Digital photography implies mobility. To be good at it, you need to have a good quality camera that you can take along with ease anywhere you go. If you want to also print your pictures, this would usually imply that you go back home, connect the camera to your PC and just use the bulky printer on your desk to put your art onto paper. But what if you could do that on the go?

Sony came up with a solution for people who want a small, portable printer, the Sony DPP-MP1 digital photo printer. The device is remarkably small and lightweight. Without the battery and paper tray, it weighs just under one pound. And as to it’s size, most digital cameras measure more than it.

In the pack, it comes with a paper tray, AC adapter, USB cable and a test printing pack. The optional battery pack can be attached to the end of the printer. With it, you may use the printer just about anywhere. Also included are for rechargeable AA batteries (1700 mAH, NiMH) as well as a charger for them. It uses a dye sublimation type thermal print system and can hold a maximum of 12 paper sheets in it’s tray.

There are two ways that you can use the printer. The quickest and probably most convenient is to remove the Memory Stick from your digital camera and insert it into the printer. Make sure to use the Digital Print Order Form on your camera before taking the card out. After that, just press the DPOF button on the printer, to print out all the pictures that you’ve placed on the list. There’s also an option to select the printer and number of prints manually.

If that doesn’t do it for you, you could always connect the printer to a computer (via the USB port) and use any graphics program for printing your pictures out. You should have also installed the printer’s drivers beforehand.

The DPP-MP1 can print borderless 3.8 megapixel 3.25 by 2 inch photos, the quality is way above average and the speed isn’t bad either. It will take just about 90 seconds to print a picture straight from your digital camera’s memory stick. The quality of the photo, after print, is great too. The prints are waterproof and will not deteriorate. For printing, it uses durable business card-size paper, that can be easily found on the market in packs of 24.

Other features include tone and color management, date stamping and a feature called ‘fit’ which basically shrinks large images into a smaller frame, without eliminating the edges of the shot. As a conclusion, the Sony DPP-MP1 digital photo printer is palm-sized, high quality, and a perfect companion for your digital camera. In a couple of minutes, you could have snapped the picture as well as printed it out, to show your friends.

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