INTRODUCTION

I do a great deal of photo scanning, and like to have a copier around since it is so convenient to have one handy when I need it. When my previous All-In-One (AIO) quit working, I started looking around for another Copier-Scanner-Printer. I also have a Canon i950, so my primary concern at the time was not photo printing, but if I was going to spend the money on an AIO, I wanted it to have the one with the best photo capabilities also.

As I was doing research on which model to buy, I came across articles for the Canon Pixma MP800 that was due out in mid-October, which was about a month away at the time. If I decided on that model, I could wait for it since I would be doing research on various models during that time anyway.

WHY THE MP800

During my research, I kept coming back to the Canon MP800. The MP800 had all the features I wanted except for the ability to send faxes. But I can do that from our PC, so it wasn’t a deal-breaker for me.

The features that stood out to me were the 3.5” color LCD panel, memory card reader, PictBridge, 3584 print nozzles, droplets as small as 1 picoliter, individual Cyan, Yellow, Mangeta, black and pigment black color ink tanks, ChromaLife 100 system, duplexing, replaceable print head, 9600 x 2400 DPI printing, 2400 x 800 DPI scanning, ability to scan photos, negatives or slides, and auto-enhancement.

These particular features appealed to me because the 3.5 LCD panel combined with PictBridge and memory card reader meant I could attach a PictBridge compatible camera or insert a memory card, preview photos, and print them without the need to use a PC.

One picoliter droplets means a better quality picture. Inkjet printers use the print head to place droplets of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (CYMK) ink. A color is made by a combination of CYM. Black comes from the black ink cartridge and white has no ink, letting the paper color come through. A lighter color is achieved by making the droplet smaller. Smaller droplets mean better picture quality. The MP800 also adds a pigment based black ink for crisp, fast, high quality text.

The MP800 does not have photo-cyan or photo-magenta like some other printers in the Pixma line, especially its big brother the MP950. Photo-cyan and photo-magenta are really just lighter shades of Cyan and Magenta used to increase the range of colors it can print (color gamut), achieve finer color gradation and more accurate skin tones. Some newer color photo printers add separate green, red or both inks to increase the color gamut even more. Will the lack of Photo-Cyan and Photo-Magenta produce sub-par photos? I would soon find out.

Canon’s Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering (FINE) print head, Canon dye-based inks (CLI-8, CL-41/51/52 and BCI-16), and Canon photo paper (Photo Paper Pro, Photo Paper Plus Glossy, Photo Paper Plus Semi-Gloss) combine to produce the ChromaLife 100 system. When printed with this system, Canon claims photographs will resist fading for 100 years when stored in an archival quality album, 30 years under glass, and 10 years when exposed to air.

Individual ink tanks mean you only have to replace the one cartridge when it runs out, saving money on ink. Though I’ve never tried them, I have read many good things about www.inkgrabber.com which sells Canon compatible ink cartridges for about $2.00. If you don’t care about archival quality, this may be an option to reduce printing costs even more.

Years ago, an artist friend of mine recommended using Krylon acrylic coating to protect photographs. They now have a product called “Preserve It” specifically targeted for digital photographs. Will using “Preserve It” double the life of your digital prints? Krylon says it will. I have never had a problem using Krylon, but be careful since some people have reported terrible results, but that is usually because they use too heavy of a coat instead of several light coats.

The duplex printing feature appeals to me because I hate wasting paper by printing only on one side. While the duplex feature is advertised as capable of working with special photograph paper, I haven’t tried it yet.

The replaceable print head is a neat feature. If something goes wrong with it, you can call Canon and order a new one if they determine it is needed. No more costly print head repairs.

I recently started collecting old family photographs and scanning them in to make them available to more family members. The ability to scan negatives and slides is a big bonus for me since that is all that is left in some cases. The Auto-Enhancement feature automatically corrects photos, slides and negatives as they are scanned in. This helps reduce the amount of time spent on correcting old photos.

9600 x 2400 DPI printing and 2400 x 800 DPI scanning are among the best specifications I have seen for All-In-Ones.

SETUP

From out of the box to printing the 1st photo took 35 minutes. Even with 20/20 vision, I had a slightly difficult time seeing where to place the ink cartridges. The serial number is somewhere in that area, but is impossible for me to find it without flashlight. Once an ink cartridge is plugged in, a cool looking red light shines through the clear plastic. Cannon uses this light for it's low ink notifications.

The software did not recognize the USB port at first, but re-plugging the USB cable took care of that.

On thing I did not like is that the printer does not use a standard power cable like the one on your monitor or PC. The special cable has a small, rounded two inlet prong that plugs into the back of the printer. You also have to provide your own USB printer cable.

The most time consuming parts where taking off all the pieces of tape Canon uses to hold everything down, and waiting for the software to install. MP Drivers, Easy-PhotoPrint, ScanSoft OmniPageSe, Easy-WebPrint, and ArcSoft PhotoStudio were installed. I left off the on-line manual.

I don’t like ArcSoft PhotoStudio, but it does an OK job if you don’t have Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro or the likes.

PERFORMANCE

Ansel Adams once said “The negative is the score, the pint is the performance.” So how did the MP800 perform? In a word, OUTSTANDING.

As mentioned earlier, I have a 6 ink Canon i950. I did not expect the MP800, which lacks photo-cyan and photo-magenta inks, to produce better prints, but it did. In comparison, the i950 produces flat, faded colors. The MP800 colors are rich, deep and vibrant. 4 x 6 borderless prints are near photo lab quality. My spouse took one look and said “Wow!” Results are outstanding even when using matte paper.

The Auto Correction feature work very well too. A poor quality 4 x 6 print with a horrible reddish cast was corrected better than I could do it myself.

It took 75 seconds to the print the first 4 x 6 print, but only 45 seconds to print subsequent high quality 4 x 6 prints.

A minor gripe is that the output tray is directly above the input cassette tray, which means it is hard to get to if you have the output tray open. Also, I had to lift the lid to open the output tray. Maybe there is a way to open the output tray without opening the lid, but it wasn’t self-evident to me.

In addition to a cassette tray, the MP800 also has an Auto sheet feeder, which means you can have two types of paper loaded at once. If you want the best quality photograph possible, do not load photo paper in the cassette because it leaves roller traces on the print.

Scanning photographs was a breeze. MP Navigator, the scanning software, automatically select the scan area. This was a very pleasant surprise for me since I had to manually select the scan area on my old AIO.

Another nice surprise is the ability to scan multiple photographs at once, but save each photograph as a separate file. This is a real time saver.

In simple mode, you can only scan at 150 or 300 DPI. In the advanced mode, higher resolutions can be selected.

The advanced mode also offers the ability to tweak almost any setting you want.

If you are printing from a camera or memory card, the LCD panel lets you select pictures to print, the print area, and do simple picture editing like remove red eye and select the print area.

Easy-PhotoPrint and Easy-WebPrint software are handy software to have around. With Easy-PhotoPrint you can by-pass photo editing software. You just right click on the photograph on your computer and select print. It even lets you fit multiple photographs onto one 8.5 x 11 page.

Easy-WebPrint lets you easily print web pages by scaling them to fit on your paper. You can select portrait, landscape and 1, 2 or 3 columns and even duplex the pages.

Copying is a breeze and offers a plethora of options, which are detailed in the FEATURES section.

FEATURES

Here is a quick list of features and explanation of those features.

General Information
* 2 paper trays (Auto Sheet Feeder plus Cassette)
* Can have 2 different types of paper in the printer at the same time. Useful if you want to be able to print text and pictures without changing paper
* Canon says up to 150 pages of plain paper can be loaded into each tray
* The trays can hold fewer pages of thicker paper (like photo paper)
* Supports 8.5” x 11”, A4, B5, 4” x 6”, 5” x 7”, or credit card size
* P. 31 of the manual recommends using photo paper only in in the autofeeder since using the cassette may leave roller traces the print
* Low Ink Notification
* PC or Mac compatible

3.5” Color LCD Panel
* Preview pictures directly on the printer from a compatible camera, camcorder, mobile phone or memory card before printing them
* Can search for photos by date or a date range
* Can select a specific area of the photo to print
* 3584 Print nozzles with 1 picoliter droplets
* Many print nozzles with very small droplets means fast printing and smoother pictures

5 Ink cartridges
* Text Black, Photo Black, Magenta, Yellow & Cyan ink tanks
* You replace individual ink cartridges as needed instead of replacing all the colors when just one color runs out
* The Photo Black ink is pigment based
* Blue Tooth Options

Canon ChromaLife 100 system
* With select Canon paper and an “archival” quality photo album, Canon claims your pictures can last 100 years

Dimensions and Weight
* 18.5” (W) x 19.3” (D) x 9.4” (H)
* 26.4 lbs

Scan or print to device from PC
* Use import feature of TWAIN or WIA compliant to scan images

Power Cord
* Is not a standard power cord

Quiet Mode
* Reduce operation noise of printer
* Function may not be very effective depending on print quality
* Certain noises are not reduced
* 34.7 dB in highest print quality mode

Replaceable Print Head
* If the print hear breaks, you can replace it without sending it to a repair facility

USB 2.0 connection
* USB CORD IS NOT INCLUDED

Copy Information
* Color or B&W Copies
* B&W Fast Mode 30 PPM
* Color Fast Mode 24 PPM
* 99 Copies Maximum
* Enlargement up to 400%
* Reduction down to 25%
* 2-on-1, 4-on-1 and Repeat a Copy
* Copies two documents onto one side of a single sheet of paper by reducing each image
* Copies 4 documents onto one side of a single sheet of paper by reducing each image
* Copy an image multiple times onto one page

Printing Information
* Borderless printing
* Your photos will look more like the ones you get from a photolab
* Print Resolution and Speed:
- Max B\W Resolution 600 x 600 DPI
- Max B\W Speed 30 PPM, Standard 15 PPM
- Max Color Printing Resolution 9600 x 2400 DPI
- Max Color Speed 24 PPM, Standard 12 PPM
- Print from wireless devices that use blue tooth (such as cell phone)
- Print directly from memory card or PictBridge compatible devices
- print directly from Compact Flash, SmartMedia, Memory Sticks, Secure Digital memory devices or directly from PictBridge compatible devices such as many newer camcorders and cell phones
- Adapter allow printing from Xd, Memory Stick Duo and MiniSD memory devices
- Can read printer memory card slot from PC or MAC
* Photo Index Sheet
- Print an index sheet containing thumbnails of the all the photos on a memory card with bubbles underneath them
- Fill in the bubbles of the pictures you want to print and the number of copies you want
- Scan the photo index sheet to print your photos
* Print from PC or Mac and from TWAIN compatible applications
* Duplex Printing
- Can also print duplex photographs on special paper
* Envelope Printing
- DL (8 ¾” x 4 1/4”) or #10 (9 ½” x 12 5/8”)
* Infrared Port
- Prints from mobile phone that have infrared capability

Scanning Information
* Scan Photos, 6 frames of 35 mm film or 4 slides at 2400 x 800 DPI
* Interpolated resolution of 19200 dpi x 19200 dpi (my recommendation is to ignore interpolated resolution)
* When you place multiple photos on the scanner, they can automatically be separate into separate files, saving you time
* Auto Enhancement - scanned images are automatically enhanced to remove red-eye and improve contrast and brightness
* Scan from PC or MAC and TWAIN compatible applications

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 299
Operating System: Windows