Rating: 
Summary: Awesome Photo Printer
Review: After doing extensive on-line research and reading virtually every "professional" and user review available, I decided to purchase an S800. I was also considering an HP DeskJet 960 and Epson 890, but the overwhelming praise for the S800 won me as a Canon convert. We also own a DeskJet 722C (which still does an admirable job on HP photo paper) but we wanted a true photo-quality printer. The prints from the S800 are truly AMAZING. As we are primarily using it for photo printing, we are printing almost exclusively on Canon's Photo Paper Pro .... One magazine review said that the S800 came closer to dye sublimation output quality than any other ink jet printer they had tested, and I totally agree. I won't go into the print speeds - its photo output is almost certainly several times faster than any other inkjet you've ever used. I would also like to mention that Canon's print driver is excellent. Not only does it give you a multitude of print options, but it is fast (at least compared to the 722C and 970C drivers). We are still using a 333MHz with 160MB RAM and making selections in the different printer setting screens is much faster than with the DeskJets. It sometimes takes 5-10 seconds for the driver to process a new selection (such as changing from Normal to Best print mode, or portrait to landscape mode) whereas the Canon takes less than 1 second. While other users with faster PCs may not be able to appreciate Canon's efficient driver, those of us who are holding on to older computers welcome it. I have seen first hand and read about the best HP and Epson have to offer. Anyone replacing a printer two years old or older would be amazed with the output quality from their printers. But, for the very best ink jet photo output available today, the S800 wins hands down.
Rating: 
Summary: Too many problems
Review: After reading all of the reviews, I decided on the S800 to go along with my new 3.3 MPixel digital camera. Now 2 S800s later, I'm giving up. Both of the brand new, out of the box, S800s had the same problem. They had thin streaks across the photo. It didn't matter what kind of paper, what type of printing (text or photo), or how many "deap cleanings" I did, the streaks were there. Tech support was very helpful, but couldn't solve the problem. The 1/8 inch between the streaks looks great, but it's a little tough to call that a photo. I guess I'll try the Epson next.
Rating: 
Summary: The Printhead is Dead!
Review: At a time when technology has advanced color printing quality, customer service just has not kept up. Canon, maker of some of the finest optical equipment in the world, has used advanced technology to produce a printer capable of amazing color print quality. The photos glow. Paper selection is critical as is the use of OEM inks. Black & white printing is just not on the same par as the color. This must be a driver issue in that the black rendering on the prints looks great. I contacted Canon on this issue and got the run around. Here is where the enthusiasm gets trampled. I don't use this printer much as I have access to several laser units at work for critical and big jobs. When I do use it, I try to pool a set of color or plain text prints into one lot as this beast really sucks up the ink like an overweight SUV sucks gas. The evaporation rate on the inks is rapid as part of the quick dry feature. Canon does not warn you that idleness is costly. That being said, I have printed approximately 1 ream of paper on this, most either in draft or standard mode, and only around 35% of the pages being full page printouts. I have gone through about twenty 8 x 10 gloss photos, 1 t-shirt transfer and 6 of the new 4 x 6 Photo Paper Plus Glossy. This unit is on its 4th black ink tank, 3rd set of color tanks. The unit sat idle after our recent move to our new home for about 2.5 months. Upon setting up the unit again, I noticed a marked decrease in quality. I followed the deep head cleaning several times, regular cleaning cycle a few times, realigned the heads and adjusted everything per instructions and even installed new ink. The unit will not print anything but the faintest gray when the call is for black bold. The cleaning sucked dry the entire 69.00 ink tank set, installed new, no success. Contacted Canon who informed me to perform several more deep cleanings - sucked down 3 of the 6 tanks in the process and still no better. They are now telling me it is the printhead. But relax, it can be replaced for 100.00. Canon refused to help. So, long story short and lesson learned. Unit sucks down the ink as fast as a drunk at a free beer concert, is rather on the noisy side and has cost me more in ink to print say 500 pages and a few photos than the original cost of the printer. If I add in new tanks and a new printhead, the cost of ownership for this unit would reach 1.00 a page for black printing. This unit, after its very short lifespan, will be replaced with a HP. Canon needs to learn more about customer support and more importantly, customer relations.
Rating:
Summary: True photo quality
Review: I bought the S800 to get true photo quality and am not disappointed. Comparing my S800 prints (from scans of professionally printed color film photos) with the original color prints, there was literally no difference to the naked eye. The ink management system is superior, and media handling is very solid with different kinds and sizes of paper etc. Time to print an 8x10 photo at highest quality on best glossy paper is 60-90 seconds. While I wouldn't recommend this printer for an office productivity use (there are cheaper ones better suited to that purpose), I'd give it a high recommendation for digital photo and graphic printing.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Printer!
Review: I bought this printer after getting a Kodak DC4800 Digicam, and I must say, the results are nothing short of amazing!! When using photo paper (both Kodak and Canon's paper work equally as well) the picture that's printed out has the quality of a picture developed by the corner photo shop.I knew the output was good, but even with high expectations, I was pleasently surprised. One major difference with the S600 and the S800 is that the cheaper S600 is not as good at printing skin tones. For landscape, both are pretty good. The S800 even came with a compact-flash reader to read my digital fillm. Well done Canon!
Rating:
Summary: ordered 2 of them- both work great
Review: I got one for home for printing digital photos, and one for work printing both text and photos. I was leery of how the one at work would hold up. No problem with either of them. The transparent, individual color inktanks last a long time and are easy to refill. The photo quality and color agreement is great. Text is printed out fast and fine. Even photos printed on regular paper are quite impressive. Simple to connect and use.
I have used mid to high end HP, Lexmark, and Epson printers and this Canon beats them all.
Rating:
Summary: ordered 2 of them- both work great
Review: I got one for home for printing digital photos, and one for work printing both text and photos. I was leery of how the one at work would hold up. No problem with either of them. The transparent, individual color inktanks last a long time and are easy to refill. The photo quality and color agreement is great. Text is printed out fast and fine. Even photos printed on regular paper are quite impressive. Simple to connect and use.
I have used mid to high end HP, Lexmark, and Epson printers and this Canon beats them all.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good photo printer.
Review: I had just bought a new digital camera and I was looking to upgrade from my old Epson printer to get photo quality printouts. I research a lot of printers,read reviews, went to stores to get test prints, and decided on the Canon S800 based on reviews and it's individual ink cartridge system. Overall, I am very happy with the results. Setup was very easy, about 20 minutes from the box to printing my first picture. Very fast and whisper quiet; it took about 10 seconds to print a 4X6 photo on regular mode from a 600K JPEG file, about 30 seconds for a 8X11 for the same file. Results were excellent, very hard to distinguish from a real photo, no visible dots at all, colors were sharp and life-like. However, the results vary greatly with the paper that you use, I got the best results from the Canon photo pro paper and Epson glossy photo paper. I got very grainy results with HP and JetPrint photo paper; I've tried to tweak the settings from the Printer properties, but the pictures do not come out as good as on the Canon and Epson paper. Canon paper is also hard to find, I have only found it on sale online and only the 8X11 paper. Also I have not been able to figure out how to make it print borderless. Plain text printouts on plain paper is a bit fuzzy, but I have not tried it with the glossy inkjet paper. Overall a very good photo printer if you use the right paper and a so-so printer for plain text.
Rating:
Summary: Nice quality color prints
Review: I have had this now for almost 4 years and it still works perfect. I probably printed over 200 photos already and 100's of business cards without errors. I had a cannon Multipass that was a piece of crap, way back. I took a chance on this and so far its paying off. I like the individual ink cartridges!
Rating:
Summary: Best out there
Review: I have had this printer for about 9 months now, and it still impresses me every time i use it.
As long as you use the right paper you can not get better prints
anywhere even at the lab.
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