Sony DPP-SV88 w/CD-RW

The DPP-SV88 printer is the solution to several of the most common problems confronting today's digicam users. It's a quick and simple 4x6" dye sub printer that can make color lab quality prints with or without a computer. It's a flash card reader. It's a CD-R/W burner that lets you transfer the contents of a flash card to either CD-R or CD-RW disc at the push of a button. It's an image file display unit that works with most any video monitor or television set, complete with a handy IR remote control. And it's also a video printer, hook it up to any composite RCA or S-Video output and use it like a frame grabber with your analog or digital camcorder. As with all dye sublimation printers, the DPP-SV88 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 tranferred to the print paper by heat and are actually fused into the surface of the paper. To insure its longevity the print is run through the printer a fourth time and the clear over-coat is then laminated onto the picture. 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 4" x 3.5" size. The prints can be bordered or borderless. The DPP-SV88 is lightweight and small enough to be easily taken along to parties, meetings, presentations or wherever it's needed. The video out feature lets you make prints without a computer, all you need is the printer and a TV set. As you can see from the screens above, there are a multitude of builtin editing options and printing features which are accessed by simple, onscreen menus. 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. If you use one of Sony's digicams then you'll appreciate the dedicated Memory Stick drive slot. The DPP-SV88 can be used with virtually any other digital camera that uses flash memory cards. The PCMCIA card slot accepts Type II adapters for CompactFlash, SmartMedia and MultiMedia / SD cards. When connected to a computer the printer's card slots can be used as a card reader for transfering your images to the hard drive. I don't know of any other device that performs all of the functions of the DPP-SV88. It can be had for around $700-800 so this is definitely a winner and gets two thumbs up from Steve for performance and value.