If you want great-looking photos -- and don't mind paying extra to get them -- check out the AU$2860 Olympus P-400. This dye-sublimation printer creates continuous-tone printouts without the "grain" that makes inkjets distinguishable from photographs.
Most photo printers can do more than just print photos on high-gloss paper. They can print plain-paper letters and reports, as well as plain-paper photos. The Olympus P-400 is a dedicated printer that can print only on expensive proprietary glossy paper. There's no draft mode, because every page costs the same. To top it off, the P-400's AU$2860 price makes it more than a casual purchase.
So why would anyone want to buy a P-400? It uses dye-sublimation technology, as opposed to the more common inkjet technology, to create continuous-tone printouts with vibrant colours. If you look closely at the photo prints from an inkjet printer, you'll notice a slight but pervasive dot pattern that distinguishes its prints from photographs based on slow films (ISO speeds up to 100). In this respect, dye-sublimation prints are virtually indistinguishable from professionally processed photos. And despite what appears to be a high price for the printer and its consumables, the P-400 represents a price breakthrough in full-page dye-sublimation prints.
In practice, however, the P-400 turned out less-than-stellar prints. Although it displays good shadow details, it blows out the highlight areas in our test print. More important, it shows some colour registration problems that result in yellow fringing and an overall lack of sharpness.
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Because the P-400 is likely to be used as a second printer, it's especially fortunate that it has both a USB and a parallel-port connector. It also has a SmartMedia slot and a PC Card slot. With the appropriate PC Card adapter, the PC Card slot can handle CompactFlash cards and Memory Sticks. The built-in controls let you choose the paper format (standard, postcard, photo album, or index), as well as the input source (SmartMedia, PC Card, USB, or Parallel Port). The P-400 takes only two sizes of paper: A4 (21 x 29.7 cm) and A5 Wide (20.96 x 20.32 cm). The postcard paper has perforations that let you detach two borderless postcards. The photo album mode prints smaller pictures against a photographic background. And the index mode prints thumbnail images on a single page, which is a convenient way to document the contents of a memory card.
Unlike an inkjet printer, whose print speed varies according to the amount of colour on the page, the P-400 has a fixed print speed of 90 seconds per page. For large images, that works out to be fairly fast when compared to a typical inkjet printer, but for smaller ones, it may work out to be the same or even a little slower. Adding in the time it takes for the computer to render the page and send it to the printer, we waited about 3 to 5 minutes for our approximately 15.24 x 19.05 cm colour photo.
So is the P-400 really worth the extra money? The difference between it and ink jets isn't startling, but can be quite noticeable. If the grain of your prints is extremely important -- and you don't mind spending the extra money for the printer and supplies -- the P-400 could be your best choice for a professional-quality photo printer.
Olympus P-400
Company: Nikon On Broadway
Ph: 02 9281 8411
Price: AU$2860
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