Color picture 3X magnified
Original image  Original picture 3X magnified |  Fujifilmnet photo lab |
 Canon Selphy CP710 |  Canon Selphy DS810 |
 Epson PictureMate 100 |  Epson PictureMate 500 |
 HP Photosmart 335 |  HP Photosmart 475 |
 Lexmark P450 |  Kodak EasyShare 500 |
 Olympus P11 |  Sagem Photo Easy 260 |
 Sony Digital Photo Printer FP50 |  Samsung SPP-2040 |
We could take the 20 basic photos tests, the conclusion would always be the same.
Photos precision: sharpness, level of detailIf you look at the extracts above, you can quickly distinguish two categories. There are the inkjet printers on one side and the thermal printers on the other. It’s rather simple, when the level of detail and sharpness is less, it is an inkjet. Only Epson stands out amongst those that use this technology with pictures that are better because they are subtler than the Canon, HP and Lexmark. There is also one thermal printer manufacturer whose photos are very below average, the Olympus P11. This printer doesn´t only truncate 11% of the picture height like all other 4"x6" printers by it also zooms in on pictures. The original photo is only printed at 80% of its length and 72% of height. This is a problem in itself, and made worse by the fact that the printer degrades the original image. We see this with the strong scale effect on the borders.
Inkjet manufacturers defended their products by saying (and they are right) their clients will be happy with their quality. This is true, but you only have to make one simple experiment to realize that it isn´t enough. Give an inkjet print to someone and then the same photo from a thermal printer. He will prefer the second. Now tell them that the two photos cost the same and ask him which printer he will buy.
A second argument for inkjet printers is the magnifying that we made increases the ink drop size. Once more, it is true. The extracts reported above show what a photo "expert" sees, someone who will scrutinize them and look for the tiniest detail. So to avoid being called bad boys, here are two resized extracts to given you the real impression of what you sees with the pictures in hand.
 Sony Digital Photo Printer |  HP Photosmart 335 |
The advantage goes to the thermal printers. Also, if you take a close look at the picture or if you have a very good sight, you will see the images as they are reproduced in the top of the page.
Last information, the photo lab print isn´t more precise than the thermal printers. It is even slightly blurred. It is more discreet when you have the picture in hand. This effect could have been voluntarily added to make the prints softer.
Color qualityBoth printers can be judged not satisfying on this extract: there is the Canon DS810 that is too red and the Kodak that obviously has some troubles with the gamma.
Compared to the original print, the printers that provide the best results are the Epson PictureMate 500, the two HP, the Lexmark and the Samsung. Except for Samsung, thermal manufacturers have to better adjust their colors. They often print too dark images with too warm colors up to the excess for Sony. It is difficult to believe that it is the same original image when we compared the Sony in one hand and Samsung in the other.
Once more the photo lab doesn´t provide better results than thermal printers: Fujifilm also pushes too much the contrast and red shades.
Black and white picture 3X magnified
Original image  Original picture 3X magnified |  Fujifilmnet photo lab |
 Canon Selphy CP710 |  Canon Selphy DS810 |
 Epson PictureMate 100 |  Epson PictureMate 500 |
 HP Photosmart 335 |  HP Photosmart 475 |
 Lexmark P450 |  Kodak EasyShare 500 |
 Olympus P11 |  Sagem Photo Easy 260 |
 Sony Digital Photo Printer FP50 |  Samsung SPP-2040 |
Photo precision: sharpness, level of detailOnce again, HP and Lexmark have less precise prints than the others. Even if they also use the inkjet technology, Canon and Epson provide better results. Like the previous test, the Olympus is the only disappointing thermal printer, because resizing degrades the image.
Color qualityPrinting black and white pictures in addition to those with cyan, magenta and yellow isn´t that simple. Only a few succeed. Here is the list of the better results: Fuji lab, Epson PictureMate 500, HP Photosmart (both), Kodak EasyShare 500 and Samsung.
Canon (810) and Sagem are too red
Canon, Epson (PM 100), Olympus, Lexmark and Sony are too blue.
