New Photo Printers from Kodak September 05, 2007 10:16 by John Sollars

New from Kodak – the G Series Docks

As well as the EasyShare camera range, Kodak also markets a range of home photo printers that are also designed for easy home use. All the cameras in the EasyShare range are sold with a simple plastic adaptor, which fits into a socket on the top of the EasyShare printer and allows the camera to dock with the printer directly via a special USB connector socket in the underside of the camera. In some case it also charges the camera battery. The "Share" button on the camera is used to tag favourite photos for printing, so when the camera is docked to the printer these files can be printed quickly and easily.

The G600 and G610 are dye-sublimation printers, and limited to 6 x 4 inch paper size. Dye-sub printers usually produce very high quality long-lasting prints, but because they use a non-refillable ribbon cartridge and special paper they can be expensive to operate. Replacement paper and ribbons are sold in packs, the G-100 costing £29.99 for 100 sheets, or the G-200 is £39.99 for 200 bought direct from Stinkyink.Com. This works out at roughly 20p per print, which is expensive even for a dye-sub. The G610 printer itself costs £129, although it is available for just £49 if bought as a bundle with a Kodak camera. Considering you can get a good inkjet photo printer for about £80, which can also print photos at A4 size, as well as printing out letters and other documents, what possible reason could anyone have for buying the G610?

Simply this: get it out of its box, and without even glancing at the manual you can slot in the paper and ribbon cartridge, stick the camera on top and print out a photo, all in about five minutes, and that includes the one-and-a-half minute printing time. It really is almost ludicrously simple. The G610 is designed to operate as a stand-alone unit, and does not need to be connected to a computer. It does have a USB socket on the back, and can be hooked up to your PC if you want, and comes with the easy-to-use EasyShare software suite that is also included with the cameras, but it doesn't have to be used with a PC, which is a big benefit if you just want some photos printing without fluffing about with your PC!.