Hey all!
I want to get a photo printer that I'd be able to take along in my laptop backpack - so kind of a small size. I'm pretty into photography, so I do frequently need quality prints made (often large), but for those I just rely on a professional print shop I know and trust, at least until I can save up for a proper photo printer. The one I'm currently shopping for would be more for the snapshot-y things, like this weekend when I cleared out the storage room and took a few shots to document it because it was such a huge job - I was wishing I could whip up a couple of photos to stick inside my journal so I can pat myself on the back for the next few weeks
From general googling of product reviews etc it seems like a Canon Selphy would do the trick - small enough, decent quality (probably better than I need for this kind of undiscerning use!), and cheap enough around the $100 price point. Those Zink printers (like that dinky thing polaroid put out a couple years ago) are way smaller and cheaper, but practically every halfway serious review finds the quality to be pretty grungy, so I'll pass (I said I'm not going for top quality, doesn't mean I'm happy with bottom of the barrel)
It appears I can get both the current model of Selphy printer - the cp800 - and the previous one, the cp780. Broadly speaking, the standard advice is to get the latest model of whatever you're buying, but in this case they are about $40 apart in price and since I don't even want this as my serious printer, it might be worth rethinking that principle (after all, why not put that $40 towards extra consumables!) Mainly, I think it only makes sense to pay extra if you're buying a product that really is a significant improvement over the previous model, in concrete terms of everyday applications and use.
So I just want a knowledgeable judgement on these two that is stripped of the usual marketing BS Is there a real difference, or are the differences all in the order of a few mm smaller or larger, a slightly larger/brighter LCD, slightly improved times, and other trivial things like that?
Feel free to vote on the poll, or even suggest another option!
I want to get a photo printer that I'd be able to take along in my laptop backpack - so kind of a small size. I'm pretty into photography, so I do frequently need quality prints made (often large), but for those I just rely on a professional print shop I know and trust, at least until I can save up for a proper photo printer. The one I'm currently shopping for would be more for the snapshot-y things, like this weekend when I cleared out the storage room and took a few shots to document it because it was such a huge job - I was wishing I could whip up a couple of photos to stick inside my journal so I can pat myself on the back for the next few weeks
From general googling of product reviews etc it seems like a Canon Selphy would do the trick - small enough, decent quality (probably better than I need for this kind of undiscerning use!), and cheap enough around the $100 price point. Those Zink printers (like that dinky thing polaroid put out a couple years ago) are way smaller and cheaper, but practically every halfway serious review finds the quality to be pretty grungy, so I'll pass (I said I'm not going for top quality, doesn't mean I'm happy with bottom of the barrel
)It appears I can get both the current model of Selphy printer - the cp800 - and the previous one, the cp780. Broadly speaking, the standard advice is to get the latest model of whatever you're buying, but in this case they are about $40 apart in price and since I don't even want this as my serious printer, it might be worth rethinking that principle (after all, why not put that $40 towards extra consumables!) Mainly, I think it only makes sense to pay extra if you're buying a product that really is a significant improvement over the previous model, in concrete terms of everyday applications and use.
So I just want a knowledgeable judgement on these two that is stripped of the usual marketing BS
Is there a real difference, or are the differences all in the order of a few mm smaller or larger, a slightly larger/brighter LCD, slightly improved times, and other trivial things like that?Feel free to vote on the poll, or even suggest another option!