|
|
|
review
•
NOVEMBER 17, 2000
|
 Olympus
Camedia P-400 Dye-Sublimation Printer
7.7
megapixel, 16.7 million color printer
If
you're a purist in terms of the image quality that comes out
of you're printer, you're not going to be able to do better
than the Camedia P-400 printer from Olympus for $999. The
P-400 is Olympus' latest addition to its printer line, a dye-sublimation
model that can handle paper sized up to 8.25" x 11.7".
So what's
so great about dye sublimation?
Well,
for one thing, it's continuous tone, and continuous tone will
always beat dots. For another, this particular model has a
7.7 megapixel resolution. Finally, it has the same color depth
as most color monitors—eight bits per pixel per channel,
or 24 bits total.
So what's
so great about this particular model?
You're
not going to find another dye-sub printer at this price with
this kind of functionality, especially for digital photographers.
And you won't find one this fast—about 90 seconds per
image being printed full size (A4).
P-400
features
It has a USB port for hooking up to your computer, and it
also has slots for accepting both SmartMedia cards and PC
Cards for printing directly to the printer without the need
for computer intervention. Just stick your card in one of
the slots and press the print button. (The print button is
a large, shiny metallic button with an embossed image of a
printer, so you can't mistake it for anything else.)
When you
work with a card connected to the printer rather than a computer,
you get a lot of options. First, your images appear on the
printers little grayscale LCD screen, and you can scroll through
them to select which one or ones you want to print, as well
as how you want to print them (full-sized, postcard, four
per page, etc.) You can also print an index of all the photos
on the card currently inserted into the printer. (Printing
a large number of images from a card adds a lot of processing
time, even if the final output is small, because it has to
process three colors for each image at their full resolution.)
That's
great for photographers on the road, working conventions or
parties, who can turn the printer into a self-contained profit
center.
It also
has a clear laminate layer; black and white and sepia tone
filters; trimming, background, frame and stamp functions;
and a print selection of up to 50 copies at a time.
The
bottom line
It's a given that this thing prints gorgeous images. But the
printer market has changed considerably since dye subs were
the hottest things around. Inkjets, especially those from
Epson, are producing quality images now that offer serious
competition to dye-sub printers, even ones priced below $1,000.
I
conducted a test around the office with people who've been in
graphics for years, asking them to pick between the P-400's
output and a print from an Epson inkjet. (The Epson inkjet was
the Stylus Color 740, half the resolution of Epson's current
models.) The question put to them was, "Which one came
from a dye-sub printer?" I conducted this test with a dozen
or so people. Only one of them got it wrong, but only one of
them got it right instantly. The rest had to think about it,
move the printouts around in the light, look at the back of
the paper, etc.
If you
put the two printouts under a loupe, there would be no question.
But the inkjet, at 10 percent the cost of the dye sub, still
held out pretty well at the eyeball level.
So the
question becomes this: Is the dye sub worth 10 times the cost
of the inkjet? That depends on you. Inkjets these days can
output great images. But the dye sub is pristine. Very nearly
perfect, with outstanding resolution and color. Plus, Olympus
says—and I can only trust them on this one—that
the cost of operation (paper and ribbon) is about $1.90 per
A4 page. That's not much more than the cost of ink and paper
for an inkjet, assuming you're making full-page printouts
on glossy photo paper.
So, the
way I see it, if you need perfection, you buy the dye sub.
If you need perfection around $1,000, you buy the Olympus
Camedia P-400.
GO
TO PAGE Home
|
|
|
