With digital photography becoming all the rage and printers offering outstanding results for photo printing, more and more photographers are investing in home printers to fulfil their needs.

The silver-blue Canon S820D's smart looks can't hide the fact that it's a bulky little number. But quibbles over its looks were soon forgotten once testing began.

Setting up was simple, thanks to a clear poster and USB connection, and the print test results were good.

With a resolution of 2400 x 1200dpi, black text was crisp and printed at about 2.4 pages per minute (ppm). Mixing simple graphics and text slowed performance to about 1.6ppm. These speeds are adequate rather than stunning, but this printer is all about photos.

Printed photo images were clear and vibrant and an A4 colour photo took just over two and a half minutes to print. There was no graininess, the fine detail looked sharp and the overall effect was very impressive.

Printer settings are controlled using the buttons surrounding the small LCD screen. Preferences for paper types, page layouts and print quality can all be managed from here, as can the options for borderless printing.

Another useful feature is the memory card slot that allows images to be selected directly from memory cards and sent to print, bypassing the PC altogether.

To really get the most from this feature, the CV-100 viewer is an option. This small colour screen allows images on the cards to be previewed prior to printing. The real downside is its price, however, which adds to the printer's already considerable cost.

A contact sheet previewing the images can be printed if the screen is not fitted. Owners of Canon PowerShot S30 and S40 digital cameras also get a direct print option via a single lead connection from the camera to the printer. This cable is included with the printer.

All in all, this is a very good photo printer. Refuelling should be affordable, thanks to the six-cartridge print head, but the Canon is only for serious digital photographers.

Price: £329 (inc. VAT)

Contact: Canon 0800 616417
www.canon.co.uk

Also consider:
Hewlett Packard Photosmart 1315
Great print quality with excellent features.