A happy Camper reports (Canon i850)

Member Name: isvikthere

Product:	Canon i850
Date:	20/03/03 (3845 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Photolab quality photos with the right photopaper, Silent & Quick, Economical - separate ink tanks and no photocartridge required

Disadvantages: No memorycardslots and no paper detection system, No USB/parallel printer cable included, Recommended Canon Photo Pro paper is expensive

First let me express my amazement that no one in Dooyoo has yet reviewed this printer, which has been available in the States since end September 2002 and which I received only yesterday March 19th, 2003. This is explained by the delay that all new hardware encurs between its launch on the US market and its launch on the EU market. This delay seems to go hand in hand with a higher price. To illustrate the time gap the Canon i850 became available in February 2003 in France and this month of March in Belgium and Holland. This practice has very much worked against Canon as in this same period of time the printer market was flooded with HP's 5550 model, aimed at almost the same public, and which even went through a considerable price fall during that same period.

I have been longing for this exact Canon i850 printer for a while now. In fact ever since I read a very favourable review of it on Tomshardware.com in December 2002. The way it was described there it perfectly fitted the bill of what I had been looking for since I purchased a digital photocamera back in October 2001. At the time I felt immediately that such a camera begged to be coupled to a photoprinter of my own.

Because the Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 690C+ I own and use since December 1997, unlike what was claimed on its carton, was in no way capable of printing quality photos - not even while using the optional and expensive photo cartridge and quality photopaper - until now I called upon the services of a local Photolab to have my digital images in print. This service works very well and the quality of their output is actually quite good and affordable, almost approaching the price per print of a classic film, but obviously it lacks the freedom offered by having your own photoprinter.

So for some time now I had been looking for a printer that not only would print photolab quality prints but also one that would be economical, silent and quick. And this exact Canon i850 model -- w


hich isn't even a dedicated photoprinter in Canon's book -- does exactly all that:

- It undoubtedly prints photolab quality prints especially if you use Canon's own Photo Pro paper.

- It is quick : for now I've tested it only on an old Pentium2-computer running Windows2000 and through a USB 1.1 connection but already then it prints a 4"x6" photo in under 1 minute. If however you would be using an up-to-date computer, your printing times would be even less. This printer uses the older USB 1.1 standard but as the newer USB2.0 is backwards compatible, the printer will work whatever the standard your PC is using.
If you want to print even slower the i850 does still have a parallel port on board. However no printer cable of any type is included in the package, so be sure to order one separately.

- It is economical, even compared with HP's comparable 5550 offering, which is about 30 % cheaper than this Canon. Because unlike the HP5550 the Canon i850 has four separate ink tanks (black, cyan, magenta, and yellow) and needs no special photo cartridge to print photographs. So obviously when you run out of ink you only need to replace the cartridge that has really run out. Nowadays the price of cartridges, especially for people printing a lot, has become much more important than the initial purchase price of a machine. However on the i850 replacing cartridges, or the printing head for that matter, is a breeze. I should also note that it does lack the paper dectection system the HP5550 has built in.

- Canon currently has the lead in inkjet technology, with its advanced bubblejet printing heads like the one used on this i850 and also on the even newer i950 (Canon's "real" Photoprinter aimed to replace the S900) it can place the smallest ink droplets on paper in the industry. The main difference between the i850 and the i950 is that the latter uses two more colours for photoprinting an
d costs almost double the price of the i850.

- I can't comment extensively on its text and non-photo colour quality yet as I intend to use my Deskjet 690C for text and normal colour print until its expensive cartridges run dry, this could still be a while since I don't print text that much. But the printing speed for normal documents is brilliant.

For the bargain hunters amongst you I would give the advice to test it with photopapers offered by other manufacturers to see if the Canon paper can be replaced by something cheaper as the recommended Canon Photo Pro paper IS without a doubt expensive. Also they would have to test - and maybe I will in the future risk it myself - to see if using cheap refill kits won't affect the brilliant photo output of this Canon i850 too adversely allowing for further savings. However compared to the HP original cartridges for my Deskjet 690C, I don't think the prices for the original Canon cartridges are that steep compared to Epson or HP prices, and remember that you only need to replace the colour that has run out at not all three colours at once.

THE PACKAGE

The i850 comes with some sample Canon Photo pro 4"x6" paper, printhead, ink cartridges, user manual and driver and software CD's but with NO printer cable. There's a lot of sticky tape to be removed to free all panels and slots but it's not a big hassle. Printhead and ink tanks are packaged separately so you still need to unwrap them and install them in the printer yourself which is no big challenge.

Then you slide the installation CD into your computer up to a point where the procedure asks you to switch on the printer after which it is detected and the software installation is finalized. Once you've installed everything the printer does a selfcheck and at the first printjob urges you do do a headalignment test which allows you to do some adjustments if necessary. After that you're rea
dy for business !

UPDATE
For now I've tested the i850 also with HP photopaper and they don't get along that well, printing quality is inferior to that with Canon's own paper and the print takes a very long time to dry.

The cheapest option for now without compromising the photo output, if you trust your steady hand, is to buy Canon's own A4 photopaper and print four borderless photos on it, which you can then cut up. The Canon printing software utilility delivered with the printer is excellent for this as is the other utilitiy which allows you to view your photos as you would in a normal album, far better than what the Windows explorer can do for you.

Summary: