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Speed Timing (7.38)
The Canon MX850 proved to be fast at printing photos. At its fastest, it was able to print our 4x6 test image in a speedy 12.25 seconds from the computer. Larger images were also quick to print; the MX850 printed our large test image from a CompactFlash card in approximately 92.4 seconds. That's a good speed for an all-in-one device, and is significantly faster than both the MP600 and the Kodak EasyShare 5300.
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Photo Print Speeds in Pages per Minute
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From Computer
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From CompactFlash
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4x6
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8.5 x 11
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4x6
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8.5 x 11
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sml
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lge
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sml
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lge
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sml
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lge
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sml
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lge
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Kodak EasyShare 5300
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2.18
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1.67
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0.58
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0.56
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1.54
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n/a
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0.56
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n/a
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Canon Pixma MP600
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1.62
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1.66
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0.52
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0.51
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0.88
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0.56
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0.41
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0.28
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Canon Pixma MX850
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.26
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.81
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.44
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.48
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.70
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1.35
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1.87
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1.93
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Color Accuracy (4.36)
Color accuracy is a vital part of the performance of a printer, which is why we do extensive testing of how close the colors the printer produces come to the real thing. To test the accuracy of a printer, we print out a representation of a standard color chart, and measure how close this is to the correct colors using an Eye-One Pro spectrophotometer. A sample version of the chart we use is shown below.
We test printouts on both the manufacturer's own glossy photo paper and Ilford Galerie glossy paper. After this, we also create a custom printer profile using the Eye-One Pro Match 3 analysis system, where the system produces a customized color profile from a series of color printouts.
We found that the smallest color error came from using this custom profile using the Canon Photo Paper; this produced a relatively small mean color error of 4.93. In contrast, the default profile from Canon had a significantly higher color error of 8.78, which underlines how creating a custom color profile can help get better results out of a printer.
The particualr colors that the MX850 seemed to struggle with were the blues: the cyan, blue sky and purple patches all had significant errors in all of out test prints. The blue sky patch in particular was off, which could be a problem if you're a fan of landscapes. But the color accuracy was generally good, and most images should come out of the MX850 looking fine.
Color Gamut (3.5)
The gamut test is a measure of how much of the standard Adobe RGB color space the printer can reproduce accurately. Printers that can reproduce more of this color space produce a richer color range in images. The manufacturer’s color profiles are used and compared to the Adobe RGB color space. In the graph below, the grid represents the full Adobe RGB color space, while the solid color represents the color space that the printer can produce. The closer the two shapes, the higher the score.
The Canon MX850 performed fairly low on this test, reproducing 43.98% of the color space. Although no printer will be able to cover the entire space perfectly, we've tested many printers that could manage more than 50%, but the Canon MX850 managed somewhat less than this.
Dmax (7.64)
DMax, or maximum density, is a measure of the density of the blackest black a printer can produce. The whitest white is set by the paper tone, but the depth of the black is determined by qualities of the paper and the black ink. Being able to show the darkest blacks and whitest white is important because it increases the range of shades you can have in between. DMax value is measured by the ratio of light reflected off the black tone of a print; the higher this ratio, the deeper the black.
We measured the Dmax of the prints from the MX850 on Canon' own Photo Glossy Pro paper at 2.35, a very decent value that indicated strong, deep blacks
Black and White (5.0)
The Canon MX850 produced mediocre black and white prints from our test images. At default settings, it did not create a true black and white photo; in fact, the prints carried more of a sepia tone with brown tints. When the settings were changed to print in grayscale mode, the print came closer to producing a black and white photo, but still carried somewhat of a sepia tone in the mid range tones. However, that said, the detail of the black and white was more than adequate.
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