Olympus' new Camedia P-200 Printer is the first professional-quality, high-speed, battery-operated, portable dye-sublimation printer. The Camedia P-200 brings photo-quality printing capability to mobile professional and amateur photographers, and anyone else who needs to produce hard copy output of digital images while on the road or in the field. Using dye sublimation printing technology, the Camedia P-200 Printer produces continuous tone images at 320 dots per inch resolution. The printer supports 128 gradation levels per color for smooth color transitions, and delivers finished A-6 size prints (3" x 4" print area) in only 90 seconds. The Camedia P-200 utilizes 4-pass printing technology - one each for the Cyan, Magenta and Yellow primary colors, plus a UV overcoat layer to seal and protect the image. The Camedia P-200 is compatible with many Olympus filmless digital cameras, including the new Camedia E-10 and E-100 RS models introduced simultaneously with the P-200. It will also function with just about any digital camera that uses SmartMedia or CompactFlash cards, especially those that support the DPOF standard. Like the new Olympus E-10 and E-100 RS cameras, the Camedia P-200 features dual media slot capability. You simply insert a 3.3v SmartMedia or CompactFlash (Type I or II) card directly into the appropriate media slot, select the desired image number, and press the print button. The Camedia P-200 outputs full-size images; 2, 4, 9, or 16 images per page; and even 40-image index prints. The P-200 is compatible with Digital Print Order Form (DPOF) technology for image scheduling and number setting; as well as DCF, JPEG and TIFF file formats. More than a simple printer, the Camedia P-200 offers image manipulation capabilities including a three-step sharpness control, the ability to crop images and add the time and date to prints. A Copy function allows users to program the P-200 to produce up to 25 prints in a single job. The 25-sheet paper cassette matches the 25-print ribbon capacity of the printer, eliminating any confusion as to when to change the ribbon, and the risk of producing sub-par prints. The compact and lightweight Camedia P-200 Printer is built for ease of use and versatility. Its dimensions of 4.8" (W) x 2.1" (H) x 6" (D) and total weight of 30 ounces make it easy for users to carry in standard camera gadget bags. The P-200 comes complete with a heavy-duty NiMH rechargeable battery pack that provides 50 prints between recharges, AC adapter/charger, paper cassette, trial paper pack with color ink ribbon cartridge, plus an instruction manual, warranty and registration cards. Additional P-25N paper packs are available for $24.95 per pack (25 sheets with ribbon) through Olympus dealers. Steve's Conclusion The P-200 performs as advertised, it is small, highly portable and chugs out photo quality prints every two to three minutes. Everyone that saw it was quite impressed with its portability and especially the print quality which easily rivals traditional wet-processed prints. I have always been impressed with the print quality from dye sub printers and the P-200 is just like a miniature P-400 printer. Unlike other standalone printers with card slots, the P-200 is very fast. It's not unusual to see one of the other printers sitting there with a busy light flashing for several minutes as it processes the image before it starts to print. The P-200 was working on the 1st pass of a 3-megapixel image in just a few seconds, it's truly amazing. As with other dye sub printers, the P-200 spits out the photo after each pass and then pulls it back in again so it's also entertaining to watch! I did not get a chance to test it out connected directly to a PC but Olympus has two optional PC Connection Kits, the C-P20P for parallel and the C-P20U for USB. The P-200 is very quiet until it has been running for a couple of minutes and then a small builtin cooling fan comes on to keep things from getting too hot. Dye sub printers transfer the color dyes from the ribbon to the paper using heat. And it sure is portable thanks to the biggest NiMH battery pack I've seen since last year's notebook computer. The battery pack slips onto the end of the printer and charges via the printer's AC power supply in about 2.5 hours if fully discharged. Olympus claims 50 prints per charge or it can be run indefinitely when powered by AC. When using the DPOF function the printer automatically "knows" which images you want printed and how many prints of each. There are many DPOF settings that can be attached to images, the P-200 is compatible with date printing, print copies, selection and trimming. If trimming is specified the printing may take longer. You can also manually adjust the Sharpness of images and select the degree of contour correction desired from Normal, Soft or Sharp by pressing the Sharpness button on the control panel. The price is a little on the high side, the printer retails for $599 and the cost per print is about $1.00.  If you need the portable printing power then I'm sure you can justify the cost. The P-200 can be a powerful field tool for police or insurance investigators or anyone that needs immediate hard copy output from any digital camera with removable media. It will also be of interest to hard core gadget freaks that just love to have another gizmo to show off.

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