Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent printer, bizarre pricing, February 26, 2008
I've been using a Selphy CP-510 for several years and I've been extremely pleased with it, so when time came to replace my dad's old HP photo printer, the latest generation Canon was the logical choice.
With this new generation of dye sublimation printers, Canon departs from the CP-series by offering an all-in-one cartridge, holding both the paper and the dye film. This is a vast improvement over the previous system, which required the use of separate, optional paper trays for the non-4x6 formats. Now, you just buy one consumable (the price per print remains the same) and you don't have to deal with these pesky paper trays. want to change format? Just replace the cartridge.
The printer operation is guaranteed to fascinate children: the output bin lid pops out by itself if it was left shut, the paper comes out horizontally, rotates 90 degrees, gets pulled back in, goes in back and forth several times as the yellow, magenta, cyan and clearcoat films are applied. As with the previous system, the picture has extra white leader at both ends, but they're pre-cut and you just need to fold the strip back and forth once to separate them neatly.
Picture quality is just about perfect, and you can touch the picture immediately as it comes out of the printer; unlike ink-jet prints, it won't smear even if you drop water on it. Prints are also very fade-resistant.
The ES-2 has many neat features that can very easily be accessed through the menu system and the large, clear color LCD screen. You can zoom, pan, crop, adjust color, even add frames, all that without any need for a computer.
On the negative side, as of this writing (February 2008) Canon still hasn't released a Leopard-compatible driver. Although preliminary support is available through Gimp-Print, it is not for the novice.
Another negative is the size and shape of the printer. The CP-510 was very small and easy to take on a trip. The ES-2 is significantly larger and its shape is less convenient to pack. Also, it's unfortunate that Canon chose to ship a separate power supply. That's yet another box and cords to pack. The power supply is 110-240V capable, so at least it will work anywhere in the world. An optional (and expensive) Li-Ion battery is also available.
[...]
Despite these minor gripes, I couldn't recommend the ES-2 more. It's a foolproof printer, perfect for the computerphobic, that's also good enough to satisfy the savvy photographer. My dad loves his! Just make sure you shop around.
Edit - April 8, 2008: the price of the ES1 has been reduced, so it is now lower than the ES2's. Since the difference between the two printers is minimal (the ES2's screen is a little larger, 3" instead of 2.5"), the ES1 is now a choice worth considering.
Edit - August 13, 2008: the price of the ES2 has been going down... and the ES1 now costs twenty dollars more. These pricing shenanigans are really incomprehensible! Just keep an eye out for the best deal.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Portable, reasonably lab-like results, May 19, 2008
I bought this as a gift for Mother's Day. The ES2 is simple enough for my mother to use. There is no hooking up cables or learning new software. Just load the camera's memory card into the correct slot, select the photos and quantities you want, and press the PRINT button. It would really be perfect for travelers who want to make photos/postcards from pics they take along the way. (Every photo is also a postcard.) Prints are a bit slow at ~1min/photo.
Print quality is very good, and lab-like. Your eyes can't detect dithering because it isn't there. Color balance appears good, and brightness is about right. Some of the photos I printed appeared slightly too green, but you could compensate with Photoshop.
On the flip side, dye sub results are less saturated than photo quality inkjet. You get a more "old school" 35mm photo lab look with complete color blending, but the colors are slightly subdued and edges are just a tiny bit less sharp from what I can tell. I'm pretty sure that color gamut on a 6-ink inkjet will be wider.
The printer's features look nice. We didn't spend a long time playing with them. I like the zoom, border, and speech balloon functions. The power save feature is cool, and is the optional battery option.
I prefer to give it 4.5 stars, so I'm rounding down to 4. Overall an excellent product, but when only the highest print quality will do, look elsewhere.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Printer!, June 19, 2008
I've had this printer for almost a month and have printed over 100 photo's with it. I cannot say enough good things about it. It prints at average speed and the photo's can be touched, scrapbooked or framed immediately after printing without fear of ruining the photo. The directions on some of the bubble-jet photo papers warn not to frame for at least 7 days! For those who were wondering, even though the photo's can be used as postcards, they are no thicker than regular photos. My photo's come out with rich color and are easily manipulated (frames, clip art, etc.) from features right on the printer. If I had one recommendation for this printer, it would be to include a USB port that is compatible for all USB drives, not just PictBridge compatible. I also find it extremely convenient that the ink & paper come together; I will never go back to a bubble jet after this!
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