Picture Perfect Photo Printer (Epson Picturemate Mobile Phone Edition)

Member Name: womblebatman

Product:	Epson Picturemate Mobile Phone Edition
Date:	08/02/09 (439 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quality of photo's, Easy to operate.

Disadvantages: Slow print speed, No USB cord supplied, LCD is mono and you can't pre-view photos

The Epson Picture Mate (Mobile Phone Edition) is a small compact 10 x 15cm photo printer which is about the size of a loaf of bread (256mm (W),146mm (D),147mm (H), 2.5kg (5.5lb) in weight. Although this model has been largely superseded by other Picture Mate models it still represents a good buy, I brought mine last year on ebay for £20 and have been more than satisfied with it.

Small photo printers offer the convenience of being able to print your own photos within your own home removing the necessity to visit a photo lab or photo kiosk. If you can buy the print cartridge and photo paper cheaply enough they can also be competitive against such stores. The Epson Picture Mate can be operated as a stand alone printer removing the need for a computer, or If you prefer you can connect the Picture Mate to your computer via the USB (compatible with Windows and Mac).

I considered a number of photo printers before choosing this one, It was the quality of photo prints, cost and reliability which made me choose the Epson. The Picture Mate is easy to use, provides high quality photos and is ideal for those with little or no computer experience or people who want a quick and simple solution to printing out their digital photos. With its optional Blue tooth module the Picture Mate is also able to print from compatible camera-enabled phones. Epson state that this little printer can provide professional photo lab quality 10x15cm photos that are affordable and durable (100 years on the right photo paper). Here's my experience of using the Picture Mate :


**In the box**

* Picture Mate Personal Photo Lab
* Power Cord
* Picture Mate Photo Cartridge (T557) : Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Red and Blue.
* Picture Mate Photo Paper - 20 Sheets
* User's Guide Kit: CD-ROM (Apple MacOS 8.6 or later, Apple MacOS X 10.1.3, Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP) and User's Manuals

The only let down is the fact that no USB cable is included. My digital camera came complete with a USB lead so that fact hasn't bothered me although saying that I usually print from my cameras SD card.


**Set up**

To set up you connect the power cord and switch on and then insert ink cartridge (T557) into the back of the printer via printer door being very careful not to tip the ink cartridge when inserting. Once you've inserted the cartridge and switched the printer on it will take awhile to 'charge' the cartridge (around 3 mins) during which time various noises come from the unit. Once this has completed the LCD screen will then come up with the menu screen. I should point out that the 2 inch LCD screen is in mono and that you can't pre-view photos on the LCD, I know some people might be put out about this, personally I haven't found this to be a problem.

The layout of the printers control buttons are simple, it has an 'On' button, a large print button, a smaller cancel button, a simple up and down control to move through the menu, a 'back' button and an 'Ok' button. The Picture Mate comes complete with a sample print cartridge and 20 sheets of photo paper which is designed to get you started. It's worth mentioning that this doesn't last long (20 photos, obviously :-) you will need to buy an additional cartridge and paper at some point, the best way of doing this is to buy a Epson Picture Pack which supplies you with a cartridge(T557) and the photo paper which will enable you to print approximately 100 glossy 10x15cm photos. This is a more economical and convenient way of buying and is the best way to rival the cost of the traditional high street photo stores.


Align the Cartridge / Cleaning the Print Head

Like most printers the print cartridge needs to be aligned once a new print cartridge is installed. This is quite simple operation to do although there are a few things to watch out for. Normally things go OK, however, If you notice that a printed photo looks faded or has colour missing do a 'Nozzle check' print out, if segments are missing on the print out you will need to clean the print head. Cleaning the print head uses quite a bit of ink (yea, weird that!) as I found out, use this function only when needed. Excessive use can lead to the 'internal' cartridge ink pad becomes full of ink and then you have to replace the cartridge with a new one. All these functions Align Cartridge, Nozzle Print Check and Print Head Cleaning can be found in the maintenance section under 'More Options'.


**Connecting your camera**

You can connect your camera by one of the following ways :

* By USB (providing you've got a lead!).
* By Pic Bridge.
* By Camera memory card.
* By Blue tooth


**Selecting Photo's**

Once the unit has detected your camera or memory card it will ask you whether you want to print a 'proof sheet'. This provides thumb prints of all the photos you taken. It is fairly easy printer to use, which provides an intuitive interface especially good for the non-technical consumer which guides you through a simple one-touch printing process. It couldn't be simpler. If like me you print from a memory card the menu will presents you with a number of photo print options :

* Print all photo's on the card
* Print a selected photo
* Print a range of photo's from a card

Card Media Accepted : CF+ Compact Flash, Smart Media Standard 2000, SD/MMC card slot , XD picture card, Compact Flash, Memory Sticks (up to 128 MB), Memory Stick Duo, Multi Meda Card (128), Smart Media, xD-Picture Card, Magic Gate Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Micro drive, SD Card, mini SD card. * Printing via a camera using a USB cable is just as easy.


**Printer Menus**

The Printer has a simple LCD menu layout through which you can access all the aspects of the printers operation. You can select your photo, enter number required and choose the photo layout - (Borderless, Border, 20, Double). Through the 'More Options' you can access the Colour effects - Colour, Black and White, Sepia the Zoom, Auto Correction and Image Enhancer features. The Maintenance Menu - Clean Print Head, Nozzle Check, Align Print Head, LCD Contrast, Cartridge Status and lastly the Blue tooth section.


**Quality of Photo's**

Picture Mate uses what Epson call "Advanced Micro Piezo" ink jet technology, 6-colour pigment printing which according to Epson has the same look and feel of traditional photo lab prints. This is achieved through 5760 x 1440 optimised dpi with microscopic droplets for the sharp detail, and seamless gradations. Epson will quoted print speed of 1.9 min/page - photo - 100 x 150 mm are a bit optimistic, I've found it to be more around the 2.52 min mark. I've been very impressed with the quality of photo's from this little printer. The Epson print speed is quite slow but at least they are 'touch dry' this is a trade off for
a better quality of photo.


**Types of Photo Paper**

It's worth remembering that there are a number of types of photo paper, if you want your prints to last the quoted 100 years you need to buy the 'Premium' photo paper. If you buy a Picture Pack this will be included in the package. You can buy this paper separately, Amazon sells a pack of 50 sheets for around the £8 mark.

COSTS : The print cartridge's can be a bit expensive (£17+). If you shop around you can find them sometimes for under £5. Until recently ukdvdr.co.uk were selling compatible T5570 cartridge's for 99p, I've used a couple, they have produce excellent results. If you shop around you should be able to get a print cartridge for under £6 and a Epson Picture Pack (Cartridge and 100 sheets of photo paper) can be purchased for around £23 at Amazon. To be honest I don't know the cost per print, obviously if the ink cartridge doesn't run out before it reaches 100 prints (which I suspect it will) the Amazon purchased 'Picture Pack' will produce a cost of 23p a photo.


**Printing from camera phones**

Epson has created a dedicated mobile phone printing application specifically for Blue tooth enabled Nokia mobile phones offering you further print options. Based on the Symbian® operating system, the application allows you to control size and quality settings, and add frames to the image before printing directly to Picture Mate. The Blue tooth will also print wirelessly (with a range of 10 metres) from other compatible notebook PCs, PDAs and digital cameras, best to check the Epson website for details on that. Although I don't tend to take many photos via my phone I have printed a few photo's from my Nokia phone using this method and it's been pretty straight forward. To set the printer up for Blue tooth you connect the adapter to back of printer (when not in use) and a light comes on, once you've done this the LCD brings up the Blue tooth page.

**CONCLUSION**

This Epson has got to be one of the cheapest stand alone printers out there, In a way this is the basic 'No Frills' Epson, it doesn't have the facility to view photos on the LCD, it's slow and despite being called 'portable' you need to be near a plug socket to use it. Yet you cannot help to be amazed by the quality of print and the simplicity of it's operation.

I mentioned at the beginning that although you can still buy this model it has been superseded by the Picture Mate 100 / 500 which does have a colour LCD and for true portability the option to fit a rechargeable lithium battery. I would suggest that if you can afford it to buy one of the newer models, however if you have the opportunity to buy the older basic model at a bargain price, buy it, I know you won't regret it.

Summary: An easy to operate photo printer which produces fantastic photo's

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