The Alps MD1300 is a VERY affordable printer, capable of doing 8x10 prints (Dye Sublimation!). There's only some slight (nearly imperceptible) banding on occasion.

Costs per page to print are right around the $1 area, and the printer is in the $500-600 range, unheard of for a dye sublimation printer.

I've also heard you can get the MD-2300 masterpiece for even less.

Pros: Affordable dyesub printing, very precise paper handling, small unit. Dye Sublimation cartridges are $5.95 per color (you need 4, CYM and Overcoat) at www.buycomp.com. They last for approximately 20 Dye Sub prints at 8x10. Prints are impervious to moisture.

Cons: Printing in any other mode other than Dye sublimation mode stinks. Standard inkjets do better on all other paper types. They use a type of printing called "Microdry" for standard paper types. It has a very unusual (and inaccurate) halftoning technique that even at 1200dpi looks substandard to my HP1120Cse. Slight banding on certain photos in dyesub mode (though you have to get VERY close to the page to see it, and even then, there's a good chance you won't), slightly thin feel to paper, though the prints look like they came from a unit costing $1400 or more.

-- Karl Weckstrom (kweckstrom@hotmail.com), June 15, 1998

Answers

Although normally you would consider the Microdry process to be substandard to inkjet, you may want to consider a few specialized applications. One of my good friends prints on decal paper (an almost transparent, super thin paper), then transfers the images to models by soaking the paper in water, then sliding the decal off onto the plastic. Inkjet prints would fall apart in the soak. He's quite happy with the detail of the half-toning for this application, and the dye-sub for printing pictures.

-- David Chamness (david@chamness.com), August 12, 1998.

Alps printers print metallic colors, foil colors, and white. I haven't seen any inkjets or lasers do that (yet). Decals work great, too. I've yet to try the backprint film or iron-on transer though, but I'm sure it would be better than inkjet. Just bought a MD1300 at Goodwill for $5.95 w/ extra ribbons. My MD5000 works great in all modes. Slight banding in dye sub mode can be corrected with finish coat. after printing a take a clean white sock and polish the overcoat to a shiny finish. No more banding!!!

-- Andy Kronquist (akronqu@yahoo.com), December 05, 2002.