The $4,000 Digital Imaging Station
was great - how about a "half-price" sale?
One
of the most popular articles we've ever posted at the Photo/Image News
Network has been "The $4,000 Digital Imaging Station" in 1997.
 Now
I've built an up-to-date version
and surprise - it's not only possible to make it a lot better, it's
possible to do it for about half the price.
As always the key to good prints is a good print engine -
a dye-sublimation printer. In 1997 the best value was the Fargo Primera
Pro. In 2001, the best value is the Olympus D-400.
The computer came from Staples. It's got an
Intel Celeron processor at 667MHz, a 20 GB hard drive, and 64MB of
RAM.
The CPU, after all the rebates, ended up costing me $355.
I watched the sales like a hawk and here's how it figures:
Purchase price: $574.99
Staples instant price cut: -$50.00
Staples mail-in rebate: -$100.00
HP mail-in rebate; -$50.00
Staples free merchandise card: -$20.00
Effective price: $354.99
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Memory is relatively cheap as of this writing. 64
MB may be adequate for home use, but graphics require lots more. I ordered a 256 MB PC100 card from Micron's Crucial
Memory for $131. This weekend I could have bought a 256MB stick for $99
after rebates.
You can buy a good monitor - a Trinitron would be nice- or
you can start with something cheap. A Pixie 17" monitor was $79.98
from Staples after a $60 mail-in rebate.
My choice for a mid-range scanner at this time is the
Epson 1200U. CompUSA had them on sale for $199 at Christmas. It plugs
right into the USB port, which is a lot easier than trying to configure a
SCSI interface.
The printer has a street price of $799. If you're an
Olympus dealer or buy wholesale from the distributors, it can cost less…
Adobe PhotoShop 6.0 is the latest version of the industry
standard for manipulation of photographs. It's about $600 if you buy it
outright. Upgrades from previous versions are much less.
However, for purposes of this article we've assuming you
have nothing and have to buy it. PhotoShop LE offers many of the
capabilities of the full version including layers. Get it free with the
purchase of certain hardware or buy it. Sometimes it can be as little as
$60 after rebates. The latest replacement for PhotoShop LE is Adobe Photo
Elements, which is even better.
OK - now you're ready to put it together.
Here's the final analysis of costs (after rebates and
before sales tax):
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$355 HP Pavilion Computer 6736
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$79 Pixie 17" monitor
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$199 Epson 1200U scanner (came with Photoshop LE)
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$999 Olympus D-400 printer
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$99 CD-Rom writing drive
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$69 dual card reader for SmartMedia and
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$99 additional RAM (256 megabytes)
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$99 Computer desk
-
Adobe PhotoShop LE (free)
Total: $2,056
Let's see how this system stacks up against the $4,000
station:
| Specifications: |
$4,000 unit in 1997 |
$2,056 unit in 2001 |
| CPU |
200 MHz |
667 MHz |
| Hard Drive |
2 GB |
20 GB |
| RAM |
128 MB |
320 MB |
| CD writer |
no |
yes |
| Card reader |
no |
yes |
| Print surface |
matte |
gloss |
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