Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon S830D Photo Printer

This printer replaces an older HP color ink jet for me. Installation was quick and easy using my USB 2.0, the printer is backwards compatable with the slower USB 1.1 ports. The USB 2.0 is about 20 times faster than the older USB version 1.1 ports.

The printer includes six ink cartridges, software, and two different cables to connect directly to Canon cameras but not the needed USB cable to connect the printer to the computer. A nice feature is the included media adapters that will take your camera memory and plug them into the printer's PCMCIA port. My package included a Canon adapter for CompactFlash and another by Dazzle that works for four different types including SmartMedia.

The prints are simply beautiful using the sample of five sheets of included glossy paper. The colors are accurate and sharp. The 4x6 frameless prints take less than a minute to print out, 30 minutes to completely dry and they recommend 24 hours before putting them under glass or in an album.

The printer can be used without a computer connected to it using the LCD screen on the righthand side of the machine and a camera's memory card. The image adapter available for [X] connects to a port on the top of the printer to allow you to preview pictures when used to print without the computer.

Other review has talked much about this printer. I only have few comments for those who don't know:
- First, the USB cable is not included. You have to buy the USB cable to install the software to re-align the print head, for example. The print head was factory set and produce beautiful print though
- Second, the little LCD screen is not included and cost 100 USD to purchase separately. You need it if you print photo directly from your memory card in the built in slot of the printer. Without the screen, you can't print from this slot.
- Third, there are "selected" Canon camera that support direct print with this printer. My ELPH S110 only works with the CP-10 or CP-100 photo printer, but not with this printer. What a pain!
- 4"x6" borderless paper is what you probably need as it give a nice borderless photo at ease. Printing direct on A4 or letter paper waste a lot of paper at the edge. You may as well cut the A4 to 4 pieces and print from the PC, which allow you to print, say, A6 borderless photo. Don't get bother with the perforated paper.
- The sample pack paper give the best result. I wonder if they sell it.
- Turn on the Image optimizer with Vivid photo option gives even better picture when printing direct.
- If you don't want the direct printing, or you always edit your photo first before printing, go for some other Canon printer that do not have direct printing, it will save you some big bucks.

My wife loves this printer, because she can work with it alone, without a PC. That's the point, after all, to have a direct printing option, right?

It took a lot of searching before I decided to purchase a good printer and this one is a great one. The pictures are clear and they print fast. I showed them to friends and didn't tell them that I printed them at home and they were very surprised when I told them. Spend the extra money and get a good printer. This printer also include photo ink, which is really needed for a clean print. Make sure you also get the right paper.

I have the digital camera Canon Powershot S200 and just purchased this printer. Set it up last night without any difficulty and the photos I printed were fantastic. I am very pleased with this purchase. Would highly recommend this printer. I did use generic photo paper to start out with and it worked just fine. I am hoping that in the long run this printer will pay for itself and cut the costs of having pics developed at the store.

... That said, I'm very happy with this printer. Other reviews, like the one on C|Net, have faulted the printer for mediocre text printing. I can't really address that complaint...have a laser printer for text and only use the S830 for printing photos and I'm very, very happy with how it performs that function. It's fast, I like being able to replace the ink cartridges separately, supports Exif if your digital camera outputs the encrypted data and the pictures are indistinguishable from those printed conventionally. It's the perfect color printer for my advanced amateur needs.