Like the Canon CD-300, the Olympus P-330E is a thermal dye-sub printer which can be used on its own with a TV monitor or in conjunction with a PC. Again, it can be used to grab stills from a video source, like a camcorder. For use with a computer it has a Mac-compatible serial port as well as a PC-compatible parallel port. The P-330E only takes SmartMedia memory cards, which is at odds with Olympus' current policy of supporting Compact Flash as well as SmartMedia on some of its camera models.

In non-PC mode, the P-330E has a fast and easy to use graphical user interface using an external TV screen as a monitor. Prints are A6 in size and they emerge in just 110 seconds. However, there is no option for borderless prints. Media cost is also rather high at £39.99 for 60 prints; that's 67 pence per print. Image quality is good, with accurate colours and sharp detail, but each print has a laminated finish with a rather odd sheen.

The P-330E is a handsome piece of kit, but the bottom line is that the similarly priced Canon CD-300 is more versatile, cheaper to run, has slightly better picture quality and supports Compact Flash cards.