Looking at Canon Compact Photo Printers

I've been thinking about getting one of these small photo printers to compliment my Powershot S5 so naturally I turned to Canon. Canon has new additions to its line of compact photo printers: the SELPHY CP770 and the compact CP760 Photo Printers. These tiny photo printers are supposed to simplify printing for all users and make it easier to print photos instantly. That sounds like what I need. What’s cool is they can do what they do all without having to use a computer or camera to download images.

The Canon SELPHY CP770 compact photo printer is their small, portable and ”cute” printer for those on the go type of people. The SELPHY CP770 photo printer comes bundled in a basket-style storage 'bucket', which not only houses the printer, but also stores accessories including paper, ink cartridge and power cable. Their design is supposed to allow for easy portability. I’m not sure how important this really is for most people. Do we really need to print photos on the road or at the beach? I really want something EASY to use. Luckily they have simplified their compact printers. Canon says their new design innovations were created with a focus on improving mobility AND usability. Each printer has larger buttons arranged intuitively. They are designed for simplicity and easy navigation through menus. Well I hope they are not too many menus. The number of buttons on each printer has been reduced from 12 buttons on previous models, down to nine for more simple functionality – that sounds better. Ease of use is top priority.

More about the Canon SELPHY CP770 Compact Photo Printer
This model, with its inviting "basket" design and “fun” colors, is supposed to appeal to moms, kids, grandparents or anyone who wants access to a photo printer. Well that’s everyone then isn’t it? The CP770 printer comes with a 2.5" High-Definition LCD monitor so you can preview images before printing. That’s about as big as a digital camera LCD is it not? Not very useful. The monitor itself has also been angled so that it can be easily viewed, even when sitting in front of a table that the printer is sitting on. It comes in two colors: apricot and white. The optional Canon NB-CP2 battery pack allows for printing photos while on the road. Their NB-CP2 battery pack provides hours (how many they don’t exactly say) of printing power before each recharge. An additional neat feature is called "IrSimple". It’s a high-speed infrared wireless access so you can wirelessly print snapshots from your mobile phones, other digital devices. The printer accepts a wireless infrared signal to transmit photo data, but your phone has to support the IrSimple standard.

Canon SELPHY CP760 Compact Photo Printer
Canon boasts ease of use for their new Canon SELPHY CP760 compact photo printer. That’s what I want to hear. It’s gat a compact simple to use design to print great 4x6 inch photographs and make the most out of a digital camera. Sounds good. It has a new 2.5 inch, Thin Film Transistor (TFT) control screen which can be clearly viewed from various angles. Bigger is better, too bad. The screen should allow users quickly navigate through menus and neatly preview images before printing. The addition of simplified card slots lets users plug in memory cards or print straight from the camera with a USB cord. This sounds like the simplicity I’m after. I want to take the memory card, put in the printer and print. But does it also hook up to the computer? I need to find that out.

Photo Quality
Another cool thing is that both the CP770 and CP760 photo printers feature this new overcoat technology to help reduce blurring, and fingerprint smudges. Very important when you’ve got kids! After the yellow, magenta and cyan colors have printed, a special overcoat layer is applied to the image through a proprietary lamination process. This lamination helps reduce bleeding and blurring of printed photo and also helps to reduce the risk of water and fingerprint smudges - YAY!! - as well as fading that can be caused by ultraviolet light or other environmental factors.

So the research on compact photo printers goes on. I’ll probably look into what else Canon has to offer, and maybe start investigating some older printer models. More on the Canon compact photo printer search coming soon.