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Olympus P-400 Dye-Sublimation Printer
Date: Saturday, February 1, 2003
Author: Jsgolfman
Provided By: Olympus America/Omni Profit
Page: 5 of 5
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I truly could not tell the difference between these prints taken with a digital camera and ones I recently had processed professionally.
If you are in the market for an inexpensive dye-sublimation printer, you could do worse than the P-400. In my opinion, you get true photo prints, not just photo quality prints. These look every bit as good as you'd get from the photo mart at the mall. They are protected with a laminate coat so should be longer lasting than typical inkjet prints. The cost of ~$450 is higher than most inkjets except for the most high-end models and the media isn't cheap either. A 25 sheet bundle of paper will run you $25 and the ribbon is another $50. The ribbon is good for 50 prints, regardless of how large. Also, you will have to supply the USB/parallel cable which is another $20-$30. Of course this is an item that you must purchase with any printer. As comparison, gloss paper for inkjet printers is $15-$20 and the inkjet cartridges actually are on par with the P-400 ribbon, considering you have to purchase the color and black separately.
Pros
Affordable
High quality prints
Accepts images from multiple sources
Cons
Initial cost
Slow printing speed, compared to inkjet
Confusing instructions for installation of ribbon
If you are in the habit of taking lots of pictures and having them developed professionally, this printer may be right for you. On the other hand, if you are the type that only "captures the moment" once or twice a year you might want to stick to Photo Hut. All in all, this was an interesting and fun unit to review. If I did have a large amount of images I wished to print, I could get a little weary of the 2+ minute print times, but still a worthwhile investment for the advanced user. Of course, that's just my opinion, your mileage may vary
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