When "instant" photography was in its heyday, if you wanted to gather a crowd around you at a party, all you had to do is whip out a Polaroid camera. The magic of producing images in minutes, regardless of their quality, was an irresistible draw. Analogous feats of prestidigitation can be accomplished with Canon's new Selphy ES2 ($199) compact photo printer.



Although bigger and heavier than even those first Polaroids, the printer is still portable enough to be toted beyond the confines of the home. the unit has a large three-inch LCD display and a unique cartridge system that includes paper and ink. With 16 templates and a library of clip art for embellishing your photos, you can produce a variety of four-by-six- or two-by-three-inch prints. You can also edit snapshots before you print them-soften their focus, for example, or remove red-eye-and with the unit's Portrait Image Optimizer, automatically correct faces in a pic for brightness and contrast.

Why pass your camera around at your next social gathering so everyone can view your last shot on its LCD when you can print out a copy of it for everyone who wants one?