My main photo printer is an Epson 2200. It is a lovely, large format printer with 6 separate cartridges of long lasting inks. It serves me well for most purposes but when I want small prints I have been using a web based supplier and it is a bit of a pain, rather expensive and time consuming. Well, just before the holidays I received an e-mail from Epson and it featured the PictureMate Snap. The PictureMate is a small, highly portable printer that will print on 4" x 6" glossies or mat paper in a variety of sizes directly from a camera storage card, camera, compact disk or computer. It is a self contained unit with an LCD display that allows direct printing, size selection, exposure correction and even red eye removal.

The simplicity of operation is remarkable and what I like is that it does not require re-sizing the image to the print size. All this for about 23 cents per print. I bought one on a holiday special and was blown away, not only by the ease of use but the quality of the prints. Ink cartridge and paper come in a single package of 150 sheets and they are very closely matched. My last cartridge was enough for 154 prints before running out.

There is more. It comes with a neat handle for carrying and can run from a battery that is an extra feature. I plan to take it with me on road trips and will run it from a cigarette lighter and small inverter so that I can almost instantly check on my photos as I go.

I would be interested in other feedback on this great little machine.

[Update: Corrected model name.]