1.05.2015

5-Step Canon SELPHY Family Portrait Project

I'm a self-confessed pathological picture-taker, even with our old reliable film camera. After every event or trip, I immediately have my rolls of film developed, printed, and then distributed to family members and friends who are in the photos. Then came the digital cameras. There was an avalanche of digital photos in CDs, hard drives, and USB. Horror! I'm stuck with 10 years worth of pictures! I only use our lowly printer for photo prints whenever I need to frame portraits and memorable events, or submit for school. Here's where a Canon SELPHY comes in handy.


Before the holidays, I was able to road test a demo unit of this compact Canon SELPHY CP910. SELPHY sounds like selfie. Quite an apt name for a handy photo printer. =)  I was so excited to try and start printing some of my favorite photos coz I've read that it can do remote printing via Wi-Fi -- how cool is that?! =)  

I owe a lot of family pictures for the doting grannies. I'd like to give them new portraits of the kids, which they really like, so they can see how they've grown through the years.  Since I haven't been "updating" them with the kids' annual photos, I decided to make this my SELPHY project and print out our latest portraits via Wi-Fi.  These pictures became a nice addition to our Christmas presents for them.

Let the unboxing begin. 
The Canon SELPHY CP910 comes with the following components:
  • SELPHY CP910 Compact Photo Printer (black or white body color)
    • Tilting 2.7" LCD
    • Built in SD card reader
    • Size:  7" (W) x 5" (D) x 2.4" (H)
    • Weighs only 1.8 lbs.
  • Compact Power Adapter and cord
  • Color Ink Cartridge
  • Photo Paper (Postcard size - 4"x6")
  • Paper Cassette
  • Software (CD-ROM)
  • Instruction Manual

We started printing after dinner. My husband loaded the ink cartridge and chose the settings while I fix and loaded the photo paper.

The printer was on our dining table the whole time. We used the printer with the photo files from our MacBook Air in our bedroom on the second floor, from iPad and iPhone in the dining area.

Let me show you a very simple step-by-step instruction and see how easy it is to set up and use the Canon SELPHY.


How to Print Family Portraits in 5 Steps with Canon SELPHY CP910

1. Plug in the power cord and switch On.
The LCD will light up. Press MENU to view your settings. We chose Wi-Fi Settings.

2. Establish Wi-Fi connection in your area.
Choose your network. Once connected, choose pictures from your device.

3. Pick your photos.
We used a photo from the iPad photo gallery.

4. Set Printer Options (Canon CP910)
Click Print from your device.  Printer Options box will pop up. 
Select Canon CP910 printer and the Paper size (Postcard).

5. Print. 
That's it.
A "Busy" notification will appear on the LDC and in less than 60 seconds, printing process will begin.

"The dye-sublimation technology uses heat to transfer ink to paper." 
The paper will pass through the printer 4 times at high speed -- you will see 4 color dots appear one by one on the LCD until the final print is ejected by the paper cassette.

Tadaaa! My portrait with the boy is out in no time!

Clear, crisp, vivid colors on high quality Canon photo paper.  This is ready to be framed or slipped in an album.

What I like about Canon SELPHY CP910:
  • Small, compact, handy design
  • AirPrint™ enabled 
    • Effortless printing anywhere via Wi-Fi, using different mobile devices
    • No drivers needed
  • Compatible and can easily connect to our mobile devices - laptops, tablets; and PC
  • Produces vibrant, lasting, lab-quality prints
  • Simple on-screen guide for ease of use by any member of the family
  • Can print direct from memory cards and USB stick
  • Large tilting LCD for easy operation and convenient viewing

In the past, I inserted my SD card in a demo printer like this at an event and my card got corrupted afterwards. Since this is a demo unit,  I did not attempt on direct printing just to be on the safe side. With direct printing, the Canon SELPHY CP910 offers an extensive ID photo functions and Auto Image Optimize feature that corrects images for better photo quality.

After trying it out with the iPad, I used my iPhone next. 
I chose 2 photos then followed the same steps above.  Quick and easy printing as well.

See how small the printer is? That photo on top of the Canon SELPHY CP910 is 4R sized paper.

Last device we used is a MacBook Air from the second floor, but the Canon SELPHY printer was still detected via our Wi-Fi and printing was as easy as the mobile devices. 

The photos of the kids were from the hi-res files sent by the studio where they had their pictorial a few months back. We did not order prints, so I chose a few that we gave to the grannies. I followed the same 5 steps.

The printer setting on the laptop has more options so we simply followed the instructions and selected our desired printer and paper size.

It took a bit longer for the printing to process from the laptop.  According to Canon website, "wireless performance may vary based on terrain and distance between the printer and wireless network clients."

SRP :  PhP 8,998.00

The Canon SELPHY CP910 is small, powerful, and very user-friendly
My family portraits project was accomplished in just one evening! I'm very pleased with the photo quality and I'm sure the grannies appreciated these beautiful portraits of their grand kids that they can proudly display. Using this compact printer was quite addicting! Any homemaker or photo enthusiast would surely appreciate receiving this as present. I've been good the past year, and Christmas is over, so can I wish from my fairy Godmother a Canon SELPHY for my birthday this summer? =)



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