SiPix 1300

Print pictures immediately from your digital camera.

This camera and small portable printer bundle from SiPix seeks to make it even easier to print digital photographs.

The camera is not bad but it is very much a budget effort, with a lowly 1.3 megapixel resolution and 750g weight. The 1.8in colour LCD viewfinder is very badly lit, making it difficult to view your photos after you've taken them. Even if you have the brightness turned right up and take a picture, it will appear very dark. This is a sacrifice most probably made to save on battery power but it's annoying when you want to preview a picture prior to printing.

On the plus side, it has a zoom lens for taking close-up shots. However, a digital zoom (as fitted here) is inferior to an optical one, as found on better quality cameras. Essentially, a digital zoom just expands the image that has been photographed which can lead to pixelation. The 2x digital zoom is better than nothing though, and the images printed are so small, it's hard to notice any shortcomings.

Memory comes courtesy of an 8Mb CompactFlash card, which can be replaced by a larger one to squeeze in more images. The fixed-focus lens means your shots should always be automatically in focus but this does limit your photographic style. Image quality is acceptable.

The camera links to the printer using a USB cable. Once hooked up, the images are sent down the cable and the little printer spits out one picture at roughly every two minutes. The size of each snap is equivalent to a small business card so they aren't a good choice for panoramic views. It is quite handy for shooting people in close-up though.

To say the set-up is pocket sized is a little generous as the camera and the printer do take up a fair bit of room and weigh in together at just under 1.8kg. This means that slipping them in your jacket and carrying them around is quite a challenge but it can be done if care is taken.

The printer uses thermal colour transfer to print onto its dedicated PocketPhoto paper. The paper costs around £8 for 20 sheets and each set of blank photos is supplied with a new colour printing ribbon. You simply pop in the ribbon and insert your paper into the printer, then you can print out your photos as often as you like. Although £8 is a lot for just 20 shots, you do avoid paying to have any negatives processed, which will save you money.

At present the printer will only work with images downloaded from a computer or images taken by this special SiPix camera, but the company is looking into creating a conversion box so the printer will work with other cameras. For now though, we're stuck with the SP 1300.

The quality of the actual prints made from higher resolution images downloaded from an external computer is good. Unfortunately, the quality of the prints from the camera shots isn't so great and you'll be lucky to get a perfectly clear, sharp photo. You do get basic photo editing software which allows photos to be tweaked if they are transferred to the PC before printing.

Although a very original and appealing idea, this package really doesn't warrant the cost. The basic camera and output from the tiny printer are average at best, meaning this does the same job as a Polaroid camera but costs more and produces smaller, poorer quality results.

Contact: SiPix 020 8899 6026 www.sipix.com