Canon - SELPHY SQUARE QX10

Canon Selphy forever. I spent years researching mini-printers. If you want your photos to last and be of the best quality for home prints, get a Selphy.

I've got a Kodak and honestly all of the mini printers have colour issues of some sort. The only advantage they have is that they use sticker paper. I recently bought a Canon Selphy and that's a little bigger but the colours are so much better

I'm a clueless German; we have no Walgreens here. Please specify your current workflow and needs. Printing at home is usually far(!) from cost efficient. If I need prints, just in general, I usually wire them to CEWE, for picking them up at my local drug store, after a promised week, to which I can walk, while the rented washing machine in my attic is running. I can also buy some groceries on that trip, so I really have zero extra cost for shipping or commuting. For SRA3 laser prints I'd rely on work. They have two Minolta lasers. I do *own* a Canon Selphy. I haven't unboxed it yet. Imagined use case: To need a postcard (-x) sized color print *NOW(!)*. Dyesubs are great at sitting around unused, while inkjets reguire power and regular flushing routines, that might break my neck over time. - Speed aside the printer offers no benefits and is at least 3x as expensive to operate.

I own one but I haven't even unboxed it. A Selphy is a wonderful machine to once in a blue moon or like every week? print an entire postcard. Dye sub tech is excellent for sitting around and doing nothing; i.e you 'll go through some hassle to revive a fountain pen, you used a year ago, but your Selphy will just fire up. Print quality seems decent and the results aren't overly sensitive / quite abusable. But: Prints *are* expensive. If you are a penny pincher, with all the time in the world: Order from DM. If you are an artist: Print bigger! IMHO Selpys are intended to serve as a Polaroid substitute; bring yours somewhere, give people pictures, right in the spot. (You need to buy an extra battery, to print in the field). A wealthy friend of mine uses his Selphy at home. Mine is intended to serve in a pinch.

How portable do you mean or want? - 30 years ago i jobbed for a company that hauled roll fed inkjet plotters to architects. We were two on the van and the plotters quite light (compared to a 4c Heidelberg of at least 2.8t). An apparently capable A4 desktop color laser weighs just 35kg; i.e. I could move it on my own (but have no clue how results compare to the bigger ones, doing photo books and calendars at work). Just stressing: A big inkjet can deliver awesome quality these days and color lasers are cost efficient. Myself I bought a Canon Selphy dyesub, doing postcards (sadly in 3/0) or smaller. - I'd rather have a 3/1, since my handwriting sucks, but... Operating cost will be comparably horrible, but it can sit around free of cost, unlike inkjets, that need regular flushing routines and aren't cheap to operate either Other niggles: Postcards are too tiny Some users reported issues with dust inside their machines. Its more or less "a Polaroid substitute toy" but a way to produce photos at home or elsewhere.

Whatever you do, stay away from the QX10. I used it once, it broke. Sent it back for returns, immediately broke again. Whenever it breaks, it eats the entire cartridge, which is very expensive. Thus of the three cartridges I bought, I got to print one. Terrible product. CP1300 is fine (slow, big, mid quality), INSTAX is fine, too (small, rugged, low quality).

You're asking about price per print, *including* the amortized cost of the printer. In the long run, ink and paper costs always dominate. Short term however, the price of the printer dominates. A more expensive printer, such as the Epson ET8550, will have very good long term cost, but the initial investment is steep. A less expensive printer, such as a Canon SELPHY, will have a modest initial price, but price per picture adds up much faster. The least expensive printer is Walgreen's, with no up-front cost, but high ongoing cost. A second consideration is quality. The more expensive the printer, the higher the print quality. The ET8550 will outperform Walgreens, producing richer colors and more detail. A professional printer such as the Canon Pro 1200, will be even better. The SELPHY does not match Walgreens. And then there's effort. Walgreens takes your JPEGs and prints them. SELPHY does, too. But a dedicated printer will require some fiddling with a computer to get good results. On the flip side, you get to play with various paper types and sizes. But make no mistake, this is extra effort. Personally, I went with a Canon Pro 200, which is roughly equivalent to the Epson ET8550, but cheaper to buy and more expensive to operate. It's all a matter of how much do you intend to print. I also have a much cheaper Epson XP8500, which prints better photos than the SELPHY, for less money, but can't match the Pro 200. I also have a SELPHY, which is nice for what it is, but can't match Walgreen. And I have an INSTAX printer, which fits in my pocket and prints adorable little polaroids. But quality can't match even the SELPHY. Depending on your needs, all of the mentioned printers are a good purchase. In your case, I'd probably recommend the Epson XP8800 as a cheap, good quality photo printer. You'll be able to buy six full ink replacements before you'll reach the cost of the ET8550, which should take several years. If you'd like to splurge, the ET8550 is definitely the better printer, with lower ink costs. And keep in mind that ink is only one part of the running costs. It's easy to get swept up in the marketing that an ecotank printer makes printing "free". But that's ignoring paper costs, which in my experience dominate printing costs in the long run. First party paper is reliable and good, but offers only limited variations. Third party paper requires matching printer profiles, which can be hard to come by for non-professional printers such as the XP8800 (but some paper manufacturers (Photospeed) profile for free, and there are cheap services for creating bespoke profiles).

Essentially, there are 4x6 dye-sub printers like the SELPHY CP1500, the mini dye-subs like the QX10, Zink printers, and INSTAX printers. Stay away from the mini dye-subs. My QX10 broke twice in two weeks, and and each time wasted an entire ink cartridge. They are trash. The other options work well. The big SELPHY is decent quality and large, but slow and loud and not really all that portable. Zink is faster and portable and prints on paper. INSTAX is much faster, least good quality, but with analog charm.

do you want to print at home, right away? then yes the Canon Selphy is a dye sublimation printer which means that it avoids a lot of the pitfalls of a traditional inkjet. Canon sells you a complete kit with paper and dye/ribbon and it works out to like $.35 per image In the US, I can usually print 4x6s at $0.12 per print, but that requires ordering prints and picking them up from a shop or having it mailed if its batched enough. if you print ocasionally, but still often enough and want the control to print at home and dont need larger than 4x6 they are a good choice. I would own one but I prefer 5x7s

I second the Canon Selphy! I've used mine for years and I love the flexibility to print 4x6, 3x4, 2x3, and 2x2 photos so easily. I use the app PicFrame to make the photo collages to print. The ink/paper packs are affordable and you get 108 4x6 photos per box.

Same same! It's my favorite too. And since learning how to remove the backing paper, gluing in pics doesn't add to chonk

Canon SELPHY prints aren't completely light-fast so while they're fine for journaling, they'll fade eventually if on display

I have not had any issues at all. Since I'm a data kind of person, I looked up my receipts and here are my stats, lol: It is the QX10, and I've had it since Dec 2023. I've purchased 120 sheets of photo paper for it and have ~20 sheets right now, so it has printed 100 photos for me so far. 😊

the Canon Selphy has smaller sized sticker paper but I usually just print a collage and then cut out photos. I have one of those rounded corner punches which I think looks cute

The sprocket leaves rly strong pink tiny on the picture, and it gets worse over time. I've had mine for five years and the pictures come out completely pink now. I have a Canon Selphy now, not very mini but super worth it because I can just print a collage to get smaller pictures.

Eu folosesc Canon Selphy. Sunt mai multe modele de imprimante (cu bluetooth sau fara, model mai nou etc). Sunt foarte multumit de calitate. Pozele sunt printate CMY (fara K), fiecare culoare pe rand. Un proces foarte misto de vazut. Iar la sfarsit pune un strat protector, o laminare impotriva apei. Am folosit-o inclusiv cand aveam nevoie de niste poze tip buletin si nu aveam timp/nu stiam unde se mai fac. Mi-am facut o poza, am folosit aplicatia lor si gata. E foarte mica si poate fi luata in bagaj. Cartusul nu se usuca (are niste folii, cauta pe youtube). Costul per poza e de vreo 1,5 lei, depinde de unde iei kit-ul. Singurul inconvenient e ca dimensiunea maxima e de 10x15 cm (cred).

You're welcome! I am very happy with it. You do have to buy ink cartridges for it, but I did the math. The price is pretty comparable to the Sprocket, especially if you're printing 2 images on one 4x6" sheet, but the quality is far superior.

hell yeah-going on a long roadtrip soon and taking it along with stamps and their postcard paper!

I have the canon Selphy square. It prints on sticky back paper and you can use the app to split the photo into collage etc. I usually use the 6 pics per print collàge option and cut them out with my scissors. Peel off the backing and stick - voila. I had the HP sprocket and hated the photo quality and moved to the Selphy square. Significant improvement in printing quality 💕 Edit - spelling

I have a SELPHY square and the cartridges come with the paper.

Yes, I know. I said I have a thermal printer too...in addition to my Canon Selphy.

Hi!! I was in this exact same boat as you. I was torn between the following: Instant: Polaroid hi print, hp sprocket, canon selphy, Kodak retro 2, etc. Printer: Epson eco tank vs canon mega tank I ordered the Polaroid hi print, the quality wasn't good. My friend has the HP sprocket and canon selphy. Sprocket quality is fine but looks like it has a filter on it. Canon selphy was by far the BEST quality but is expensive and figured I could get a new printer at that point. I decided to buy a new ink tank printer and just bought the Canon Mega Tank G3270 on Amazon! It's actually on sale right now which really sealed the deal for me. I got it yesterday and will be setting it up today. I want the ability to print photos whenever I want, so I can use canon photo paper with the canon ink tank, hopefully I get good results! After I set it up I will report back. I am still considering maybe getting a small instant photo printer but I'm going to wait and see how this printer treats me. I have plenty of printable sticker paper so I'm hopeful this will solve most of my problems!!

yes i do, and oh boy printing is in another level of GAS. unless you wont make money out of it, just stick to canon selphy.

I've had a Canon Ivy for years, and also a Canon Selphy square. I tend to use the Selphy a lot because it is newer and higher quality, but the narrower Ivy photos work well if I have a little less space. I got non-proprietary cases for travel and have loved having them!

I enjoy shooting and then tweaking in Lightroom/Photoshop and then I print out the best from the session to show my wife and family. The real good ones I frame but not too often. And pictures of family and friends I hand out. Sometimes I do a few prints just to check out my post processing. So as your efforts progress you may be printing regularly. Canon has the SELPHY which is about $130. I have the Canon Pixma Pro 200 which cost about $600.

If you only want the occasional small print, check out the Canon Selphy line. Laser printers don't do a great job with photos and ink has the known issues of liquid ink.

The Canon selphy is good and can print bigger photos but I find the paper refill hard to find and usually ships from Japan from amazon and a lil too big and non portable for me I'm currently using polarioid hi-print and loving it for my planner, its a 4 pass system and paper is sticky, and thinner than the zinc ones which I really like, quality is not gonna be as clear as the canon selphy but great for the purpose that I'm using it for (planner photos)

I've got a Kodak and honestly all of the mini printers have colour issues of some sort. The only advantage they have is that they use sticker paper. I recently bought a Canon Selphy and that's a little bigger but the colours are so much better

My Canon SELPHY printer has made thousands of prints often within minutes of the photo being taken. For the kind of printing OP is asking about, it's perfect.

I have both an HP Sprocket and a Canon SELPHY. The Sprocket is definitely easier and more convenient to use however the photos look like ass and the paper is super expensive. The Canon SELPHY is overall cheaper and the pictures actually look really good however it is annoying to cut/tape all of the photos. Overall I prefer the Canon.

You'd be surprised at the overall quality (depending of course on what quality you *need*) of an $80 canon selphy. $30($40?) for 108 4x6 prints-(ink comes with the paper) and you can print 4 wallets to a page. And it's portable.

Canon Selphy Portable, battery operated, will do 4x6 which is pretty standard for albums Cheaper ink and papers Don't get into home printing on a proper printer, its more expensive and tedious with paper selection and cutting the paper to size after printing etc Although its fun as a hobby and I do that to make my scrapbook, but I print as big as 8x11

I was reccomended the Canon SELPHY Square by people on this sub. So far I love it, the photo quality is really good, and it prints in a size that is perfect for hobonichis imo (a little smaller than 3x3") Edit: adding on that the paper is sticky back, the refills come in 20 packs for $15 a pop so not terrible

I have a Canon Selphy. The quality is really really good and I can print from my phone with AirPrint.

I tried and returned the HP Sprocket. I then tried and returned the Kodak photo printer. I tried and kept the Canon Selphy. Taking the HP Sprocket out of the discussion, because it's not really comparable to the other two. I had a photo that was taken by a very good photographer (not a professional, but "advanced hobbyist.") I printed each of them and put them side by side. The color and quality of the photo printed on the Selphy was far superior. While the price of the printer itself is higher than the others, the paper and ink for the Canon are cheaper than the Kodak. I had some trouble connecting to the Selphy printer. Honestly, it was kind of a pain. This is probably a "user issue," in that I have a very low patience level for "tech stuff." If you have a teenager or college student handy, they would probably have no problem. I would recommend the Selphy. One thing to note, you can't put the Selphy against the wall. It needs about 4 inches of extra space in the back and 8 inches in the front. It takes up a little more space sitting on a desk than I expected.

For 4x6 prints i bought a canon selphy printer, cost about $150 CAD and I'm happy with the results