Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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443 of 445 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
COMPARED CANON I850 and S900 PHOTO PRINTERS, November 7, 2002
By A Customer
I couldn't decide which printer to get. I am using a Sony DCS P9 (4MegaPixel) camera. I bought both the Canon I850 and the Canon S900. I decided to use both and whichever one I liked better, I would return the other one.
I was only using Canon Photo Paper Pro papers. I used both 4x6 and 8 1/2"x11" full size papers. The price I paid after rebate and tax on the I850 was $140 (yes, afer rebate and including all taxes) and the Canon S900 set me back about $250 dollars + tax. Both were equally easy to set up out of the box. I was comparing 3,072 nozzles on S900 to 1,600 nozzles on I850. But, the I850 also offers: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!!!
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88 of 89 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
i850 is an excellent general purpose-go with i950 for photos, May 8, 2003
Bottomline:
If you want a photo printer go with the i950
If you want a great all-round printer go with the i850.
I owned both the i850 and i950, with the i850 first. The i850 is an great all-round printer printing fast text and photos. Using the Canon photo paper images look great, but simply lack the detail the i950 can provide with 6 inks and almost twice the nozzles and special photo inks. The extra nozzles not only make printing faster (at least for photos) but allow for more detail.On a picture, printed from Photoshop 6.0, that contained lots of details and color, but specifically a tree with multi-colored (shades) of bark - on the i850 the tree looked good with good detail, but on the i950 the tree came to life, was sharper, with more tree/bark detail and color variations becoming visible. There was no question, the i950 was better, noticably for photos. On mixed media (web page with graphics) the i950 and i850 were the same, but for some reason, the i850 was noticably faster. You get a larger black-ink cartridge w/ the i850 presumably favoring its intended role as a excellent all-round printer. If price is an issue, the i850 is the printer for you ... If photo quality is the most important, then the i950 is for you ... Can't make up your mind? Go with the i950, the extra money is worth the results.
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58 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best all round Inkjet in the market, December 4, 2002
By A Customer
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
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