Photo Printer: Canon i950

Introduction

It has twice the number of nozzles, drops half the size and prints eleven times faster than some of its rivals (Epson S820/ 830); could the i950 be the photographer's dream printer? Whatever else, competition is fierce. HP has moved into PhotoRet IV and six colors, Epson has reached 5760 x 1440 dpi and Lexmark is at 4800 x 1200 dpi on its latest models. And directly competing with the i950 is the Canon i850 , which also has two-picoliter drops instead of five as on the earlier i550, S750, etc.

The issues here are:

• is the difference in price between the i950 and the i850 justified?
• should owners of an S900 throw it out and buy an i950?
• what is the best brand of printer for digital photography fans?

Amongst the tests we ran was a printout of the same photo on a lot of different printers. Then we scanned the prints. The results speak for themselves.

Price

Once again we have to point out the difference in price on either side of the Atlantic. In the States, the pre-tax price of the i950 is $250, whereas Europeans are expected to pay 429 euros, a difference of 72%! This is outrageous. Canon Europe: it's time to do better!

The Tests

We ran the same tests as usual: text, compound, monochrome and color documents, ordinary, draft and high definition resolution, etc. You can read a detailed description here . And we have added a score of 10 x 15 cm and A4 color and black and white photos, plus a color chart.