Revolutionary Design

Talk about the cat among the pigeons; the Canon Selphy ES1 is a revolutionary design in mini photo printer terms. Although it uses a conventional dye-sub printing process, the packaging is very special. Gone is the need to load paper and ink separately. The paper is pre-loaded into the ink ribbon cartridge and the whole thing slots into the side of the printer in one action. As there is no extending paper cassette, the ES1 uses very little desk space.





Performance

You do, however, need to afford the unit some space at the front as when each sheet is drawn from the cartridge, it is turned around 90 degrees, sticking out of the front of the unit before being drawn back in for printing – it’s rather amazing to watch the first few times! It’s also fast, with its 74-second print time. The finished print emerges at the top of the printer.





Print Quality

Prints are too saturated and not as sharp as other printers, but with a competitive price and running cost, the ES1’s great design and packaging could be tempting.