My wish list -- the Alpine IDA-X100

KenSpike — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:29:00 GMT

One of the cool things about working at Crutchfield is the hands-on opportunities we get with the latest and greatest gear. If you're like me, you're always planning ahead for the next system, and getting a look at the newest products is a great advantage...(read more)

Photos made easy -- the Canon Selphy CP740 printer

KenSpike — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:39:00 GMT

I love digital photography. But it has its limits.

I can take hundreds of digital photos, store them on discs or hard drives, and have an exhaustive photo collection of the places I've been and the things I've done. But until recently, sharing "hard copies" of my photos involved walking up the stairs to the home office, loading the printer up with photo paper, downloading the pictures from my camera, and sitting around while they printed out. The Canon Selphy™ CP740 has changed that routine.

This compact printer turns out sharp and colorful 4"x6" pictures on demand with a minimum of fuss and set up. While it comes with software that allows you to connect it to your computer, I've had the most fun using the Selphy as a stand-alone printer. I simply pop the SD card from my camera into the CP740, find the picture I want, and hit "print." In a minute or so I've got a picture in my hands, ready to give to friends or relatives or just to stick on the refrigerator. And since you buy the paper and ink cartridge in a package, you've always got the right amount of ink for the photos you're printing, at a price that's very competitive with regular ink-jet printers or online photo printing services.

At a recent graduation dinner dance at my son's school, I was able to take individual pictures of all of the students, print them out on the CP740, and give each of them a photographic memento at the end of the evening. No waiting around, no emailed JPGs. It was one of the highlights of the event for kids and their parents. A few weeks later I was able to sit down at the dining room table with my son's grandparents and pick out and print the graduation photos they wanted right there and then.

Does the CP740 have limitations? Sure. It only prints 4x6 and wallet-sized pictures and has no editing capabilities. But for a reasonable price, the CP740 delivers great-looking pictures with a minimum of effort. And thanks to its small size, it's portable enough to take along to parties, reunions, or other events. Without a doubt, the Selphy CP740 puts the "snap" back into "snapshots."

Crutchfield Staff Reviews : Ken Nail

My wish list -- the Alpine IDA-X100

Photos made easy -- the Canon Selphy CP740 printer