March 11th, 1999

The Olympus P-330 The Olympus P-330 Contact and Other Information Manufacturer: Olympus Description: 4x6 Dye Sublimination Printer For Color Realistic Prints Address: OLYMPUS America Inc. Two Corporate Center Drive Melville, NY 11747-3157 U.S.A. Price: US$449 Telephone: 516.844.5000 Fax: 516.844.5930 By Bill Troop The $449 Olympus P-330 digital color printer is a revolutionary product that marks a major turning point for the digital photography industry. It looks like in the 21st century we'll only have photo labs for a few special purpose needs. Mostly, we'll do at home what we used to need photo labs for. Inexpensive dye-sublimation printers are the key. The P-330 is the first inexpensive yet truly convenient printer that lets users make 4x6-inch color prints, of indisputable photographic quality, at home, for a reasonable price. Indeed, the term "photographic quality" has been so misused by the computer press that it's a misnomer to think of the P-330 as a "photographic quality printer." What comes out seems to be a photograph, not a "printout." That's the story of this printer in a nutshell. The P-330 brings several features together for the first time: Foremost is the underlying printer technology that spells the difference between true photographic quality and the wannabe's: dye sublimation printing. Dye sub is the only true continuous tone technology available for digital printing. The built-in SmartMedia card reader lets you take SmartMedia straight from your digital camera to the printer, without going through the annoying intermediate step of downloading to your computer (and all the time and cable mess that entails). A built-in TV interface lets you use -- if you want to — a standard TV set to view and crop images, and even apply sharpen/soften tools. The P-330 also functions as a frame grabber/printer. It can print frames from any camcorder or VHS/DVD video signal, and any image displayed on a TV monitor. The P-330 also functions as a dedicated true photo quality printer for any Macintosh or Windows PC. As usual with Olympus digital photography products, Macintosh support is strong and timely. The quality of the version 1.0 Macintosh printer driver is particularly impressive. The P-330 can also print directly from Olympus digital cameras. The two biggest show-stopping features in the P-330 have to be the SmartMedia card reader and the stunning quality of the 4x6 inch dye sublimation prints. Normally I think I would usually prefer to download images to my Mac, edit them in Photoshop, and then print them. For many of us though, it is not to be disputed that the convenience of being able to come home from a photo session, plug the card directly into the printer, and have it spit out all the images, is revolutionary. This one-button convenience is a major paradigm shift for digital photography. Then, there is the substantial feel of the glossy-surface prints themselves, and the stunning, highly saturated colors: most of the staff at The Mac Observer Labs thought that P-330 prints look better than real photographs. The TV capability of the P-330 shouldn't be underestimated either. That makes the P-330 not just a high-quality continuous-tone dye-sublimation printer, but a "home entertainment printer" as well — a device that is as much at home in your living room as in your computer room or office. And, with its compact footprint (about 11 x 4 x 9 inches) and light weight (6 pounds), the P-330 is easy to transport. Yet it seems solidly built, as Olympus products usually are. Concerns: We did have a few concerns with the Olympus P-330, but we think the give is worth the take. The printing time is long, approximately 2 minutes per 4x6 print. The small size (4x6) that the printer is limited to. The cost of the media itself which is approximately .65¢. These concerns are more than made up by the product's price and features Summary The maxim that drove photography for the 20th century was Kodak's famous "you push the button, we do the rest." But with the Olympus P-330, you don't need someone to "do the rest" for you. Owning a P-330 is roughly equivalent to having a one-button photo-lab in your home. Clearly, then, eliminating the photo-lab is what 21st century consumer photography will be about. The transition won't be instantaneous -- because digital photography still can't match the resolution of chemical photography — but it has already begun. Olympus