Sony DPP-EX7

After wasting more money that I can count on ink jet cartridges, printers, special papers, test prints and the like, I decided to try a dye sublimation printer for doing "snapshot" copies of my Canon EOS 10D. A bit of internet sleuthing and I decided to try the Sony DDP-EX7, which I purchased for $310 from www.etronics.com ($20 rebate at the time). I had already purchased 8 boxes of 4x6 paper for $100 (including shipping), so my material cost was $0.50 per print. Foresight is a good thing, as Sony packages the unit with no paper at all! I initially used the printer for about a month in stand-alone mode, and was very pleased with the results. I didn't try to do much editing, beyond some simple cropping and a try or two at their cute calendar mode. By the way, I should say I used an existing PCMCIA to CF adapter card to print directly from my CF cards. The built-in LCD is adequate for cropping but lacks enough resolution, contrast and brightness to do critical editing. After printing a hundred or so prints stand-alone, I went to the PC Mode, by connecting it to my PC via a USB cable (not included). Now that I'm connected, I'll never go back! Although some of the camera's auto color correction is disabled (apparently), it is easy to adjust the prints in Photoshop and print away. A minor complaint is that most of the prints tend to be slightly yellow. Perhaps that is due to a lack of true black (the K in CMYK), since this is a CMY printer. However, the problem is mostly noticeable when compared to a vivid LCD screen output (which tends toward blue). My wife, my biggest critic, doesn’t notice at all. Print quality is much superior to what I'm used to in the ink jet world, including some of the 7 color printers using expensive paper. And I can't say how nice it is to have a sealed print that isn't destroyed by a drop of water. There is a lot to be said about getting a great looking color 4x6 postcard print in less than 2 minutes!!

Stand-alone works great for quick prints! Paper handling is flawless. Sony "Sealed" prints don't wash away. Quality is very good!

Slowish (every bit of 90 seconds plus transfer time). Pricy ($320 for printer, and $0.50 a print). Gosh, Sony, can't you include paper and a cable? Sony printed documentation is terrible!

Several Epson, Lexmark and HP InkJet Printers

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