Canon Selphy ES30 review

While Agfaphoto's AP 2300 looks like a printer from 1995, Canon's Selphy ES30 looks nothing like a printer at all.

Still, that could be an advantage if you don't want a big multi-purpose inkjet cluttering up the place, not least since the ES30's upright design means it takes up no more desk space than a portable radio.

Ease of use seems to have been Canon's prime consideration when designing the ES30, and it's one of the most idiot-proof printers we've ever seen. The front-panel controls are large and clearly labelled, and while it may seem as though there are a lot of buttons, it's a better arrangement than trying to cram a complex menu system into a small 3in colour display. An internal power supply means less cable clutter, and the built-in handle makes the ES30 easy to move around, too.

Canon combines paper and a dye-sub print spool in a single cassette that slots length-wise into one side of the ES30. This takes seconds to fit, but it does mean paper is loaded in the wrong orientation for printing. To get around this, the ES30 feeds each page through the front print slot and rotates it through 90 degrees before printing. It wastes a few seconds when printing, but certainly looks cool.

Like Agfaphoto's AP 2300, the ES30 can print directly from a variety of memory card formats, and the slots are hidden beneath a flap on its top. Navigating through stored photos with the chunky scroll wheel is much slower than on the other printers here, but you can switch between individual, filmstrip and nine-to-a-screen thumbnail views. The control system also makes it impossible to overshoot a photo by impatient scroll-wheel spinning.

Print quality is on a par with that of Agfaphoto's AP 2300, but close examination revealed some faint stepping in areas of graduated colour, which is something that dye-sub printers don't normally suffer from. You'll need a sharp eye to spot it, though.

The ES30's low running costs of 21p per print make it attravailable, but the HP A636's ability to print larger photos and panoramas mean it's a better choice for most people.