Canon has had considerable success with its dye sublimation photo printers and the Selphy ES1 is a second-generation model. The company has made a number of design changes from the first generation, the most obvious of which are the ES1's vertical construction - it looks something like a digital radio - and its incorporation of consumables into a single cartridge.

With Canon's take on dye sublimation, each print passes through the printer four times, as layers of cyan, magenta and yellow dyes are transferred from a thin carrier film to the photo blank. A transparent protective layer makes up the fourth coating. The dye sublimation film and up to 100 sheets of 15 x 10 centimetre (6 x 4-inch) photo paper load into a cartridge, which slots in at the side of the machine.

When you print a picture on the Selphy ES1, a sheet of photo paper slides out from a slot near the bottom of the machine and is then turned through 90 degrees before being fed back in to take the first layer of dye. This novel approach is fascinating to see in action, but isn't the only unusual feature of the printer.

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Under a small cover on the left-hand side is a miniature USB plug on an extending cable. This plugs into most recent digital cameras and we tried it on HP and Ricoh models as well as a Canon one, without problem. Not having to carry a laptop around or fiddle around with memory cards is quite a bonus when you want to print out pictures quickly.

Buttons on top of the printer provide good control of its functions and can be used to navigate the menu system, as well as to preview and manipulate images on the fold-up, 63mm LCD monitor. Basic editing, such as cropping an image, removing red-eye and adding effects like sepia tint or a speech bubble, can all be achieved using the control panel, but you can connect the printer to a PC to make more detailed changes.

Print quality is excellent, with vivid colours and sharp detail, and the print speed, at just over 70 seconds per print, is also impressive. You can buy cartridges with paper and film sufficient for 50 or 100 prints and the cheaper option is the 100 print pack for £21. This gives a cost per print of 21p, which is a little higher than some of the competition but not excessively so.

This is an intriguing little printer which can be used completely standalone - though you'd have to add the optional Lithium Ion battery pack - to produce very high quality photos from most recent digital cameras. Both purchase price and running costs are a little above average, but you get what you pay for.