Page one of the driver has options for Paper size (Post card, 3.5x5", Small), border or borderless, portrait or landscape orientation, Finish (Glossy or Texture), # of copies, enlarge / reduce and enable the print preview feature.

Page two has options for Color reproduction / Picture quality (Off, Auto Fine Print3, ICM), enable ExifPrint (if the image has ExifPrint info embedded in it), enable automatic red-eye reduction and manually adjust the RGB colorchannels and image sharpness.

If you enabled the Print Preview option on the page one of the driver then you will see this preview page before the printing begins.

During the printing process you will see this animated "gauge" showing each of the four passes the paper makes through the printer.

PictureGear Studio

Sony PictureGear Studio consists of five main parts: Import Photos to transfer images and movies from the camera. Binder lets you add comments and organize information. PhotoCollection lets you organize and manage the imported photos. PhotoAlbum is for creating albums of your photos and PrintStudio is for printing them as regular prints, post cards, labels, cards and mini-calendars.

You can view, crop, rotate and adjust images and then make prints, put together entire printed photo albums or make smaller images for email or web use.

Click to see the camera and photo information contained in the image and stored at the time of capture.

It has tools to auto correct or manually adjust the brightness, contrast, luminance, gamma or sharpness and remove red-eye or to rotate portrait images or trim unwanted portions of the photo.

And a nice fully-featured print function complete with preview image.

Steve's Conclusion

The DPP-EX50 is a fully-featured, small-footprint, personal dye sublimation photo printer. It offers computer-less printing from memory cards if you first set the DPOF info in the camera, or if you have a PictBridge compatible camera, or if you connect the printer to a TV set for preview and image selection. And when you're safe at home just connect the printer to your Windows PC (sorry, no Mac OS support) and use it like any other photo printer. It directly supports Memory Stick and Memory Stick PRO cards, CompactFlash Type I and II cards and IBM and Hitachi Microdrives. Through the use of card adapters it can also read from Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Duo PRO cards, xD-Picture Cards and SmartMedia cards.

The print quality is like every other dye-sub printer that we've reviewed to date. This is not a bad thing as every dye-sub printer that we've reviewed has produced prints the equal of their wet-processed, film counterparts. This printing process is totally dry, no leaky ink cartridges to change, only a dry and clean ribbon cartridge and the special paper that it prints on. Dye-sub printers make four passes on the paper, three to lay down the primary colors (magenta, cyan and yellow) and the fourth pass puts a protective overcoat on the print that protects it from UV fading, fingerprints, scratches and moisture.

The DPP-EX50 sells for about $180 and the ribbon and paper averages about $0.60 per print when making 4 x 6" postcard size prints. The only dye-subs with a less expensive per print cost are the Hi-Ti brand printers, they average about $0.46 per 4 x 6" print. The print speed at approx. 80 seconds is about average for a 4 x 6" dye-sub, there are faster printers out there. The DPP-EX50 has a smaller footprint than the most compact upright Hi-Ti printer so if space is at a premium in your work area it may be just the thing you're looking for.