The PV-10 is an interesting mobile printer but the price tag may deter all but the most ardent gadget fan.
Panasonic's e.wear line is meant to be mobile, and has generally concentrated on audio and video formats such as MP3 players and digital cameras. The SV-P10 brings something new to the tiny gaget category; a tiny printer.
Measuring only 85 x 30 x 68mm the SV-P10 is only slightly bigger than pocket sized. In terms of price it isn't pocket-sized however; AU$439 can buy you quite a lot of printing capacity, albeit not at this size.
Like many gadgets, where the SV-P10 would really stand out would be at parties and similar social gatherings; it's the high-tech equivalent of a tiny polaroid camera. We tested the SV-P10 with a variety of images, and were reasonably impressed with the image quality the unit provided. Images are printed at a maximum (and weird) 203 DPI. We're still not sure that the extra 3 dpi is obvious in images this small.
A printer this small can only print images that are essentially smaller than it is. The SV-P10 will churn out great wallet sized photographs (69 x 38mm), but forget about it if poster sized prints are what you want. One ZDNet staffer commented that it would make excellent passport photos, although whether they'd be accepted is another matter entirely.
Some day my prints will comeOur testing came out with an average printing time of 75 seconds. That isn't particularly fast, but you can relieve the boredom watching the SV-P10 work. Coated paper is fed in one side of the printer, and the drive heads move the paper back and forward four times as each image is printed. On the apex of each pass, the paper is fully visible on the outside of the printer, so you can examine the full CMYK process as it happens.
As part of Panasonic's e.wear range, the emphasis is on portability. As such, the SV-P10 can be tethered to a normal power adaptor or run from batteries. Panasonic claims battery life able to print up to 45 sheets; as we had nowhere near this number of sheets to test on, we can't comment on that figure. Having sorted out the power question, it then becomes an issue of working out how to get images into the printer. The unit comes with a USB cable for Windows PC (98/Me/2000/XP) connection, along with an accompanying driver, but for true mobility it also offers an SD card slot. The SV-P10 supports the multi-vendor DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) specification, so if your camera has DPOF as well, you can tag specific images for printing in the SV-P10. With no LCD screen or anything of the sort, there's no way to do a direct print preview on the SV-P10.
The other cost to bear in mind with the SV-P10 is the paper. The SV-P10 uses a technology known as thermal printing. Thermal printers, such as the SV-P10 (and most early faxes) rely on the interaction between the print head and specifically coated paper; normal paper simply won't print in the SV-P10. Panasonic sell packs of SV-P10 paper, which will set you back around a dollar a page. At that kind of price, normal print photography starts to look attractive.
It's better to burn out than to fade awayThe other potential issue with thermal printer paper is image life; the coatings are more theoretically prone to fading under exposure to light. Not having a few years to wait out our test images, though, we've got no way of telling you how the SV-P10's images fare -- at least not yet.
The SV-P10 is exactly what it seems to be -- an impress-your-friends gadget. It's a lot of fun to play with, and great as long as teeny-tiny photos are your thing, and the rather high entry price doesn't put you off.
Panasonic SV-P10
Company: Panasonic Australia
Price: AU$439, Paper from AU$27.95/30 sheets.
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 132 600
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