Canon PIXMA iP8500 Photo Printer

Great printer, prints on photo paper are better than any professional photo developer. Expensive ink, but worth it for the amazing prints. Not grainy under the finest microscope.

- Easy to setup both hw/sw
- Great quality photo with Canon Paper Pro

Great quality, easy to set up, and use

So far my experience (over the past three months) has led me to the conclusion that I have bought the best photo printer I could have for the money. I did extensive research, read all the reviews, and settled on this model only after careful consideration.

It all paid off when I installed this beautiful machine on my computer and printed off the first picture. I used the low speed USB connection, although it has been noted that a USB2 also exists. I was unsure if my computer would handle the USB2. Anyhow, I found the printing speed to be excellent even using the normal USB. The software installation proceeded smoothly, the setup of the printer was intuitive, and the output was extremely high quality, exceeding my expectations, on the very first try.

I have been using the printer frequently since I first installed it. I normally use the Canon Photo Paper Pro, and have been consistently delighted by the results. I have not run out of any ink yet, but I must be getting close by now. People who see the photos I have printed remark that they look like processed photographs.

I should point out that I use Photoshop to clean up every photo before I print it, and I try to go with a resolution of at least 600 dpi to achieve photo-quality output. Any higher than that, and the storage size of each photo gets pretty huge. The color balance has been superb; no overweighting of any particular type of ink.

One of my pet peeves of inkjet printers, and I have owned many, is that the nozzles tend to clog over time and the output starts to have horizontal lines in it. I have not noticed that at all with the Pixma. The ink pots do NOT have the print heads in them, as HP and many others do. Instead there is a separate, replaceable print head. I like this, because it keeps down the cost of each ink pot, and allows the user to easily replace the print head when it really needs it. The printer seems to have a cleaning cycle that is very frequent, which must account for the fact that I have never had to initiate a cleaning cycle manually and why I can walk over to my computer and print a photo without having to worry about whether or not I will be wasting high-end photo paper on mediocre output.

There are 8 separate ink pots. I like this because you only need to replace them as they run out, rather than replace a single, expensive, multi-color cartridge that costs an arm and a leg.

This is also a very nice looking printer, unlike most I have seen. The design is sleek enough that you would not mind having it prominently visible in your office. It is fairly quiet in operation, and I have had no problems of paper misfeeds or jams whatsoever.

One comment, which probably goes without saying, but if you're not a print expert you may not realize it: You would not want to use this as your only printer. Keep your cheapie for normal text and the like, and reserve this for photographs only. You will waste precious high-quality ink and wear out the print head needlessly if you try to make this your sole printer.

If you are interested in outstanding quality photo prints for a very reasonable price, I highly recommend you take a look at this printer. I cannot find anything to complain about yet!

UPDATE 4/21/06: I have now been using this printer regularly for about 6 months. I am extremely impressed by the quality and reliability of the unit over that time period. It has never dried out like all my other inkjet printers, never had to be manually re-primed, and never had to be rebooted. I continue to rate this item FIVE STARS especially for the money.

Very impressive 4x6 color photo prints!!! They look even better than prints I get from standard film developers (couldn't find any pixels off with magnification). It will be interesting to see how efficient it is on the use of 8 different ink tanks. The cost for the 8 pack of new ink isn't cheap, currently coming in at $75.

Data I have seen from test labs show the total cost per 4x6 color photo print at .57 cents and that includes the paper (www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,119573,pg,6,00.asp) For basic every day printing you don't care about the quality on, it might make sense to keep another cheap printer around, but for home printing of photos you want to have a terrific memory of this printer does the job and so much more!!!