Sony DPP-SV55
Dye Sub Printer

When you first insert a Memory Stick or other flash card, it brings up a thumbnail view of the images. You can press the up, down, left or right buttons to navigate through the thumbnail images. When you find one that you want to print or further process you simply press Enter.

Pressing the "Effect" button brings up this menu which enables you to shrink(-) / zoom in on(+) the image or bring up any of the following four option screens.

The "Edit" screen lets you move or rotate images clockwise or counter clockwise.

The "Adjustment" screen lets you alter image brightness, color depth, tint and sharpness.

The "Filters" screen lets you apply a paint type of effect to your image or change it to sepia or monochrome.

The "Reset" screen lets you revert to the original image before any alteration.

The "EXIT" menu allows you a last chance to keep the actions performed in the Menu selections. If you wish to save the images to your disk, click "no" and push the SAVE button on the top control panel of the printer.

Pressing the "Menu" button brings up this screen. The SETup options are shown in the next frame. Delete / Format allows deletion of a selected image or Format a Memory Stick, Slideshow begins automatic playback of your images which can be viewed if the printer is connected to a TV or VCR via the Video Out port. Index Print creates a single print of thumbnails of all images on your menory card with a choice of 8x6(6 rows of 8 images) or 10x8(8 rows of 10) image patterns.

The "SETup" screen lets you enable or disable fine printing, the desired finish for the photos, borderless print mode, date print on the photo, the button beeper and set-up of the date and time.

The "Creative Print" button brings up this menu screen. From here you can design a card or calendar print, print on the mini-sticker sheets or Split(multiple) photos per page.

Steve's Conclusion

As with all dye sublimation printers, the DPP-SV55 produces photo-quality prints with 16-million colors using a thermal transfer process. The ribbon cartridge consists of three colors; cyan, magenta, yellow plus the protective over-coat. The color dyes are transferred to the print paper by heat and are actually fused into the surface of the paper, one pass under the print head for each color. To insure its longevity the print is run through the printer a fourth time and the clear over-coat is laminated on top of the picture. The overcoat makes the prints waterproof and resistant to fading from exposure to the light. You can choose between glossy or texture finish for the clear over-coat. Print packs (paper and ribbon) are available in 4" x 6" or the smaller 3.5" x 4" size with postcard back and 4" x 6" Sticker print kits.

The DPP-SV55 is lightweight and small enough to be easily taken along to parties, meetings, presentations or wherever it's needed. You will need access to a TV to make prints without a computer so all you need to bring with you is the printer, your camera and the video cable. As you can see from the screens above, there are a multitude of built-in editing options and printing features, which are accessed by menu selections. The printer can also be used as a presentation device by connecting the video out port to a TV or other video device. Of course the printer can also be connected to a Windows PC or Macintosh computer via the USB port which greatly reduces the image processing times.

If you use one of Sony's digicams then you'll appreciate the dedicated Memory Stick drive slot. The DPP-SV55 can be used with virtually any other digital camera that uses flash memory cards. The PCMCIA card slot accepts Type II adapters for CompactFlash as well as SmartMedia and Secure Digital / MultiMedia cards. When connected to a computer the printer's card slots can be used as a card reader for transferring your images to the hard drive.

If all of this is still not quite enough for you then read our Sony DPP-SV77 or DPP-SV88 photo printer reviews. The SV88 even has a built-in CD-RW drive to read the Sony Mavica CD camera's mini CD discs as well as letting you archive photos from the Memory Stick (or other flash card) to standard size CD-R or CD-RW discs. The SV77 has a LCD touch screen to allow full previewed and controlled printing with or without a TV or computer.

Sony DPP-SV88

Sony DPP-SV77