Robert’s Photography Blog

Robert has been following the evolution of the consumer dye-sublimation printers for several years. This past weekend, I took advantage of a promotion and bought the Canon Selphy CP710.

Canon is running a promotion in Singapore (until May 28th) for both the Canon Selphy CP510 and CP710 dye-sub printers. As part of the marketing campaign, there are demonstrations kiosks staffed with ‘Canon girls’ at the larger dealers in the Funan Center, Sim Lim Square, and SunTec City. The CP510 retails for about S$169 while the CP710 goes for about S$230 including GST. During the promotion period, there are giveaways that are store specific but should include at least one KP-36IP postcard paper kit and carrying bag.

The CP710 has a built-in memory card reader and LDC display to facilitate use without a computer. A standard USB 2.0 connection is used between the printer and a PC. Both the CP510 and CP710 can also be connected directly to any Canon camera which supports direct printing or a PictBridge compliant camera from any manufacturer. The CP510 uses the camera LCD to select photos to print.

Printing from a computer via PhotoShop (or other image editor) is obviously more flexible as you can make more complex adjustments before printing. There are some image adjustments on the Selphy printer software interface; however, re-entering changes is required for each printing session as there is no option to save profiles.

The prints have a transparent layer applied to them during the final stage of the printing process which makes them waterproof and impervious to fingerprints. Canon claims that accelerated testing of print stability projects a life of up to 100 years which is similar to that of a conventional C41 processed photo.

Borderless printing is insured though a bit of trickery. The postcard size accessory (KP-361P) kit lists the paper size as (4×6in). The dimensions are also given as (100×148mm) which is actually (3.94×5.83in). Why the small difference and who cares? If photo files are sized in Photoshop to (4×6in) then sent to a printer with paper size exactly (4×6in), there is risk of small alignment errors ruining the border. By making the paper just a little smaller, Canon allows for a few mm of bleed. Clever! Other smaller print sizes are available but require purchasing optional paper cassettes as well as the corresponding paper/dye-sub kits. The cassettes and kits are reasonably priced.

How about the print quality? I found the first few prints that I tried sending directly to the Selpy CP710 from Photoshop to be somewhat ‘flat’ with respect to contrast and color compared to what I normally get from an inkjet photo printer. Rather than modifying the image file, I boosted contrast and saturation each one notch in the CP710 printer software. These small changes resulted in a huge improvement in the print quality (equal or better than an inkjet print)!

Can the Selphy photos be used for wedding photos or portrait work? No way! However, they are perfect for casual use (family and friends). Portability is a huge plus! I plan to take the CP710 with me on trips visiting family or on vacation. The days of mailing photos weeks later are over!

Pros

• Low cost of printer and supplies
• Small and portable (weight = 980gm)
• Ease-of-use
• Built quality
• Print quality

Cons

• Printer software limited
• CMY black is not true black
• Cost of battery pack
• Can’t print Canon raw files (who cares?)
• Limited paper choices

Complete specifications for these two printers are available on the Canon Singapore site.

Clicking on the thumbnail will take you to the Canon Selphy CP710 page at Amazon.com (USA) or just hover your mouse here.

Note: Links have been updated to the Canon Selphy 730.

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