camera memory-card slot

The technical detail:

a. The printer may be operated as a standalone product independant of a computer. It contains slots for both SmartMedia cards and compact flash PC card adaptors so you don't have to have a computer connected to the printer to use it. The printer has its own small LCD display which can be used in lieu of a computer interface to help you select pictures off your cards for printing and the printer also has a rather sophisticated built in capability to format the final product.

b. The printer has both a parallel port and a USB port for computer connection and is compatible with both PCs and MACs. Configuration software is included on CD for both types of machines. No computer cables are included and will cost you about $20 at your local computer store.

c. If connected to a computer, the printer is used to provide printed output for whatever photo editing software you already own. No computer photo editing software is included with the package.

d. Documentation is complete and voluminous. However, the technical document giving all the nitty gritty is provided as a computer PDF file readable by Adobe Acrobat software (supplied in multiple languages) and is not provided hardcopy. If you are buying this printer to use as a standalone device without a computer, this puts you at somewhat of a disadvantage.

e. The starter kit of paper and printer ribbon is adequate to print only five (5) 8x10" prints so you will want to purchase paper and ribbon with the printer.

f. Printing supplies (paper and ribbon) are expensive, costing almost $2 per 8x10" print.

The Subjective data:

The final print produced is 314x314 dots per inch and looks incredible. I have standard 8x10" Kodak prints produced from my digital photos that do not look nearly as good. Unless you are going to take your digital data to a custom printing specialist and stand over his shoulder, you will not be able to obtain a print better than this printer will give you. Recently, I was trying to restore an old 8x10" photo and scanned it into my computer at the highest resolution possible, edited it in Adobe Photoshop, and wound up with a wonderful restoration. By that time the digital image was up to 58MB size. I asked Kodak to print it, and they did. However, their system couldn't handle the large file size and compressed it to slightly over 2MB. Their final print was acceptable but a lot of the detail and my work was lost because of the compression. My computer fed the entire 58MB file to this printer and it produced a superb picture that made the Kodak image look like a childs effort in comparison. I don't know of any printer today that has comperable capability to the Olympus P400.

I purchased this for myself as a Christmas present. The quality is better than ANY inkjet printer available. Several people who have seen the pictures want to know the name of the photo lab where I was able to get such high quality prints developed.

Positives: 1) Best picture available 2) quick results 3) able to make large pictures out of digital images 4) able to make multiple pictures on one page. I also use this in conjunction with an Epson Photo 1650 scanner to make duplicates of pictures. Excellent quality taking a 4x6 and making an 8x10 (scanner is important for that!)

Drawbacks: 1) Manual is poor 2) the "stamps" that are included to put on the picutures are ONLY available if you print from the memory card rather than print through a PC 3) Cost 4) NO paper other than glossy paper. Also, be prepared to use the 5 sheets of paper (plus a few more) to get used to this piece of equipment.

I have owned this for two months and have NO buyers remorse. Next year I plan to use this printer to make those loveable Christmas cards with the family picutre. (It is cheaper than the local store that makes them.)

If you have the money, you won't be disappointed.

Attention photographers and hobbyists alike! The P-400 will be the last printer you ever need to buy. For the longest time I used a high end HP pronter and photo paper to produce mediocre printed images. Since my purchase of the E-10 (arguably the best digital camera on the market) and the P-400, I've been able to spend more time taking and editing photos and producing better results. The print quality is phenominal. A side by side comparison with an 8x10" from the P-400 and from my local camera store was impossible to disern by family and friends. Most of my personal portfolio now is comprised of images taken with my E-10, edited in Photoshop 6.0 and printed on the P-400.

This printer is a wonderful tool for any photographer. The USB interface is really a must when working with large digital files as paralell port transfer can be slow. I've tested out the LCD screen and found it to be useful, but the P-400 works much better when you can edit images on your PC.

If you've invested lots of time and money into digital photography, you owe it to yourself to buy a printer that can produce images worthy of the work. The P-400 is the machine to do so!