Product Reviews

Now that almost any colour inkjet printer can print photos that are on a par with those developed by a lab, it's hard to see why anyone would want a compact dedicated photo printer like the Canon Selphy.

It can print digital photos without the need for a PC, but the same is true of other normal inkjets. What counts in the Selphy's favour is its size - it's barely bigger than a hardback copy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary, and only a bit heavier. Whether this is enough to offset its photo-only printing, however, is another matter entirely.

As with all Canon printers, the Selphy uses a separate ink reservoir and removable print head system, which

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means that you can refill the former (if you choose to) and easily replace the latter if non-Canon ink clogs the nozzles. A fold-down flap at the front acts as both paper in and out tray, but this only accepts 4x06in photo- or credit card-size paper.

If you have a PictBridge-compatible camera, you can plug it straight into the Selphy with a suitable lead (not supplied) to print your snaps; there are also slots for all common types of memory card. You can print photos one-by-one or browse the whole set and just mark the ones you want to print later in one go.

The menu system is quite straightforward to use, but we can't help feeling that a bit more effort could have gone into cutting down on the number of buttons it uses - there are 14 in total, plus a separate power button.

As long as the original image is up to scratch, print quality from the Selphy is good and certainly photo-quality, but it's still far off that of the cheaper Canon Pixima iP4200 (reviewed last issue on page 46). Poor contrast is the biggest problem, but that's hardly surprising given the three-colour cartridge's lack of a dedicated black ink tank. Prints are swift though, at around 90 seconds a piece from a memory card, and work out at around 13p each.