June 23
Olympus Announces $999 Dye-Sub Printer
A4-size printer sports USB connectivity for Mac

by David Nagel
Executive Producer

Olympus today announced a new sub-$1,000 dye-sublimation printer targeted toward the professional and prosumer photography markets. The new P-400 prints an A4-size (8.25"x 11.7") full-resolution photograph in 90 seconds. Olympus says the printer offers true, continuous-tone dye-sublimation for professional photo prints with accurate color reproduction. Printing can be done either from a card or directly from a computer, using a range of input options, including SmartMedia and USB. There's also the option of using the printer's PC Card slot for printing PCMCIA cards or PC Card adapters for CompactFlash Type I and II and Memory Stick media.

Users can choose between a full-size image, a single-sheet photo album, a postcard or an index sheet with up to 260 pictures. Other features include:

• True, continuous-tone dye sublimation
• Maximum print size of 2,400 x 3,200 dots
• 16.7 million colors
• Actual print resolution of 314 DPI
• Clear laminate layer
• Printing modes: full size (8.25" x 11.7" (from one to 16 images per page); card (two or four postcards per page); photo-album (one to six images per page with background image); index (45 to 260 images per page)
• Full-color, black and white and sepia filters
• Trimming, frame, background and stamp functions
• LCD panel for checking and selecting images
• Print selection of up to 50 copies at a time.

The single color cartridge is sold separately and supports 50 sheets of full-size, card, photo-album or index paper.

For printing on the Mac, the P-400 requires a G3 or later (including iMac) with USB running Mac OS 8.6 or later. For more information, go to http://www.olympusamerica.com and search for "P-400."