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Rating: 
Summary: Best Thing Ever
Review: It may look like an oversize answering machine from the 70s, but this two-tone gray box is actually Sony's new 600-dots-per-inch photo printer. The FVP-1 Mavica Photo Printer lets you print 3-by-5-inch photos with or without a PC, and it offers several ways of capturing digital images. It's the only photo printer I've seen that's equipped with a floppy drive. You insert a floppy into its disk drive (which reads .jpg, .bmp, or the printer's proprietary .nui graphics files) and view the images by connecting the printer to a television using its video-out or S-video connector. In addition to floppies, you can also capture, retrieve, or print photos from digital cameras, TVs, VCRs, camcorders, and PCs. But to connect the printer to your computer, you must have a graphics card with a video-in port. In my tests using a shipping FVP-1 unit, capturing an image from television video took roughly 10 seconds to save to the printer's memory. The printed photos looked decent, but I noticed some slight ghosting and blurring flaws--no doubt from my TV reception. Inconveniently, for the printer's drive to read the .jpg files I'd saved on a floppy, I had to first convert the images to the .nui file format using Sony's simple photo utility. After that, I popped the floppy back into the printer drive and was able to print a crisp, colorful photograph within 2 minutes. The Mavica's thumbwheel-like button control lets you make index prints or multiples of 2, 4, and 16 images on a sheet. The printer requires photo paper, which doesn't ship with the unit. Sony sells a 50-pack paper and ink cartridge combo for $45. It also offers an optional $99 automatic paper feeder that holds 100 sheets; the alternative is manually inserting a sheet at a time in the printer's paper port. Although somewhat pricey, this easy-to-use photo printer yields nice pictures, offers the convenience of floppies, and ends tedious trips to the photo shop. Pros: Prints great quality photos stored on floppies, in easy steps. Cons: To connect the printer to a PC, you need a graphics card with a video-in feature. Value: Easy-to-use and versatile photo printer. It is one of the best things out!
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