Product Reviews

Traditional film photography still has a certain charm, and for many it's no less convenient than digital photography. However, when it comes to reproducing your work in hard copy, digital photography - or just digital imaging - has one key advantage over film in that you can print your photos at home. Whether you're using a digital camera or just scanning in your old prints, the home photo printer is something that proves very handy, and if you take photography seriously you'll want to get the best model out there. Both HP and Epson offer good photo printing these days, but at £250 the six-colour, 2,400dpi Canon S800 is a definite contender for the crown.

As with the Canon BJC-8200 (see Labs, issue 67, p98), the S800's photo results were absolutely stunning. The finish on Canon's PR-101 paper is gorgeous, and the photo prints have a natural sheen and feel that complements the superb print quality. All the detail is captured in both light and dark areas, the colour blending is smooth, and even with a magnifying glass it's difficult to see any grain. Every photo test we could throw at it, including interiors, landscapes and skin tones, were reproduced with the kind of results you expect from a genuine photo lab.

Its main advantage over the competition, though, is speed. On the Super Photo setting, it takes just two minutes, 46 seconds to produce a stunning A4 photo. If you go into the advanced settings and take the quality up even further, the software gives you a warning about taking longer to print on higher settings. Canon needn't have bothered, as even on its highest settings the S800 only takes four minutes, 56 seconds for an A4 print - very impressive compared to the 24 minutes, 29 seconds taken by the Epson Stylus Photo 890 (reviewed issue 79, p178), and the difference in print quality is indiscernible.

The superb photo results come as a slight surprise, as photo printing is precisely what the new S450 (reviewed issue 78, p146) and S600 (reviewed issue 80, p156) struggled with. Where the aforementioned models excelled was in text printing on plain paper, so we were interested to see how the S800 fared on these tests too. The good news is that the draft text quality is very reasonable, and working out at 4.1ppm (pages per minute) it's fairly quick too. The only disappointment is that

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on standard mode the text quality deteriorates: while the ink is blacker, the characters are distinctly shaky and lack the clarity of the S600's prints. This is only when using plain paper though, and if you use Canon's HR-101 coated paper you can expect some superb results.

We put this paper to the test on a four-page colour PageMaker document and, as with the photo tests, the results were stunning. The S800 excelled on graphics in the document, which came out smooth and colourful. Even without glossy photo paper, photos were still impressively realistic. Black text also improved dramatically on coated paper, with deep black characters that retained sharpness even when printed at different font sizes and at varying angles.

Even more impressive was the PC Pro colour-fade test, which was printed on Canon's HR-101 paper. The S800 produced smooth colour transitions, again with no visible grain, and despite occasional stepping the performance still puts most other inkjets to shame. All the colour blocks were also faithfully reproduced, with smooth colours and greyscales and little evidence of the colours' composite makeup, unlike the grainy results from the S450 and HP DeskJet 980cxi (reviewed issue 80, p157).

Little has changed in the driver since the BJC-8200, and Canon unfortunately still insists on icon-driven presets, which aren't always self-explanatory for some jobs. It may be more user-friendly, but it would be a better idea to have a resolution control in the advanced options, or to have a greater variety of presets.

The main advantage Canon has over rivals like HP and Epson is its individual ink system. At £7 each, the cartridges are relatively cheap to replace, and you only need to replace each colour as and when you need to, without having to buy everything at once. Each cartridge has a lifespan of 280 pages at five per cent coverage, and the running costs work out at 15p per page at 30 per cent coverage. It isn't especially cheap to run, but then the S800 isn't meant to be a business workhorse.

Likewise, the initial asking price of £250 isn't wallet-friendly by modern standards. In fact, it's £89 more than the Epson Stylus Photo 890, but that's the price you pay if you want the best machine for the job. In terms of quality, there isn't a lot between the Epson and the Canon on photo prints, but the S800 is almost six times as fast, even on its highest settings. Also, while the text quality won't rival Lexmark or HP inkjets, the draft text prints were leagues ahead of the Epson in terms of quality.

If you can't find the extra money and can live with slower photo print speeds for occasional printing, then the Epson 890 is your best bet. However, if you want the fastest and highest-quality photo printer and can find the extra cash, then the S800 should be at the top of your list. Welcome back Canon, the S800 is a landmark in photo printing.