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Camera makers weren't the only ones introducing new products for lens jockeys this week. Epson America, hot on the heels of its release of its new green scanner, raised the curtain on two new all-in-one printers designed with shutterbugs in mind.

The Artisan 800 has a large 3.5-inch display for on-printer editing of images and an expansive control panel for selecting, copying, rotating, cropping and printing photos without a computer. It can scan images at 4800 dots-per-inch resolution and supports 48-bit color.

The Artisan 700 has a 2.5-inch LCD and can scan at 2400 dpi. It also supports 48-bit color.

Both printers have card readers that accept media cards used by digital cameras and include an auto photo correction feature that allows pics to be corrected on the printers' LCD before they're sent to hard copy. They also support PictBridge and will restore faded color to snapshots without consulting a computer.

Dual paper trays are built into the units to eliminate the fuss over switching between photo paper and plain paper, and they'll print borderless prints in a variety of popular sizes, such as 4 x 6, 5 x 7 and 8 x 10. As a bonus, the printers will also print on printable CDs and DVDs.

Not only will the inkjets cut the tether between computer and printer for processing photos, but they can clip the cord for other functions as well with built-in WiFi. Ethernet networking is also supported and so is Bluetooth--although an optional adapter is needed for that.

Another shared feature of the duo is the use of six-color Ultra Hi-Definition Claria ink, which Epson claims will produce prints with fade resistance four times greater than photo lab prints. What's more, the units use Epson's MicroPiezo print head which can deliver ink droplets in five sizes, some as small as 1.5 picoliters.

The Artisan printers are scheduled to reach retailers next month; the 800 at $299.99 and the 700 at $199.99.

Three new printers were announced today by Hewlett-Packard. The most expensive of the lot, the Photosmart A630 ($149), has a large touch-screen LCD display for a printer--4.8 inches. Why such a large screen? No doubt because some 300 editing changes can be made in a photo from the printer itself. The unit can produce prints in a variety of sizes--5 x 7, 4 x 6 and 4 x 12 panoramas--and, according to HP, can produce a 4 x 6-inch print in 27 seconds. If you want to use the printer away from a wall outlet, an optional battery pack allows you to do so.

Another new ink box, the A530 ($99), isn't as feature rich-- its non-touch-screen LCD is smaller-- but it's still the most economical photo printer capable of doing 5 x 7-inch prints.

Both printers support Bluetooth, with an optional adapter, for wireless connectivity with a variety of devices, and are designed to work with either a Mac or PC. They're expected to reach retailers next month.

HP also debuted its Photosmart D5460 ($99), which has a more conventional 1.5-inch color display and an array of slots for memory cards. Not only does this model print photos but it will print them directly onto CDs and DVDs. Designed as more of an every day printer, HP rates this inkjet at 33 black-and-white pages per minute and 31 ppm for color. It also noted that a 4 x 6-inch print can be produced in 18 seconds. What's more, the unit can print multiple sized photos without swapping paper. It has an automated photo tray that automatically selects size and type of paper and easily switches between photo and document printing.

Professional photographers who want to produce exhibition quality prints outside a darkroom may find Epson's new Stylus Photo R2880 just what they need. The $800 printer announced yesterday uses Vivid Magneta ink technology to produce a wider color gamut and improve reds, blues and purples. It also sports Radiance technology, an Epson innovation that smooths the transitions between colors in a print and optimizes highlight and shadow detail. What's more, the printer boasts three levels of black--black, light black and light light black--to improve black-and-white output. How apparent these new improvements will be to a lenseman's eye, though, remains to be seen, according to Rick LePage, who has posted a "first look" review of the printer at Printerville.

"The Vivid Magenta inks definitely add incremental improvements in gamut and tone, but most users aren’t going to see big differences between the original UltraChrome K3 inks and the Vivid Magenta inks," he writes.

"Where we think people will notice a difference however," he continues, "is in the small details: the things that Epson has done to improve upon the experience of printing."

Part of that improved experience is the R2880's improved ink performance over its predecessor, the R2400.

"In our initial testing," LePage observes, "we were able to print nearly twice as many photos using the same amount of ink on R2880 as we were able to do with the R2400, results that were even better than we had anticipated."

"While some of this can be directly related to the advanced ink-mixing technology in Radiance," he adds, "we think that there’s probably more technological improvements under the hood that Epson isn’t specifically talking about."

For shutterbugs who want to print on the go, Canon USA today announced a mobile printer that at first glance looks like something you'd find the Easter Bunny toting around after a trip to KFC. The Selphy CP770 ($149.99) is designed to be not only portable--it comes in a storage bucket with a handle and storage area for paper, ink, cartridge and power cord--but independent, too, since it can be used without plugging it into a computer or camera. For true independence, though, you'll need the optional battery pack, which sells for $79.99. The printer is designed for ease of use--its buttons are larger and there are fewer of them--and with its color offerings--apricot and "crisp" white--it's definitely not aimed at the Goth set. Other features include a 2.5-inch LCD for previewing images before they're printed and a high speed infrared port that's compatible with some mobile phones.

In addition to the CP770, Canon also introduced today the more-conventional looking CP760 ($99.99).

Road warriors prone to dashing off hard copy on the fly now have a new weapon in their arsenal: the Canon Pixma iP100--hailed by its maker as the first mobile printer able to deliver documents and photos at a resolution of 9600 x 2400 dots per inch. It's also the only mobile inkjet on the market with a printhead using one picoliter droplets for improved quality, especially for photos.

Keeping in mind that many mobile printer users need quality text and imaging, the unit has two black ink tanks--one for words, another for pictures. What's more, the tank for text ink is 50 percent larger than in previous models, a hedge against inopportune out-of-ink messages.

On the photo side, the printer has technology that can analyze an image and optimize the unit's output for particular subjects like portraits and landscapes.

Print speed is 20 pages per minute for black and white output and 14 ppm for color.

PictBridge, which allows cameras to print directly through the printer without a computer, is supported by the product, as well as infrared connections and Bluetooth, with an optional adapter that costs $49.95.

Although the printer is intended to be mobile, its mobile power options are all optional. A rechargable Lithium ion battery, rated at 290 pages per charge, will cost $99.95 and an automobile charging unit, $89.99. The printer itself will sell for $249.99.

Although 70 percent of Canadians take photos with digital cameras, most still are sticking with prints to preserve their most precious memories. That's the findings of a survey released today by Epson Canada. That shouldn't be surprising given the sponsor of the research, but the data is nevertheless intriguing. According to the survey of more than 1000 respondents 18 years old or older conducted last month, 53 percent said they share their photos through traditional photo albums, 37 percent with picture frames and 30 percent continue to use good old-fashioned shoe boxes. Only 14 percent of the imageclickers told surveyors they don't make prints of their photos.

“The printed photo continues to be the preferred choice of Canadians who wish to store their photographic accounts of significant events and activities in their lives--and refer to them from time-to-time,” Epson Canada Marketing Manager Tamara Walsh observed in a statement. “For the same reason that most Canadians continue to read published books. The power of the printed word and the power of the photographic image continue to resonate with us because they bring a level of enjoyment not experienced with other media."

Just how precious are photos to Canadians? Fifty-eight percent of the respondents said that during a fire, they would retrieve their family photo album over a personal computer, expensive jewelery, designer clothing or sports equipment.

An expert on photo permanence cautioned consumers yesterday about the perils of third-party ink--especially when it comes to printing photos at home. "With some third-party prints, the ink disappears very, very rapidly," observed Henry Wilhelm, president of Wilhelm Imaging Research, in Grinnell, Iowa. "The level of instability of some third party and refill cartridges I think is without equal in the history of color photography and it's a very alarming development."

Wilhelm's warning came at a press conference and Wecast held by Eastman Kodak in New York City to release the latest comparative findings of its inkjet printers by independent testers.

"I really have a thing about third-party inks in terms of permanence," Wilhelm confessed. "They are, as a group, unbelievably bad." He cited a third-party replacement cartridge sold at Office Depot for an HP printer where the light stability rating was four months, compared to 125 years for a cartridge that used pigment ink, and the ozone resistance rating was two months. "That's really, really horrible," he declared, "and I think consumers, by and large, are not aware of this."

Although Wihelm and Kodak haven't always seen eye to eye on printing issues in the past, the Prince of Permanence had only high praise for the company after testing its Easyshare AIO 5100, 5300 and 5500 (photo above) printers and its inkjet photo papers. "Printers made with Kodak inkjet printers, photo papers and pigment inks, which were introduced in 2007, have the highest level of overal print permanence provided by any consumer or home photo printer platform that we have tested," he said. "It's actually an entirely new benchmark in terms of consumer print permanence and one that we were extremely happy to see."

A year after it pulled the wraps off its inkless printing technology, a Waltham, Mass., company named Zink Imaging--a portmanteau word for "zero ink"--appears to be garnering support for its endeavors. Zink today announced partnerships with Alps Electric Co., Foxconn Technology Group, TOMY Company and Polaroid Corporation. Only one of the partners, though, Polaroid, had an actual product to display using the scheme. The Polaroid Digital Instant Mobile Photo Printer will pump out two-by-three-inch, "peel and stick," prints using special Zink paper. The printer, which can connect to mobile phones via Bluetooth or a camera via USB, is expected to hit the market this fall at a pricetag of $150. Paper will cost from 30 to 40 cents a sheet.