I’ve stopped printing at home and send out for larger prints and mostly print to high quality photo books via MPIX. Do any of you use Selphy printers and if so, how does this fit into your workflow? I’ve seen complaints that they are not reliable, but they seem to have some utility in that they have been on the market for many years.
I've used Epson durabrite ink printers for 8.5x11 paper for years. Generally pretty easy to get a nice looking print. Used to use hp, i'd think Canon good too, haven't used though
The Selphys are good but prints are small (max. 4x6'). They are not particularly economical but they are compact and portable.
I like the Epson PM series, currently the PM-400. They are not as compact or have the battery pack option, but they print up to 5x7.
There are many good 8.5" wide printers that have multiple inks and good photo output. If you are printing at home that is probably the most economical solution.
I had an older one and have a modern cp-1500 now.
First: It is usefu for me, reliable and fairly cost effective for my use case.
These printers have a fairly special set of properties so they are not for everyone.
The positive things:
- No ink to dry up, colour is transfered from a roll of plastic film
- Durable prints with a final layer covering the colours, UV resitant so far
- Quite good image quality, close to usual mass made lab prints
- Robust build quality, they want you to buy consumables and give you a good printer
- Print cost about 3x of a lab print, quite okay for size and speed
- Print cost about 1/3 of a much smaller instax print!
- Easy to use once set up
- Having a small print now is sometimes a big joy or simply necessary
The negative things:
- It is 4x6 inch, no bigger no smaller
- While the printer is compact the power supply with long cables and paper cassette make is unwieldy
- Since the paper is moved through the printer 4 times you need space in front an back
- I find it difficult to size an image so that it just fits on the paper
- Assembly with external power supply and paper cassete is a bit time consuming
- Has to be kept dust free to avoid ugly spots on the print
- Mine lives in a cardboard box, not ideal for travel
So for me it could be easier to set up and carry. For use at home it is quite nice. Prints are better than what i remember for my former ink jets and much more durable.
And I like it a lot to print photos I just now happy about!
I have a CP-1300, quality is really great and it is quick and easy to use.
I will say though that the cp-1500 might be a better buy, the drivers for the 1300 are outdated and you can't print with windows 11 without a white border around the photo.
