Canon Selphy CP780 6x4 Photo Printer Review Video

(If you can't see the video, please click here.)

Don't expect poster sized prints from this little bundle of magic from Canon, but do expect perfect postcard sized 6" x 4" photographs that could last 100 years and are as good as any from a lab.

As digital photographers we've got to recognise that unless we make some sort of hard-copy of our photographs, they probably won't be here in 40 years time. Hard-drives will have failed, cd's and dvd's will have deteriorated beyond readability, so we need to be printing out our work so our kids and grandkids can have something to look at from their crazy ancestor with all the cameras.

The Canon Selphy CP780 makes photos that are rated to last 100 years if stored appropriately, and that's no bad thing. Being a dye-sublimation printer, paper and ink are sold together, and if you buy the big packs the per-print price works out to be about 25p a photograph. That may seem a little expensive, but the prints are of a great quality, and I've talked to people who have this type of printer that has been serving them for several years, and you won't find many ink-jets that last that long.

You can connect the CP780 direct to your PC, or it will work as a stand-alone unit which accepts SD, Compact Flash and all the popular memory cards. You can even buy a battery pack to use it away from a mains power source (NB-CP2L). It's the size of a small box of tissues, but the footprint doubles when you add the paper tray, and make sure you leave enough space at the back for the paper to come out.

True, if I've got a lot of prints to do I'll get them done at a lab, but for the sheer joy of being able to print out beautiful 6 by 4's whenever I like, the Canon CP780 (or the newer CP800 ) can't be beat. 

Thanks, Rob.