subevo

hi,anyone had experience of the new type photo printer where you can insert your smart media card etc into the side of the printer and hey presto you can print pictures instantly from a small screen without the need of a computer.if so what type do you recommend. cheers.as im thinking of buying one.

Scrappy2

Epson Photo Stylus 895... Excellent quality prints...

TRIGGER

I got a HP P1000 which is excellent - mine is older so u need to print a contact sheet first to see the pictures u want - but it workls flawlessly - i found the results were far better on Hp rather than Epson (bit flat) - but it's personal choice.

robby

i've just bought a Kodak from pcworld, made by Lexmark. It has a slot on top for both types of cards and the display.
Cost now £70 but i got mine a couple of weeks ago when they were selling them for £60 - bargain!!!!
Comes with paper selection pack, colour and photo cartridges as well

MartinM

I don't have one, but I would have thought that there is a bit of a limiting factor in that they print the picture exactly as taken by the camera.

One of the main advantages of digital cameras is to be able to look closely at the pictures (just to make sure they are in focus so that they are worth printing etc) and/or post-process them on a computer to get exactly the right images before comitting them to print - cropping at the least, colour/contrast/level balancing/special effects/stitching/sharpening etc at the other extreme.

OK, most consumer digicams allow you to review the taken pictures, but the LCD screens aren't good enough to confirm that a picture is good enough to print.

There is also a tendency to shoot more pictures with a digital camera, 'cos they're free to take. But if you have to print them out to see what they're like, it kinda defeats the object (maybe). For a decent print, you need photo quality paper and at around 35 - 75p per A4 sheet, it could be quite an expensive outcome

For every 100 digital pictures I take, I suspect I normally:
- delete 25 as soon as I see them on the computer (too much out of focus, telegraph poles out of peoples' heads, beyond recovery by an image processing package etc)
- delete another 30 'cos they are too similar to the others (you get a lot of these shooting cars at 3fps!)
- save 40 to disk/CD (perfectaly respectable photos, but not really worth printing - fine as slideshows on screen or to send the CD to someone tho')
- keep 5 real good ones on disk for easy retrieval as I'm quite proud of them
- print 2 of these, 'cos they're really quite good

I don't think I'd really recommend digital photography without having a computer ... you might as well use a cheap SLR and film and get the film down to Boots for 1hr printing

...my $0.02, of course, tho

MartinM

How have I got the uncanny knack of repsonding to a thread with a (IMHO of course) reasoned discussion about something, only for the thread to then stop completely dead

Speaking in general:
- is Scoobynet so popular now, and everything so transient that its not really worth spending the time replying, 'cos it's gonna, for example, disappear of the "All forums" list in less than 10 minutes and no one's ever gonna see it
- originators of the thread aren't really interested in the replies that people spend time creating and writing

..but then I've already killed this thread so no ones gonna read this either....

Martin

Alpine

Martin,

I agree with your take on digital photography and printing etc.. I take hundreds of shots with the camera and probably print less than 1%... Neve figured out what you should do with alll those pieces of paper.. If it's just put them in an album.. then I may as well view a slide show on the PC..

my 2cents.. just to prove it was worthwhile!

TRIGGER

I disagree actually coz although I take loads of pictures you can quickly look thru them on the camera and then quickly choose and print the ones you want on the printer with no need for a pc. I rarely amend a photo on the pc to be honest provided it is basically ok.
I took the printer and the camera last Xmas to my in-laws and printed 4x6 prints for them all there and then. It was superb.

MartinM

Hey, some replies

..and I quite agree that there is a market for these printers (or else they wouldn't make them)...

subevo

thanks for the replies.the kodak one looks good value.my camera is only 1.5million pixels.my card reader on my computer is playing up along with the computers usb port and is away for repair.just wanted someones thoughts as these printers are becoming more common although ive heard it say that the prints deteriorate after a couple of years.