In the light of our earlier comparisons of inkjet printers, we fully expected Canon to dominate for photo-printing performance, and we weren't disappointed. The Pixma MP780 multifunction outclassed all its competitors in this area, and even rivaled the fastest printers on the market, also from Canon. Only the Stylus Photo RX620 from Epson, based on the Stylus Photo R300 printer, held its own - and it still came in nearly two minutes behind the Pixma MP780.

The other models were left in a contest to avoid being last. The Brother DCP-110C was most disappointing. Despite the new cartridge technology, which the manufacturer says contributes to speed, its results were deplorable: over half an hour to print an A4 photo, which is enough to try the patience of a saint. As usual, HP doesn't seem to make speed an important criterion. Even its top-of-the-line model, the Photosmart 2710, was slower, beaten by the P6250 from Lexmark, whom we don't often see anywhere near the winner's circle. The Dell AIO 962 was a bit of a disappointment. We were expecting more from this top-of-the-line multifunction.