Olympus Takes the PC Out of Photo Printing

Olympus America has introduced its Total Imaging Solution, which enables photographers to shoot, store, and print digital photos without requiring a computer connection.

The first iteration of the system, which will ship in January, includes an IR-500 4-megapixel camera, a 40GB S-HD-100 portable hard drive and a P-S100 dye-sublimation photo printer. Olympus noted that a portable DVD burner will also ship at a future date, but no specific information is currently available.

Prints To Go

The IR-500 digital camera's main feature is a 360-degree rotating color LCD display that enables users to snap shots from different angles. The camera also offers 2.8X optical and 30X total zoom, an f2.9-f4.8 aperture range in the lens, 19 scene modes, and the ability to shoot video at 640-by-480, 320-by-240 or 160-by-120 pixel resolution. It uses xD-Picture Card Media--a 16MB card is bundled with it--and includes the ability to sort images into up to 12 albums with a capacity of 100 pictures each. Pricing is $499.

While the IR-500 can connect to a PC via its USB 2.0 cable, the idea behind the Total Imaging Solution is to use it with the $299 S-HD-100 hard drive and $199.99 P-S100 portable printer.

The S-HD-100 portable hard drive also offers USB 2.0 connectivity as well as a file-management function that only downloads new images when connected to the IR-500 or any other compatible camera.

The P-S100 portable printer can produce a 4-by-6-inch print in approximately 84 seconds and offers a 50-sheet photo paper capacity, as well as PictBridge technology, which enables any PictBridge-compatible camera to connect to its USB 2.0 port.