Canon i850 Photo Printer

5 and 2 pico-liter droplet size for ink...S900 is 4 pico-liter
248 RAM buffer for quicker printing compare with 80 for S900
4 colors of ink cartridges including a double size black (because it does text well, too)which is cheaper to replace than 6 cartridges on S900
Very, very quiet operation BOth were quiet but I850 was quieter
Liked the fact the I850 has a door that closes on front AND BACK...the S900 doesn't close on back to keep dust out
Smaller in size than S900...and sleeker looking in aluminum look

Bottom line...I could see a difference in certain kinds of pictures...I saw a little more purple in a flower picture printed on the S900 and more of a deep blue color on same picture printed on I850...the picture looked more blue than purple on my computer though so I don't know how good a test this was. This color shade difference may be due to the 49 graduations of color available on S900 and only 27 on the I850. But, on most printing, the sharpness seemed to be slightly better on the I850..only slightly better...details were darker on the I850, like outlines of green leaves on trees.
Would I justify the difference in price for the difference in print...ABSOLUTELY NOT. It just seems that the I850 is the newest printer technology and the S900, although only out since March 2002, will probably be replaced in the next 6 months or so with newer technology similar to the I850. Some colors on S900 came out with a different shade like bails of hay in a Halloween shot; on S900 it had a little more yellow tones than the I850 but the I850 had more detail on lines in hay and on my kids hair. Both were excellent and I took both 8 1/2x11 sheets (1 from each printer) to my local Best Buy store on a Saturday and the Canon rep working there couldn't tell the difference between the two printer's results. Bottom line is; If you need a magnafying glass to see the difference, then the I850 should be the choice. These pictures on both printers rival those that you get from local photo developing store...and you can adjust the contrast, brightness and color to your liking.
The speed when printing pictures on the I850 is fast. Again, I must stress how quiet this machine is while printing. You will almost forget it's on even when printing. The software that came with the I850 is Canon's Zoombrowser 3.5 version...the S900 came with older version. I took the pictures to show some friends and they couldn't believe I printed them at home. If you get this printer, you will not regret your purchase. Just remember, from what I've heard, that it does make a difference which photo paper you use...Canon's Photo Paper Pro is the BEST (and Canon claims pix will last 25 years on this paper). The text is quoted in Black/White as 22 ppm (WOW). Also, haven't done it yet but I've heard from other's that the I850 does awesome Black and White pictures...better than the S900. I hope this helps in your decision...by the way, it does only take about 30 seconds to do a high quality 4x6 print on this printer. An Epson of equal comparison would easily take at least 4 to 5 minutes to do the same print!!!


Best all round Inkjet in the market   December 5, 2002
58 out of 58 found this review helpful

my printer searching began months ago when the new hp 7xxx and canon ix50 and epson x25 werent even out. I have comapared this printer to almost everyone in the category. The HP series produces good prints but with snail slow speeds and little cartridges are way to expensive. Next the Epsons, much more slower than Hp but little better print quality. the printer gulps up the ink cartridges. Now comes the Canon i850. I downloaded a 3 MP image from internet and printed it on the photo pro paper included. The next minute, my expression is WOW! I really did not expect that the quality will be that good. I can say that it is better than 35mm developed photo too. Then the put some Hp photo paper to print the photo, and the same photo was terrible. So better used canon paper or Epson works fine too. Text printing is superb considering it is a inkjet. Again u need good paper like HP 106 brightness. the Word documents came laser crisp and lightning fast. Speed is also a big factor that makes this printer a real winner. the photos as well as text come popping out. I think this printer is the best in the market for right now. If u want pro quality photos that rival those of s900 and lab proccesed, buy this printer. Most photo printers stink at text but this prints "laser" sharp text on good paper. Once again do not waster your money buying one of the HP 73xx or epson x25 or the other canon photo printers. this on is the best money can buy. canon japan has already introduced the canon i950, the six color inkjet with the same technology as i850. If you are a really dedicated photo enthusiast, you may want to wait for i950 or else I850 is more than enough for me


Wow!   November 21, 2002
M. Guerrero (San Francisco, CA United States)
46 out of 46 found this review helpful

The i850 produces the best photo prints I've ever seen from an inkjet. I looked at the HP 7350 and a few from Epson because I've never owned a printer from any other manufacturer. When I started to read the reviews about this printer, I decided to check one out in person. I was immediately impressed by the quietness and speed -- and WOW, the finished print -- I couldn't find any flaws. I thought my HP 970 printed great photos but the Canon blows it away. I'll keep the HP because it still is a great all-around printer and I've only had it for a 2 yrs. Inkjet technology has made some great advances the past few years! And Mac users, this is a great printer because it works perfectly with OS 10.2 Jaguar -- including borderless prints. Just download the current drivers from Canon's web site. This is a fantastic printer for the price. A side note, one reason I decided to go with this Canon printer is because I've been very pleased with their scanners too. I have the N1240 and it produces great color tones with all my photo scanning. I highly recommend the i850 printer.


The Best Photo/General Purpose Inkjet Printer You Can Buy!   December 28, 2002
44 out of 44 found this review helpful

I purchased this printer 2 months ago and have found the perfect home printer. The main reason I was in the market was the high cost of "color" inkjet cartridges that I went through like candy in my old Canon and HP printers. I did my research and I wanted a printer that had separate color tanks so that if I ran out of cyan ink I wouldn't have to trash the whole cartride that most likely had plenty of yellow and magenta inks. The individual tanks are far cheaper to buy (at about ~$$$ each) than a new color cartridge (~$$$).

Now for performance. The output quality is fantastic. I have printed out over 40 photos on 4x6 glossy photo paper (I have used 3 different premium glossy brands with little, if any, discernable difference in sharpness or color fidelity. I work for a large major medical equipment manufacturer and we ditribute "low-end" printers for over $10,000 that you would not be able to tell the difference in quality with the naked eye given the same source input. The bottom line is that the photo print capability of this printer is nothing short of stunning. I am also more than happy with the general purpose color and document printing on standard high resolution paper contrary to a number of reviews (usually from editorial product reviewers) that I have seen elsewhere.

The speed of both photo and general purpose printing is nothing short of astounding. I couldn't believe my eyes at the output speed of photo prints and general purpose documents. Documents came out nearly as fast as a laser printer I have at work. And the pinter is so darn quiet. Except for the normal "thunk" as the paper is fed into the machine, I can barely hear the printhead while it is in operation.

In short, if you are looking for a printer that is miserly on printing supplies that produces fabulous photo and general purpose output, then GET THIS MACHINE!


i850 Hits Price/Performance Sweet Spot   November 17, 2002
P. Thorson (Columbus, OH United States)
39 out of 39 found this review helpful

As everyone else has noted, this is a very good printer for the cost. The performance will probably be sufficient for all but the most particular users. I just printed out a 8.5"x11" borderless print and cannot find a flaw in it. And the print out was relatively quick: 2'30" for a 1.5MB file.

The printer comes with the following:
- CD with 3 or 4 software programs, the drivers, and the complete documentation
- quick start guide
- (really) quick start poster which was enough to get everything running
- sample pack of the Canon 4"x6" Photo Paper Pro
- print head, ink cartridges, and power cord

As noted by other reviewers, a cord to connect the printer to your computer is not included. I bought a Belkin F3U133-06 USB Device Cable (6 Feet) which has the square connector for the printer and the flat connector for the computer. The printer can also use a parallel port cable, but I have not tested this.

Installation was pretty simple and worked fine with my old ('97) Windows 98 desktop and my new Windows 2000 laptop. I've mostly used the Easy Photo-Print program to print images. It automatically makes the proper printer settings so you don't have to worry about that.

Another nice feature is the Auto Power Setting available from the Maintenance tab. The printer can be setup to turn on when a document is printed to it and turn off after a certain period on inactivity.

Anyway, highly recommended.