Product Reviews

The excellent print quality of many of the inkjet printers now on the market has made them the printer of choice for those who want to print photographs. But they're not the only option for printing digital or traditional photographs. Dye-sublimation is an often over-looked option, partly because it's seen as expensive and partly because there are so few dye-sub photo printers around.

The Sony UP-DP10 could change that. The UP-DP10 is the first USB dye-sub photo printer we've seen, and it's very impressive. It has a maximum print size of 6in x 4in and is intended as one part of a digital replacement for traditional photography and processing. As such, it isn't suitable if you want to print large photos. The small print size enables the printer itself to be small and the UP-DP100 measures only 208mm x 71mm x 303mm, and even with its paper tray extended it takes up little space.

The rear of the UP-DP10 features a power socket, a parallel port and a USB port. On the side there's a power switch, and on the front a series of status lights. Sony is thoughtful enough to provide the necessary USB cable in the box. The device is very easy to set up, although you'll need to pay attention to the manual in order to install the paper tray.

The printer

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comes with a starter pack containing five sheets of 6in x 4in paper (for 3:2 ratio digital camera shots), five sheets of 5.275in x 4in paper (for 4:3 ratio shots), and a printer ribbon. Additional media packs containing 25 sheets of paper and a ribbon cost £9.99 each (giving a cost of 40p per print).

The bundled software is designed to make printing as easy as possible. As well as the necessary drivers, the package includes ArcSoft PhotoBase, a photograph cataloguing application, and ArcSoft PhotoStudio LE, a decent image editor. Sony recommends users print only from PhotoStudio because it sets page sizes automatically. However, printing from Photoshop is easy, as long as you're prepared to spend a little time setting the page size.

In use, the UP-DP10 is excellent. Each print takes just under two minutes to produce and the quality is jaw-droppingly good - easily the best we've seen from a printer in this price range. Even under close inspection, there's little evidence that the print has been produced from the desktop rather than a photo lab. This goes for scans of photographs as well as shots captured by digital cameras. Once printed, the paper can be torn along its perforations on each end, providing an edge-to-edge print on all four sides. The quality of the paper and the print is such that it's difficult to tell the results apart from real photographs.

Using the UP-DP10 to print shots from a digital camera may be more expensive than an inkjet, but the output quality is better. The cost per photo is higher than you'd pay if you took a roll of film to be processed, but you only pay for the shots you want and you can apply any necessary correction before you print. It's also much more convenient than two trips to the chemists. In short, if you want a simple and convenient way of printing digital photos, look no further