By Molly McLaughlin on November 18, 2009 in
If you're interested in printing 4-by-6-inch photos at home, a dedicated photo-printer is the way to go. Photo printers are great for printing shots during a party and make a great gift. The Epson PictureMate series of inkjet snapshot printers consistently earn top ratings in reviews. The line's newest addition, the PictureMate Charm (*Est. $150), offers even better photo quality than its predecessors, the Dash (*Est. $140) and the Zoom (*Est. $200).
The Canon Selphy CP780 (*Est. $90) is a good budget photo printer, though you'll pay a bit more for paper and ink. Reviewers generally rate it just behind Epson's PictureMate models. The Selphy CP780 and its siblings use dye-sublimation technology, which results in prints that have no pixelation and are more saturated than those seen from inkjets.
While the Epson PictureMate Charm and Canon Selphy CP780 are relatively lightweight, you have to buy an optional battery in order to make them truly portable. If you miss the convenience of your old Polaroid camera, there are two mini photo printers that may meet your needs. Polaroid's PoGo (*Est. $100) printer and Dell's Wasabi PZ310 Mobile Printer (*Est. $95) use ZINK technology, which means "zero ink" and requires special photo paper with embedded color crystals. Both printers sell for about the same price, run on batteries and output 2 by 3 inch photos. Claimed cost per print is rather high (around 40 cents per page), but you're really paying for the novelty here.
For more on these printers and photo printer technology, check out our recently updated photo-printer report.
