Review The Selphy CP780 is a tiny personal photo printer for producing lab-quality 6 x 4in prints. At just 176 x 132 x 75mm it can sit unobtrusively on a shelf or at the back of a drawer, ready to be brought out quickly for those occasions when you want an ad-hoc hardcopy of a photo you have taken with your digital Camera.
Canon’s Selphy CP780
Canon has resisted the urge to make the device cute at the expense of functionality, so it remains relatively plain, compact and rectangular. We tested the silver version; the white version would have been plainer still. If you want cuteness, buy the pink or blue versions.
Unfortunately, the impression of compact tidiness is destroyed when you plug in the power cable at the back and a USB cable at the side, leaving cables trailing in two directions across the table. Putting the two inputs together would have made the device appear classier.
A plastic paper cassette slots into the front of the unit, with a hinged flap on top acting as the output tray. The cassette is designed to hold any of a range of Canon-branded media including 6 x 4in photo cards, 100 x 200mm wide-format photo cards, and various sizes of stickers. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Medium format colour inkjet printers, which sit between standard A4 and wide format production machines, fill a fairly specialised niche. Capable of Printing full-bleed A3+ pages, Canon’s Pixma Pro9000 Mark II is aimed at photo enthusiasts or semi-professional photographers. Semi-pros might prefer to use it for proofing than end product, but it would also be suitable for print-on-demand applications, like sending wedding guests away with photos on the day of the big event.
The big picture: Canon’s Pixma Pro9000 Mark II
Besides the price, the key difference between a workhorse A4 inkjet – such as the Pixma MX330 we reviewed recently – and this machine, is the width of the carriage. Handling paper up to 13-inches wide, the Pixma Pro9000 MkII measures 660mm across. See how it dwarfs the adjacent DSLR in the picture. Indeed, this printer will need its own desk. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Back in 2005, the EOS 5D digital SLR marked the best way into full frame (24x36mm) shooting for Canon owners. Optically, this model was on a par with 35mm cameras of old. With a sensor this size, finally, here was a way of getting the original focal length of your old 28mm lens back from the scaling beyond 40mm that occurs when used with smaller sensor cameras.
Review Back in 2005, the EOS 5D digital SLR marked the best way into full frame (24x36mm) shooting for Canon owners. Optically, this model was on a par with 35mm cameras of old. With a sensor this size, finally, here was a way of getting the original focal length of your old 28mm lens back from the scaling beyond 40mm that occurs when used with smaller sensor cameras.
It is a stills Camera, but its video capabilities are making the news
Billed originally as a great tool for the news gathering crowd – even phonevideo resolutions are making their way onto the ten o’clock news – but this is HD video at 30fps! A little overkill for that. Admittedly, it is in H.264, a codec that is very much about playout from the device, and not for ideal for your average non-linear editor. The upside is, H.264 video is comparatively light on card space. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Some people want style. Others want simplicity. And then there are those who want both. If you belong to this last group, then Canon’s Digital Ixus 95 IS could be just the ticket. This compact Camera is aimed at the point-and-shoot snapper who fancies a Camera that looks good and takes decent pictures with the minimum of effort.
There’s no doubt about it – the Ixus 95 IS is a very good looking Camera. Its metal and plastic construction neatly combines a brushed metal and chrome effect finish. The contoured body is good to hold yet, it’s an exceedingly diddy Camera. Measuring just 88.5 x 54.8 x 21.8mm and weighing 140g – including battery and card – it’s small enough to disappear in man’s palm and light enough for you to forget that you’re carrying a Camera. Read the rest of this entry »
Review Recent offerings suggest a handful of printer manufacturers are trying to move inkjet technology into the lower-end small office, SoHo space, by targeting those wanting the superior colour inkjets can produce, without all the glossy photo facilities of family and photo-buff models.
Doing the business: Canon’s Pixma MX330 all-in-one inkjet
Indeed, Canon is doing its bit to differentiate between the two markets by producing the PIXMA MX range of business-oriented all-in-ones, as well as the older PIXMA MP range with extra photo facilities. The MX330 is a mid-range device, coming in at just over £100 and offering an Auto Document Feeder (ADF) and walk-up scan to USB drives, but no memory card slots or CD/DVD print. Read the rest of this entry »
