Open the PM100 box and what do you find? - a printer that looks remarkably like a Lexmark Z11. This isn't surprising really, because it is a Z11, but with a memory card reader bolted on. The kit also includes a medium resolution Kodak DC215 camera.

This is Lexmark's second stab at a photo printer with a built in card reader, the first being the Color JetPrinter 5770. Alas, the Z11-based PM100 is fundamentally flawed. Unlike the 5770, the Z11 is based on a single inkjet cartridge system which is not enhanced for photo printing. Although it has a class-leading resolution of 1200dpi, the dots produced are relatively large. Picture grain is quite evident, which affects tonal quality, although colour accuracy was quite acceptable. The Z11 mechanism is also very slow, taking over four minutes to produce a 6x4 inch print. An A4 print takes around 10 minutes.

While the PM100 does not require a host PC for direct printing from memory cards and, in this case, both Compact Flash and SmartMedia types are supported, it can be used as a document printer with a PC via its standard parallel port. However, you will need to swap between a black-only cartridge and the colour cartridge as the carriage only holds one cartridge at a time.

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The PM100 Kit is all about affordability and when you consider that the DC215 camera, which is really quite good for its class, sells for around £200 by itself, the PM100 printer itself is practically given away. Unfortunately, it's the printer which lets this kit down.