Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon CP-300 Photo Printer

I've been around technology for many years, and you know, a lot of things aren't what they're promised to be. Not so with the CP-300 - it's everything Canon said it would be - print quality is incredible, cost per print is reasonable, printer setup and operation are simple, and printing is fast. All technology should be like this.

Print quality is far far far superior to my Epson Photo 820 or my older HP Photosmart P1000. When I show the 4x6 prints from the CP-300 to friends, they're uniformly surprised - you really can't tell that they're not normal photographic prints. Cost per print (ink + paper) is reasonable and actually cheaper than either inkjet printer.

Printing from either the computer or direct from my Canon S50 couldn't be easier. Canon did a great job with a simple, straightforward print driver for Windows. They didn't seem to need to include all the complexity (and hassle) of the Epson and HP drivers. The CP-300 is easy to live with - printing is easy, cartridge & paper loading is easy, no head cleaning, no head alignment, no head priming. Battery life has been fine for the limited on-battery printing I've done so far with it.

I will never again print photos on anything less than the CP-300.

Canon's CP-200 and CP-300 printers are really cool compact gadgets. Finally after you take a picture on your digital camera not only can you print it imediatelily but print it anywhere (there's AC outlet). I recommend the 300 model more because it has rechargable battery pack, where-as 200 model doesn't. A big caveat is you need to carry extra ink and paper (and maybe batteries and charger!), so the total travel weight may be much more than you think. Is it worth the money? I think if you take a lot of travel pix yes, considering how photography can win you friends and printing photos for your subjects can, boy, double-win over friends for life. Just be prepared for the extra 4-5 pounds for the entire travel package.

Print quality is only 300dpi but good. It's slow, but the colors are well toned. Finally my cat ...... looks her natural color (brownish gray) on paper... No previous HP printers did her beautiful coat justice.

These pair of printers work with almost all major brand digital cameras: Canon, Minolta, Nikon, Panasonic, Pentax, Sanyo, Sony, Toshiba, HP, Kodak, Polaroid, etc. Will NOT work with lesser brands like SiPx, Targus, Samsung, Picty, etc. because they don't support the technology.

So here is my review of the Canon CP-300 printer. It is a bit long, but you should learn everything you need to know about this product in that time. Here goes.

I was supposed to get this for christmas, but it was on backorder for quite some time, and it has just arrived today, February 23. I was impressed with the product before even setting it up; the packaging job canon did was nice and protected everything through the shipping process.

The printer itself is fairly small, but it would seem to be a pain to carry around all the accessories. Anyway, the print quality is awesome, [much better than] my epson c80 inkjet. Dye sub/thermal technology is amazing, you really can't tell the difference between it and photolab prints. I haven't used the battery yet, but I plan on it in the near future, and a highly portable photo printer is definitely a plus. The computer drivers installed on XP pro without a hitch.

There was one problem I had, but I can't blame it on the printer. My Canon powershot s110 was an older model, and the firmware needed updating. So I followed canon's instructions exactly, and it seemed to work. But now when I switch my camera to replay mode, it totally freezes up with a black screen, and I have to pull out the battery and put it back in. It is tempermental, sometimes it freezes, sometimes it doesnt. So I haven't been able to test the printing directly from the camera yet.

Some other quirks related to the printer are the availability of printing media. Not many local retailers carry the supplies, if not any. Canon needs to push their print media into the stores, and maybe once this product gets more popular, the media prices will drop. I don't really mind the cost of the media, as it costs about the same as one of the four color cartidges for my epson, and you get 36 prints out of it.

The construction of the product feels very solid, no rattling when shaken, plastic doesn't creak when you put pressure on it. One thing to be careful of is dust and stuff in the air. If you are printing outside or in some other dusty place, you might get peices of [dust] from the air stuck to your prints. Some dye sub printers are enclosed to avoid this, but for the sake of size, this one isnt. The media comes out the back and front of the printer through each of the four passes, where dust has the opportunity to get stuck between the layers of ink, so watch out for that. The printer is quite fast, taking probably the same amount of time an inkjet would. Each pass is fast, but it has to do four of them. First it prints the yellow parts of the image, sucks it back in, then prints then the red, sucks it back, then the blue, sucks it back, then the shiny, protective coating. This process is superior to an ink jet. Skin tones come out perfect and no dither or dots are visible anywhere in the print.

This printer is perhaps the best small, high quality 4x6 photo printer you can get for your money at this time. I would strongly reccomend it to anyone considering it. I hope this review helped you in your decision.

I own a Canon A70 digital camera and wanted a non-inkjet photo printer for lab-quality photos. The CP 300 exceeded all of my expectations. The 4x6 paper comes ready with post card formatting on the back for an absolutely perfect road trip tool! Just take the photo, print it in the car (the cp 300 comes with a battery pack!), slap a stamp on it, and toss it in a mailbox. Brilliant. Plus, the small credit card size photos are adorable and you can get the sticker kind (either full label or mini labels) which I anticipate will be even more fun. Tip: a business card holder is a perfect album for these little pics.

All of this you've heard before. What you may not know is that you can print more than just photos with your cp 300! I do a little graphic art on the side and have been able to make high quality prints of original non-photo artwork (created in other programs and saved as a tiff) right through the software that comes with the printer!!

The only aspect of this printer that is less than ideal is that the paper/ink packs are proprietary and not universally available yet, even online (especially the label kind).

This printer is everything I expected it to be and more. The quality of the prints are awesome - indistinguishable from real photographs, except for the lack of "Kodak" or "Fuji" printed on the backside. The print speed is as advertised, and its incredibly easy to use. I would highly recommend this printer to anyone who wants an easy solution for quality prints.

If I had to list drawbacks:
- Limited to 4x6 or credit card size photos
- Paper/Ink only available online (haven't found a local retailer yet...)
- Price per photo (~56 cents for the 4x6 prints) more expensive than online orders (ie., shutterfly), but you get instant results, and no S&H. :-)

If these are not a problem for you, then this is the printer you want. Get the CP-200 if you don't care about the rechargeable battery and credit card tray (I think you can order the latter separately...). The CP-300 is about $100 more, but worth it, in my opinion.