Sony DPP-EX7 Digital Photo Printer

I took my printer with me to Haiti and took photos of hundreds of children with my trusty, shoot from the back of a motorcycle, Sony PSC P7. Then I printed them and gave them to the children. The first printed photo of themselves, ever. The initial photos were of children lookng a bit suspicious but then there was a near riot as we gave the completed photos back to the children Smiling faces, huge grins, something precious an image of themselves. Yes, I got a few shots of those faces and one that is especially dear to me is of a boy holding his photo and beaming. We take photo prints for granted and forget what an amazing thing it is to be able to capture a moment in time. I love my printer, it is easy to use, the supplies are lower in price now, about .25cents a print. I thought I was a little crazy to buy this and carry it in with me but it was one of the best things I ever did.

The finish on the dye sublimation is a zillion times better than on the ink type prints of other manufacturers. I tested by moistening, okay, spitting on my finger a little at the store and trying to smear the prints. Sony's did not smear at all. To me this is a key buying point.

Yes it took forever to print all of those pictures, hundreds, but it so easy that I got others to help, loaded in 10 at a time and did other things as they printed.

Do a search on the group I work for and you will see some of the photos I took. Especially the boy with the red bucket. I return in February and plan to give this same gift again in another small community.

My real work is at Clean Water For Haiti, this extra project is a gift to me.

Thanks Amazon and Sony.

This is a great printer if you are using a good camera like the dsc-v1. The only thing is it takes 90 seconds for one photo but the photo IS worth the wait. Good quality.

There are several reasons why I do not recommend this printer:

1. Lack of Customer Support. Sony is notorious for bad support. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and tried getting support via email, chat and phone and did not get any help.

2. Picture Quality. While the pictures are sharp, the colors are really off. When I have tried printing several pictures, they come out with a yellow tint. These same pictures were sent to an online printer and came back okay.

3. LCD Screen. Even though Sony makes the screen really easy to use, it does not always reflect the exact way a picture comes out. I found myself wasting a lot of paper because the picture on the screen looked good but then printed out too yellow, etc.

4. Documentation. The documentation they include with the printer is very poor.

I received this printer for Christmas and I am definitely thinking about bringing it back. It is definitely not the quality I expected from Sony.

"Wow!" That's just what we thought when we hooked up Sony's latest DPP-EX7 digital photo printer. The DPP-EX7 is an on the spot photo editor, borderless coated printer, and memory accessible device (no need for a PC). These qualities make it the perfect printer for quick high quality prints. Today Bytesector will explore the ups and downs of this printer. (full review @ Bytesector.com)

You know you've got quality whenever you buy a Sony product. The DPP-EX7 photo printer is no exception. The sample photo this printer comes with will absolutely floor you. I have yet to produce a picture as beautiful as the sample, but I'm hardly the expert photographer. I think the trick to stellar prints is stellar photos. I take most of my digital pictures at a low setting (best for email and such) but the prints still come out great. No grain, no pixelation, nothing that looks even remotely like a home photo printer picture. Even pictures taken at 640x480 come out crisp, sharp, and beautiful.

The printer is a little noisier than I expected, but it's nothing unbearable. The print-time is also not bad. 1.5-2 minutes really feels like nothing, mostly because I don't just stand there waiting for the photo to print. It's always a good idea to multitask anyway.

The editing features are nice (basic ones such as cropping, lighting, saturation, etc.), as are the creative print options (calendars, cards, stickers, etc. - all from the LCD screen on the printer). I'm definitely a novice, though, so these options may not be enough for professional photographers or people with lots of PhotoShop experience.

My only "complaint" would be that the reds in the prints come out REALLY pink sometimes, like the bright pink in drugstore lipstick... Ask them to wear neutral shades of lipstick. And for those gals with naturally red/pink lips, you're out of luck! You will always look like you're wearing [$$$] lipstick.

If cost is an issue, I'd suggest the DPP-SV77, which costs about half of the EX7. The only difference is that the LCD is a teeny bit smaller and the unit is grayish/silver. You'll be happy with either choice, especially if you're looking for a stand-alone printer that produces photo lab-quality results. If you have a digital camera that uses memory stick media, you'll be even happier.