Even for the amateur photographers, photo printing is now just the touch of a button away.
For the first time, the Consumer Council has published a test report on 9 models of compact photo printers - so handy that one even operates on battery.
Convenient to use and suitable even for users who are unfamiliar with computer use, the printers can be connected directly to digital cameras with a (USB) cable for photo printing.
Using either inkjet or thermal dye sublimation printing technology, the printers produce 4R (approximately 6 inch x 4 inch) or smaller size photo prints.
In the test the samples were compared for their printing quality, printing speed, ease of use, colour resistance, versatility and manufacturing quality.
Their performance varied from one to another, with overall ratings between 3? stars and 2 stars.
Based on the number of possible pictures printed from one print cartridge and the market price of the cartridge and paper, the cost per print was estimated to be approximately from $1.9 to $7.4.
The approximate cost per print by a commercial service is currently from 90 cents to $1.5 - with $1 as the more common price.
Also in this October issue of CHOICE was published the test results on 29 new digital cameras priced from $1,590 to $5,280.
The output resolution of the samples range from 4 to 8 mega pixels, with 25 of them at least 4.9 mega pixels. All have optical zoom - several have powerful zoom ratio up to 12 times. Most are light in weight and easy to carry, and many are below 250 gram (including battery and memory card).
The samples were compared for their picture quality, short movie quality, viewfinder and monitor quality, flash performance, battery performance, versatility and ease of use.
Most samples were found to produce at least satisfactory overall picture quality. However, flash performance, battery performance, versatility and ease of use differed quite significantly.
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