Canon CD-200

Great photos! I am very happy with the quality. It is clearly better than my Polariod ColorShot. The prints are as close to 35mm photos as I have seen. Everyone I show pictures to is shocked that they are form a computer. The people who have inkjet printers are amazed that it is so much better than thiers. It is better than my Hewlett Packard DeskJet 895, but the 895 is a more flexible printer.

Keep the print preview switched on! I need to adjust the page size setup 2 or 3 times for every picture to keep the picture centered and to use the full printable area.

The paper/ink cartridges are a little hard to find, so order an extra one to keep on hand. So far I have not been able to find them at retail stores.

With the Canon CD-300 on the market, the CD-200 should come down a lot in price. I paid $82 for a refurbished model.
(The best money I have ever spent.)

GREAT quality. Extremely close to a 'standard' size 35mm print. Flexible input/output options.

Hard to find paper/ink cartridges. Print size needs to be adjusted to fit in printable area.

Polaroid ColorShot

Canon's website doesn't mention the paper/ink cartridges. After 30 minutes and 3 transfers to Canon, I was told that Canon is the only place to get refills ($30). I have since found 3 places that carry them for $22-26.

Excellent photo printer from Canon. I bought it on clearance for $99, which makes this printer even more sweet. The CD-200 is now discontinued and succeeded by CD-300, which is even better from what I hear. Produces photos that are virtually indistinguishable from regular prints. Regular media is a 4x6 paper but the max printed size is 3.35 x 4.45 inches. That means there is a thick white border around the photo. The new model (CD-300) offers larger photo size and cuts the edges for real-photo like output straight from the printer. Also can print labels available from Canon. The cost per page is about $.44 - you can buy a 50-photo kit (paper and ribbon) for ~$22 from OnSale.com - Canon part no. CD-50IP. The printer can print from a PC, but also has a CF card slot and can be connected to a TV and print video input. Very flexible, especially if you have a digicam that uses CF cards. Prints take about 2 minutes. There is a 25-sheet feeder, so printing multiple photos is a breeze. As I said before, the quality is excellent. Finally, the PC driver is fairly straightforward and easy to use, except it doesn't store user settings. For optimum results, a little tweaking is required to achieve the correct saturation, brightness, color balance and hue. This is a very subjective matter and obviously, what looks good to me may not look right to someone else. It took me a little experimenting to figure out the best settings for the driver.

Excellent print quality, vibrant colors Relatively cheap prints Easy to use, very versatile and flexible

Relatively small print area Takes a little experimenting with driver settings to get best results

Alps MD-5000 Casio DP-8000 Panasonic TruPhoto

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