PRIMERA Impressa IP60 Digital Photo Printer

by Anonymous on February 11, 2019

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now but life kept getting in the way. Also want to put out there that this is really the first product review I’ve ever done so if I miss something don’t be rude. Just please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer your questions and add whatever I might have missed. I’d like to start by saying thank you to Mark Strobel from Primera (primera.com) for giving me the Impressa IP60 for review when he was out in Southern California, to Ruben Gama from Foto Club Inc. (fotoclubinc.com) for allowing me to make prints with printers I didn’t own for the comparison of the Impressa IP60 (the DNP RH-1 HS and the DNP 620A), and finally to Rex Huang for hosting the SoCal Photo Booth Network where I was lucky enough to get the Impressa IP60. So let’s get started. The Impressa IP60 is an ink jet printer that is very lightweight (at only 8lbs), easy to use, and produces very nice prints with very little waste. It does feel a little fragile but not to the point where it’ll break just by touching it. The body is made out of plastic and the printer is made in the USA. It also has a wide variety of print sizes for a small printer (2x6, 4x6, 6x6, 6x8, 6x12, 6x18, 6x24 (yes, panoramas!) without changing supplies) Unlike dye-subs, the Impressa IP60 doesn’t waste 4 4*6 pieces of media when loading a new roll of paper like dye-subs, it only wastes a single small strip about 1 3/16. Keep in mind that for the dye-subs there’s no cost for the calibration sheets, there’s more than enough paper for that hence why you will always have a roll with several feet of unused media. You can also stop worrying about having to remove the media after every event, with the Impressa IP60 you actually can leave the media and ink cartridge in place (although Primera still recommends that you remove it if it is a near-full, heavy roll). So if you (or your attendants) are one of the few that keeps forgetting to remove them – no worries, you won’t actually damage the print heads because every time you change the ink cartridge you are actually changing the print heads and getting a fresh, brand new one every time. The media comes in several different types just like the media for dye-subs (at the time of writing) glossy and luster both at 175 ft. or approximately 500 4*6 prints and magnetic approximately 285 4*6 prints, and repositionable AKA sticker media approximately 275 4*6 prints. I’ve been informed by Mark that there will be a new type of media available soon called postcard, and it is exactly as it sounds. A postcard size print that can ACTUALLY be mailed, picture on one side and a place for you to write “Wishing you were here” (or anything else you might want to say) on the other with the address lines on the back. A very unique postcard right out of the printer. For this review, I bought new media even though the printer already had media inserted when I got it to try and get a better count of the claim of how many prints I’d be getting. Like the majority of you, I’ve never have gone through a whole roll let alone a whole case of media at any of the events I’ve done so far with my Brava21 and the Impressa IP60 has been no different. I still have about 70% of media/ink left over from the new roll that I’ve installed. I tried it out at a 2 weekend event over Halloween (Oct 20-21 and 27-28) and then again at a Christmas charity event for underprivileged kids and there was one other event and still working on the same roll of media. The only thing that I’ve noticed is that when the prints come out of the printer they have a “wet” feel to them even though the ink is dry already. Currently I’m using the factory settings just right out of the box mostly because I want to use it like most do - right out of the box plug and play. You do have the capability to tweak it if you want but I know there are individuals out there that have the idea if they mess with a setting on something they’re not fully familiar with that it won’t work correctly so I decided to go that route. I recall Mark telling me that there was a setting in the included Printhub program where one could tweak. The cost of print is advertised as about $0.12 per print but in the prints I’ve done it was closer to $0.14 to $0.16 right out of the box. As stated earlier there may be a setting to get it closer to the cost listed but most of photo boothers wouldn’t probably want to mess with those settings. The print run is very fast about 3 to 5 seconds from end of session to print being done for 2x6 and about 8 to 9 seconds on 4x6’s. I’ve not had a request for any of the other sizes that it can do. You’ll need to install the driver onto the computer first as most booth programs don’t have the drivers built in and will have a separate window that shows the cost per print (if you’re interested or curious) but for the most part you won’t see that screen unless you get out of the booth program you’re running. I’d recommend downloading the drivers first onto the computer and running the install from there as oppose to trying to run it from their website. We had a bit of an issue when we tried running the install from the Primera website. For Darkroom you’ll be using the Impressa IP60 as a windows printer which is what I use. At the time of writing this review I believe that none of the booth programs out there have the drivers integrated into the program yet. Here’s a link for directions on how to use it with your software: https://supportsystem.livehelpnow.net/article/21426/98303/ The media can only be inserted one way, there’s a chip at one end of the roll for the printer to tell the computer how much paper is still left and to automatically load the correct color profile. The paper feed is from behind and top. Once it makes contact the printer will pull it in and properly adjust it and cut off the small strip and you’re all set. From the back of the printer you can see the roll of media so you may want to keep it covered during transport so that the media doesn’t get damaged. I’d recommend putting the printer in a carrying bag to help keep the media clean. I’ve used it at a few events and am very pleased with the overall performance. So overall: PROS: It’s extremely light weight – only 8lbs No need to remove media Has several different types of media available for use Literally foolproof way of loading the media (it actually won’t accept the media installed backwards) Prints come out very fast and print quality is great A bit cheaper than most Dye sub print cost One roll of media is almost equal to an entire box of dye sub media (the IP60 can do about 500 prints per roll but there’s paper for up to 525 4*6 prints). Great customer service from the support team staff CONS: Feels fragile Open back exposing the media No printer cable included Again this is based on my personal experience with the IP60 that was given to me by Mark Strobel. One other thing that I liked personally, when a problem was discovered I was sent a NEW printer without my asking for the upgraded version. They also covered shipping of the original one I had back to them which shows that they do care about their customers. I am using Darkroom Booth ver. 3.00.802 trial version and for the test prints I used a Brava21, a DNP RH1-HS, DNP 620A and obviously the Impressa IP60. Hope this helps you decided on whether or not the Impressa IP60 deserves a spot on your printer table.