jnoschese's Full Review: Sony Digital Photo SV55 Thermal Printer
Preluede
Lets first start off with, that I'm not a huge fan of Sony. To me, they generally put streamline technology in products, and charge double, and the overall quality of their products seem lacking to me. There Trinitron 4:3 TVs are worth the bucks however. Amazingly, this little photo printer is reasonably priced unlike their memory stick digital picture frame. ($900 youch!)
Ok..more about the printer..
What brought me to this
I have a Sony digital camera currently, which I'm totally pleased with. Getting them developed is a different issue if you'd like to put them in albums or what not. I've used Ofoto and tried using the ol ink jet 720dpi, but, Ofoto and such services can be costly when choosing prints+shipping, and my ink jet can be easily detected that its printed by me, plus the cost of the costly photo paper.
Whats It Looks Like
Its silver, sleek design, is approx 10" long and wide, while only 3" high, so it shouldn't be a huge problem fitting on your desk. It's front loading paper tray, that reminds me of an old HP Laserjet II printer, can hold 25 sheets of paper.
Special Paper? Ohhhh noooo
Ohhhh yessss. The "special paper" costs approximately $25 and it comes with a toner cartridge and 25 sheets of 4x7 paper, which are both, easy to install. My guess (because I haven't printed a box yet), is that the toner lasts..yup, 25 pictures, but that is to be determined..
Hook up..how does it hook up?
I personally use USB. When hooked up via USB, you install the printer drivers like a regular printer, and when you choose to print an image on this device, a different type of printer properties appear and show you how your picture will look on the paper. 100% of the time it is flawless and the picture isn't cut, shrunk, etc.
Other types of hookups?
Well, you can hook this up to your TV set using a composite rca plug (I think its included actually), and insert your memory sticks directly into the printer. You can use other media sticks but of course you need adapters and such, because, well, Sony wants you to use MEMORY STICKS!
Quality--
the 3.8 megapixel "photo quality" printer prints in 4 waves. It prints all the yellow, purple, blue, and black tones in four sweeps and then spits out your picture about 2 minutes later-- and unbelievably just like the pictures you get developed at the store. Its simply amazing how good they look.
Downfalls? There has to be downfalls
One thing I always forget to turn it on-- or off. I wish it had an auto on/off feature like some of the HP printers.
Another issue I have is that I can't print anything larger than 4x6. So for some prints I want to blow up, I'm going to have to use other sources for.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.