  From SDSS commissioning photometric and spectroscopic data, we investigate
the utility of photometric redshift techniques to the task of estimating QSO
redshifts. We consider empirical methods (e.g. nearest-neighbor searches and
polynomial fitting), standard spectral template fitting and hybrid approaches
(i.e. training spectral templates from spectroscopic and photometric
observations of QSOs). We find that in all cases, due to the presence of strong
emission-lines within the QSO spectra, the nearest-neighbor and template
fitting methods are superior to the polynomial fitting approach. Applying a
novel reconstruction technique, we can, from the SDSS multicolor photometry,
reconstruct a statistical representation of the underlying SEDs of the SDSS
QSOs. Although, the reconstructed templates are based on only broadband
photometry the common emission lines present within the QSO spectra can be
recovered in the resulting spectral energy distributions. The technique should
be useful in searching for spectral differences among QSOs at a given redshift,
in searching for spectral evolution of QSOs, in comparing photometric redshifts
for objects beyond the SDSS spectroscopic sample with those in the well
calibrated photometric redshifts for objects brighter than 20th magnitude and
in searching for systematic and time variable effects in the SDSS broad band
photometric and spectral photometric calibrations.
