Canon Selphy CP770

To be really honest, the consumer level printer category I love to review, is the snapshot printer. While standard desktop inkjets have gotten redundant in their functioning and design, the snapshot printers are really going the extra mile to find a space in your home. They’re getting smaller, cuter; they’re packaging themselves in new and innovative ways that would convince consumers from all segments interested in getting one for themselves. Take the new Canon Selphy CP770 for example — how cute is a tiny printer in a bucket?!

As you can see in the image above, I’m not using the term ‘bucket’ as a metaphor. This thing really comes in bucket, which you can use to easily carry the printer around along with its cables, paper, and ink cartridge. It’s cute and convenient!

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Getting down to business, the bucket may seem like a great idea to protect your printer’s vitals, but I wouldn’t go too far with that theory. Firstly, the lid of the bucket is the printer itself, so you have to be careful how you lug it around. Besides that, the bucket is not entirely sealed from all sides. It has two gaping holes right underneath the latches, which means that dirt, water, sand, etc. can still easily come through when taking the bucket outdoors. So, as much as the bucket setup it looks like a kiddy toy; it’s not.

The Selphy CP770 printer itself is quite tiny, weighing just around 1.45kg. It has the standard snapshot printer feel to it with the tiny display, easy to understand button and navigation system, and the memory card slots. You can use these memory card slots for PC less printing, along with other options like PictBridge and Infrared. If you’re planning on taking this outdoors, I’d suggest you also pick up the optional battery pack that would keep this baby absolutely wireless.

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Setting up the printer on the first try can get a bit confusing. The tray attachment’s correct positioning on the printer cannot be very easily understood in the provided diagrams. The good part is that once you get the idea, you’ll have no trouble hooking up the printer ever again.

You can’t use any standard 4x6 photo printing paper on the CP770. Since the printer uses dye-sublimation ink technology for heat-transferring pictures to the paper, you have no option but to use Canon’s propriety paper on it. But that’s not really a negative, considering that the paper is sold in packs that are bundled with the ink cartridge itself. The thing is that the number of sheets in the pack are equal to the number of transfers available on the ink cartridge, so you’ll never be in a situation where you’ll run out of ink with a few sheets of paper left.

The CP770 can handle two sizes of paper - one, the standard 4x6 postcard size, and the other is the smaller card sized paper. The thing I like about the postcard sized paper is that it actually is a postcard. The back of the paper has the required lines for writing the address, fixing a stamp and your message. It’s not much, but it makes perfect sense in a product like this.

Heat transfer printing is generally slower than inkjet, as it has to run through the paper multiple times to create the final image. This was also the case in the Selphy CP770. Since the printing options were minimal (the CP770 prints only in 300dpi), you can pretty much give a print command on the default settings. It takes around 1 minute and 10 seconds to get the final print after giving a print command, which is almost double of some of the inkjet snapshot printers we’ve reviewed. Once again, it’s because of the dye-sublimation technology.

The good part about this technology is that it uses layers of plastic to transfer the print, so unlike other glossy photo prints, you can touch the printed surface to your heart’s content without worrying about fingerprints or smudges. Considering that these prints can be used as postcards as well, the plastic layers will pretty much ensure that the print will look as good when it reaches the receiver as it did when you sent it.

But not everything’s perfect in this little printer — it also carries a flaw that makes it pretty much unusable for professionals and enthusiasts. All the prints I made from the 770, including the black and white ones, had a warm feel to them. The yellow ink is a bit overpowering in this printer, which makes the final image not accurately color balanced. Even the black level loses its depth because of this flaw.

Now the thing about this drawback is that, while it was easily visible to me, it wouldn’t be to the untrained eye. The prints are practically flawless in every other quality, which may be good enough for casual users. But when you compare these prints to what you get out of the inkjets these days, the abnormality becomes quite obvious.

The price of the CP770 is Rs. 8,995 (MRP), which seems a bit high considering the rapidly falling prices of snapshot printers. You’ll get a pack of 100 4x6 sheets with the cartridge for Rs. 1000, and a pack of 36 sheets with cartridge for Rs. 432. It’s definitely pretty expensive when you calculate the cost per print, especially considering the cheap rates going on online printing services and even photo labs.

But then again snapshot printers were always about the novelty more than practicality. If you have kids in the house, who you love to photograph in their growing years; you’d probably appreciate the ease of use of this printer. Professional and enthusiasts looking at showcasing their works should look elsewhere.