Portable picture printers that can bring out 4 - by-6 - inch prints flat from digital cameras , or a tv camera ’s memory board carte du jour , are very pop . If you need proof , just look at the dizzying number of them introduced in the last couple of years .
Lexmark recently unveil its late printer in this family : the stripped down P350 , for just $ 130 . At this price , Lexmark will likely sell a huge number of them , but finicky photographers would be better off devote a little more for a printer that produce in high spirits quality snapshots .
Lexmark already had a yoke of portable photograph printers on the grocery store , but those did not offer the option of connecting to and print from a Macintosh . The P350 is the first portable exposure printer from Lexmark to offer that connection pick and , when connect via USB to my Mac , it influence well in concert with iPhoto ( ) and Photoshop ( ) .
Many folks buying this case of printer do so for the ability to print without a data processor , and for those people the P350 offer card slots to accommodate many of today ’s democratic memory card format . It also sports a PictBridge USB port for print directly from a connected digital camera using the camera ’s menus to pick out which and how many photo you want to print . One small feature that I appreciate is the spring - loaded paper guide , which keeps the paper ordinate . I did n’t suffer any paper pickle or print any misaligned photos during my testing .
One feature film miss from Lexmark ’s portable photograph pressman is a battery option . Its build up - in handle is a nice touch , but for true mark - anywhere toilet facility , a battery is a necessity .
The P350 marks another first for Lexmark — the introduction of a new ink hardening , theevercolor2pigmented ink that are housed in a single , three - color pickup . When used with Lexmark ’s PerfectFinish calendered pic newspaper , the P350 ’s prints are both H2O resistant and smudge - proof . Alas , they also stick out from some serious bronzing ( in which the print becomes hard to see at an angle due to a metal sheen ) .
The print were oversharpened for my taste , and I could see weak horizontal railway line in black areas of the pictures . Moreover , the P350 ’s bootleg - and - lily-white printing feature produced blue prints .
Taking just under two minutes per 4 - by-6 - column inch print , the P350 was also the slowest portable photo printing machine we ’ve recently test , but not by much .
timed trials
ordered series = transactions : Seconds
jury test
exfoliation = Superior , Very unspoilt , Good , Fair , Poor
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Macworld’s buying advice
The inexpensive P350 marks a telephone number of firsts for Lexmark — it ’s the ship’s company ’s first portable photo pressman to work with a Mac and its first to apply water- and blot - resistant pigment inks . Unfortunately , when liken to vie portable photo printers , such as the HP Photosmart A716 ( ) and the Epson PictureMate PM 280 ( ) , it arrive in last in term of print quality and speed .
[ James Galbraith isMacworld ’s lab film director . ]
