Digital Home Thoughts: PrinterSpot Reviews the Olympus P-11

"When you think about Olympus, probably the last thing that comes to mind is printer manufacturer. Olympus has treaded lightly into the photo printer market, currently offering four compact printers: the P-11, P-10, P-S100, and the ImageLink ILP-100 (which appears to be a rebranded Kodak Printer Dock Series 3 printer). All four use dye sublimation technology. We took a look at the Olympus P-11, a stylish cube about the size of three stacked Mac Minis. While it's taller than most compact printers, it has a very small footprint. The P-11 is a tidy package that hides all cords into body of the printer -- even its paper tray is built in. The P-11 is a basic photo printer with no LCD, memory card slots, or much in the way of controls directly on the printer (beyond the power button). For anything beyond basic printing, you'll want to hook it up to a computer."



I had an Olympus dye-sub printer in the late '90s, and let me tell you, it was fantastic - the quality was amazing, much better than consumer-grade inkjets of the day. But the cost of the ribbons were very high, and ultimately I sold it on eBay for a good price (they had been discontinued and were fetching a high price). Because of my previous ownership, I was hoping that the P-11 would be an impressive printer, but the reviewer says it just doesn't measure up. Pity.