Do you have a photo booth and offer your visitors / guests / customers the chance to take fun selfies with it? Or do you rent out the photo booth for events such as company parties, birthdays, weddings, promotional events, and the like? And now you want to take the photo experience to the next level and give those in the photos the chance to take a printed copy of their photo home? That raises the question: Which photo printer should you buy for this?
The answer is simple: Photo printers that use the dye-sublimation process (often simply called thermal printers ) are best suited for this. While that certainly narrows down your options considerably, if you visit the online store at NORDFOTO Versand , you’ll still find more than 10 models in the “Thermal Printers” section, ranging in price from just over 100 to just under 1,500 euros…
Let’s get the best news out of the way first: All of these printers are suitable, because they all print photos in the 10×15 cm format commonly used for photo boxes and deliver good quality!
Photo Booth Printers for Every Budget
You have to accept certain limitations with the most affordable model, the CANON Selphy. This printer, which was actually designed for printing photos at home, works well in photo booths—as long as you can live with the fact that
- the consumables must be refilled after 18 (paper) or 36 (ribbon) printouts to allow for another 18 or 36 printouts,
- a print job takes just under 50 seconds and
- the price per 10×15 print is about 25 cents.
All other dye-sublimation printers available from NORDFOTO Versand are inherently designed for professional/commercial (continuous) use. Thus, the photo printers from CITIZEN, DNP, HITI, and SINFONIA offer advantages over the CANON Selphy
- a larger supply of materials (between 150 and 700 prints in 10×15 cm format),
- faster printing (by 10 seconds; for two models, just under 20 seconds per 10×15 cm print) and
- a lower price (about 10, or slightly over 15 cents per 10×15 cm photo for two models).
Based on these differences, you can now get a sense of whether the affordable CANON Selphy, priced at just over 100 euros, will meet your needs, or if you should opt for one of the professional photo printers, which start at around 550 euros.
Once you’ve decided on one of the professional photo printers, the next question is: Which device is best suited for use with a photo booth? Should you choose a printer from CITIZEN, DNP, HITI, or SINFONIA? And which model? Is a printer costing around 550 euros sufficient, or does one priced at around 1,000 euros offer that much more?
Let’s get the best news out of the way: Even the most affordable model will do! That’s because the main differences that account for the price are due to features that typically don’t matter when using the printer as a photo booth printer.
Let’s take a look at the key details:
Features That Determine the Price of a Photo Printer
Print Speed
One factor affecting the price is print speed. However, we’re talking about differences ranging from just over 8 to 13 seconds—with two models taking just under 20 seconds to print a 10×15-cm photo. This may matter when producing large numbers of photos quickly, but it’s unlikely to even be noticed when using the device in a photo booth. After all, people’s focus is on the fun of taking photos and the social experience surrounding it.
Mail Merge
The next pricing criterion is the number of prints that can be made in quick succession (batch printing) without the printer needing a cooling break due to its design. This aspect is also irrelevant when using a photo booth. That’s because photos are taken and printed one at a time. At most, a few in a row, but never dozens or even hundreds. And so you can literally save yourself the investment in a device with a sophisticated cooling system.
rewind function
Finally, a third criterion is the so-called “rewind function.” Here’s how it works: With all printers suitable for photo booths, you can print photos in 10×15, 13×18, and 15×20 cm (with two models, instead of 13×18 and 15×20, only 11×20 cm—but they also offer the square formats 10×10 and 11×11 cm). In addition, all devices also produce the increasingly popular 5×15 cm photo strips (with two models, 5×10 and 5×11 cm). Normally, you have to load the appropriate supplies (ribbon and paper) for each format. Because this can be annoying and time-consuming—for example, in a photo shop where customers’ photos are constantly being printed in varying formats—some manufacturers have come up with a solution: With the corresponding printer models, you load supplies for 15×20-cm prints. If you then need to make 10×15-cm prints, you don’t change the materials—you simply use the print command to specify that the print should be made on one half of the 15×20-cm sheet. The printer then rewinds the ribbon and prints the next 10×15-cm image on the remaining half. As practical as this feature is for frequent format changes, it’s usually unnecessary when printing with a photo booth, since photo booths typically print in only one format.
As you can see, even the most affordable model is sufficient as a photo booth printer 🙂 Okay, of course there are still some differences in the details. For example, some models feature a slightly sturdier metal construction, while others have lighter plastic parts. Then there are different sizes, with some devices being lighter and others heavier. The printed photos also differ in terms of color characteristics. In no case, however, can one say that one is better or worse than the other. Much of it is simply a matter of taste or is only relevant under certain conditions (for example, the dimensions when it comes to integrating the printer into a specific component of the photo booth, or the weight if you want to ship the photo booth as a package).
A printer not just for a photo booth
Once again, however, you should give some thought to your choice if you plan to use your new photo printer for more than just a photo box. For example, if you also work as an event photographer and sometimes need to quickly print many photos in a row, a printer that’s as fast as possible is obviously recommended. If you offer services or, for other reasons, frequently need to switch between the 10×15 and 15×20 cm formats, the rewind function can be a real lifesaver. This feature is offered, for example, by the CITIZEN CX-02 Compact and the identically built DNP DS 620 models.
But back to using a photo booth printer: There’s one factor that can be absolutely crucial when choosing a model—namely, the number of photos you can take with a single supply of materials. While changing the ribbon and paper isn’t complicated, as a photo booth rental company, you might not necessarily want your customers rummaging around inside the machine—and certainly not late at night, after the party guests have had a beer or two…
Capacity
In this case, you should know that most thermal printers can print 400 photos in 10×15 cm format with a single roll of paper. If you can make do with fewer prints, the SINFONIA Color Stream CS2, for example, offers 300 prints that are smaller in size and lighter in weight. It gets even smaller and lighter if you can make do with 150 photos per roll. In that case, CITIZEN’s CZ-01 and the identical QW410 from DNP outperform all other professional thermal photo printers. If size and weight aren’t a concern, the CITIZEN CY-02 and the identical DNP DS-RX1 HS, with 700 prints per media load, let you get significantly more prints without having to change the media.
Change of Material
Another important point in this context: You can remove and reinsert the ribbon and paper from the printers as often as you like without incurring any material loss. Why is this important? Let’s say you’re renting out your photo booth for a wedding. Out of a possible 400 prints, only 300 are made, leaving 100 remaining. Now the next wedding is coming up, and you know that at least 300 prints will be made there as well. In that case, simply load fresh ribbon and paper for that event and set aside the partially used supplies—for an event where you know 100 photos should be enough (for example, a small children’s birthday party).
By the way: Unlike inkjet printers, where you can only estimate the cost per print due to the way the ink is applied, with a thermal printer you can calculate it very precisely because of the clearly defined size and number of ink-covered areas on the dye-sublimation ribbon: Simply divide the price of the package by the number of prints listed on it 🙂
Connectivity
With the exception of the CANON Selphy, you can connect all thermal printers to a computer or tablet only via a USB cable. In addition, the printer drivers required for operation are available only for devices running Mac and Windows operating systems. So, for example, if you use an iPad with the appropriate app as a camera and/or control unit in your photo booth, the only printer you can use for prints without additional devices is the CANON Selphy. This is because it can also connect wirelessly to all devices and operating systems using all common standards. With professional thermal printers, this level of connectivity is only possible with the help of additional devices—so-called “print servers.”
The flagship product in this category is AirCastPro3, which allows you to print from all common devices on all common thermal printers. If you use a professional photo printer from DNP, you can also use the WCM Plus print server, which DNP offers specifically for its printers. This option is more affordable but doesn’t offer quite as many features or options and runs slightly slower. Incidentally, both print servers can be accessed not only via Wi-Fi but can also be integrated into a network using a standard LAN cable if desired or necessary, allowing them to be used as regular print servers.
Individual, personalized counseling
If you still have any questions: The photo printer team at NORDFOTO Versand will be happy to provide you with personalized, one-on-one advice on which Fotobox printer is best suited for you. Just call 0 40 / 5 29 86 50 (Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.—and of course, it’s free!).