Kodak ESP-3 Review

  I started dealing with home printers from the curios corner of the confused, my first encounter, it is out of kindness that I leave the name of that money pit unprinted, left me nearly printer-phobic. I have loved taking pictures and entering them in our local fair, just as a lark, not really expecting any great reviews of my eye of the world, I have humbly found that the judges really like my photos. I have about a 90% blue ribbon reputation going now and am really loving the whole thought of someday becoming a famous photographer, come on now, it is O.K. to dream!

  I spent about two years learning the different photo software products out there and I have my favorite, but the printer is what I am talking about now so I will leave the software for later, but just touching on it, I have gotten a reputation of being very good at taking old damaged photos and restoring them to like new condition, no I can't compete with the guys at the local super-center, not that fast, but I do believe that my artistic touch really makes up for their tech savvy, the simple tools that came with my first printer really taught me a lot and since then I have loved learning all that can be done with different software products. I have gotten addicted to this hobby and until I found the Kodak ESP-3 printer, the ink was killing me! No, not because it had some hidden carcinogens in it, the price, man I was tempted to just buy a new printer every time I went in to buy a refill, it seemed like the newer printers were always just a few dollars more than the refill for my monster! I hung in there, and when the "Fill your own cartridges!" kits came out I thought I was saved, that was until I found myself sitting in the middle of a mess of spills and spurts of indelible inks that if you look close enough you can still find evidence in my printer area! Not, definately not the answer! What was I to do, I had become addicted to the hobby of home photography, and development, and to be honest with you I didn't mind getting the compliments on my work.

  This all was still manageable, though barely, until we got the blessing of our first grand-baby! I found myself taking thousands of photos, I mean thousands. There is just something about that little baby girl that is special and I keep trying to get just the right picture to inter into the contest this year, I know that it will get me a blue ribbon, but I want it to get best in contest, which I have one, only one and I want two, or three, oh heck, I want all I can get. I was in deep trouble until I saw the advertisements on T.V. about the Kodak ESP-3. It's claims of pictures per ink were just about unbelievably and I could not resist, and the price, my goodness, I would spend that much on one and one half fills of my old printer. I went to the super-center and cautiously read every bit of the store information, talked to every one that came buy trying to find one who had already bought one, hoping to get some first hand information. It seemed like no one could believe the advertisement's, it was like it was too good to be true. I finally stepped off into the Kodak line of printers with an "Oh well it can't be much worse than I am experiencing now." attitude.

  Upon getting it home and apprehensively opening the box, expecting some migraine headache experience getting the thing hooked up to my computer. Was I ever surprised, for the first time I actually experienced the "Plug and Play" promise all computer gadgets come with. Before I knew it I had a stack of beautiful pictures in the tray and all over the counter top, and even spilling over on the kitchen table. With panic swelling up in my chest and dread in my bill fold, I clicked on "properties" on my Kodak ESP-3's page expecting to see and empty ink symbol, to my surprise I still had over 50% ink left, I thought surely something must be wrong with the software, so I just had to keep up, remember now I had many pictures of our beautiful new grand-baby and I trash-canned  many that I knew just weren't good enough, but I still had so many left. I won't say how many I actually printed up, I will leave that up to you, I mean I have to leave some surprise for you, but I will say this, you will not find yourself looking for one of those "Refill your own!" wonder messes with this printer. Since I bought it I have only gone thru two ink cartriges, one being the one that came with the printer, I still have some ink left and as soon as I get off of here I am going to try to find that "Blue Ribbon" picture from last nights pictures of our precious Alicen's poses. Remember, it does not matter how many wonders the product promises you can do with their product, if you can't afford the ink, it is just one more printer that you will find at the yard sale for $5 OBO.