Photo sites like - Kodak Gallery, Snapfish, and Shutterflyare great fun for a variety of uses . However, for the “do it yourself” crowd there are other choices to explore.
Some of us like to print our photos at home. It’s a fine way to get immediate gratification. Furthermore, it encourages selectivity. Every shot isn’t a jewel and printing at home can be twice the price of photo services. Prudent editing is always wise and avoids wasted ink, paper and time.
If you’ve got a sizable hard drive you can keep each and every shot from the hundreds or thousands you’ve taken or received. Or not.
What you can do is buy yourself a compact photo printer. That’s what I did. Compact photo printers bring the convenience of digital photography home.
Because of their light weight and small size they free you up from the confines of bulkier desktop models. Now when you travel you can capture the moment and share a print within minutes. Kind of reminds me of the old Polaroid days, with a 21st century digital twist, of course.
I love my new PictureMate Snap. It’s the middle model of the the PictureMate 200 series from Epson which features the Pal, Snap and Flash. They’re called personal photo labs. Each model provides professional quality photos and offers direct printing from memory cards, cameras and phones.
The Pal is the entry model. The Snap upgrades to PC-free cropping and red-eye reduction. The top of the line Flash comes with a built-in CD burner which adds about $100 to the price.
They’re all terrific. With the purchase of an optional rechargeable battery or the addition of Bluetooth you’ve got maximum flexibility in a very small footprint.
According to the May 2007 edition of Macworld (www.Macworld.com) the PictureMate Flash PM280 offers the best 4-by-6 inch borderless photos of all the portable printers they tested and it prints them faster.
That isn’t to say that HP(www.HP.com) Canon (www.Canon.com) Kodak (www.Kodak.com) or Sony (www.Sonystyle.com) don’t have fine products too.
No device is ever right for everyone, so do your research, read reviews, and choose for yourself. Meanwhile you can use the photos sites Until you decide.
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