Portable Photo Printers
Technology keeps getting better and better and smaller and smaller. You can find portable photo printers now that are light and easy to carry. Get your own portable photo printer to take with you wherever you go. Read the following review of just one of these portable photo printers available on the market today.
Digital cameras are great, except when it comes to leaving some prints behind with friends, family, or business clients. What do you do if you need to get digital photos printed fast but are nowhere near your home or office printer? Lately, we've seen a couple of portable photo printers that even the pickiest picture hounds might want to give a closer look.
In the predigital Dark Ages, fuzzy, low-res Polaroids were the only option if you wanted instant color photos. But the enormous popularity of digital cameras has created a market for portable printers that specialize in photos. Canon and HP have both responded with portable photo printers that are reasonably affordable, as well as lightweight enough for travel and surprisingly capable as output devices. (Note that we aren't including here portable printers that also print photographs, such as the Canon i80 and the HP Deskjet 450wbt; we're focusing on mobile machines that specialize in photo printing.)
Anyone who has ever used or wanted to use a Polaroid could use a portable photo printer. They're also tools for executives and sales folks who need on-the-fly photo collateral for presentations. Real estate pros, insurance adjusters, security personnel--the list of potential candidates for these machines goes on and on.
What all of these diverse users want to do these days, according to Chuck Westfall, director of technical information for camera products at Canon, is to shovel digital bits directly from their digital cameras to a printer, bypassing any cumbersome PC link. Some of these portable photo printers fill that need; some don't (see below).
One of the first requirements for a portable photo printer is, of course, portability. It must be lightweight and compact, without the dangling trays and sheet feeders of its desktop cousins. Portables use trays, too, but theirs are either detachable or hinged, making these printers easier to haul and pack. The Canon CP-300, for instance, is a sleek, 2-pound rectangle that measures roughly 2 by 7 by 5 inches. The bread loaf-shaped HP Photosmart 145 and the Photosmart 245 each weigh a mere 3 pounds, with measurements only slightly larger than those of the CP-300.
But there's more to portability than weight. If you're planning to operate far from an AC outlet or a car adapter, the Canon CP-300 runs on AC or battery power. By comparison, the HP Photosmart 245 and the 145 require either a wall socket or a car connector.
In return for the portability, you have to sacrifice a bit on image size. Most portable photo printers are limited to the 4x6-inch format, which may be fine for family beach shots but is inadequate for professional photographers who need larger prints.
Here's the good news: the print quality is first-rate. The CP-300 uses dye-sublimation technology to apply layers of heated wax to photo paper. The result is a glossy sheen with vibrant colors. Dye sublimation is useful for archival purposes, too, because the process applies a clear protective coat that seals out gases that can degrade images. By comparison, HP's Photosmart portables use a three-color inkjet technology that may provide vibrant colors now, but they'll fade over time.
Both HP models offer a 1.8-inch LCD to select photos and adjust print settings; with the CP-300, on the other hand, you'll have to rely solely on the camera's LCD. HP also includes an assortment of slots for memory cards, including the popular CompactFlash Types I and II, SmartMedia, and Sony Memory Stick formats--handy if you've left your USB cable at your hotel. While Canon's offerings lack these slots, they do provide two USB ports for fast image shuttling.
The big downside to portable photo printing is the expense. The cost per page is 50 cents or higher, mostly due to the high cost of inks, ribbons, and glossy photo paper. The printers themselves range from nearly $150 for the HP Photosmart 145 to $300 for the CP-300, which is certainly reasonable, but it's pricey for such limited-use devices.
Unless you really need to leave prints behind rather than sharing digital snaps online or waiting until you get back to your stuck-in-the-den printer, you may not need a portable printer. But if you do, they can be worth the expense. Read the whole article at http://shopper.cnet.com/4520-3166-5123228.html .
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