(Canon also confuses the consumer by selling 4x6 sheets of paper without ink cartridges. These are for use in other printers, not this one. So beware! There is no ink cartridge included, they are just a tetch too large to go in this printer, and they won't work in it--but they are displayed right next to these printers in every store I looked in.)

The aggravation of the paper and ink cartridges aside, the printer makes beautiful prints. My regular HP printer prints very good pictures except in black and other dark color areas. So I use this Canon printer to print those which the other printer doesn't do so well on. I had no problem getting the software installed and this printer working from my computer.

Most of my pictures will be taken with my old Canon Ae1 and printed with Kodak Perfect Touch processing but my digital pictures will be printed on this printer when I need quality prints from them.

CANON CP-200 (Rating: 4.00)
Review : I HAVE HAD THE CANON CP-200 FOR ABOUT TWO WEEKS TO GO ALONG WITH MY CANON S400. THE PHOTO QUALITY IS VERY GOOD, BETTER THAN ANY INKJET PHOTO PRINTERS I'VE SEEN. THE DYE SUBLIMATION GIVES THE PHOTO A CLEAR, CRISP PICTURE THAT IS SMOOTH NEVER PIXELATED LIKE THE INKJET PHOTOS. THE QUALITY IS VERY CLOSE TO 35 MM FILM CAMERAS BUT NOT AS GOOD. IT IS CLOSE ENOUGH FOR ME TO GIVE UP THE FILM CAMERA FOR DIGITAL PHOTOS AND AGAIN IT IS MUCH BETTER THAN THE INKJETS.

THE OPERATION IS SIMPLE IF YOU JUST WANT TO HOOK UP YOUR CAMERA DIRECTLY. IT IS A BIT MORE DIFFICULT TO USE THE INCLUDED SOFTWARE BECAUSE I HAD TO USE MY OWN PHOTO SOFTWARE TO EDIT THE PHOTOS AND THEN SEND THEM BACK TO THE CANON SOFTWARE TO PRINT. HOWEVER ONCE YOU ARE ABLE TO DO THAT THE CANON SOFTWARE EASILY GUIDES YOU THROUGH THE PRINT PROCESS. THE PAPER AND CARTRIDGE, SOLD TOGETHER ONLY, CAN BE BOUGHT AT ANY STORE(BEST BUY,CIRCUITCITY,OFFICE DEPOT,ETC.) FOR ABOUT 19.99 FOR 36 PICS. THE CARTRIDGE IS MADE EXACTLY FOR 36 PICS. THAT COMES TO ABOUT 55CENTS A PICTURE WHICH IS A BIT PRICEY COMPARED TO BRINGING YOUR MEMORY CARD IN TO GET DEVELOPED FOR ABOUT 29-39 CENTS A PHOTO. BUT IT PROVIDES CONVENIENCE AND THE ABILITY TO EDIT YOUR PHOTOS WHICH I FIND TO BE IMPORTANT.

THE USB CABLE TO CONNECT THE PRINTER TO YOUR COMPUTER IS NOT INCLUDED SO YOU MAY WANT TO GET ONE. THE ONLY OTHER THING IS THE PHOTOS ARE NOT ACTUALLY 4 X 6 AFTER PRINTING AND TEARING OF THE TABS BUT THEY ARE 4 X 5 7/8. NOT A HUGE DIFFERENCE BUT NOTICEABLE NONETHELESS. ALL IN ALL I HAVE ENJOYED THE QUALITY AND CONVENIENCE OF THE PRINTER AND WOULD PURCHASE IT AGAIN. I DO FEEL THE PRICE OF THE PRINTER AND ESPECIALLY THE PAPER PACK SHOULD BE A BIT LOWER. I PAID $165 FOR THE PRINTER.

Canon Card Photo Printer CP-200 (Rating: 5.00)
Review : The printer itself is wonderful, you could almost fit it in your pocket. The problem is, you have to plug it into the wall, and you have to plug it into your camera. It cost a lot less than the battery powered canon photo printer. So for me, it is worth having to plug it in. Next, it really does print in 90 seconds, once it starts to print, but figure up to another 90 seconds to get the data from your camera into the printer. Next, you can give the photo a bath in water and it will come out just fine. But don't be tricked into thinking that a $129 printer is going to do as good as the $129,000 developing machines. Sometimes, the photos will surprise you at how good they are though.

Having said all of that, once you get it plugged in, and the photo into the printer, the party does begin. The photo goes back and forth three time, first yellow, then red, and then blue. That makes you wonder, how did they do that. How do they know just the right amount of color to use.

Then if you can get over the fact you paid about fifty cents for a print, it is sort of a nice print. On borderless prints it does flatten the photo a bit. Canon says it stretches the photo out to the border. The solution for this is to print with a border. The photo will not go to the edge of the paper, but you will not have a photo that is stretched or flattened to fit the 4 by 6 size. SLR camera of course are already 4 by 6, my point and shoot is 4.5 by 6. I would rather they cut or crop the .5 off, rather than to "stretch" or flatten the photo.

This printer it is pretty solid, it looks like it will hold up pretty good. As if Cannon is hoping to be able to sell you lots of paper and ribbons. I am sure that you will pay Cannon $500 to $1000 for supplies before this printer would ever start to get old or wear out.

They are durable photos, I am sure 100 people could handle them and they would not show to much wear and tear. This is a party trick, there is no doubt about it. If your looking for a WOW effect for your next get together, go for it. If you want to keep feeding your money into this little gem, I am sure it will keep giving you photos to pass around to your friends.

I would like to see the price of the photos come down closer to the 29 cents it cost to get digital photo's developed at the online servies where we can set up our photo albums. Or at our local Target or Walmart store. I just wonder if the WOW effect is worth paying the extra price. But I hear there are people who sell these photos out in the clubs for $10, so I suppose you could turn it into a profitable business.

The technical support at Canon is very good, if you need any help getting your cp-200 set up with your computer or camera. Their software is reasonable to work with, I have seen a lot worse photo software out there. It works with your computer just fine, if you want to hook it up to the computer.

Love this little toy!!! (Rating: 5.00)
Review : We bought this to go with us on vacation. thought it would be more fun for the kids to send postcards home that actually had them in the picture. We love this. We did have to search a bit to find the creditcard size paper tray (this add on was about 13 bucks). the pic quality is SOOO much nicer than than an inkjet. It is fun to watch it layer the colors and end up with a picture. I thought we would like it but was surprised at how very much fun it is (really fun with a bunch of drunk girlfriends!!!). Yes, there are cheaper ways to get pictures, but we really like how immediate it is. We use it with a canon A75.