The main selling point of Canon's Selphy DS810 is its 2.5" LCD display, which can be tilted. It offers ease of use and perfect image quality for previewing shots before you print.

Canon is the only manufacturer that offers both dye sublimation and inkjet printers. The Selphy DS810 is in the inkjet category. It uses a single, very small ink cartridge containing the cyan, magenta and yellow inks. The absence of black has an impact on the results, with contrast sometimes only so-so, especially in shaded and light-coloured areas.

In the speed department, this printer is hard to pin down. In standard mode, it can put out a print in less than a minute. But if you enable the high-quality mode, which produces noticeably better results, the printing time doubles. The Selphy DS810's dimensions are reasonable enough it's only 8.7" deep. That's because the paper path is somewhat like that of dye sublimation printers - the loader picks up the sheet and transfers it to the rear of the printer before printing.

The cost per page will depend heavily on the type of paper you use. In our tests with ordinary-quality paper, the cost was very reasonable. But the cost can be considerably higher with very-high-quality paper, since Canon's papers are among the most expensive.

Features Connectivity: USB 2.0, Technology: Inkjet; Number of colours: 3; Resolution: 4800 x 1200 dpi; PictBridge: Yes; Memory-card reader: Yes (CompactFlash, Microdrive, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, SD/MM, xD and miniSD); LCD display: 2.5"; Dimensions: 11.5 x 11 x 8 inches; Paper Sizes: A6.

Conclusions>

Kodak's dye sublimation-based Easy Share Photo Printer 500 ranked highest in our tests, with excellent prints and a number of ways to connect, including Bluetooth and WiFi. The Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition (inkjet) and Samsung SPP-2040 (dye sublimation) printers took a close second place. The Epson produced very high quality photos, but was slower than the dye sublimation printers. Samsung's tiny printer made very good prints at reasonable speeds; it's only fault was its noisy print engine. Canon's Selphy (inkjet) printer, ranked fourth in our tests, needs around 2 minutes to create a photo in best quality mode. Its high quality paper is expensive and the lack of black ink compromises the quality of photos.

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