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Australia Facts
Did you know...
Australia is a self-governing member of the
Commonwealth of Nations. The commonwealth extends for about 4,000 km (about
2,500 mi) from east to west and for about 3,700 km (about 2,300 mi) from
north to south. Its coastline measures some 25,760 km (about 16,010 mi). The
area of the commonwealth is 7,682,300 sq km (2,966,200 sq mi), and the area
of the continent alone is 7,614,500 sq km (2,939,974 sq mi), making
Australia the smallest continent in the world, but the sixth largest
country.
The Commonwealth of Australia is made up of six states—New South Wales,
Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia—and
two territories—the Australia Capital Territory and the Northern Territory.
The first people to live in Australia, called
Aborigines, migrated there about 40,000 years ago. The continent remained
relatively unknown by outsiders until the 17th century. The first European
settlement by British convicts occurred in 1788 at Botany Bay in
southeastern Australia. Australia grew as a group of British colonies during
the 19th century, and in 1901 the colonies federated to form a unified
independent nation.
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Visit our
Sceneramic Photography website at...
SceneramicPhoto.com |
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Dear Reader: |
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 Visit
CafePress.com/SceneramicPhoto for a large selection of mousepads,
framed prints, calendars, postcards and coffee mugs. Images include landscape, seascape and cityscape
of Australia, England, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland and the
USA.
If you see an image you like in the Sceneramic
Photography gallery that's not yet featured in our
CafePress store, send an
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New Pictures Added To Sceneramic |
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Added Over 80 New Images And Digital
Frames
The past month's been a busy one what with
adding over 80 new images to the Sceneramic website for
Victoria, Australia,
California, USA and
Utah, USA. I've also added some images of a
fireworks display.
A few of the new images have waited as
long as since last July to make it onto the site. Good intentions aside,
a couple of weekends ago all the planets aligned and I finally got the
time, a burst of energy and the ambition to, at last, get them prepared
and posted. Yippee!
Another project I was able to check off the "things
to do" list was adding digital frames to all of the larger images
on the site. Now
when someone clicks on any "See Details" link, they will see what the
image would look like framed. That project took a little more time and
effort, but well worth it. So, make that a second "Yippee!"
I hadn't envisioned accomplishing all of
this when I started, but you know how it always goes when you start any
simple project. It's like tidying a shelf in the
garage. Before you know it you have everything out in the middle of the
driveway and cleaning the garage from floor to ceiling. Well,
that's what happened with the website. [Back
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Photographic Inkjet Printer
Recommendations | | |
Great
Printers At Great Prices
In past editions of the
Sceneramic Newsletter I've focused more on cameras and the picture taking
processes themselves. With more people buying digital cameras
and wanting to print their own images, I thought I'd shift the focus in
this edition from
image taking to image making.
Photographic inkjet printer technology has come a long way in the past 5
years. And, with lower manufacturing costs and increased demand, prices have
plummeted to their lowest point ever. No
longer do you have to spend upward of $500 to buy a good inkjet
printer.
If you're looking for something to make 8.5" x 11" prints,
there are some fantastic deals for under or around $150. If you want a
printer capable of producing 13" x 19" photographs, you can
find some outstanding ones in the $400-600 range.
When it comes to buying a
printer, it really boils down to three
considerations:
-
What size and quality photographs
do you want to
produce
-
Do you want a
multi-purpose printer or one designed for photographic images
-
How much do you want to spend
However, because printers are
now so cheap, price is no longer the overriding factor in the decision
process.
My Photo Printers Picks
Realizing these are my picks
and others may have a differing views and opinions of what they consider
to be the best printers, let me cut right to the chase with my list.
Canon i560 Desktop Photo Printer - For an
economy, all-purpose inkjet printer the i560 is a great choice for
families, students and for photographic printing. The text quality is
excellent and the photo quality good. If you own a PictBridge
compatible digital camera or camcorder, you can connect to the USB port on
the front and print directly to the i560. However, only a few
manufacturers support this standard.
Maximum print size is 8.5" x
14" (legal size) with 4800 x 1200 DPI resolution.
Amazon Price: $90.24*
HP PhotoSmart 7760 Photo Printer - Like it's 7960 big brother, you can print directly from
popular memory cards, HP digital cameras as well as hooking it up to a
PC. If you plan on using the 7760 as a multi-purpose printer,
one drawback is you'll find yourself swapping out the black cartridge
depending on whether you're printing text or photographs. As with most photo printers, it
doesn't do a stellar job at non-photo tasks, but for photographs it does a
great job.
Maximum print size is 8.5" x
14" (legal size) with 4800 x 1200 DPI resolution.
Amazon Price: $179.94*
Canon i960 Photo Printer -
Compared to other printers in its class, where the
i960 lacks in features such as printing directly from memory cards
and an LCD screen to manage print jobs, it more that makes up for in image
quality and speed. It pumps out great photos in half the time of an
average photo printer. Each of its six ink cartridges can be replaced
independently, unlike most other printers that force you to replace a
three-ink cartridge every time. Because the i960 does a nice job of
printing text too, it's a perfect for users who need a good, all-around
multi-purpose printer.
Maximum print size is 8.5" x
11" with 4800 x 1200 DPI resolution.
Amazon Price:
$179.99*
Epson Stylus Photo R300M Inkjet Printer
- A new contender on the scene, the R300M let's you print directly from
your digital camera, from most popular memory cards and, of course, from
your PC. With the 2.5" LCD screen you can preview, enlarge, crop or resize
the images from the camera or memory card prior to printing. Besides
producing great quality photos on photographic paper, you can also print
directly onto printable CDs or DVDs and it does a splendid job on text,
envelopes, labels or transparencies.
Maximum print size is 8.5" x
14" (legal size) with 5760 x 1440 DPI resolution.
Amazon Price: $229.99*
HP Photosmart 7960 Photo Printer - Using no less than eight different ink cartridges, the
photographs from the 7960 printer are spectacular. For
photographs, the black ink cartridge is swapped out for a photo-gray
cartridge containing light-gray, dark-gray and black ink for smoother,
more natural looking gray tones. The downside of all these cartridges, however, is that to
replace all of them at once will set you back around $100. You can print directly from most popular memory cards, HP digital cameras
as well as connecting it to a PC.
Maximum print size is 8.5" x
14" (legal size) with 4800 x 1200 DPI resolution.
Amazon Price: $299.99*
Epson Stylus Photo 1280 Inkjet Printer
- Whether you're a professional or talented amateur
photographer and want your best photo prints to last, the 1280's six-color
Photo Reproduction Quality on fade-resistant media rivals anything you'll
see from a good photo lab. For the money, the 1280 is in a league
of its own and comes close to matching the print quality of its big
brother the 2200. Like the 2200, photographs printed on Epson's ColorLife photo paper will last
up to 27 years.
The 1280
gets my vote as a "best buy" for serious digital photographers.
Maximum print size 13" x 44" with 2880 x
720 DPI resolution.
Amazon Price: $359.14*
Epson Stylus Photo 2200 Inkjet Printer - Okay,
so if you're a serious photographer wanting a serious printer designed
from the ground up for professional digital photographs, the Epson 2200 is
arguably one of the best printers on the market. The seven cartridge
UltraChrome pigment ink set produces the best archival quality
images I've ever seen. You can connect the 2200 to a PC via the
parallel or USB ports, or the FireWire port. Although the price of the
2200 is much higher than the other printers I've listed here, considering it produces
incredible, large borderless 13" x 19" prints (13" x 44" using the
included spindles), you won't regret a single penny of the cost.
Maximum print size 13" x 44"
with 2880 x 1440 DPI resolution.
Amazon Price: $614.99*
*Prices as of May 9,2004
Conclusion
Obviously this is not an
exhaustive list of all inkjet printers. If you want to see a
complete list carried at Amazon just to give you some idea of how many
there are on the market, follow this
inkjet printers
link.
Your decision as to which
printer to buy really boils down to what you'll use the printer for. If
you're looking for an inexpensive, all purpose printer, you can't beat the
Canon i560 for under $90. For a little more the Canon i960 for around
$190 is a great buy.
If you will almost exclusively
use the printer for printing photographs -- and certainly if you want to
print larger images -- you should consider either the Epson 1280 (my best
buy pick) or the Epson 2200.
A last word of advise: When is
comes to replacement cartridges, always buy the original ones made
specifically for your printer. Don't waste your time or money purchasing
off-brand cartridges and certainly don't throw money away trying to refill
your old cartridges yourself. I can guarantee you'll be disappointed with
the results.
If you've had good experiences
with other printers that you'd highly recommend, send me an
email
because I'd love to hear about it.
Happy printing...
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