long time

  
  By A2CQ8T0XKKYVN2 on 2007-12-16
  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.
  
  

• Beautiful pictures, but poor value

  
  By A2ENVZLRBGCNHZ on 2008-02-09
  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.
  
  

• Epson PM 260 Dash vs. Canon Selphy

  
  By A3F4OJSEKXJIG8 on 2008-04-07
  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.
  
  

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

  
  By A1NJEE6KP17Q6I on 2007-12-04
  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.
  
  

• Couldn't ask for more!

  
  By A2V1UWS6P5S6YU on 2007-12-14
  Very easy to set up, very small footprint, works as advertised. Prints are excellent! What more do you want?
  
  
• Amazing Quality! Brilliant Color, and Fast!
  By A1JVNCZ3QUVLRL on 2008-01-05
  I recently purchased a Nikon D40 camera and I have been researching the best 4x6 photo printer to buy. After much research, I decided on the Epson Picturemate Dash. I have to say that I am so impressed, I have already showed and demonstrated it to 3 people and they immediately ordered one for themselves.
  
  The printer accepts any memory stick, USB thumb drive, direct connection to camera and displays all photos on its built in LCD screen. The photo paper and ink come in a pack and yield 150 photos which comes out to about $.23 per photo. Pictures print amazingly fast...in less than 15 seconds.
  
  The quality of the prints in most cases surpassed the labs that I go to. If you love gadgets, have a passion for great photos, you will be so happy you bought this printer!
  
  
• Only one word for this printer....
  By A3LYL4D9BCNWSL on 2008-01-09
  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!
  
  
• Great Printer
  By A32EJ5TOHWXX6H on 2008-01-14
  This printer works great! The picture quality is terrific. You can't go wrong with this printer. We selected it because it was the Editor's Choice in PC Magazine, and they didn't let us down.
  
  
• great little printer
  By A1PXXQ9JFW63KJ on 2007-12-01
  Bought Dash on a leading computer mag recommendation and am thrilled with first weeks results. Easy to operate. Gives great 4x6 borderless prints, among other print formats. Catridge packs produce relatively inexpensive prints.
  May be a little bulkier than some other printers in it's class, but still easy to tote around.
  
  
• Crooked pictures and black blobs make for unacceptable printing
  By A1BD9VSND60X5V on 2008-03-24
  I was very enthusiastic about this printer based on the outstanding reviews it has received and my generally positive experience using Epson professional printers for scientific graphics. While this printer is indeed speedy and produces good quality photos, an apparent mechanical malfunction on roughly every third print causes it to skew the paper slightly sideways when a given print is ~75% done. This leaves a white triangle on one side of the print and leaves the remaining 25% of the print misaligned. This happens using the included Epson starter paper. Additionally, I find small black ink blobs on the trailing edge of about every third photo. I really wanted to like this printer, but I have to say that ruining more than 50% of the prints is completely unacceptable for any printer.
  
  
• Great little printer
  By A8YF1VGRWKVTY on 2008-04-30
  Purchased the Epson PictureMate 260. Very impressed with the ease of setup and the quality of the pictures. They are great!! It's very fast and very accurate at reproducing photos. You can even purchase a battery and take it with you. Now that's cool. The only downer is the number of pictures you can print with the ink cartridge that comes with it. The answer is - pathetically few. After about 20 pictures it started telling me to install a new cartridge because the ink was low. Ridiculous. It's obvious that one of Epson's goals is to sell ink and paper. A new cartridge with 150 sheets of paper is $40 to $50, so be sure to count this as part of the initial cost.
  
  
• Great prints. Make sure to order the right refill kit!
  By A16XA6ZACXYWZZ on 2008-05-14
  I received one of these as a gift. The print quality is the same as what I can get from Walgreens, but faster. I'm really happy to have this, as you never know what might happen with the photos on your computer.
  
  An important thing to note is that this uses TM5846 refills and NOT TM5570 refills. The paper is the same, but the ink cartridges are different width.
  
  
• Lousy product, even worse customer service
  By A2FW0FDU9AWDAT on 2008-04-20
  I received this as a gift with high expectations and could not have been more disappointed. While the photos it prints turn out relatively nice, it took 5 CARTRIDGES to make merely 35 prints. (You are supposed to be able to make about 100 with each cartridge). The customer support is a joke; their only solution for me was to send a new machine (because their tech support team is incompetent). Subsequently, the second machine had the same problem. And on both machines the red eye reduction only worked twice.
  
  I have now spent a total of 4 MONTHS dealing with customer service to try and get any satisfaction. Because the machine was a gift and I had a gift receipt (which I faxed to them) they would only offer me a credit with the Epson online store. No thanks......couldn't be LESS interested in ever having an Epson product again!
  
  
• Better than I expected!
  By A1EV4B3771MQJR on 2007-12-20
  Wow! Was I shocked! This little baby does the trick. The pictures come out so clear, it's better than taking them to a kiosk somewhere. If I have a picture I just took or one on my computer, I just pop this little baby on the desk and print it right then and there. For several prints, I take it to a kiosk instead so I don't use up all me ink. Great for birthday parties. At our last one, I took a picture of all our guests with us and decided to print them. We handed them out as "a thank you for coming" when our guests left. Quick and easy! It was great! I'm glad I chose the right one.
  
  
• Best little color printer
  By A32S0EX3KN5PAG on 2008-01-08
  I purchased the Epson Power Mate Dash 260 and I have never seen such beautiful pictures. I just push print and there they are. It can be connected to a computer or usb flash. It has ports for various memory cards. You can purchase separately a bluetooth adapter to print from your phone or palm. You can get a battery to allow printing where there is no power. I love the red eye fix and other tools. You can print to the edge or have a border. The epson paper will last up to 200years in a binder and 100years in a frame. It prints fast and is super easy to use. Even my father-in-law can figure it out. It would make a great gift for someone with out a computer or computer skills. The prints look better then from the photo store. I just love it!!
  
  
• Big WOW factor for a 4x6 printer
  By A1HUVSIE9Z4JZ6 on 2008-02-22
  I've been a professional photographer (photojournalist and wildflower photographer) for more than 20 years, and was looking for a small format printer to just work up 4x6 prints of everyday life.
  
  Having worked in a photo lab many years ago I can be quite picky about my photo processing. I am VERY impressed with the quality and speed of this printer.
  
  I was printing instantly out of the box and directly off a memory card. Needless to say, I quickly ran through the sample ink and paper and was looking for more! Luckily I had ordered a full-size replacement when I ordered the printer. This is a fun and easy to use unit and I love the small size.
  
  The quality of the prints is outstanding - bright and nicely saturated, although a couple could have used tweaking via Photoshop (but in these cases the exposure was a bit off) - certainly nothing to blame on the printer. I can't wait to try a photo run through the computer and worked-up in Photoshop.
  
  The bottom line - these prints are much better than anything I've gotten from a quickie lab. LOVE IT!
  
  
• JUNK
  By A2MR696ZU17F12 on 2008-04-05
  I never made it through the first pack of paper and ink.
  I got about 3 good prints out of this piece of frustration.
  I sent it back, you are much better off going to a digital print station, believe me!
  OVERRATED!
  
  
• Lousy support
  By A22K1NGH4NWQ0R on 2008-02-13
  I got this printer as a Christmas present. While it may be a great printer, I don't know since it will not work with my older operating system. I have been trying with epson for over two months to get them to take it back since it does not support my operating system to no avail. All I have been getting is the run around from them trying to troubleshoot installation. I have told them each time that it is not a installation problem but a compatibility problem. Somehow they just don't get it. I have about given up and will try selling in on Ebay.
  
  
• Good Printer
  By AAJDTH9RQKMPX on 2008-02-27
  The Epson PictureMate does an excellent job of printing photos plus easy to use. Purchased for my wife who has been printing photos every day since it arrived.
  
  
  
• Most Excellent
  By A341ILZ3PKD10S on 2008-05-08
  I've had this printer for about a week and I'm pleased with it. It does what it is supposed to do and the prints are great every time. Works well with all my photo software programs. I would have given it five stars but the ink supply that comes with it only lasts for about 20 prints. So order some extra ink along with your Dash. Keep in mind that it only prints 4x6 pictures.
  
  
• Great printer
  By A1RNKDOEBBJABK on 2007-12-25
  I bought one a few months ago and I liked it so much that I bought three more for my kids for Christmas. The prints are as good or better as other printers I own that cost four times as much.
  
  
• Pictures are better than lab's picture, believe it.
  By A2QA8CV6DZCU6C on 2008-02-06
  A film wedding photographer that recently converted to digital photography asked me to find him a photo-printer for his wedding work. His requirements: after taking pictures of the guess(es) that came to the wedding he wants to have their pictures in each individual thank you card to give to the guesses before they leave the party. He used to send these digital pics to the lab to print out .... well, to make the story short, he was amazed at the prints quality this printer produced. He bought two of them for his wedding work and I bought one for my own use.
  
  
• Perfect for the simple act of printing pictures
  By A2I4YRDBXBHT33 on 2008-04-17
  I bought this printer to make my wife happy. She didn't want to boot up her PC every time she wanted to print a picture. She didn't want to have to use 'complicated' photo editing software to tweak her pictures. She also didn't want a high ink-replacement cost.
  
  This printer is perfect for her; with its' large color screen, card reader & many easy-to-use features, creating hold-in-your-hand photos is as easy as I've ever seen it.
  
  The picture quality is fantastic and long lasting, and the combined paper/ink packs make everything even easier.
  
  
  
  
• Fast easy photo printing
  By A1W0GV0VYYWMQZ on 2008-05-10
  We bought this printer for a scout function, to be able to print photos of the girl scouts with their dads. It works very well. It is easy to set up, you can print from the memory card or the camera itself. We were able to teach another parent how to print the photos in literally 3 minutes. The photos come out very quickly, and dry fairly fast. So far this photo printer has been great, and I would buy it again.
  
  
• Fabulous Little Printer
  By A260NOXY3SDMZ8 on 2008-05-18
  I love this printer. It is simple to use and prints beautiful photos.
  The ink cartridge is very simple to load, as is the paper . You can use it with or without a computer . I got this printer home and out of the box and was printing beautiful photos in 5 minutes flat ! I had another personal printer and was not happy with it so believe me I searched for the perfect printer this time and I do believe I found it . Nothing but good things to say about the PM260.
  
  
• Excellent photo printer
  By A3UA336M2B6BH7 on 2008-01-20
  I was skeptical of this at first, but I've come to love it. It's fast, prints great photos, the cost per print is good, and it works great with the Mac! The printer also has nice built-in editing controls for use when printing directly from a memory card in the field.
  
  
• Great compact printer!
  By AGCRGJMUTMMUE on 2008-04-08
  We are very pleased with the ease, the quality and we would definitely recommend this printer.
  
  
• So portable and great quality!
  By AOJCRPP6OK8F5 on 2008-05-14
  This little gadget is super portable. I love it. I can take it to crops with me. I can print any size picture. Love this printer. The quality is great and it's economical. Plus, Epson is one of the better quality papers and inks. It doesn't fade and feels like you printed it at the store. I would definitely recommend this to anyone.
  
  
• Good Quality Prints - Expensive Supplies
  By A20APRAJUS1VK2 on 2008-08-05
  I've had the PM 260 for about 8 months. The good: Excellent quality photos. As good or better than most in-store photo processing. The bad: Ink and paper ONLY packaged together for about $42. I've now accumulated about 300 extra pages of photo paper and the ink cartridge has never lived up to the 150 print count stated on the box. The really bad part. Once it's been installed in the machine the ink cartridge has 0 shelf life. If you don't use it for a month you will most likely have to replace the cartridge or burn through most of it cleaning the print heads.
  
  Note to EPSON... Please unbundle the ink cartridges and paper! Great product, but the supplies are a scam.
  
  
• good printer
  By ACEW7T8XSZ8HC on 2008-03-26
  Fast and the quality is excellent. The ink cartridge is great. I'll never buy another inkjet. My only complaint is printing pictures with a white frame or border doesn't work very well.
  
  

• Epson T5846 Picturemate Print Pack - Glossy
• Epson PictureMate Print Pack (2 Ink Cartridges/270 sheets of Glossy Photo Paper) - T5570-270
• Picturemate Print Pack-matte
• Epson T5570 PictureMate Print Pack, Glossy
• Epson - Carrying case