|
General Performance
Warm-up Time (6.33)
We measure warm up time by measuring how long it takes for the printer to go from off until it is ready to print. The Canon CP730 took 11 seconds to warm up. This is slightly slower than the Sony DPP-F90’s 7 seconds, but faster than the Epson PM240’s 19 seconds.
Power Usage (6.89)
The Canon CP730 did not draw any measurable amount of power using our wattage meter when off. This is similar to other printers in its class like the Epson PM240 and Sony DPP-F90. The Canon CP730 drew 3 watts of power when ready for printing. This is slightly lower than the closest competitors we tested, the Sony DPP-F90 and Epson PM240, which both drew 4 watts of power when ready for printing. The Canon CP730 can only be described as a power hog when printing, using between 50 and 62 watts of power, for an average of 56 watts. This is roughly the same as the other dye sub printer in our testing lab, the Sony DPP-F90, which drew an average of 55 watts, but almost five times as much as the Epson PM240, which drew only 12 watts of power when printing.
Speed / Timing (5.10)
PrinterInfo tests photo printing speeds with two different sized color images—one 5.8 MB file and one 18 MB file—at the highest quality setting the printer can handle. These tests are The Canon Selphy CP730 printed color 5.8MB photos at the 4x6-inch size print at 0.83 pages per minute (ppm). Larger file sizes did not significantly reduce print times, producing 0.81 ppm. The CP730 performance speed ranked third among the four competitors recently tested--theother three being the Epson Picturemate Snap, the HP Photosmart A440, and the Sony PictureStation FP90 .
The CP730 printed color photos from a memory card at the 4x6-inch print size at 0.98 ppm. The larger file size didn't have much of an impact on speed. The CP730 printed small prints from the memory card slower than the Epson and Sony models, which both printed at 1.36ppm. At .99ppm, the Selphy ranked in the middle of its competitors for large photos printed from a memory card
Color Accuracy (2.50)
When testing for the color reproduction of printers, we look for color accuracy, as it corresponds to an electronic Gretag Macbeth Colorchecker chart (shown below). The 24 color patches of the chart corresponds to gray tones and other often photographed colors, including sky, foliage, and skin. We printed out an electronic version of the chart on the Canon CP730 and read the color patches with an Eye-One spectrophotometer. These values were compared with the ideal L*a*b values of the Colorchecker chart.
The CP730 didn’t do as well as we would have liked to see in terms of color accuracy, though it didn’t distort colors too extremely either. The CP730 increases saturation in most of the colors, decreasing the red and green elements in the blue colors, while removing the red completely from the green hues. This Canon printer has an 8.62 ∆E mean color error, earning an overall score of 2.50, a somewhat low score compared to the other three compact photo printers in the lab. The other dye sub printer, the Sony FP90 had a mean color error of 9.75, while the two inkjet compacts, the Epson Snap and the HP Photosmart A440, yielded error values of 5.04 and 7.99, respectively.
Color Gamut (2.62)
Our color gamut test illustrates how well a printer can reproduce colors within the standard Adobe RGB color space. The more of this color space a printer can cover, the richer and wider the range of colors printed photos can contain. Most compact photo printers are only designed to print within the smaller sRGB color space, but for consistency, we test all printers within the Adobe space. On the graph below, produced using Gamutvision software, the solid color represents the color space that the printer is capable of rendering, while the grid represents the Adobe RGB boundaries. The wider the printer's tones extend within the Adobe color space, the higher the score.
The Selphy CP730 had a rather disappointing score for this test: it managed to cover only 41.28 percent of the Adobe RGB color range. It was particularly weak in the violet and red areas of the color space: the color it reproduces is far removed from the limits of the Adobe RGB space. This was just below the FP90's score of 44.68 percent and the A440's 43.91percent, but well below the Epson Snap's 48.66 percent.
Dmax (4.57)
A very important print quality factor is the number of separate tones a printer can create. This is determined by the blackest black, since the whitest white is set by the paper tone. To evaluate this blackest black on prints, we measure the density, or the amount of light reflected off the paper, which corresponds to a value called Dmax. The less light reflected, the higher the Dmax, and thus the darker the black. Dmax is a value that corresponds in significance to dynamic range in cameras, as both evaluate a device's tonal range.
The Canon CP730 turned in a mediocre performance with Dmax. Its Dmax value of 2.01 is still a respectable black density value, but is also easily trumped by the 2.30 density value of another small dye sublimation printer, the Sony FP90. Tonal transitions, such as those in faces, will not be as smooth with this Canon. This Dmax value came from a test print made using the stock color profile.
Black and White (5)
The black-and-white test image printed on the Canon Selphy CP730 looked surprisingly good. With such a low Dmax value, we expected lackluster performance. While the tonal range was obviously compressed, with blocked up shadows evident, the overall contrast and look of the print was acceptable, with plenty of detail in highlights. Some muddiness was noticeable in the mid-tones as well.
|
