If you would like to print selections of photographs that you take with your digital camera, there is a great new product from Kodak called EasyShare Photo Printer 500. A computer is not needed to print your pictures. It is a self-contained unit that can download images and create photographs from digital cameras, cell phones, and PDA’s. Full size 4 x 6 inch borderless photos, can be printed with good clarity of image (300 to 3000 dpi) and color. In the final stage of processing, a protective coating is added to the picture. The entire process takes 60 seconds.
Media cards from digital cameras can be inserted into the printer and the images can be stored for processing. Compatible cards include: CompactFlash, Memory Stick, SD, MultiMediaCard, and xD-Picture Card. Also, a USB connector can be used to load images directly to the PP 500 from the digital camera, camera phone, or PDA. Then individual images can be selected for printing. You can select multiple images to be printed on one picture. Two, four, and nine images can be placed on one 4 x 6 inch photo. The images can be from one shot or multiple shots.
You can use your computer to edit and print photographs with the EasyShare software provided for Windows OS and Mac OS. This software allows you to transfer pictures from the PP 500 to your computer via a USB cable. These images can then be edited and printed with your computer.
Bluetooth wireless technology can be used with the PP 500. There is a Bluetooth radio in the unit that allows you to send images to the printer from compatible devices including cell phones and PDA’s without a USB cable. The selected images can be modified and printed from the PP 500 or transferred to your computer with a USB cable.
There are many user-friendly features in the EasyShare PP 500 printer. Loading the paper is easy. It is inserted into a plastic feeder in the front of the unit. An ink cartridge enough for 10 to 40 prints is inserted into the side of the printer. A warning light appears on the control panel on top of the unit when ink is low.
There are several other good features included in the unit. The 3.5 inch LCD display of your images folds open from the top of the printer making viewing and editing easy. Watching this monitor, you can rotate the image with a button on the control panel. Also, you can crop and zoom on images with a button getting rid of unwanted background details. The problem of “red-eye” can be fixed with a push of a button. The unit is 3.1 inches high, 13.1 inches long, and 7.3 inches wide. It requires 5 inches of space in the back of the printer for the photo to travel during processing. You can see a picture of the unit on this web page.
You can change the color mode of your images before printing them. If you do not want the Natural Color, you can pick Enhanced Color mode that makes the photos more intense in color. The Sepia mode allows you to make your photos look softer. The Black and White mode can be used when color is not important, for example in a newsletter.
My wife is a tour guide; after every trip, we create a scrapbook for the organization leaders using photos printed from the PP 500 and memorabilia from the trip. Hard copies are favored by the group leaders, so we add prints to the pages. Newsletters can be created on the computer using a scrapbook format with images transferred from the PP 500 and scanned material from tours.
The cost of the PP 500 is reasonable. I paid $150 for ours at Circuit City. There was a $20.00 rebate from Kodak that brought the price down. We have gotten our money’s worth already after only one month of use. The printing paper is very good in quality and easy to load into the printer. I think the price of the paper is reasonable given the quality of the finished photos. For 160 prints, the price is $47.00 at Circuit City. This includes ink and protective coating.
It is very enjoyable to create scrapbooks without waiting for photo processing. We do not use full size photos exclusively. We vary page layouts by using two, four, or even nine shots per photo, greatly reducing the cost of printing. I highly recommend that you buy the EasyShare Photo Printer 500 for its ease of use, many features, and reasonable cost.
