Under 2012.100 update posted 8/15/2011 it was said that there would be a capability released later that year.  On going through the list of updates I did not see any related update release.  Getting a 3D lenticular image resized so that it would precisely align to the lenticular pitch test result is crucial to get a quality 3D image.  Does your latest release accommodate this precision?

Finally I have an HP Officejet Pro 8600 and notice in the technical detail that when in colour mode and using high quality photographic 5* Professional media it has the capability to print at 4800x1200 DPI.  Is this a capability that Qimage can take advantage of?

The latest version with overdrive capability is what you need.  4800x1200 is the hardware limit which means the driver takes incoming images and produces a 4800x1200 dot pattern.  HP drivers typically receive data at 600x600 PPI and then halftone that to 4800x1200 when printing.  With overdrive enabled, you can quadruple that input resolution and send 1200x1200 PPI to the driver.  That may be a bit overkill (hence the term overdrive) since no printer/media will be able to render actual photo detail beyond about 1000 PPI but it does mean that your lenticular prints will have the maximum line separation possible.  Keep in mind that a lot depends on the resolution of the original image combined with the size print you are printing.

There's a lot to consider when doing lenticular prints.  Your printer can place one dot at the 4800x1200 resolution but each of those dots can be one of only a few primary colors (somewhere between 16 and 64 shades).  To get anything close to full color detail, it must clump multiple dots close together in order to reproduce the tones/hues of an image, thereby reducing the "effective resolution" to 600x600 or less in most cases.  Having said that, the printer can make use of the overdrive feature as it will be able to reproduce high contrast edges at the 1200x1200 resolution; for example, black on white, "pure" red against black, and so on, which can improve the look of lenticular prints.  Print alignment is not an issue in any of these cases because final alignment is controlled by the printer down to the dot resolution.  Simply put, don't expect to see full color image detail at 1200x1200 PPI since there just aren't enough printer dots to do the halftoning required to produce full color detail at that level.  That's just a hardware/printer limitation.

Regards,
Mike