Many of the photo printers being sold today tout as a major feature the ability to connect directly to your digital camera. The idea is that, by hooking your camera directly to the printer, you save time and effort by bypassing your PC. Is this something you should look for when buying a photo printer?
Not necessarily.
It must be admitted that a direct connection can be very useful when you are on the road, or visiting a relative. If you are a salesperson who wants to print out an immediate copy of a client's home, for example, the ability to immediately connect to a mobile photo printer is important. And if you are visiting your grandmother, and want to give her a fast photo of the kids, then it's handy to be able to connect immediately to her printer without having to install any drivers on her computer.
However, there are several factors you should be aware of before you reject any printers that do not have this feature:
- Currently, most photo printers will only communicate with cameras from the same manufacturer. So, for example, if you have a Canon printer, you may only be able to connect it with a Canon camera. While there has been some effort made to come up with a universal protocol so that every printer can hook up with every camera, we're not there yet.
- If you do plan to do a lot of direct printing, look for a photo printer that includes an LCD screen that lets you preview the photos. Not only does this allow you to take a quick look to make sure that what you saw on your camera display is what is going to be printed, but many photo printers let you do minor tweaks for size and clarity.
- Unless you're in a real hurry, you're usually better off printing your photos by downloading them into your PC. Not only does this give you a better idea of what your photos will look like before you print them, but you have much better control over the photo quality, size, paper stock, and other factors. In addition, by sending your photos directly to the printer, you miss one of the major advantages of digital photography: The ability to use your editor to improve, crop, and otherwise play with your photos before you print them out.
All that being said, you should not reject out of hand any photo printers that come with this feature. You're usually not paying extra for it, and so you can consider it simply icing on the cake. However, if you are making a choice between two photo printers, the ability to connect directly to a digital camera should probably not be the deciding factor.
