solventprinter555

The Duo continue their look at stand-alone photo large format printer, offering thoughts on displays, PictBridge, and a backslide into computer use.

The Duo continue their fractious examination of the state of the art in stand-alone photo solvent printer with a look at the dilemma of printing images you can't see. If you choose to print your images by popping a card into a slot on your large format printer, not every unit will show you what it is you're about to "spend" that pricey piece of photo paper on. The HP large format printer has a tiny display, but the Sony does not; to see what's on the card, you've got to hook the large format printer up to a TV--which probably wasn't on your list of simple-photo-retrieval priorities. And the Selphy won't even let you do that.

Steve notes that some photo large format printer allow you to cable up your camera directly, letting you use the camera's screen to view the specific images you wish to print. That's an option thanks to a relatively new technology called PictBridge--fairly standard on printers and cameras sold in the past year, but not so common on units built earlier. Naturally, both printer and camera have to be PictBridge-compatible. Hey, just because electronics should be simple doesn't mean they are, right'

Steve, thoroughly disgusted at this point, suggests that perhaps the best option is simply to fire up the computer, transfer the images from the camera, and print already. Angela notes that some folks may prefer to drop the whole thing and haul their memory card to one of the photo kiosks one finds at Wal-Marts and drugstores across the country (even if those machines never seem to be in working condition in the stores she frequents). Steve caps it by pointing out that HP makes a full-size, full-function printer that, for just $50 more than the Photosmart 325, can print both text and photos from memory cards, a PictBridge camera, or even (whisper) a computer.