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An event photographer's dream machine?
 When the economy went south a few years back, corporate photographers suffered a mighty blow. To stay afloat financially, an army of them took to event photography, turning their lenses onto Little League games, ballet school recitals, and skating competitions. By traveling with digital SLRs, a laptop, and dye-sublimation printers, they could print while the events were still unfolding, instead of days or weeks later. Result: more print sales.
Obviously, a reliable printer (or two) is central to this business plan, and dye-sub thermal-transfer printers have stepped up to the plate, with improved image quality, image stability, speed, ease of use, and reliability. Some are even affordable. Among the most sophisticated is Mitsubishi's new CP-9500DW ($1,995 street).
Its high-tech ink ribbons feature built-in chips that communicate color profiles for each specific ribbon to the printer. The result: more consistent color reproduction. Also, if you remove a paper roll and ribbon and then reload them later, the chip will tell the printer what percentage of the roll remains. Paper rolls are available in popular sizes between 3x5.5 and 6x9 inches (glossy only), including a postcard stock.
To see if it could stand up to the rigors of field use, we took the 9500 to a corporate event, plugged it into a laptop running Windows XP, loaded the drivers, and were printing within minutes. The first few 4x6s had a scratchlike line caused by grit in the ribbon path, but after we blew out the interior, the next 200 prints were problem-free. Chugging along at about one 4x6 every 25 seconds, we probably could have achieved the 19-sec print time that Mitsubishi claims, if our laptop had supported the printer's Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connection.
The 9500's printer utility offers limited control over image output. If, for example, you want sepia tone, you should specify that in your image editor. As for color management, Mitsubishi's web site offers ICC profiles for a number of digital SLRs, and the printer utility recognizes most popular color spaces.
The prints we made that afternoon were dry, smudge-resistant, and pre-trimmed to a neat, borderless 4x6 inches. Their clean colors and photo-quality sharpness were a party hit. We had no technical complication or glitch during six hours of shooting. Now if only the 9500 came with a trolley to transport it!
What's Hot: Simple, fast, reliable. Self-trimming for borderless prints. Quick paper/ribbon change. Low per-print cost.
What's Not: Expensive. At 37.4 pounds without ribbon or paper, it's heavy.
Download our Certified Test Results: Mitsubishi CP-9500DW
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