Here is a pic of the printout at left >>>

The image at left is an illustration by Seisaku Kano done with Photoshop 4.0, Freehand 7, Poser 2.0, INFNI-D and Metaflo 2.0 The image may not have been a photo but the fact remains that the Super Colorio is able to render continuos tone fantastically. 

Flesh tones and light areas
Often, the real test to any photo printer worthy of the "photo-realistic" label is the ability of the printer in question to reproduce faithfully flesh tones and light areas. A good photo printer would be able to render flesh tones and light areas without obvious pixelization (ie dots being visible). If you don't believe me, look at the light areas of any printout from printers currently on the market (except dye subs and the Photo EX and perhaps the HP Photosmart)) and you are bound to see pixelization or graininess in the light areas more so than in other areas of the print. Needless to say, with 6 inks and 6 picolitre dot size, the Super Colorio gave picture perfect flesh tones and light areas. In fact, the printout I have was predominantly light and had large areas of flesh tones. Truly Marvelous!
 

Detail
As far as detail is concerned, the use of a 6 picolitre dot size gives this printer unsurpassed capabilities to render fine detail. For instance, the detail of the lace at left came out looking unbelievably fine and realistic.The thing to remember here is that the image I examined was artificially produced (ie through the use of software) and that is sure to help in giving the printer as much if not more detail than it can handle.

Have a look at image at left (not a scan) which I hope gives you an impression of the detail that this printer can render ( I couldn't bear to cut up the printout I have in order to be able to feed it into my Hp Photosmart Scanner, hence the absence of a scan sample))>>>

Multi-Size Dot Technology>>>
The Super Colorio uses what is termed as Multi-Size Dot Technology in the promotional brochures. What this means is that the printer will make use of 3 dot sizes, ie small (6picolitre), medium and large in an automatic manner by way of an  "automatic arraying method" that is programmed into the print driver.

The Multi-Size Dot Technology actually uses dots ranging from large (19pl), medium (10pl) and small (6pl). You can see from the diagram at right that the print driver would progressively use larger dots as the intensity of a given color increases. The promo literature also indicated that the Photo EX uses a 10pl dot size...not bad actually.

Improved Printer Driver
The driver is said to be improved, with new filters and special functions  such as a sepia tone filter. Also, the printouts are now optimised for plain paper printing, resulting in sharper plain paper output.

Negative points?
There was some subtle microbanding which I noticed in the printout not unlike that observed in the Photo EX. However, the magnitude of the subtle micro-banding is so small that I doubt most people would even notice it. I see it only because I am an image-geek (!) who studies printouts as if they held the secrets to life! Serious Epsonitis! (though I am working at curing myself of this malady). I suspect that most inkjet printers are likely to have some degree of banding given the inherent nature of their design, ie printing line by line. I reiterate that the microbanding is very-very-very slight as to be almost negligible. Other than this really minor point, the printout is near perfect. It would be interesting to see a photo printout from the Super Colorio!

The Pizza Tracks
The tracks left by the starwheel rollers are still visible although my impression was that they were less obvious. This is likely to be caused by the new photo paper (!) More on the paper later.

Running Cost
The Super Colorio has a lower running cost due in part to the way the ink carts are being sold:- Epson has introduced a twin-pack packaging for the carts which bring the cost down quite a bit. For example, the single colour cart for the pm-3000C is retailing for 2000yen whilst its twin pack only sells for 3,200, which gives a 20% saving on each cart (if my math is correct).

The second bit of news is also great news:- the A3 version uses a larger ink cart! This should have been done for the PhotoEX but better late than never. You can see from the above that the price of the colour carts for the A3 PM-3000C is 2,000yen and the A4 PM-770C is at 1,500yen. The black cart is the same for both printers ...and is sold at 1,500 yen (single) and 2,600 yen (twin pack).

Physical Design
From the brochure, the Super Colorio looks exactly like the Photo EX and it has the same buttons on the front panel. The only obvious visual differences between this printer and the Photo Ex is the alignment device at the paper feed which is in blue (color) instead of beige and the paper feed tray is of a slightly different design (it looks curved).

2The New Epson Paper

Central to the high quality of the printout I examined was the new paper that Epson has released. The paper has the familiar "EPSON PHOTO PAPER" imprint at the back but the paper is clearly new and improved and is clearly different from the Photo Paper that is currently being sold outside of Japan. For one thing, the new Photo Paper is Glossier than the current Photo Paper. The following picture should give you a sense of the glossiness of this new Photo Paper.

click on this for an enlargement

The other difference is the new Photo Paper is less textured as compared to the current Photo Paper.I'm not sure if you can see the texture of the paper from the picture above (click on it for an enlargement). In short, the new Photo Paper has a smoother surface and is less "bumpy" (some have referred to it as an 'orange peel' texture) if that helps you visualize the difference. I think you should be able to just about make out the texture  from the picture above. As mentioned above, the pizza track marks are still present though appear to be less obvious. There is also something I can't quite place my finger on that sets the new Photo Paper apart from the current one which I can only put down to the fact that the new Photo Paper is closer to the feel of a photographic print developed with conventional methods (eg colour lab, darkroom). Sizes range from postcard size to A3.

3Archival Quality Print?

The promotional brochure also had some very interesting statements on the light fastness of the printouts from the Super Colorio. The new Photo Paper is capable of improved light fastness and it is stated in the promotional literature (literal translation)  that the "colour is difficult to fade". Following that rather general statement, the promotional literature than went on to say that the improvements made to the new Photo Paper give it approximately 2x the light fastness of the previous photo paper. That's not all, the claimed light fastness of the new Photo Paper is approximately half that of the photos from "silver salt photography" (literal translation). What the brochure is saying, my guess, is that the new Photo Paper is able to give 1/2 the light fastness of photos developed with conventional means (silver halide?). That would be fantastic news for us all. However, the promotional literature was decidedly non-technical in stating how this improvement was achieved and did not stray into specifics. For instance, it was not clear whether the ink is of an improved formulation as well although the general heading as you can see from the picture above was listed as "Ink and Paper". I will try to get more information on this as  the literal translation (particularly the light fastness of 1/2 that of the "silver salt photography"") is not particularly clear nor backed with technical information (eg such as whether the inks are now pigment based). 
 
 

That's all I have for now. Please bear in mind I gleaned the above from the brochures for the Super Colorio and not from actually examining the printer itself. I have only examined one isolated printout sample. So treat this review as just a quick look at the new printer. The list price in Japan is 79,800 yen. That would make it about US$656. That's more then the Photo EX is selling for now. The A4 version is to retail at 59,800 yen or US$490. Anyway, Miyoko's twin sister said that it is not available in Japan yet! The models are just on display (for demo-ing), at least in the island of Shikoku where Miyoko's twin sister resides.

All I have left to say is.....anybody in the market for a used Photo EX?JCheers!