A fun toy that delivers professional results!

I received a CP-200 for a recent birthday, and so far I am completely loving this compact, easy-to-use photo printer.

It comes packaged with enough ink and paper to create 5 postcard sized prints. The ink cartridge is really more of a sheet, and is the simplest, least messy cartridge I've ever installed. Although there are drivers included with the printer, this little guy is truly plug and play. (It helps that I have the Elph, iBook combo that this printer is practically tailor-made for).

The PictBridge technology lets you attach any digital camera directly to the printer (with a standard USB cable, not included). The interface was intuitive and easy to use. Especially helpful was the quick-start guide, which provided illustrated step-by-step set-up w/o all the troubleshooting and details...perfect for impatient people like me!

If you have photos on disc, or stored to your computer's hard drive, you can quickly attach your printer to your computer with a standard printer/USB cable (also not included). If you already have a printer, as I do, you can use that cable. If not, you will have to purchase this cable for 10-15 dollars. Leaving the required cables out of the package seems like strange oversight, considering the plug and play nature of this product. The Amazon reviewer erroneously claims the appropriate USB cable(s) is/are included; a quick peek at the Canon website confirms they are not.

Small technical inconveniences aside, this product really is a breeze to use. And what the other reviewer and Amazon don't mention is how FUN it is to watch your photos come out! The printer does three passes, yellow, red, and blue, each pass creating a more vivid, photo-quality image. It's way more satisfying than watching an old-school Polaroid sharpen and develop from that yellowish haze to a full-fledged picture.

As for the picture quality. It's not quite as good as getting them professionally developed, but it's *much* better than any other digital camera printer I've seen, including my parents' HP photo printer. The spontaneity and convenience more than make up for the negligible dip in resolution.

I haven't had this much fun with a birthday present since I was a kid! I can't wait to buy the little sticker labels and make my own neo-prints! Plus, this printer is even small enough to bring to parties! (Since there's no computer required, it's truly portable)

One last caveat. Although the other reviewer had no problems getting their film/paper refills; I have not had much luck so far. True, you can order off Amazon (and even get free shipping!) But when I was looking for some instant gratification the other day, I tried both Costco (which had refills for the HP printer; and paper alone), and Office Max, where the Print Center guy hadn't even *heard* of the CP-200. I haven't even been able to find the promised sticker labels *anywhere* online, aside from Canon's website. In addition, Canon's insistence on packaging the ink and paper together (the ink is not available separately as far as I know) forces users to buy their paper as well...which is a pain for those of us who would rather buy photo paper in bulk from Costco and save a little money.