EasyPhoto vs Sony Snaplab vs Kodak GS Product Comparison between See how the retails kiosk The Ideal Solution for Retail Shops, Chemist and anyone looking to provide customers with In-House Fast Quality Photo Production .

We take a look at the three main contenders for this lucrative market and assess all their main features to see which is the best in a retail environment.

Mitsubishi EasyPhoto	Sony Snaplab	Kodak GS Compact

Many retailers are now using low cost "customer facing" instant print solutions as an ideal way of making healthy profits.

The Easy Photo is Mitsubishi latest entry into this market, which is a market that the electronics giant knows well as it already has a lot of experience in this field with it's PT6000, PT7000, PT9000 and PT1000 systems

The Mitsubishi EasyPhoto is the only unit to produce all the popular print sizes (6x4, 7x5, 8x6 and 9x6), although the Kodak GS can produce all of these sizes except 9x6 (which is fast becoming an industry standard due to the sensor ratios of todays digital cameras).

The Sony Snaplab has the least flexibility when it comes to print sizes as it cannot support the 8x6 and 9x6 sizes and is limited to a maximum print size of 7x5.

The Sony is also lacking in media roll sizes with only 200 6x4 prints between media changes compared with 600 prints on the EasyPhoto and 750 on the Kodak.

Although the Kodak is the fastest printer in this lineup, the Mitsubishi and Sony are not that far behind in print output speed.

The Kodak and Mitsubishi also support ID & Passport photo printing, with biometric support on the Mitsubishi.

The Sony is lacking in this feature although Sony do offer a bespoke system, the UPX-C300 ID Photo System which is available for approx £1270.

The Mitsubishi has the largest screen size (10") compared to the smaller 8" screens found on the Snaplab and Kodak GS, this makes for a better customer experience and makes the system easier to use.

The Sony Snaplab does offer a wide variety of additional clipart, calenders and the such like which is also available on the Kodak, although this is an option on the Mitsubishi. We wonder how much renevue this actually generates and tend to thing that it's a bit of a gimmick.

The Mitsubishi EasyPhoto is the only unit that will produce standard CD's and DVD's although the Kodak can create it's own picture disk CD's. CD's are an ideal product to sell and are a great profit generator as customers are often looking for a secure backup for their photos.

All the units except the Mitsubishi have a photo catcher as standard, although we at System Insight provide our own photo catcher product free of charge to all customer who purchase the EasyPhoto from us.

Feature Comparison	Easy Photo	Sony SnapLab	Kodak GS
Size and Weight	25kgs ( 7 + 17)	11kgs	40kgs ( 22 + 18)
Passport and ID Capable	(2)	(4)
LCD Screen Size	10"	8"	8"
Bluetooth Connectivity
Ability to burn CD / DVD's			(1)
6x4 Print Speed	16 secs	17 secs	11 secs
7x5 Print Speed	18 secs	18 secs	19 secs(5)
8x6 Print Speed	29 secs		19 secs
9x6 Print Speed	30 secs
6x4 Prints on a Media Roll	600	200	750
7x5 Prints on a Media Roll	350	172	375
8x6 Prints on a Media Roll	270		375
9x6 Prints on a Media Roll	270
Print Catcher	(3)
Approx Price (ex-vat) as at May 08	£1199	£1099	£1999
1 - Can only burn Kodak Picture CD's 2 - Optional ID upgrade at £139+vat 3 - Optional Paper Catcher only available from System Insight - FREE with EasyPhoto system purchase 4 - Sony sell the UPX-C200 system for approx £1200 for ID & Passport Photos 5 - Kodak GS only prints 7x5 with a border and images must be trimmed manually afterwards

In our opinion the EasyPhoto is a clear winner with the Kodak GS coming second (although at a much higher price), it also lacks support for CD / DVD creations although it does support Kodak's own format. The Sony with it's lack of ID support and inability to produce larger than 7x5 drops to last place.

It's hardly suprising and no secret that we are fans of Mitsubishi equipment, the products are good, technical support is easily available and the products are reliable, however all products have to stand by their own merits and the EasyPhoto looks like being another winning product.

1st Place Mitsubishi EasyPhoto	2nd Place Kodak GS Compact	3rd Place Sony Snaplab