DNP DP-DS620A

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

DNP apparently designed the DP-DS620A ($1,495) on the premise that when you already have one of the most impressive dedicated photo printers on the market, the best way to improve on it is to go smaller. Aimed primarily at professionals who offer event photography—including photo booths for weddings or corporate events for example—the DS620A can churn out print after print of high-quality photos at up to 6 by 8 inches in a few seconds each and at minimal cost. For lower-volume needs, it's the sort of printer that you might like to have, but would have trouble justifying paying this much for.

The DS620A is DNP's new flagship model, standing alongside, but improving on, the DNP DS40. The most obvious difference between the two is that the DS620A is a little lighter and smaller, at 26 pounds 6 ounces and 6.7 by 10.8 by 14.4 inches (HWD). However, there are important differences inside the case as well, including an enhanced print head and print engine compared with the ones in the DNP DS40. There's also an energy-saving sleep mode that the DNP DS40 lacks, and which drops power use down to less than half-a-watt after 10 minutes without printing.

As I pointed out when I reviewed the DS-40, the difference between a printer in this category and consumer-level dedicated photo printers like the Editors' Choice Epson PictureMate Charm isn't just the higher price and faster speed. More important is that it can handle workloads that would destroy a consumer photo printer in as little as a few weeks.

DNP says that the DS620A is even more rugged than DNP DS40. Its standard warranty covers the printer for 150,000 4-by-6-inch prints or 36 months, compared with 40,000 prints or 12 months for the print head and 100,000 prints or 12 months for other consumable parts on the DNP DS40. Beyond that, with proper maintenance, the DS620A can print several hundred thousand photos over its lifetime, according to DNP. The numbers dwarf what you could reasonably expect from consumer-level photo printers. The DS620A's warranty also includes advanced exchange, with DNP shipping the replacement immediately, without waiting for the original.

Setup and Basics
The DS620A's print engine depends on the same thermal-dye technology that you'll find in some consumer-level dedicated photo printers, like the Canon Selphy CP910 Wireless Compact Photo Printer, for example. Aside from the basic technology, however, it has little in common with those models. For a start, it can hold enough paper and dye ribbon at once to print 400 4-by-6-inch photos.

Although the DS620A uses different paper and dye ribbon sets than the DNP DS40, it offers a similar range of choices. The three available roll sizes are nominally for 4-by-6, 5-by-7, and 6-by-8 prints. In addition, you can print other standard-size prints: two photo-booth style, 2-by-6-inch strips on the 4-by-6-inch media; either one 5-by-5-inch or two photo-booth, 3.5-by-5-inch strips on the 5-by-7-inch media; and 6-by-6-inch photos on the 6-by-8-inch media. Unlike the DNP DS40, however, it doesn't offer a perforated version of the 4-by-6 roll to let you print 4-by-4-inch photos.

When you print, the DS620A automatically cuts the roll at the end of each photo, including after photo-booth style strips, which come out sideways so the printer can cut between the strips. If you want to print in photo-booth style, however, you'll need a program to automatically format the image. I confirmed that the feature works by printing from Photoshop. However, setting up the image manually takes far too much time to do on a regular basis, much less repeatedly and quickly at an event.

As with the DNP DS40, the print packs for each roll size include two paper rolls and two ribbons. Depending on the pack, there's enough paper and ribbon for 800 4-by-6 prints, 460 5-by-7, or 400 6-by-8 prints. Prices work out to 14 cents for a 4 by 6, 37.2 cents for a 6 by 8, and 36.5 cents for a 5 by 7.

When I reviewed the DNP DS40, I mentioned that physical setup is complex enough that it took me a couple of tries to get it installed correctly. Setting up the DS620A is essentially identical. Having learned the process with the DNP DS40, however, I had no trouble getting it right the first time with the DS620A.

Unlike most consumer-oriented photo printers, the only choice for printing with the DS620A is from a computer connected by USB cable. Installing the driver is standard fare. However, DNP doesn't include any photo printing software. For my tests, I connected the printer to a Windows Vista system and printed from both the Vista Wizard and from Photoshop.

Speed and Quality
Along with its capable paper handling, the DS620A delivers impressive speed and output quality. I timed it in its fastest mode at 12 seconds for printing a single 4-by-6 and 8.6 seconds per photo for printing 10 copies of the same image. Switching to its higher-resolution mode slows it down only a little, to 16 seconds per photo.

As with the DNP DS40, the DS620A lets you switch between printing with a glossy or matte finish simply by changing a setting in the driver, a trick that slows the printer down by just a bit. Using the high-speed setting with the matte finish, I timed the printer at 21 seconds for a 4 by 6. Switching to the high-resolution setting added only a second more. Most of these times were a touch faster than the equivalent times for the DNP DS40, but not in any practical sense, with differences of a second per print or less in most cases.

See How We Test Printers

The quality difference between the low and high resolution settings is visible as a slight improvement in fine detail. However, there's not enough of a difference to be noticeable in most photos. And even where there is a difference, few people will see it unless they compare output using the two settings side by side. In either resolution, the prints help define true photo quality. They're fully a match for the DNP DS40's output, which some retail stores use to print photos. According to DNP, you'll find the DNP DS40 in photo kiosks at Walgreens, for example.

Issues
The only problems I ran into during testing were all related to the driver and were decidedly minor, although they were also a bit frustrating. As one example, after installing the driver, the DS620A printed individual photos without a problem, but reliably give me an error message when I tried to print multiple copies. It turns out that there are six different settings for printing at 4 by 6, and the one that's chosen by default doesn't work for multiple copies.

Fixing the problem was a simple matter of switching the setting. However, there's no good reason why the six different settings don't have names or easily available descriptions to explain what each is for, much less why the one I switched to shouldn't be the default. Issues like this are more in the realm of temporary annoyances than serious problems, but they still take some of the shine off what is nevertheless a highly impressive printer.

If you need the kind of heavy-duty photo printing that can quickly destroy a consumer photo printer, the DNP DP-DS620A is a strong contender. Be sure to also take a look at the DNP DS40, particularly if you need the 4-by-4-inch photo size that it offers. Between the two, however, the DS620A offers a number of small advantages—including the slightly smaller size and lower weight, slightly faster speed, lower power consumption, and promised enhanced ruggedness. In most cases, that will make it the more attractive choice.

Source: View the original article here