Bill Frakes, Sports Illustrated photographer, documents his experience photographing the 2009 Super Bowl. Includes example images and links to Super Bowl photography.
Photographer and author, LaNola Stone, shares with us thoughts on being behind the lens while photographing children with this celebration of mothers of all kinds.
Canon have recently released two new printers, the CP-220 and CP-330. Both are
small format portable dye-sub printers. The major difference is that the CP-330
has built in Li-ion battery power, while the CP-220 requires line power. Both can
be operated from a 12v car battery via an adapter (CBA-CP100) which sells for
around $90. The printers require 24v to operate, so the car battery adapter has
to boost the voltage, which means you can't just kludge an adapter to a 12v
supply just using the right cable and connectors.
These are small format printers, capable of printing 4x6 prints, credit card
sized prints (2.1" x 3.4"), mini-stickers (0.9" x 0.7", 8 to a sheet) and long
format 4" x 8" prints. A neat touch is that the special 4" x 6" paper that this
printer requires has standard postcard markings on the back (see below), so you
can actually send your postcard sized prints as postcards! Each paper size
requires it's own cassette. The CP-220 comes with the cassette to hold 4x6 paper,
while the CP-330 comes with both the 4x6 and 4x8 cassettes as standard. The
credit card size cassette is sold seperately.
back of 4"x6" printing paper
Unlike ink jet printers, where you can buy the paper from many suppliers and
obtain 3rd party inks, the CP-220 and CP-330 require paper/ink packs sold by
Canon. Each pack contains both the paper and the dye-sub ink cassette to print on
them. The standard 4x6 pack is the KP-36IP and it will print exactly 36 prints at
a cost of around $18, making the cost of each print $0.50.
The prints have a sealing layer over them which makes them waterproof and
impervious to fingerprints. This is obviously a great advantage if you actually
want to mail them as postcards!
The printers are quite small (6.7" x 4.7" x 2.2" ), so they'll actually fit
into a camera bag, and they're no heavier than a typical SLR (around 30oz). Full
printer specifications can be found on the
CP-220
specifications page
Dye-Sub vs. Ink jet
The CP-220 is a dye-sub (dye sublimation) printer. This means that it it
operates by subliming (vaporizing) dye from a sheet onto the printing paper. It
does this in 4 passes. On the first pass through the printer the print is in
contact with the yellow ink sheet, and areas requiring yellow are transferred
from the dye sheet to the paper. Then the print makes a second pass through the
printer and this time the dye-sub cassette moves a magenta sheet over the print
and transfers dye in the area requiring magenta. On the third pass this is
repeated, this time the cyan sheet is used to transfer cyan to the print and the
color printing is complete. On a final, fourth, pass a clear protective coating
is applied. This is shown schematically in the following figure:
All colors can be made up from yellow, cyan and magenta. Black is all three
colors, white is none at all, just as in an ink-jet printer. Below are crops from
a sample image and the magenta frame from the dye sub print used to make it. As
you can see in the areas of the print that are black, all the magenta has been
transferred from the dye sheet. In other areas only some of the magenta is
transferred (see the setting sun in the lower right to see an area with partial
transfer).
Software
The CP-220 comes with the CP printer solutions disk (CD), which contains both
printer drivers and the Canon ZoomBrowser EX software
Printing
Printing can be done from a PC in a manner similar to that used for any
printer. A driver is installed for the printer and you select the printer as your
output device when printing from a program. A standard USB connection between the
printer and PC is used. However the printer can also be connected directly to any
Canon camera which supports direct printing, or it can be connected to any
PictBridge compliant printer from any manufacturer. I tried printing from
PhotoShop as well as directly from a Canon 10D digital SLR using Canon direct
print and from an HP-R707 digicam using the PictBridge protocol. All three
methods worked equally well with no glitches. Printing from PhotoShop is
obviously much more flexible since you can make color and density adjustments
before printing. Using all the default setting I found the images just a fraction
too cyan, but a very small tweak to the image colors easily fixed that and in
general colors seemed accurate and bright. Printing directly from a camera
requires a well exposed original since image adjustments aren't possible. Well
exposed images printed well. Note that you can print (essentially) full frame
from a 10D image which has a 1:1.5 aspect ratio just like 4x6 paper, but if
you're printing from a digicam with a 4:3 aspect ratio there has to be some
cropping to print 4x6.
Each print requires 4 passes of the paper through the printer and the total
time for a 4" x 6" print is around 90 seconds. The actual paper is about 4" x 7",
with a 1/2" tear off strip at each end. The extra length is required to enable
edge to edge (borderless) 4" x 6" printing. The strip is microperforated so it
tears off leaving a very clean edge. Bordered prints can also be selected via in
camera software when printing directly from a camera, or via the usual software
driver options when printing from a computer.
Note that the CP-220 comes with a 5 print pack of paper and dye sub ink, so
you'll probably want to order at least one 36 print kit with the printer.
Conclusions
If you need a portable printer, the CP-220 is an excellent choice. During the
review no glitches occurred and the prints were generally of high quality. The
prints are waterproof and fingerprint resistant which is something that may be
very useful if you're printing pictures at an event (a party for example), plus
they can be sent through the mail as postcards. The only drawback to this
portable printer is that it does need AC power to operate. If you want to print
somewhere away from available AC power, you'd either need the 12v car adapter
(and extra $90), or you'd need to go for the battery powered CP-330 version which
costs an extra $85 ($255 vs. $170). Prints are reasonably priced at around $0.50
each if you buy the 36 print kit ($18) or closer to $0.41 each if you buy the 108
print kit ($45). This is more than online prints would cost, but comparable to
the cost of prints from some 1hr photo stores.
Where to buy
The CP-220 (and CP-330) are available from most of the photo.net affiliate
stores listed below. Purchasing from these vendors via these links helps to
support photo.net.
What about a comparison between the quality of the output from the CP-220 and a similarly priced Canon ink jet printer? Would that comparison be something that's worthwhile?
I'd say the print quality of the CP-220 is very similar to that of any good injet printer. I have a Canon i900D and there's really no significant difference in visible image quality for 4x6 prints.
I'll try some B&W printing this weekend. Actually I don't see many potential buyers of this printer being particulary concerned about B&W print quality, but I will try it and post the results.
I'm trying to figure out who this printer is targeted at. its all the work of making your own prints with all of the cost of paying someone else to do them. really, the best thing it had going for it is the durability of dye-sub. (and how well does it hold up to heat?)
I've always wanted to be able to mail out new-product postcards in small quantities (50-100 pcs) This printer sounds ideal - more durable than an inkjet, no minimum press run, no envelope needed! Thanks for the inspiration Bob. It would be nice if Canon would offer serious bulk pricing for the supplies.
"I'm trying to figure out who this printer is targeted at."
Me, possibly. My wife and I regularly travel out of town to visit my technologically backwards in-laws, and I usually hump along my dSLR to take shots of the family for my wife. Inevitably, I'm asked to make a set or two of extra prints when we get home, and mail them back. Royal p-i-t-a. I'm thinking about buying one of these to "toss" into my laptop bag. Then I could output some *durable* 4x6's on the spot (if I get really lazy, without even downloading them to my laptop first!).
I have the CP-200 as well. If you look at prints with a 10x loupe, you will see a grid pattern, but no halftone patterns as it is continuous color. The most interesting model is the CP-300/330, which is portable and battery-powered, and clearly designed to offer instant printing on the road, i.e. a Polaroid-killer.
If you don't need the battery power option, you might also consider the HP Photosmart series. I've been using a HP145 for the last few weeks and it's great for producing file prints. You'll probably find it much cheaper than the Canon to run and judging by the results I'm getting it will give you just as good quality output. It's a little bulkier than the Canon and to be fair, the Canon's prints may win on longevity but the HP model is so much cheaper to buy and run.
I have the CP-200, and it is an excellent little printer for 4x6s. Someone asked who this printer is aimed at, and I would say it is aimed at someone like myself who likes to color correct, crop and manipulate his photos, then print maybe one or two. If I want a lot of copies, I take the flash card to Wal-Mart and have them printed. If I want one or two, I use my CP-200. Since the prints are formated for postcards, I find that I send a lot of postcards to my friends now. I will take an interesting photo, do a quick post card, then mail it off. The CP-200/220 is a fun little printer that fills a niche in the market.
Much cheaper way to go portable would be a cigarette lighter inverter from Radio Shack - $50.00 or so, and it also powers your chargers. For about $20 more a bigger version will also power a laptop. These are a much better way to go than propriatary 12v adaptors.
I have to wonder about the market for these, also. Seems like the primary advantage to this is instant turnaround. I prepurchase 4x6 prints in bulk online for $0.18 per print (550 prints) and get great die-sub results. I can upload 30 pics of the kids and have them sent directly to the grandparents. So I'm paying less than half as much per print and have no up-front equipment cost.
There are certainly people who need instant prints, but it seems like these printers are marketed to those who aren't familiar with, or don't trust, the alternatives.
These printers are marketed to me! I own both a CP-300 and a CP-200. I first bought the CP-300 so I could print out proofs to customers when doing on-location portraits. It's proved very useful and clients love being able to take some photos home right away. I then bought the CP-200 to be able to print photos more quickly at parties where the attendees can take their photos home that same evening.
While they tend to overheat after 13 prints in a row, once they cool down they keep going and have very good quality. The difference between the CP-200 and CP-220 is that the new ones (-220 and -330) will print 4x8 prints as well as 4x6 and wallets.
concerning the CP-330 i would like to know :
1) how many photos can you take with 1 battery?
2) what kind of batteries are it and can you use rechargeable batteries of another brand?
3) is it correct that the printer suffers from overheating after 13 pictures? and if so: how long does it need to "cool down"?
i would like to be able to make pictures during a party, and hand them out to people immediately. it would be cool if i could make like 100 per party. is that realisable with that printer, or are there other printers that would be better for that?
I've been looking into battery powered photo printers all day and the Canon CP-330 is exactly what I want! BUT.. I have a Nikon D80...will they not be compatible??
, June 23, 2004; 10:39 A.M. 
