I have to admit it. I had pretty much written this thing off as a low quality novelty printer before I ever tried it. Though recently, I got a wild hair and decided to have three sets of 8x10's made using three different methods of printing. I used 2 different close up pictures of fall leaves set on a slide at a park shortly after it rained.

I used Fuji X-tra 400 film and had 4x6 proofs made on a Fuji Frontier system. I then had 8x10's made from the negatives of the pictures I mentioned above on the same Fuji Frontier system. While I was waiting I took the matching proof prints over to another store with a Kodak PictureMaker Kiosk and made 8x10's of them using the flatbed scanner.

I found that the machine was very easy to use, my prints were done in 5 minutes each and I paid $14.00 for both of them. I went back to the first place with the Fuji system and picked up the 8x10's for which I waited 2 hours and paid $16.00. I then took the negatives to yet another store and sent them out for Kodak lab processing. I had to wait 4 days for the prints but I only paid $6.00 for them.

Of course while I was waiting for the "out of lab" prints I compared the prints from the Fuji Frontier system and the Kodak PictureMaker. As far as sharpness is concerned, the Fuji system wins but there are some problems with the prints over all. As I said before, both pictures are of fall leaves on a park slide. The slide was silver, while the leaves were of various colors. One of the pictures I had enlarged is of a single deep red leaf on the silver background of the slide. Most of the silver slide came out on the proof print very bright and almost white but a portion of the slide was darkened by my own shadow, you can't tell that it's my shadow and it adds some contrast and a little blue to the picture.

The 4x6 proof print is beautiful, but the 8x10 is not. The red color of the leaf is "blown out" there's no detail of the leaves' veins, it just looks like a red leaf shaped blob and my shadow is black while the rest of the silver background looks like a gunmetal gray. The other Fuji print was great and looked like the proof with good color and detail but it has a large obvious scratch on the bottom left corner. I don't know if the machine or operator did it and the store wouldn't replace it for free, so they lost my business.

As for the Kodak PictureMaker prints, if you hold the prints close to your face (about 4-6 inches) you will see that they are a little fuzzy where edges should be sharp and if the picture or flatbed is dusty the scanner will capture it as well, but these things disappear quickly when held at arms length and are as good as the Fuji Frontier prints. So, be aware of this and use a microfiber cloth and at least dust off your print if not the scanner as well. As far as color and detail are concerned, the prints look just like the proofs. The colors and the detail of the leaf and silver background in the picture I mentioned before is perfect and exactly like the proof print. And the other print came out equally good as well.

When my "out of lab" prints finally came back I was anxious to see and compare them, but I was really disappointed with them. They look like they are underexposed as they are way too dark. They are as sharp as the Fuji prints but not as bright and clear and the same thing happened to the picture of the red leaf as with the Fuji print.

Inspired by the Kodak PictureMaker, I took yet another proof print of similar subject matter to scan. This time I wanted to edit the picture so I used the cropping feature to magnify the image even more, the print is still an 8x10 but after cropping, the magnification is equal to 2 or 3 times more than just a straight 8x10. Something like an 11x14 or 13x19 cut down after printing. At this point the print shows some noise, but again, only upon close inspection. The print held at arms length is excellent and along with the other 2 is framed and hanging on my wall.

In conclusion, being able to make quality enlargements with some control over the final product without having to own a darkroom or computer and printer is awesome. The prints are indistinguishable from lab prints at normal viewing distance and well worth the time and cost. I look forward to using the Kodak Picture Maker with other media such as the Picture CD and digital camera storage cards in the future.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 7.00