Canon’s range of dye-sublimation printers – which print using rolls of film rather than jets of ink – is being updated.

Although the new models look funky and bright, the print mechanism they use is much the same as what has gone before.

In this printer, as with similar ones from Canon, you clip the paper cassette, which is packaged separately to the main unit, onto the front of the printer before starting. It's then a matter of loading the dye-sublimation film cassette in at the side and using the 6cm fixed screen to select the images to be printed. The CP-750 prints a 15x10cm photo in around 70 seconds, which is quick compared with most small-format ink-jet printers.

The printer can take most of the popular memory card formats, with the exception of SmartMedia, although this format is getting increasingly long in the tooth and it's rare to find it even on older cameras. It can, of course, also be connected to a PC using a USB connection, and to cameras that carry the Pictbridge logo. In a clever touch, it's not necessary to have a separate cable for this, as there’s a pull-out cable attached that will fit many cameras – certainly most of Canon’s.

The new features are mainly in the software, which now includes automatic red-eye removal. It's not necessary to target individual eyeballs, just let the printer know there are red eyes to be corrected. Then there’s Mycolor, a set of effects filters including sepia, black and white and bright colours. These effects don’t show on the preview display, though, which is a shame.

Print quality is as good as in Canon’s previous dye-sub printers, with smooth colour transitions and crisp details, and while it doesn't cover the whole paper, the end of every print is perforated, so they can be torn off to give a true borderless print. The prints the CP-750 makes overlap this perforation by 2mm, though, so some edge details may be lost.

Shop around and it's possible to buy the print packs, containing the ribbon and paper, at prices which equate to a cost per print of around 14.5p, something that compares very favourably with most ink-jet printers.

Vista compatible: Yes