Olympus Camedia P-400 Digital Color Photo Printer

by Olympus

Product Details

Product Manual [6.85mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 26.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 37 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004Y7KO
• Item model number: P-400
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 13, 2000

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

The Olympus Camedia P-400 uses advanced dye-sublimation technology to print an extremely sharp image on high-quality photo paper. The result looks and feels like a traditional photograph. The P-400 also accepts a digital camera's SmartMedia or PC Card directly, and it has USB and parallel interfaces for easy PC connectivity.

Weighing over 30 pounds, constructed of heavy plastic, and accented with metal controls, the Camedia P-400 impressed us with its sturdy design right out of the box. To test the printer, we captured photos on a 16 MB CompactFlash card, placed the card in a CompactFlash-to-PCMCIA adapter (not included), and inserted the adapter in the printer. (Our evaluation model came with the P-RBN photo ink cartridge already installed, but it is easily replaced through the front access panel. Also, our unit did not include driver software, so we were unable to test PC functionality.) Using the menu-driven LCD, jog dial, and arrow keys, we specified our paper type (A4), input source (PC Card), and output photo size (8 by 10 inches). We pressed the Print button, and after 2 minutes and 58 seconds the P-400 rewarded us with a beautiful 8-by-10-inch photograph.

The Camedia P-400's color was very natural, not neon bright or oversaturated, and its tinting was slightly cool (more blue than red). Resolution was only 314 dpi, but the dye-sublimation technology showed no visible grain. The results were better than many we've seen from 1,200 dpi ink-jet printers. We also printed a slightly soft photograph and then used the printer's sharpening function in an attempt to improve it. Unfortunately, unwanted pixelation increased along with any positive sharpening affects. Printing speed was slow but steady at 2:58 for each 8-by-10 print. Several minutes were required to print one index/proof sheet of 20 photos, with nearly all of that time spent processing the CompactFlash card's data, not actually printing.

With only a casual glance, we could have easily mistaken the P-400's output as coming from a photo lab. Only close scrutiny revealed minor pixelation, which reflected the limit of our digital photo more than that of the printer. The initial cost is high, and the dye-sublimation ink cartridges and photo paper are expensive; but if you can afford it, the P-400 Camedia makes a fine companion for your digital camera. --Mike Brown

Pros:

• Easy walk-up printing of digital photos
• Prints have the look and feel of traditional photos

Cons:

• Substantial cost for consumables
• Not for general-purpose printing

Product Description

True, Continuous-Tone Dye-Sublimation Technology For Professional Photo Prints In 90 Seconds

Connects Via USB Port To Any USB-Compatible Mac Or PC For Viewing & Printing

LCD Information Display Panel To View Images & Decide Which Ones To Print, Size & Amount

Resolution Of 314 dpi w/ 16.7 Million Colors (8 Bit/Color) & 2400 x 3200 Dots (7.68 MegaPixel)

Trimming, Frame, Background & Stamp Functions w/ Clear Laminate Layer To Protect Prints

Printing Via SmartMedia, PC Card, CompactFlash, Memory Stick, Or Directly From Computer

Various Printing Modes: Full Size (7.64" x 10"; From 1 Up To 16 Images Per Page); Card (2 Or 4 Postcards Per Page); Photo-Album (1-6 Images Per Page w/ Background Image); Index (45-260 Images Per Page)

Full-Color, Black-&-White & Sepia Filters w/ Print Selection Of Up To 50 Copies At A Time

1 Color Cartridge Supports 50 Sheets Of Full Size, Card, Photo-Album Or Index Paper (Cartridge Sold Separately)

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

129 of 131 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Olympus P400, March 31, 2001

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Olympus Camedia P-400 Digital Color Photo Printer (Office Product)

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.

134 of 138 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the printer I've been waiting for!, October 20, 2000

By 

Laura Jones (Mechanicsville, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Olympus Camedia P-400 Digital Color Photo Printer (Office Product)

Finally, a dye sublimation photo printer that gives you prints larger than 4" x 6"! The colors are rich, and the pictures are very sharp. There is nothing on the market today that is in this printer's class. If anyone is interested in quality prints of digital images, this printer is an absolute must have. I would recommend printing images that were taken with at least a 2 megapixel digital camera. I have an HP Photosmart P1000 printer that does very well, but it cannot compete with the P400. You can't achieve the same quality print with an ink jet printer.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Affordable Photo Printer on the Market!, September 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Olympus Camedia P-400 Digital Color Photo Printer (Office Product)

This is the best photo printer I have ever used. I bought the Epson 2000 and returned it because the color and quality wasn't good enough. There is not an ink jet printer on the market that can even come close to matching the quality of prints produced by this printer. I am using the Canon D30 and can produce incredible action shots instantly on this printer without even manipulating the picture. I use Adobe Photoshop 6.0 when I manipulate my pictures. Most of the time I copy the pictures back to a SmartMedia or Compact Flash card and print them from the card. This way I'm not tying up most of the computer's memory and can work on another photo project at the same time. The one thing that I have found is when I copy the picture to a card, the printer only recognizes jpeg files from the PC not the Mac.