Review: Canon PV-123 Mini Photo Printer

I was not really the type of person to print out the countless of photos that I have sitting in my phone photo album. I used to have a printer which could also print out 4R photos (as with all the printers nowadays), and I got myself a FujiFli instax which can print out polaroids  so it never occurred to me about have a compact little printer which could print out photos on the fly.

The printer was used to print out documents more than photos and at the time, I was not really into photo albuming or scrapbooking so 4R photos was hardly printed out. As for the Instax, it is pretty much collecting dust: while it might seem fun the photos never come out the way I want it, you only get one shot at the photo and it you got it wrong, well there goes a piece of wasted paper. Moreover, the film is pretty expensive and expires super fast.

So here comes the Canon PV-123 Mini Photo Printer. There are 3 colors: pink, mint and grey.  

At just 11.9 cm and weighing 160 g, it really is a portable little device. The usual retail price is SGD$149 but Shopee had it for SGD$1 cheaper, so no guesses where I bought my printer from (with the voucher I had, I saved another SGD$10). Did I mention I bought it via Shopback so I got some cashback from my order on top of that? 😆

[Review for Shopback’s Cashback]

If you are interested to try out Shopback and want a SGD$5 coupon you can use on your first purchase, sign up here!

 

Design and Photo Paper

The Canon PV-123 Mini Photo Printer boasts a solid, rectangular body made entirely of hard plastic. Its compact size and light weight makes it an extremely travel-friendly / on the go device. Since it is compact, the photos it produces are 2 x 3-inch wallet-sized prints. The cool part of the prints are that they are sticker based you can peel them off and paste them onto a photo album or is you are scrapbooking or journaling, it adds that little personalized touch when you stick on a photo you took.

You also don't need to worry about ink cartridge: the Canon Mini Photo Printer uses ZINK technology that boasts inkless printing which uses specialized photo paper that produces colors when exposed to heat. The device can print a single photo in 10-20 seconds, depending on the image resolution and size. Do note that the performance also depends on the image source.

For about SGD$20, each box contains 20 sheets of 2x3 ZINK photo paper, separately packed in individual pack per 10 sheets. That's about SGD$1 per photo, which is pretty sustainable as long as you are not mass printing photos on a large scale. That said I did discover that Qoo10 was selling a bundle of  (60 sheets) for just SGD$42.40.

[S$42.40][Canon]3 x Canon Zink Photo Paper Pack ZP-2030 (60 Sheets)

WWW.QOO10.SG

Ease of use

Before printing out the photos, you'll need to download the Canon Mini Print App, which is both available on the Play Store and Apple Store. Once the app is installed, you are on your way to printing out your photos with a click of a button (and turning on the bluetooth of course). The app interface is user friendly and easy on the eyes: I could easier select the photos I wanted to print and send it to the printer. There are even options to connect the app to your social media accounts so you can take images straight off the your profile!

You can also further customize the photo before sending it to print:

  • select a preferred filter
  • add frames
  • add stickers
  • add text and all kinds of other fun stuff to personalize each photo

The box also comes with a cable to charge and a packet of 10 photo papers
 

Photo Quality

In terms of photo quality, the printer has its own color characteristic: they shift towards the warmer tone while the shadows have a shade of red cast to it. So don't expect the photos to be as saturated like regular prints. Other than that, the photos are pretty alright and perfect for my new journaling hobby. Just make sure the photos you want to print are well lit and not dark, as those prints do not come out very nice. The alternative is you could use the filers to try to improve the photo before sending it to print.

 

Verdict

The charging might take some time, but it's about the same as charging your mobile phone. The only difference is that the printer kind of dies after printing out 10 photos and can get a bit warm - it needs to be charged often if you are printing alot at a time. Otherwise, it is a small little hiccup for such a fun and convenient little device.

As the printer comes with Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, it can be linked with Android and iOS mobile devices through the Canon Mini Print App. The app also allows access to several cloud, and social media sites such as Dropbox, Google Photos, Facebook, and Instagram, making it ever so easy to print out photos anytime. It's a perfect little gadget to print out photos on the go and there are many creative ways to use the "sticker". It's also a plus that the prints are water-resistant and tear-proof.  It should come with a warning label for how addictive it is, I have already gone through 2 packets of photos.


Do you print out your photos and which is your favorite printer? 


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When travel collides with a byte, a unit of information made up of bits, TravelBytez is formed: snippets of ramblings on travel, food, shopping, living and anything else that comes to mind.

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