Canon Selphy CP780: Print the great outdoors

Canon must know something we don't -- it clearly thinks spring is crouching and poised. It just released a new Selphy dye-sublimation printer, the CP780, which is designed to connect directly to a digital camera to instantly print anywhere outside the house -- a picnic, Easter-egg hunt, mountaineering expedition, meth-fuelled road trip -- whatever the joys of spring inspire.

We had the pleasure of reviewing its predecessor the CP760 and found it to be an inexpensive, easy gift for those technologically inept family members who can barely work out how to press the shutter button on a camera, much less print out a digital photo.

The CP780 takes the Portrait Image Optimize feature to new heights, adding auto-adjustment features to portray a more realistic, natural re-creation of your image. Although we were happy with the results before, we're anxious to see how well the enhancements will fare. In addition to the image quality, Canon's also made improvements to its internal printing process, and it claims to have whittled the print time for a single 100x150mm (4x6-inch) photo down to a snappy 47 seconds.

To match its latest colourful IXUS cameras, Canon offers the CP780 printer in three springy colours: blue, pink and cool silver. It'll set you back $100 (£70), with no UK price available yet.