Professional paper photos at your desk
Written: Apr 27 '05 (Updated Oct 20 '05)
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Pros: High resolution, water proof prints, price similar to photos from shop, easy to operate
Cons: Maximum size is 10x15 cm (4x6 in), paper problems after 5 ink cartridges
The Bottom Line: Professional photo prints right on your desk. There is the initial price of the printer, but running costs are moderate later.
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| imreasztar's Full Review: Canon CP-330 Thermal Photo Printer |
Update
After a year, now I started to print the fifth ink casette/36 paper package. I have problems with the printer:
1. It doesn't pick up the paper if the tray is full (it is supposed to be full). It works only with about 10 papers.
2. It reports sometimes the error message "The specified ink casette and paper cannot be found", while the cartridge and paper is loaded. I have to turn the printer off, sometimes even restart the PC to pass through this error message. Then it again misses to pick up the paper from the tray, then this error message comes again. Or I have to remove and reinsert the ink cartridge, then it works again. I often had this problem when travelling.
I have found an utility on the Canon website - Canon Easy-PhotoPrint. This is an application which has a 3 step interface:
1. select photo (browsing in Explorer like windows), and set number of prints via thumbnails
2. make adjustments on the photo - red eye, trimming (very handy to select the right 3:2 area to be printed on the 4:3 area digital photo)
3. print
This utility makes it very easy to print. My print workflow is now change the images in Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0, then I export the images into .jpg, and I print with Canon EasyPhotoPrint. In Adobe Photoshop Elements, it was almost impossible to me to control which part of the image is printed, especially the small bands on the leading and trailing ends which you have to remove with the perforated tabs. In Easy-PhotoPrint, even the amount of this extra bands can be adjusted (none-small-medium-large). The problem is that if you set the amount of extension of borderless printing to none, it can happen, that the printer pulls in the paper in a way that there are white areas near the perforated edge.
Direct printing from digital cameras is a trial-and-error. When printing from my Casion Exilim EXZ40, which makes super images, colors on the paper print are not correct. Then, there is no possibility to choose the area to print, because of this often people are cut in the head or the feet are off. So, although, printing directly from the camera is possible, I don't use it, I rather transfer my images to a PC and print from the PC.
However, when I work on my PC, there is a power outlet around in 9 out of 10 of the cases. I almost never used the supplied battery pack.
I've never used the infrared port either. It is possible to print images from a mobile phone via infrared, but first you need a mobile phone with at least 1 megapixel camera, then you have to wait until you pump through the infrared (serial connection speed) the 1 megapixel image.
The following Canon printers use the same ink cartridge - paper, therefore the printing technology is almost the same. Because the final result is the same, there is only a slight difference in printing time (60 secs instead of 80 secs, etc.) I suggest to go for the most affordable printer that is available to you, without infrared and battery, and buy extra packs of ink/paper on the price difference.
Canon Selphy CP-710
Canon Selphy CP-510
Canon Selphy CP-600
Canon Selphy CP-500
Canon Selphy CP-400
I also have to pay attention very carefully that the photo papers is clean, doesn't contain any dust particles, fingerprints, etc. Even the smallest dust comes out as badly colored spot on the final print. This is a problem mostly when I don't use the printer for a month or so or when travelling.
Sending photo-postcards is ultimately fun, my friends and me, we just love it! When travelling, I make landscape photos with me somewhere on the picture and send this as a postcard. My friends first think that it's just an average postcard - than they discover me on the image... great fun!
Beacuse of the paper problems I have to reduce my rating from 5 stars to 3 stars in paper handling.
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Although I was able to print photos with my HP DeskJet 970 printer many years ago, it was only a theoretical possibility. Printing was very slow, required to buy very expensive HP Glossy Photo papers, a lot of expensive ink was consumed – in fact, bringing my the images to the local photo store and order prints was faster and cheaper. Also, there were two sever problems with inkjet photos: they were not water proof and started to fade quickly in direct sunlight due to the UV light. This time, dye-sublimation was the privilege of professional studios who could afford to hold such expensive and big equipments.
Finally dye-sublimation technology migrated down to commercial printers in recent years, however, the first printers were still cumbersome and very expensive to run. However, the Canon CP-330 offers all the advantages of dye-sublimation, without the downsides – the photo printing heaven has come to my house.
Let me share my experiences of the last 9 months of use.
In the box
* Printer
* 5 sheets of photo paper with ink roll
* USB cable
* Power adapter
* Battery (should last 36 prints)
* 4x6 in (10x15 cm) paper tray
* Credit card size paper tray
* Manual
Installation
To set the printer up is very easy. The only thing that can cause complication is the printer driver. Because, Windows XP doesn’t have any basic drivers to support the Canon CP-330, pay attention to have the drivers in hand for the installation. Also, if you plan to travel and attach the printer to a new computer, don’t forget to bring the driver CD with you. If you attach the printer to a different USB port, it will appear as a different printer.
Standard procedure:
- download the latest drivers from Canon;
- attach printer to the USB port and install drivers;
- load up the paper tray and attach to printer;
- insert cassette with the ink ribbon;
- attach to power outlet and switch on.
In Use
Printing postcard size images (10x15 cm or 4x6 in) is really simple. You plug the printer to a USB port of the computer, install the drivers, and insert paper and print. I usually use Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 to print my images. I have found that the easiest way to calibrate the size of my images is through the print dialogue. There is a frame offered which shows how the photo would look like on paper and allows resizing and moving the image within the print frame.
The only downside I’ve noticed, that the printer driver requests slightly larger images that will actually be on the paper in-between the perforated edges, which result loss of image detail. This is no problem in a landscape photo, but it happened me many times that this 2 times 2 mm of image detail ruined the otherwise photo. Either the leg was ‘shopped off’ on the bottom of the picture of the group of people, parking cars were cut into two, etc. To match the image to go exactly from perforation to perforation needs a little play and some extra papers in the dust bin. I don’t like this, Canon should offer a much better borderless prints!
The time required for a print is about 90 seconds – the paper runs 4 times through the printer, 3 times color is put on while for the last run the paper gets kind of a protective coating. To print a full set of photos is easy, just load up the paper tray, start printing, and come back some time later.
Quality of Printed Photos
The printer uses dye-sublimation technology. It means that unlike inkjet prints, there are no dots on the paper, everything is smooth, even from a close look. The resolution is 300 dpi, which matches the resolution of the chemical prints from the local photo stores. In fact, the prints look the same as prints from shops. As for megapixels, I have found that 2 megapixel images are good enough to make prints of this size. 1 megapixel is only enough for 9x13 cm (one size smaller) prints or for the credit card prints. So pay attention that the final image that you send to the printer have this amount of pixels.
I have no experience how colors fade over time, especially under direct sunlight, because we should wait a couple of years to tell that. In normal use in the last 9 months I had no such problems.
The left and right edges of the blank photo paper contain perforated bands, which are necessary for the printer to be able to hold and work with the paper. After the print is ready, you have to wrap it off. Surprisingly, they come off very easily and although the edge of the paper looks a bit dizzy, it isn’t embarrassing.
The protective coating makes the prints water and UV proof, a common problem for inkjets.
So the photos look professional, I am really happy with them!
Postcards
The 4x6 in papers (10x15 cm) come with postcard frames on the back. I found this excellent and have sent tons of photo-postcards since I have this printer. Instead of buying postcards, I just make some nice shots, select a good one and therefore send ‘personalized’ postcards. Like with myself on the photo, or from a building or area that is of personal interest to me (not just the general sightseeing stuff on the postcards), or just send photos after a party or wedding. I’ve found this to be a great feature!
The other available paper kits are:
KP-36IP - 36 4 x 6 in. sheets of paper and ink ribbon
KC-36IP - 36 2.1 x 3.4 in. sheets of paper and ink ribbon
KC-18IF - 18 credit card size/full label and ink ribbon
KC-18IL - 18 credit card size/mini label (8 stickers per sheet) and ink ribbon
Features I never used:
- Battery - Originally I planned to use the printer away from the office. Hower, I discovered that every time I wanted to print, I looked for a PC, and where my PC was, there was a wall outlet, too. Maybe once I want to print images from my laptop or digital camera while in the middle of a forest - but when will that happen? Still, it is nice to have the battery for 'just-in-case'.
- Infrared port - it is possible to make prints from your mobile phone, but I never wanted to print any of those low quality images.
- Credit card size print - I have bought a pack of credit card size paper (ink rolls included), but until now I didn't find a use for prints of this size.
- PictBridge – this allows printing directly from the camera, but I always wanted to adjust something on the image before printing (rotation, sharpness, colors, cropping, etc.).
In fact, the Canon CP-220, which comes without the battery and the infrared port, looks a much reasonable purchase now as it sells for 100 less.
What I liked:
* High quality prints.
* Relatively fast operation, 90 seconds per print (or at least it works without user intervention).
* Ink cartridges and photo papers come together, I will never run out of ink.
* Price per print is similar to prices of the local photo shop.
* 'Postcard frame' printed on the back of the photo papers - I have sent tons of photos as postcards, this is great fun!
* Small size.
* USB interface - fortunately those parallel times had gone.
* Supplies (paper ink combo package) are easy to find, it is available in major on-line shops and local stores.
What I didn't like:
* Every time the printer is plugged into a different USB port, it appears as a different printer in the system. It is hard to tell from the print menu which printer you should choose from the 5-6 available CP-330 (2), CP-330 (3) etc. printers.
* Papers in the paper tray can get dusty, in this case there will be artifacts on the photo. Pay attention to blow dust away first after a long pause.
* It is hard to calibrate shots so the image frames on the screen match image frames on the paper. By default, after print, a 2 mm band of useful image will be lost when detaching the perforated edges of the photo paper on both sides. If I want to print exactly from perforation to perforation, I have fool the software and to instruct it for a slightly smaller print size.
A review with lots of photos can be found at Steve’s Digicams: http://steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/cp300.html
Other versions in the range, including the Canon CP-220, CP-400, CP-600 and DS-700, use the same printing technology, therefore offer the same professional image quality.
Summary
The Canon CP-330 is a simple to use dye-sublimation photo printer and performs in an excellent way in what it was made for: printing photos. Results are affordable and look professional. Truly recommended.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 250
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
imreasztar
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Location: Budapest, Hungary
Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 6 members
About Me:
Bio/chemical engineer who loves mobile tech
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