Sure they did, they were sold up until 1995.
Ron Baird wrote:
Kodak released the Diconix 150 and 300 model inkjets in 1987 for much less than $1000. They were designed for you and me.
The problem is that you and me did not buy any. And neither did most people. Stop the PR dribble.
From about.com
In 1976, the inkjet printer was invented, but it took until 1988 for the inkjet to become a home consumer item with Hewlett-Parkard's release of the DeskJet inkjet printer, priced at a whopping $1000.
Ron Baird wrote:
They all copied Kodak - We started making them in 1884
Ron Baird wrote:
Mease,
Kodak has been in the inkjet business since the early 80's selling printers and media. Diconix
Talk to you soon,
Ron Baird
Eastman Kodak Company
The first consumer inkjet (HP Deskjet 500) came out in the 90's or late 80's. The laserjet 1 came out in the early 80's. I think Kodak was blowing smoke. Kodak made good film and paper and lousey cameras like the brownie that could not compete with Nikon, Canon, Miranda, Prackika, Mamimya, Bronica, Zeiss, Leica, contax, Monolta, Konica and even the American Argus C3.
Ron Baird wrote:
Hi Art,
I have a friend that worked in the designing of the inks and the chemistry
used. Although I am not a chemist, I suspect that Kodak is working on such
technology as I know they spent a considerable amount of money creating inks
that can yield the results they are getting.
As you know, it is quite hard to get ink to work in low picoliter
distribution and stay soluble.
Canon does not seem to have a problem.
My friend shared some of this with me, but I
had no idea what he was talking about. He moved on down south and the
chemistry he does now is mixing a drink after playing golf.
I can say, however, that those like him here at Kodak truly know their
stuff. Expect great things.
It makes sense that HP, Epson and Canon know their stuff better since they have been at it 10 times longer.
Talk to you soon Art,
Ron Baird
Eastman Kodak Company
Hi Ron,
Your answer is not unreasonable in the light of the issues with inkjet
printers, but it is disappointing that it appears no one can design a
printer using pigmented inks, especially one with semi-permanent or
permanent inks, which will stay unclogged. As I mentioned in another
posting, the Epson Ultrachromes come closest, but they resolve this by
using a high glycol formulation which gases off the glycol for weeks or
months and is very slow to "dry" (the output is touch dry on output from
the printer, but it isn't really).
I did hope Kodak had overcome this in the head design or ink formulation.
If the only solution is a test printout or similar answer, why not make it
part of the printer firmware and be done with it, and be upfront about it.
Art
Ron Baird wrote:
Greetings Greg,
I can appreciate your frustration. I am taking your experience back to
the engineers I know so they are aware of your situation. They appreciate
feedback like this.
Actually, this condition might arise you may do not use your printer on a
regular basis. Personally, it has been my experience that if you do not
print often but leave the printer on when not in use, it will go through
a general startup process when you boot up your computer. Generally, when
you do, many do this every day, the printer will prepare itself for
printing in case you want to use it. If you do not print anything,
however, or let it sit idle without power, you have a greater chance of
needing to clean the head. I suspect this is something that might happen
to other printers as well. I know that with a couple of previous printers
that I have had, i.e. an Epson R200, and other Epsons, in the past that
this happened to me from time to time. The heads cleared but it cost me
the expense of doing the cleaning. I know it can get expensive.
Anyway, what I did was create a brief document that had all the colors
and black text then saved it as a file that I keep handy. The amount of
ink used is small. I make a print of it each week if I do not print some
other document. If I do make this print, I then flip over the paper and
print the same document on the other side to save paper. Doing this keeps
my printer ready for action. If you supply power to the printer, this may
not happen as often. I do not have a Kodak printer at home but I am sure
this process would work as well.
Talk to you soon, Greg,
Ron Baird
Eastman Kodak Company
I love this printer when it works. But I do not print constantly. The
printer can be turned off for maybe a month or more. But when I need
it I need it. I had no problems over the years with my old Canon
Bubblejet 4300. But they do not make ink anymore so I got rid of it
and got the Kodak 5300. After a month off I tried printing and it was
very poor text. After calling their tech support, they sent a new
print head and ink. Printer was working flawlessly once again! Now
after an extended time turned off it is acting like a clogged print
head again. I called tech support again. They told me to keep deep
cleaning until the quality was good. They did not know how many that
would be. But that was the best they can do.
Is this normal for this printer? I am thinking it is.
Thanks in advance.
