Canon Selphy ES30 Compact Photo Printer (White) (2676B001)

I purchased this printer with the intention of using it for a scrapbook station for my sister's bridal party and it was great! As most people have already mentioned, it takes about a minute to print each photo but the quality of the pics are very sharp. Guests were able to go around taking photos and when they were ready, print them up and create their own page to add to the scrapbook. Everyone was very impressed with it! The color screen and dial allow you to scroll through photos with ease and select/edit them as well. I loved the option of printing multiple pics on one sheet too (you can choose 2, 4, 8, or more pics per sheet). The ink cartridge is super easy to change out and I almost couldn't believe how simple it is to insert the SD card on the top of the printer. Just slip it in and the printer is ready for you to view your pics!The only minor problem that I have with the printer is that while it's printing, you can't scroll through/select other pics. You have to wait until it's completely done printing before going back through your photos or to the main menu. So it's not a very good multi-tasker; however, perhaps I'm just an impatient person. I mean, what more can you ask of a compact, portable printer? Aside from this minor detail, the printer is fantastic and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in a fun, simple, quick way of printing photos on the spot.

I liked this printer at first and actually bought two of them, both an ES30 and ES40. However, since upgrading my Mac to Mountain Lion some six months ago, they have been unusable. When one tries to download a driver at the Canon web site, one gets a message, "Content for OS X v10.8 Mountain Lion will be available soon. In the meantime, please use OS X v10.7 Lion content as a possible alternative." This message has been in place for approximately six months.However I cannot install the 10.7 driver in Mountain Lion, as the operating system 10.8 complains that the 10.7 driver is incompatible. I have called the support number at Canon, without success. The support person could give no time frame for the appearance of a new driver, nor even tell whether a new driver will ever appear. This means I have not been able to use my printers for approximately six months.I find totally unacceptable this abandonment--without warning or explanation--of a printer that has very complementary reviews. This experience with this model of Canon photo printer, especially the lack of information or useful help from the support group at Canon, leaves me with grave doubts about Canon products. I plan in the future to purchase no other Canon printer, camera, or other electronic component that requires a Canon software driver to interface with my computers.

The prints look just like the photos you get at a photo lab. A tad smaller, as many have said, maybe 1/8" narrower and 1/16" shorter than the standard 4x6. Quality-wise, vibrant color and good detail, just as a lab print. Photos are coated with a waterproof and UV-resistant layer.Cost, ~26 cents a photo (or a bit more if you take printer cost into account, which you should), worth the convenience. The paper/ink kit to buy is Canon E-P100 with two 50-page cartridges. Caution, the E-series printers are not compatible with the paper kits for the CP-series.As in all dye-sub printers, you make exactly the number of photos indicated on the cartridge, no matter the color coverage. You won't run out of ink before the paper, because the "ink" is in a film form sized just for the paper. For that same reason, you don't need to worry about ink drying in a printer left unused for a while. It will be just as ready to print months from now as it is today. Just keep it away from dust.A 3:2 format photo - as from a DSLR - fits the 4x6 paper better than one from your common point-and-shoot 4:3 camera, which will have to get chopped top and bottom or printed with white space on the sides to fit. You already know this if you have ever had photos done at a lab. You can choose how this is done using the LCD and you can even print a portion of the picture.The scrolling wheel is useful at going through many pictures. The LCD is better than the older CP models, but still can't be used to gauge colors. The menu has options for automatic or manual color adjustments (saturation, contrast, brightness, that sort of thing). Useful thing too, as some of the photos came out a bit too saturated. You can add borders or print a month calendar alongside your photo if you want.You can print straight from a memory card, which I suspect will be the mode used by most. It supports many memory cards, Compact Flash, SDHC and Memory Stick for sure. There is a dedicated slot for the mini versions of the latter two cards so you won't need an adapter. Insert the card, select the photos, edit if you need then print. Alternatively, you can prepare a "print order" right in the camera: when you view your images in PLAY mode look for a "Print" or "DPOF Print" option. Then stick the card in the printer and it will get to work automatically.Another way is to hook the camera directly to the printer and use the so-called PictBridge mode. This way you can send photos from the camera to the printer over the USB cable. I do not find this mode very useful, as it wastes camera battery.You can also print wirelessly, straight from your phone or laptop, by sending photos to the printer via Bluetooth. Canon says to buy the BU-30 adapter but I am happy to report that a 3rd party laptop Bluetooth adapter worked just fine for me.Finally, you can print from the computer via USB, for which Canon provides a CD with software (Win/Mac). Didn't try this yet. Not supported by Linux currently. Possibly a later version of Gutenprint-cups may know this printer, that's the Linux print driver to use for the Selphy printers.Major plus over the CP-series is that the ink and paper come in one cartridge which can hold 50 photos (the CPs use a lower capacity external paper tray). Also, the power adapter is integrated and all you need is a power cable. This is a step forward towards a portable solution. However, Canon took two additional steps back by making this printer roughly twice as large and twice as heavy as say, the CP-760 model with tray and power adapter. See the product photo I uploaded. That is the reason for the four stars. This isn't something I want to take in my backpack on a trip or on a flight, though I would definitely take it in a car and the convenience of having 50 photos packed inside is not to be overlooked.The ES-30 is slower in printing than the CP-760 by a good ten seconds, taking almost a full minute for each photo. As I patiently waited for my first print, it became quite clear why it is so, and also discovered the reason for the hefty weight. The printer spends all that extra time doing some alarming gymnastics with the paper in order to position it where the CP-760 already has it. I could barely stop myself from grabbing that first paper as it was slowly pushed out the front slot, almost all the way, then rotated in place like a card being dealt, finally coming to rest in a crooked orientation which brought flashbacks of horribly torn laser printouts caused by bad manual feeders, while the printer whines some more so as to confirm my growing suspicion that it has failed to grab the paper. But as I move to try to "fix" the problem, the printer snatches it and goes to print as if nothing happened. Turns out, that is how it works, and there is no cause for alarm, although I learned to protect it from similar instincts of well-intended friends seeing it print for the first time. Other than that, it's quite entertaining to watch it work.

very expensive consumatives