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More…Kodak's new EasyShare All-in-One inkjet multifunction printers aren't the cheapest in their class, but when combined with the company's paper-and-ink packs, they tout the prospect of printing borderless 4-by-6-inch photos for as little as 10 cents eac--about half the industry average. I found that claim valid and the photo quality very good, though I noticed some muted colors and slight graininess.
Kodak EasyShare 5300 All-in-One
Pricing
$279.99 From 1 Vendor Get Best Prices »
- Spec Navigator
- Core Components
- Media Handling
- Display
- Network
- Connectivity
- Platform Support
- Dimensions
- General Features
- Green
- Included Hardware
- Included Software
- Scanning
Media Handling
| Manual Feed Slot | No |
| Maximum Number of Input Trays | 2 |
| Maximum paper size, height | 11.0 inches |
| Maximum Sheets With All Paper Trays | 120 |
| Output Tray Capacity | 50 |
| Standard Number of Input Trays | 2 |
| Maximum paper size, width | 8.5 inches |
| Standard input sheet capacity | 100 |
| Duplex printing | No |
Connectivity
| Other Interfaces | Optional Bluetooth adapter |
| Parallel Port | No |
| Serial Port | No |
| USB 1.1 | Yes |
| USB 2.0 | Yes |
Platform Support
| Operating System Support |
|
3
7 User Reviews Add your own »
$279.99
From 1 Vendor
Get Best Prices »
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Printers »
Pros
Print from media cards, USB thumb drives
Competetive ink pricing
Cons
Not the cheapest printer in its class
Photo colors are sometimes a little dull
Bottom Line
This all-in-one offers competetive ink costs. Its performance is fair, but photo quality is mixed.
Kodak EasyShare 5300 All-in-One
EasyShare 5300 All-in-One Review, by Danny Allen, PC World May 16, 2007
I tested the $200 EasyShare 5300 All-in-One, which prints, scans, and copies. The company's All-in-One lineup also includes the $150 EasyShare 5100, which lacks an LCD screen, and the $300 Easy-Share 5500, which features 33.6-kilobits-per-second faxing with 100-sheet memory, and a 35-sheet legal-size automatic document feeder.
Each model has two USB ports for printing photos directly from a USB thumb drive or a digital camera. All of the EasyShare models have a 100-sheet input tray, a 20-sheet 4-by-6-inch photo-paper feeder, and a 50-sheet output tray. The EasyShare 5300 and 5500 add dedicated buttons for printing, copying, and scanning; media card readers; and pop-up LCD screens (3.0 inches and 2.4 inches, respectively) to make it easy to print without a PC if you wish.
Auto-Sensing Settings
The EasyShare 5300 supports Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Mac OS X. It comes with Kodak's Easy-Share photo management app, which makes light work of printing and scanning.
If you're using Kodak's paper, the nonprint side includes a watermarked code that a sensor in the printer reads to invoke the best print mode automatically. Another sensor determines whether you've inserted plain paper or glossy media, and adjusts print settings accordingly. In our speed tests the 5300 printed text pages at 6.2 pages per minute, far from the slowest we've seen but just about half the speed of Canon's $180 Pixma MP600, our current Best Buy. In printing plain-paper graphics at default settings and maximum-quality glossy 4-by-6 photos, the results averaged 2.1 ppm and 1.2 ppm, respectively--which is about average among recently tested inkjet MFPs.
Inks and Pricing
The EasyShare All-in-Ones use a pigment-ink system with one black-ink cartridge and one five-ink tank. (One of each comes bundled with the printer.) The latter tank supplies true photo black, cyan, magenta, yellow, and a protective coating that covers clear spaces on a print to provide uniform gloss and improved stain protection, according to the company.
Kodak sells two types of paper-and-ink printing packs. The $18 Photo Value Pack includes a full-capacity color cartridge and 180 sheets of 3-star, 48-pound-rated 4-by-6-inch glossy paper. Its claimed cost per photo is 10 cents. The $20 Premium Photo Value Pack provides 135 sheets of thicker, 4-star, 66-pound-rated 4-by-6-inch glossy paper, for a claimed cost of 15 cents per photo. (The star ratings are assigned by Kodak.)
Using the $18 Photo Value Pack and relying on the 5300's auto-detection system, I was able to print 205 photos before running out of ink. Because all photos have different levels of color, results will vary; but in my tests the company's claim of 10-cent prints held up. And, their thickness aside, I noticed little output-quality difference between Kodak's 3- and 4-star paper.
The company's 5-star, 74-pound-rated Ultra Premium Paper, used in our PC World Test Center photo evaluations, produced even better quality. Skin tones were spot on, though colors weren't as vibrant as we'd have liked.
In our plain-paper graphics tests, our judges rated the 5300's output as Fair due to some horizontal banding, though such banding isn't unusual for MFPs of this class. The 5300 produced well-formed text too, but characters often had dirty edges.
Kodak doesn't sell the Ultra Premium Paper in a value pack, unfortunately; it comes only in packs of 100, for $21. Also, you must buy the $15 color-ink cartridge separately, which on the Ultra Premium Paper produces 105 4-by-6 photos, claims Kodak.
Bottom line: Getting the highest print quality out of the 5300 costs about 35 cents per photo. But the 10- and 15-cent prints look pretty good too, and those ink prices may be hard to pass up.
Danny Allen
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PCWorld Lab Results
- Rating Breakdown
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65
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72
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83
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Printers
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Performance
| 300dpi Line Art Image (secs) | 53.66 |
| 4 by 6 Color Photo (secs) | 26.09 |
| 4 by 6 Grayscale Photo (secs) | 25.72 |
| Color Output Quality | Fair |
| Color Photo Quality | Superior |
| Copy Output Quality | Good |
| Copy Quality | Good |
| Final Scan Time, 2-by-2-Inch Document, 600 dpi | 41.26 |
| Final Scan Time, 4-by-5-Inch Document, 100 dpi | 10.41 |
| Final Scan Time, One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | 17.64 |
| Grayscale Glossy Output Quality | n/a |
| Grayscale Output Quality | Good |
| Line Art Output Quality | Fair |
| One-Page Copy | 49.85 |
| One-Page Copy (secs) | 49.85 |
| One-Page Line Art, Maximum Resolution | Good |
| One-Page Webpage (secs) | 38.75 |
| One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | Good |
| Overall Scan Quality | Good |
| Preview Scan, 2-by-2-Inch Document, 600 dpi | 12.82 |
| Preview Scan, 4-by-5-Inch Document, 100 dpi | 12.66 |
| Preview Scan, One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | 12.34 |
| Sports Action Shot (secs) | 50.61 |
| Ten-Page Word Document | 125.55 |
| Ten-Page Word Document (secs) | 125.55 |
| Tested Color Speed (ppm) | 2.1 |
| Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm) | 1.2 |
| Tested Grayscale Speed (ppm) | 2.3 |
| Tested Lineart Speed (ppm) | 1.1 |
| Tested Text Speed (ppm) | 6.2 |
| Text Output Quality | Fair |
| Three-Page Word Document | 64.54 |
| Three-Page Word Document (secs) | 64.54 |
| Total Scan Time, 2-by-2-Inch Document, 600 dpi | 41.26 |
| Total Scan Time, 4-by-5-Inch Document, 100 dpi | 10.41 |
| Total Scan Time, One-Page Word Document, 300 dpi | 17.64 |
| Two-Page Excel Document | 52.12 |
| Two-Page Excel Document (secs) | 52.12 |
Scanning
| Preview scan, 2-by-2-inch document, 600 dpi | 12.82 |
| Preview scan, 4-by-5-inch document, 100 dpi | 12.66 |
| Preview scan, one-page Word document, 300 dpi | 12.34 |
| Preview scan, one-page Word document, 300 dpi | 12.34 |
Text Printing
| Text output quality | Fair |
User Reviews
Average User Reviews for Kodak EasyShare 5300 All-in-One
2 Reviews Add your own »
- Latest User Reviews 2 reviews
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Reviewed by: gerry92
Duration of ownership: 14 Months
Strengths: Superior photo prints at a very low consumable price when used with Kodak Premium or Ultra Photo Paper. Prints stand up to bright light very well. Premium paper and ink actually cost very close to the represented 15 cents.
Weaknesses: Lack of clarity that Kodak Photo (not picture) paper is needed for represented results. Basic photo paper has poor saturation.
Overall: Great printer, excellent prints, low consumable costs.
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Reviewed by: ConcernedParent50
Duration of ownership: 6 Months
Strengths: None!
Weaknesses: Bad quality and customer service
Overall: In my life time, I have owned more than 20 printers - because I owned a business. Easily, this is the worst printer I have ever owned. When I first bought this printer, the scanner broke within 2 months and it took over five hours on the phone with customer service to get a replacement printer, because Kodak customer service representatives are not fluent in English. I have had the replacement "new" printer for less than 3 months and it is broken again...and because it was such a pain to get the replacement last time I won't bother trying. The ink is cheaper, but doesn't last anywhere near as long. So, it is not cost effect! I had been pleased with HP products, but thought I could save some money because the ink cost so little. In the ended, I have ended up spending at least as much on ink and a whole lot more in time and aggravation! Do yourself a favor; buy an HP or any other brand.
Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
User Reviews From Around the Web
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Reviewed by: IonutRadu
Strengths: Cheap cartridges. Multifunction. LCD screen.
Weaknesses: Photo function not as good as professional prints.
Overall: The regular price of this printer was $149.99, but it came free with an awesome Kodak EasyShare V1253 digital camera I bought. I definitely would not have paid that much for it. I've seen it advertised for around $100. I may not even have paid that for it. But overall, the Kodak printer is okay and it has a copy machine and scanner built-in (which is almost standard nowadays). Ink cartridges are just $9.99 for black and only $14.99 for color. As expensive as some color printers are, this is a bargain! Before installing the included software and drivers, though, I would check with Kodak's website for software and especially firmware updates. That might solve some of the problems mentioned.
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Reviewed by: ruttnut
Strengths: Crisp copies, cheap ink, awesome photo printing! 3" LCD display is a plus.
Weaknesses: Rather bulky in size, compared to similar printers.
Overall: This is an excellent printer for the money. Be aware of signifcant price drops off of the $149 retail price. You should have no problem finding one for under $100 if you shop around on-line or watch store sale circulars.
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Reviewed by:
Strengths: The print looked pretty good until now. I probably thought there were some strengths, but I am too frustrated to remember any.
Weaknesses: Warranty contact.
Overall: About every third line is gray. It worked fine until now. It is still under warranty, but I have not found out who to contact. The warranty expires in two months. I hope I can find a phone number or something before then.There is no trouble-shooting guide.
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Reviewed by:
Strengths: If you have a limited budget and are expecting to print good quality photos and documents this is the thing for you.
Weaknesses: Its certainly not THE best but for the amount of money you spend its an awesome deal.
Overall: The best part is that you don't get drained away by the expensive cartridges.If you can spend $10.00 dollars at a macdonalds easily,I think it says a lot if you buy an ink cartridge that lasts a good
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Reviewed by: DracoDWS
Strengths: None that i even bothered to try and figure out
Weaknesses: Not compatible with Wi-Fi Routers
Overall: I bought this to replace my Canon PIXMA ip5000. I plugged into my iMac directly, went through the installer, which had an error at the end and wouldn't intall. I downloaded the updated software at kodak.com and ran it through again. It worked this time. I then unplugged it from my iMac and plugged it into my Airport Wireless Router and tried to print. No luck. "Printer is not responding, plesae check connections and try again." Ok, then i downloaded the Firmware update from kodak.com as well. (By the way, why would a printer have a software update & a firmware update after being out less than a month? i mean, i THINK it just came out... the first time i saw it was on Celebrity Apprentice.) Anyway, still no luck after i updated the firmware & software. I went looking for the Kodak help phone number. it was nowhere (does anybody have phones anymore?) I found the troubleshooting website and after clicking on --> trouble printing --> from computer --> wireless --> Wi-Fi --> It said "this printer cannot be used with a wireless router. please connect it directly to the computer with a USB 2.0 cable." What kind of a printer made in the last 3-4 years CAN'T be plugged into a wireless router?!?
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