Sony Digital Photo Printer DPP-FP30

...varies emormously for this little Sony printer, from £1 on Ebay to well over £100 on some on-line stores. As always, shop around and ensure you get the best deal.
I bought my printer as part of a Digital camera and printer box set which was on special offer at TESCO for just £99 the pair. At this price, the printer is a gem of a bargain (as they're basically throwing it in for nothing with the £100 Sony DSC-40 digital camera). Bought seperately ...
...On opening the nicely packed Sony cardboard box, the printer system is immediately pleasing with it's compact and smart looking style. It's already impressive. It has a flashy matt glass protection slide on top (designer look) and sturdy stainless steel buttons - though just a few so that the printer is in-keeping with it's modern, minimalistic looks. Mmmmm.

Quick start: The printer can easily be set up to operate. It comes with a ... more

Price: The price varies emormously for this little Sony printer, from £1 on Ebay to well over £100 on some on-line stores. As always, shop around and ensure you get the best deal.
I bought my printer as part of a Digital camera and printer box set which was on special offer at TESCO for just £99 the pair. At this price, the printer is a gem of a bargain (as they're basically throwing it in for nothing with the £100 Sony DSC-40 digital camera). Bought seperately though, a cost of up to £69 is more than a good buy for this photo printer.

On opening the nicely packed Sony cardboard box, the printer system is immediately pleasing with it's compact and smart looking style. It's already impressive. It has a flashy matt glass protection slide on top (designer look) and sturdy stainless steel buttons - though just a few so that the printer is in-keeping with it's modern, minimalistic looks. Mmmmm.

Quick start: The printer can easily be set up to operate. It comes with a nice flexible, quality USB dual end cable so you can connect it directly to the camera or /and a PC.

Replacement parts: A colour cartridge is contained in the pack along with 40 free print papers. The generic replacement paper can now be bought from a number of shops fairly cheaply, (from £1 a box in Poundland even). However, the replacement colour cartridges are unique to Sony and can retail for as much as £24 each. This is currently the main disadvantage with the printer - the cartridges costs almost one-third of it's total value. Perhaps the price will come down or generic / refill versions will be available at some point.

Quality: The printer can really create lab-quality digital photographs . The blurb says they "...featuring dye sublimation technology, SuperCoat 2 protective lamination and a high speed processor Dye Sublimation Printing which uses layers of colour dye to create continuous tone images with colour richness that rivals traditional photo prints...".
Well, what whatever all that means I can tell you that the prints look good! They'll never quite be the same as the one BonusPrint and Boots run off for you but as far as home printing of photos goes, it's a professional looking finish.

Photo size: The DPP-FP30 printer can produce frameless / full size pictures measuring about 4" x 6" (postcard size) as well as 3 1/2" x 5" prints.

Colour: Prints up to 16.7 million colours, according to the booklet specification. Colours look true to life in my opinion and are not exaggerated as you sometimes get on home printers. There seems to be a very good red, green, blue, yellow balance and it stays true as you continue to print and print and print....
The blurb says these photo prints are "built to last, resisting moisture, fingerprints and fading" and so far this is proving to be true but only time will tell of course.

Print speed: Can knock out a high quality photo (6x4) in approx. 90 seconds.

Portable: This unit features PictBridge technology for convenient printing directly from a compatible digital camera without the need of a computer - anywhere you go with the ultra-portable digital photo printer although I have not tried this option as the cradle does not come as standard.

Help: The Sony Manuals are easy to follow and contain all the detailed information you need to operate this printer., along with Helpline numbers and a website address and a warrenty card.

Specifications:
Colour resolution: 256 levels x 3 colours
Resolution: 300 x 300 dpi
Print size (inch): 10 x 15cm / 4 x 6inch (postcard), 9 x 13 cm / 3.5 x 5 inch (L-size)
Approx. print speed: < 90 sec
PictBridge:< 120 sec
Paper tray capacity: 20 sheets
SuperCoat 2 laminate
Camera direct connection: USB (type A, PictBridge) x 1
USB for PC connection: USB 2.0 (type B, high-speed is not supported) x 1
Power consumption: AC 100 - 240 V
Size (W x H x D): approx. 175 x 60.5 x 137mm
Weight: Approx. 1 kg
 

...less