Kodak ESP-7 All-in-One Printer Review
Posted by Sandy Berger on October 7th, 2009
The Kodak ESP-7 is easy to set up and even goes on a wireless network quite easily. Printing photos on the ESP-7 is a near perfect experience. If you use Kodak paper, the printer automatically senses the type of paper and adjusts the printing accordingly. No fuss. No muss.
Kodak claims the cheapest ink costs in the industry. However, to take full advantage of this printer’s capabilities you have to buy Kodak photo paper, which is often more expensive. Then again, if you use the Kodak paper and the Kodak printer, I believe that you will have fewer mistakes saving on ink and paper.
Unfortunately, my printer needed an immediate fix. The print head needed replacement. Kodak tech support was excellent and a new print head was sent in 3 days. This is, however, problematic. Who wants to spend an hour with tech support on a brand new printer and then have to wait 3 days before you can use it?
With the new print head, printing, scanning, and copying was good. However, the slots for the media cards only read some of my cards and not others. So it was back to tech support. After another hour, I simply gave up and the problem was not solved. To be fair to Kodak, their tech support representative was willing to spend as much time as necessary to fix the problem, but I was not.
I am sure that there are people out there who are happy with their Kodak printers. However, my experience suggests that there are probably others who wish they had not purchased this printer.
Conclusions
I was honestly impressed by the quality of the prints and the ease of printing that this printer produced when printing on Kodak paper. It eliminated the stress of choosing the proper paper and the proper settings which ultimately eliminates mistakes and wasted paper and ink. I was equally impressed with the ease of use and the ease with which the printer attached to a wireless network.
Unfortunately, poor quality control and other problems plague this printer. I have also read complaints about paper jamming, but my printer did not exhibit any problems in this area.
While the photos are truly beautiful, I would also like to see a better quality color print on regular, non-Kodak paper which some other printers seem accomplish quite easily.
In fact, because of the problems I had, I cannot recommend this printer. Who wants to buy a new printer only to spend hours with technical support to get it working properly? Yet, I feel that Kodak is a printer manufacturer to watch very carefully. Kodak’s first digital cameras came up short, but after several generations, I found them to be greatly improved. If Kodak can work through their problems with these printers, they could create exceptional printers.
Pros:
* Excellent prints on Kodak paper
* Very easy to print photos on Kodak paper
* Wireless connectivity easy to set up and use
* Separate photo paper tray
* Excellent fade resistance and photo longevity
* Multiple memory card slots
* Easy to navigate menus
* Good touch screen
* Automatically straightens and separates multiple photos during scan
Cons:
* Noisy
* Fairly slow network printing
* Colors on plain paper (non-Kodak) appear washed out
* Test printer needed new print head
* Not all media cards worked with test printer
Current retail is $199. My full review, including photos is at the Hardware Secrets website.
October 12th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Hi of all the printers i have ever used this one is poetry in motion,it turns out prints that will make you gasp ,i had 5 manuals to print each having up to 100 pages and more ,it was effortless for the esp 7,giving perfection to every page,the ink hardly moved ,the wifi was wonderful to set up and use, i am sure i heard the esp 7 say ,go and find a fault with me if you can,and i did try ,but there are none ,treat this beauty like a lady and she will amaze you ,outstanding ,very best wishes Brian
October 12th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
If you don’t have any trouble with this Kodak printer, it can be a very satisfying experience. When you do have a problem, however, you will not love it!
October 12th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Hi Sandy Berger ,you are quite right ,as no one likes a problem,but i feel the esp 7 does not get the praise it deserves,i have used canon and lexmark printers ,and they too have there own problems,but here in the esp printer we have a well priced printer that uses cheap priced ink,looks beautiful ,performs beyond exspectation ,and as for noisey, no it runs with precision ,steady as a mountain goat at the push of a button ,nearly music to my ears,here is a printer that should lead the world for star quality, my opinion only but kodak done good ,best wishes Brian
October 23rd, 2009 at 6:36 pm
I’am having a problem connecting to my network printer. It’s a kodak esp 7 and i use a d-link router. I also have network majic. The message i get is printer not responding.
October 26th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Mark,
Call Kodak tech support. They are usually pretty good. I believe they have a toll-free number listed in their documentation. Let us know how it goes.
October 27th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
This is my worst nightmare printer of all. I have owner more than a dozen and never had so many problems. First: noisy. Then, jams. Even if there’s no jams, it complains of jams. Then, it stops printing colors. Cleaning the printhead uses 5% of the ink. Turning it on and off uses 5% of the ink. The ink flows like water through this printer. The software was outdated. Un-installing and re-installing was a nightmare that took many hours to resolve. Now they tell me the printhead is bad. I’ve only had it for less than 2 months, I use it lightly (less than 100 pages and a dozen pictures), I used 2 sets of cartridges. FALSE ADVERTISING… it doesn’t take less ink, it takes MUCH more than any other printer. It’s not reliable, I never know what it will do (or won’t do) next!
PLEASE, SAVE YOUR MONEY, DO NOT GET THIS PRINTER!
October 28th, 2009 at 9:02 am
The esp 7 is or was the worst printer I have ever owned. I bought it in April used it about two weeks it stopped working call the India support after two hours of talking they sent me a print head this did not fix the problem.
I spent another two hours with support they wanted to send me another print head i refused. I wanted the printer preplaced they would not. I threw it in the garbage… I will never buy anything kodak again. DONT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY
November 8th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I had a Aio5500 it went out under warranty Kodak replaced it with a ESP 9 (a piece of crap machine) I uninstalled – restalled the software. The thing would NOT engage with the computer running vista. After 4 hrs on phone with India then another 3 hrs following day with India. They decided the printer was faulty. They sent me another. After installing the 2nd ESP9 I find that it will not work either. After being on the phone for two more days of lenghty calls. They have washed their hands and turned me to someone else in Kodak group. That, who knows when will be contacting me about the software. The printer, fax, scan, copy will work but the scan will NOT work with my computer. So far no response from Kodak. So guess I’m out a scanner machine. I would recommend anyone that is considering purchasing a aio printer from Kodak to run very quickly and not look back, you will be throwing your money in the trash. Buy Epson the ink is a little more but much more reliable machine. I wish I had.