Canon Selphy CP910

Canon Selphy CP910 Review – As with so many other art forms, photography lives primarily online for many people these days; amateur photographers spend more time at laptops than in the dark room, and printers have had to evolve alongside technology. They’re more precise, more colourful, more user-friendly, quicker, quieter, and in the case of the Canon SELPHY, smaller than you’ve probably used.

The SELPHY boasts a weight of just 810g (1.8lbs) and is compatible with memory cards, USB, Wi-Fi and AirPrint. It can run from a battery or a cable, it’s small, it’s sleek and it’s accessible and easy-to-use. So much so that it would make a great present for anyone with a mild interest in photography, especially someone who favours a handy smartphone over a state-of-the-art camera. Perhaps that’s why it was named so.

As a serious printing device, though, it’s perfect for 4” by 6” pictures, and an excellent addition to a suitcase. What’s more is that it runs from its own Wi-Fi, it’s light and small enough to travel, and it can print postcards as you go. It’s primarily designed as a companion for mobile devices, hence the brilliantly user-friendly companion app and Wi-Fi setup, and it’s perfect if you’re someone who uses the Photoshop app more than the desktop program.

Great for a traveller, and equally great for a teenager’s bedroom, the SELPHY was probably intended as a cool export tool for phone photos to start with, but it’s far more multi-functional. Deeper than that though, the SELPHY is a fantastic bit of kit for any amateur artist.

It won’t break the bank but it performs like a top-quality printer; it scans through the reds, yellows and cyans of an image individually before producing the finished article, and the photos are fantastic, despite the minor niggle of poor cropping for some image sizes. It’s useful for trying out how your artwork would look on paper, and great for fun-sized pictures to pin on your wall.

If you’re someone who loves the idea of buying a Polaroid camera, but wants to edit snaps first, then the SELPHY is absolutely perfect. Unfortunately, the small stature of the SELPHY can in the end be quite limiting. Some images look great on a tiny print, and the holiday snaps that you’re editing and printing on the go will no doubt look fantastic on the SELPHY.

For the more ambitious Photoshop creations, though, the SELPHY can’t offer a higher definition or a bigger print; grandiose sci-fi compositions probably don’t suit a postcard, so there’s a strong chance your Photoshop skills will outgrow your printer. As a beginner/intermediate printer, though, the SELPHY is more than capable. It’s not only good quality but suitable for a wide audience, whether you’ve never printed a picture before or you’re just looking to produce physical copies of your artwork. Size usually matters with printers, and the selling point of the SELPHY’s portability is ultimately both the best thing about the product and its downfall. Printers will probably evolve to be more practical, but rarely have they ever been this cool and convenient.

Canon Selphy CP910 Specifications

• Printer Type Compact Photo Printer
• Printing Method Dye-Sublimation
• Features 2.7″ Tilt-up LCD, 14 Mulit-Language UI, Optional Battery (NB-CP2L – Requires CG-CP200 Charger Adapter), Red-Eye Correction, Power Save, Anti-theft Wire Lock Slot (Kensington lock-style)
• Print Speed (up to) Postcard Size:Borderless Photo: 47 seconds
• Print Resolution (Up to) Color:300 x 300 dpi
• OS Compatibility Windows®7 SP1, Windows®8, Windows Vista® SP2, Windows XP SP3, and Mac OS® X v10.6.8 to v10.98 (Wi-Fi Connection supported in Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8, and Mac OS X v10.6.8 – v10.9)