In summary
An attractive, highly portable snapshot printer that is easy to use and delivers long-lasting, photo quality prints.Looking rather like a miniature Esky, Epson’s PictureMate 250 snapshot printer has a generous handle that makes it easy to carry about plus the ability to accept an optional rechargeable battery (RRP $99). There’s some justification in Epson’s designation of its PictureMate printers as ‘portable photo labs’ because they produce prints that look and feel like ‘real’ photo prints. However, the prints last much longer. Wilhelm Imaging Research has given them a lightfastness rating of 96 years. . . [more]
Full review
Looking rather like a miniature Esky, Epson’s PictureMate 250 snapshot printer has a generous handle that makes it easy to carry about plus the ability to accept an optional rechargeable battery (RRP $99). There’s some justification in Epson’s designation of its PictureMate printers as ‘portable photo labs’ because they produce prints that look and feel like ‘real’ photo prints. However, the prints last much longer. Wilhelm Imaging Research has given them a lightfastness rating of 96 years.
Although targeted at home users, PictureMate printers also offer convenience, reliability and performance for business users who need a compact, affordable printer for on-site printing of snapshot-sized pictures.
The fact that it’s easy to use, versatile and produces excellent prints with minimum hassles increases its appeal. Plenty of computer-free printing capabilities are provided and it can work as a PC-driven printer. It comes with a capable software suite – but no USB connecting cable.
Setting up the
couldn’t be easier. The ink cartridge slots neatly in behind a drop-down door in the rear panel. Then you simply connect the printer to the mains via the supplied AC adapter, press the On switch, flip up the LCD, nudge the Open button to drop the output tray and load up to 20 sheets of paper. The control panel carries a four-way arrow pad for menu navigation with an OK button in the middle plus two function buttons, which work with changing legends on the display.
Slots on the front panel accept SD or CF cards – and other cards via adaptors. A Type B USB in port is located on the rear panel for direct printing from digital cameras. There’s also an additional Type A USB port for plugging in an optional Bluetooth adaptor (RRP $69) for printing photos from camera phones. You can back-up selected shots to a connected USB portable drive, which plugs into this port.
When you insert a memory card or connect a camera, thumbnails of the stored shots are displayed on the LCD. You can select photos for printing individually, print all the images or produce index sheets, with up to 20 images on each. If you use the full auto mode, the printer automatically enhances the images, regardless of their source.
Pressing the Menu button lets you access a range of user-controllable adjustments, including paper layout (borderless/bordered, 2/4/20-up, ID photos, CD-index or 4:3 format), editing (crop, colour effect, red-eye reduction, rotate, decorate photos and ‘fixes’ for brightness, saturation and sharpness. Users can choose from a selection of 20 pre-loaded frames to print decorative borders on shots. Additional frames can be downloaded and added to the on-board memory.
Although limited in their scope, most of the fixes in the Edit menu are adequate for making small corrections to common shooting errors. Being easy to access and simple to use will make them useful for even non-technical photographers. The zoom and crop function is a bit fiddly but it’s relatively simple to adjust the cropping position with the arrow pad.
Epson claims it takes 42 seconds to produce a borderless 10 x 15 cm print but our average time was closer to 45 seconds. It couldn’t be easier to calculate the cost per print as the media are supplied in a pack containing 150 sheets of paper plus sufficient ink to print them. At $42.49 per pack, this equates to just over 28 cents per print, which makes them comparable in price with prints from many photo labs.
The prints we made on Epson glossy photo paper were generally excellent, with well-defined edges and natural colours. Although our pre-teen testers were thrilled by the Disney graphics on most of the pre-loaded frames and stamps for decorating pictures, we found them less than impressive, although adding them to pictures was relatively simple. You can enlarge and rotate the stamps, but we couldn’t add frames with the correct rotation to vertical shots as the on-board software kept cropping the image horizontally. Downloading the drivers and connecting the PictureMate 250 to a PC was straightforward and easy and you could access a wider range of printing controls.
Overall, the PictureMate 250 is a great little snapshot printer for families and anyone who only wants to make 10 x 15 cm prints. Simple enough for a six-year-old to operate but with the functionality older users require, it represents good value as an investment and an affordable way to obtain prints from digital photographs.
Specifications
Printer type: On-demand Inkjet (piezoelectric)
Maximum resolution: up to 5760 ‘optimised’ dpi
Interfaces: USB 2.0 Hi-Speed; PictBridge; USB Direct; 2 memory card slots; Bluetooth (optional).
Paper size: 10 x 15 cm
Media: PictureMate PicturePack (with 150 sheets of paper and 1 x 4 colour Claria ink photo cartridge).
Power consumption: Printing: 19W; Idle: 3.2 W
Display: 2.5-inch full colour LCD.
Dimensions (wxhxd): 215 x 145 x 152 mm
Weight: 2.5 kg
Retailers
CamBuy
www.cambuy.com.au
Digital cameras, lenses and accessories with 100% genuine Australian manufacturer’s warranties.
Ph: (02) 9029 2219
Camera House
www.camerahouse.com.au
Ph: 133 686
The largest speciality photographic retail chain in Australia.
Camera Pro
www.camerapro.net.au
CameraPro Pty Ltd
Suite 607, 180 Queen St, Brisbane 4000
Tel: 07 3333 2900
Australian owned and run company based in Brisbane.
Camerasdirect
www.camerasdirect.com.au
Retailer of digital camera equipment and more.
Secure online shopping and delivery across Australia.
Ph: 1300 727 056
Camerastore.com.au
Camerastore.com.au
Ph: 1800 155 067
Camera-Warehouse
www.camera-warehouse.com.au
Comprehensive range of digital cameras and accessories online (www.camera-warehouse.com.au) and an online print service (www.royalexpress.com.au).
Digital Camera Warehouse
www.digitalcamerawarehouse.com.au
174 Canterbury Road 367 High Street
Canterbury Northcote
NSW 2193 VIC 3070
Ph: 1300 365 220
Electronics Warehouse
www.electronicswarehouse.com.au
1300 801 885
Australian retailer of Vapex rechargeable batteries offering factory direct prices and fast, free shipping Australia wide.
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Photographic Equipment & Supplies – Retail & Repairs. Click here for list of stores.
Ted’s Cameras
1800 186 895
Big range of cameras and photographic products with stores in most states and online.
Rating
RRP: $329
Rating (out of 10):
- Build: 8.5
- Features: 8.5
- Print quality: 8.5
- Print speed: 8.5
- OVERALL: 8.5
