Welcome to the series of articles "How To Build A Photo Booth" written by the staff at Photo Booth Experts.
These articles were not written in order
to sell our products but rather they were written to give ideas and useful
information to those looking to become more informed of certain details when
building a photo booth yourself.
PLEASE NOTE! What you about to read is only our opinion (based on our
own experience) of what we feel is the best approach towards building and
designing a photo booth for party rentals.
Remember that the choice of structure design, components and software is
ultimately up to you.
To
build
the photo booth You need the following components:
Photobooth Computer
Photo Booth Software
Photobooth Camera
Photo Booth Printer
Photobooth Monitor
Photobooth Lighting
Photo Booth Enclosure
Photo Booth Accessories
Photo Booth Software
Photobooth Camera
Photo Booth Printer
Photobooth Monitor
Photobooth Lighting
Photo Booth Enclosure
Photo Booth Accessories
Photo Booth Printer
So the question is what printer is best for use in the photo
booth?
Important criteria for the Photo
Booth printer:
Photo Booth printer image quality
Photo
Booth printer speed
Photo
Booth printer cost per print
Photo
Booth printer durability
Photo
Booth printer media supply availability
Photo
Booth Printer price
2x6
printing option (4x6 cut in half)
Protective
transportation case availability
First of all let’s go ahead and put
the inkjet printer question to rest right now.
We do not recommend ink jet printers.
Inkjet printers have proven to be unpractical for Photo Booth applications
because they are slow and very expensive when it comes to paper and ink.
The best printer choice for the Photo Booth is the Dye Sublimation printer and the following will cover the reasons why:
- Outstanding quality
- Very affordable cost per print
- Fast printing (some printers could print 4x6 in about 8 sec)
- Amount of prints per load (depends on the printer model from 300 to 700 per load)
- Durability
2x6 print option
One important detail about photo booth printers. In our
opinion the printer must have a 2x6 print option (4x6 cut in half). This is
very helpful when photo strips are
the choice of your client for the photo booth rental event. Technically the
traditional photo strip is what
people expect from the photo booth.
Instead of manually cutting the 4x6 which will take time and the manual
cut will not be perfect. If your printer will cut 4x6 for you it will be
absolutely precise and will save you a lot of time and extra work.
UPDATED:
There are a few different brands
that have become somewhat of a standard for photo booth applications. We have
personally road tested the following printers:
Shinko S2145,
HiTi 510L,
HiTi 510S,
Sinfonia Shinko CS2 (CHC-S6145),
Mitsubishi CP-D70DW,
DNP DSRX1,
Mitsubishi CP-9550DW,
Sony UPDR 200,
Sony UP-CX1,
Sony UP-DR150.
Shinko S2145,
HiTi 510L,
HiTi 510S,
Sinfonia Shinko CS2 (CHC-S6145),
Mitsubishi CP-D70DW,
DNP DSRX1,
Mitsubishi CP-9550DW,
Sony UPDR 200,
Sony UP-CX1,
Sony UP-DR150.
All of them delivered outstanding
image quality, affordable per print cost, fast printing speed, durability, and the
2x6 printing option (4x6 cut in half). So it is safe to say that any of these
printers will make your photo booth printed images a high quality product.
When you are choosing a printer for
your photo booth, the choice of which model to purchase will mostly depend on
your photo booth enclosure design. Each
printer will have different dimensions, weight, and print delivery system
(paper tray). Based on your photo booth
enclosure design you will have to plan how the printed pictures will be
delivered to the customer.
For example: We wanted the pictures to print inside the
photo booth. To achieve that we designed a custom
aluminum paper tray so the printed pictures will fall at a certain angle and drop into a
picture box that has been mounted into our photobooth enclosure.
The pictures delivery system you are planning to use most likely will impact your choice of photobooth printer.
DOWNLOAD PAGE: http://www.ptbooth.com/photobooth-software-download.html
DOWNLOAD PAGE: http://www.ptbooth.com/photobooth-software-download.html
Printer Prices
The prices for a NEW, high quality Dye Sub
printers range from: $750 - $1500
Preferably you will want to purchase
your printer new. However there are also second hand/refurbished Dye Sub
printers available. We started our photo booth business by using refurbished
Sony UPDR 150 printers. We bought some of them on Ebay and others we purchased
from our printer supply company. As we continue to grow we have started to buy
NEW printers only.
Protect your Photobooth Printer
It is imperative to protect your
printer and all your other devices as well. When choosing your printer you
should ask yourself how you are going to be transporting the printer. This is very important because your printer
is the most expensive and somewhat irreplaceable component of your Photo Booth.
Unless you have a back up printer (which is ideal) you must take all necessary
precautions to make sure it will work when you arrived to your photo booth
rental.
Search around and get yourself a
hard transportation case. These cases can be expensive but it is 100% worth it
to spend the extra money while at the same time giving yourself peace of mind
knowing that your printer is protected.
TIP: always transport your media
(paper and ribbon) separately from the printer.
Where to buy your Photo Booth
Printer
When looking for a printer you
should start your search online. Look
for a good price and make sure you find a reliable source for your media
supply. We recommend buying from
companies with good reputations in the business. Ultimately the choice is yours.
Good luck and remember to never
skimp when it comes to choosing and protecting a printer for your photo booth.
We hope this article will help you
to make sound decisions when it comes to buying and using printer for your
Photo Booth.
This article has been written by the
staff at Photo Booth Experts.
The series of articles "How To Build A Photo Booth" for DIY
Photobooth builders consist of:
How To Build A Photo Booth: Part 1 -
Computer for the Photo Booth
How To Build A Photo Booth: Part 2 -
Photo Booth Software
How To Build A Photo Booth: Part 3 -
Photo booth Camera
How To Build A Photo Booth: Part 4 -
Photo Booth Printer
How To Build A Photo Booth: Part 5 -
Photobooth Monitor
How To Build A Photo Booth: Part 6 -
Photobooth Lighting
How To Build A Photo Booth: Part 7 -
Photo Booth Enclosure
How To Build A Photo Booth: Part 8 -
Photo Booth Accessories
