Mitsubishi Electric CP-D70DW
Rating 4.5/5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Price
£1214 (£999 ex VAT) $1,399.95
Contact
Mitsubishi Electric;
www.mitsubishielectric.co.uk www.mitsubishi-imaging.com
Needs
Mac OS X 10.5 or Windows XP later
Pros
Print quality, job times, low media costs, durability, build, noise levels
Cons
Noise levels, paper handling niggles, colour profile on request
Buy at
Adorama Camera (US) at $1,279.95, plus mail-in rebate available. Buy at
Amazon US (sold by Adorama).
Buy the Dual deck CP-D70DW at
Adorama now at $1,939.95, plus mail-in rebate (was $2,950).
Introduction
Unlike the process of dithering liquid ink in an inkjet, dye-sublimation printers produce authentic continuous tone images with an analogous look like that of a conventional lab-produced print. They achieve this using thin cellophane ribbon with wax-like dyes that are heated to form a gaseous exchange of dye onto special receiving paper.
Typically, the ribbon has three (CMY) coloured panels of dye plus a fourth over-coating offering durable protection of prints from, moisture, UV and even greasy fingerprints.
Benefits like these are the main attraction for event photographers, and print costs are competitive. Early versions were literally no different to those used in retail photo-kiosks but the recent shift to more compact desktop models is proving attractive not least due to the reduction in size and weight, in many cases around half that of previous offerings.
Mitsubishi’s latest dye-sublimation printer, the roll-fed CP-D70DW is a compact desktop model weighting 12kg and capable of printing high-quality photos up to 6-inches wide at high-speed and with the minimum of fuss.
The £999 (ex VAT) CP-D70DW offers print sizes of 3.5x5-inch, 4x6-inch, 5x7inch and 6x8-inch, from three ribbon sizes. Popular with time-pressured event photographers a fourth size, 6x9-inch, mimicking the uncropped 3:2 format of DSLRs should have been released by the time you read this.
To avoid potential pitfalls such as mismatching of sizes, both ribbon and roll paper are sold together in media packs. Print capacity is quoted as 400x 6x4-inch sheets or 200 sheets at 6x8-inch per media pack and costs are some of the lowest for this type of printer at around 19p ex VAT (30 US cents) per 8x6-inch sheet.
If you’re wondering why you can’t print a 6x9-inch print on 6-inch wide paper, it’s because the ribbon patch determines the size of the print, matching the paper precisely, and simply isn’t physically big enough. While presumably the paper won’t change, Mitsubishi will have to produce new 6x9-inch ribbon and update the drivers.
Setting Up
Setting up is a quick and relatively straightforward affair. Unlike earlier offerings, the delicate ribbon is loaded first into a cassette tray making the installation process far simpler and risk free. Installing the paper is marginally more-fiddly but that’s to be expected. Plastic flanges must be inserted into either end of the paper roll while spacers are used for the smaller media sizes.
Inside the printer, however paper guides must be manually set for either the 5-or-6-inch wide media. It’s a pity this doesn’t take place automatically as this is easily overlooked, what’s more it’s crucial to prevent a paper-jam or misaligned print.
That said, media sizes are unlikely to be switched frequently, and then only when installing new packs where warning labels located inside are likely to remind. In terms of ease of access the front loading tray is a high spot, and even with the inevitable shift in weight, the printer doesn’t tip forward alarmingly like some rival offerings
Drivers
Windows drivers are included on the bundled CD but the Mac driver must be downloaded from the Mitsubishi Electric website. The Mac driver was originally written for Leopard (OS 10.5) though it runs well enough under OS 10.6. Colour management options a choice of either None (application managed) or Tone 1 (printer managed).
If using Windows for a printer managed workflow the driver has some additional colour control settings, to save time adjusting each image before printing. Bearing in mind most event photographers prefer to use the printer driver to colour-manage, the lack of additional colour correction options in the Mac driver seems like an oversight.
It’s not a deal breaker, though, especially as we would recommend using an application-managed workflow for more predictable colour. With just one media type available and no quality settings, only one colour profile is required so it’s hardly challenging. Mitsubishi don’t provide a generic profile but you can contact them directly for one free of charge, as I did.
