Labs

The Canon Pixma Pro9500 sits at the head of one table in this Labs, but unfortunately it's the price table. At a smidgen under £500 it's the most expensive model here, so it's going to have to perform very well to take the honour of Labs Best.

From the outside it looks exactly like and feels the same as it's stablemate, the Pro9000. The construction is sturdy and the plastics are reassuring, but as with the Pro9000 the rear paper tray is a bit flimsy for our liking. We're not kidding when we say the two top-of-the-range Canon printers are similarly designed. Indeed, apart from the external colour scheme and the name badge on the top of the printer they are identical. Inside, however, the Pro9500 is a very different beast.

The inks are pigment-based and rather than a trifling eight tanks this machine has a more manly 10 to choose from. The extra tanks are there to improve the greyscale performance, with photo black and matt black complemented by a grey ink. This combination is designed to give the best monochrome performance. The Pro9500 can use all the Canon speciality

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photo and fine art materials for extended finish choices.

If you're interested in speed, then it's perhaps best to look away now. The Pro9500 was by far and away the slowest device on test, though it was consistent. The fastest image it produced took 12 minutes 34 seconds, while the slowest took 12 minutes 37 seconds. This, according to the people at Canon, is because of the pigment-based inks, which take longer to dry on the page. Though we're fairly sure that the HP boffins would disagree with that reasoning. And so would we given that the HP in this labs also uses pigment-based inks and was faster by a considerable margin.

If you're a fan of black and white, then there's no need to read any of the other reviews as this printer gives the most exceptionally well-balanced and detailed monochrome we've ever seen. Honestly, there was a giddy giggle and gasp from the judges when the results were compared. The black and grey combination really works wonders and the image from the Pro9500 stood head, shoulders, knees and toes above any of the other prints here. From the second the print to hit the output tray we knew it was good, but it was even more impressive when compared to the rest of the field.

Colour performance was, however, less awe-inspiring, with a similar feel to the prints from the Pro9000. Colours are good and detail similar, but overall the final result wasn't quite on a par with the rest of the group. If you shoot in black and white, then there can be no other choice as far as we're concerned, but if you're after an all-round performer there's a better printer available, though the margin between the winners and the also-rans is very small.