To set up the printer, we plugged in the power supply, opened the front cover, and inserted the color and photo ink cartridges. (The Picture Maker comes with three ink cartridges--color, black, and photo--but only two are used at a time. For normal printing, use color and black; for photo printing, use color and photo.) Next, we loaded Kodak premium glossy photo paper (starter pack included) and followed the LCD menus to print a test sheet and align the print heads.

The Picture Maker 200 is marketed as printing in three easy steps--take the picture, insert the SmartMedia or CompactFlash card, and print--and that's how we tested it. (If you plan to use the Picture Maker 200 with a PC, you'll need to connect the printer cable and load the Kodak driver software.) We inserted a 16 MB CompactFlash card loaded with 20 photos, followed the LCD menus to select a favorite shot and to print using best quality, pressed the print button, and waited. We waited over 20 minutes as our first 8-by-10-inch photo slowly emerged. We printed other photos using lower quality settings and obtained faster (but still remarkably slow) results.

The visible output was good for an inexpensive printer. Held at arm's length, the prints could have been mistaken for traditional photographs (thanks in part to Kodak's exceptionally good photo paper). However, close examination revealed pixelation, grain, and imperfect register. Colors were warm and bright but not oversaturated. Prints were also dark, but this could be corrected in software.

With the Picture Maker 200, Kodak brings both ease and affordability to walk-up digital photo printing. If you don't require photo-lab-perfect results and can't afford a dye-sublimation printer, the Picture Maker 200 may be an ideal compromise. --Mike Brown

Pros:

• Easy walk-up printing of digital photos
• Easy to set up and use
• Good print quality for the price

Cons:

• Extremely slow performance
• Lightweight construction
• Separate photo ink cartridge