Canon Selphy DS810 Compact Photo Printer

Digital cameras and mobile phones have changed the rules about taking photos and the Canon Selphy DS810 compact photo printer changes everything about how and where to print them.

While the Selphy DS810 is small and light enough (1.9kg) to carry around with you this photo printer is ideal for users who want to print out pictures in the comfort of their own home or for those without PCs.

It’s not a particularly fast printer and only spews out a print every 63 seconds, at 4800×1200 pixels, but the Canon Selphy DS810 has an amazing print quality which is second to none.

The printer features a large LCD display with full menu functionality where you can view your photos, edit them using the various functions in the on-screen menu and set various printing properties for each of your prints.

Menu Screen

The menu screen is simple to use and easy to understand. You have a selection of four menu options by way of graphic icons:

1. Photo Gallery - Where you can view the photos on your memory card on the LCD and print them.
2. Photo Print - Here you specify how many copies to print and print them out at once.
3. Print Studio - You have various print functions to suit your needs such as printing on a sticker or printing an index of all your photos.
4. Tool Box - This menu allows you to perform maintenance tasks and configure the printer settings.

The Print Studio and Tool Box menus have various sub-menus for additional functionality.

Media Types

The Canon Selphy supports most photo papers including glossy, semi-gloss, matte and photo stickers but it can take nothing bigger than 4″x6″ (101.6 x 152.4mm) prints which is a little limiting.

Memory Card Support

There are various memory cards supported which are inserted into memory card slots built into the printer itself. The printer supports:

• Compact Flash (Type I/II)
• Memory Stick / Memory Stick Pro
• SD / MMC
• SmartMedia (v3.3 card only)

In addition you can also use the following memory cards if you have a special adapter for them:

• xD-Picture Card
• Memory Stick Duo / Memory Stick PRO Duo
• miniSD Card

Interface Support

The printer has a USB port located at the front which got me very excited. As a photo printer that supports multiple memory cards I automatically assumed that I could plug in a USB Flash Drive to the USB port but alas I was wrong.

The USB interface is strictly for connecting a camera that supports printing via PictBridge or if you have the optional Bluetooth receiver which I didn’t. To me it doesn’t make any sense why USB Flash Drives are not supported on this port.

However, despite not supporting USB Flash Drives you do get a software driver CD which contains printer software for both Windows and Apple Mac machines. Simply pop in the CD, install the software and you can connect your machine directly to the printer which solves all of the issues if you don’t have a compatible memory card or have your photos located on your PC as I did.

What is really useful is that the Selphy DS810 has a built in Infrared port located directly above the USB port. This is an awesome feature as you can beam images via Infrared from your mobile phone or PDA to the printer directly for printing.

Print Settings

I have to say I’m very impressed with the settings you can apply to individual or batch photos. The software and pre-set settings make printing and enhancing your images a breeze and you can edit any of the following settings:

• Paper size and type (glossy, matte, etc.)
• Print quality
• Border printing
• Red eye correction
• Vivid photo
• Photo optimiser
• Noise reduction
• Face brightener
• Image optimiser
• Brightness, Contrast and Hue
• Effects (Sepia, illustration)

Borderless Printing - or is it?

One of the main selling features of the Selphy DS810 is the fact that you can print borderless pictures. Unfortunately my experience of this is not quite the same as Canon’s claim.

The first 5 pictures I printed came out perfectly and I got a true feel for the borderless prints but I simply couldn’t get it right with the next 20 pictures. In the menu options on the printer you are able to crop your image to ensure that you get a true borderless print however my crop on the LCD screen was not the same as what was ultimately printed out.

While this was a big problem in my life I do suspect that this borderless issue existed because I wasn’t using approved Canon photo paper. I honestly tried to get Canon approved paper at two different camera stores but either South Africa doesn’t stock this paper or it’s in very high demand. In the end I settled for Kodak Glossy photo paper.

The bottom line…

The Canon Selphy DS810 uses a single colour cartridge (BCI-16 Color) which costs anywhere between R239 and R319. It’s a super compact photo print cartridge which prints very high quality photos but the fundamental flaw is that you can only get around 60 prints before the cartridge is empty.

This effectively means that each photo you print out costs R3.98 in ink costs plus there’s the added cost of the photo paper which is R79.99 for 20 sheets. Add this all together and one printed photograph will cost you R7.97 at a bare minimum.

While the photo quality of this printer is truly awesome I just can’t justify spending R7.97 per print when I can get similar quality at a camera store for only R2.50 per print. This is a deal breaker in my opinion and it seems a high price to pay for the convenience of being able to print pictures out at my leisure.

What’s in the Box?

• Documentation and Setup Software (Windows and Apple Mac)
• Power Cord
• Printer
• Ink Tank (BCI-16 Color)
• Print Head

Price and Availability

Assuming you still actually want to buy this photo printer here are the details.

Canon Selphy DS810 Compact Photo Printer: R1,651.00 from WantItAll.
Canon BCI-16 Color Print Cartridge: R239.00 - R319.00 from online merchants.
20 x Kodak Photo Paper Gloss: R79.99 from any Kodak store.

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(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Filed Under Accessories, Canon, Featured Reviews, Photography