Canon's S820 has persistently fought off numerous challengers and remains one of the best photo printers on the market. It comes in two models: the base S820 and the S820D with direct printing functions from a range of PCMCIA Type II memory cards or direct from a digital camera.

But it is the print quality that makes the S820 such a good machine. It scored consistently highly in all of our tests, giving the most accurate colours of any of the Canon printers. It was able to handle difficult colour concentrations, particularly reds and yellows that can confuse lesser printers into thinking they are almost the same colour.

It outscored Epson's Stylus Photo 925, which has a $150 higher price tag. At the same time the S820 was able to handle more workhorse tasks such as printing text and text graphics with equal aplomb.

Canon also bundles a range of photo-editing software with the printer giving users the chance to edit their pictures before they print.

This was one of the first Canon printers to offer six colours in individual cartridges. Not only does this system ensure quality prints, but the fact that you can change individual colour cartridges makes it more economical to run, as you don't have to buy a whole new tri-colour cartridge just to replace a single colour.

While at the higher end of the mid-range printers the S820 remains good value for anyone wanting a consistent photo printer that will push out an A4 print in reasonable time.