Canon PI XMA iP8750
Quality A3 photo printing at a reasonable price
a3+ printer
£350, $225
There was a time when A3 printers would break the bank (and probably your desk), but Canon’s new PIXMA iP8750 cuts the price tag and the bulk. Measuring 590x331x159mm, it’s comfortably more compact than its bigger brother, the PRO-100.
Fortunately a smaller size hasn’t reduced performance. With top print quality settings, an A3 borderless print emerges in a whisker under four minutes, or just over two minutes if you downsize to A4. And it’s not all quantity and no quality either. Beautifully saturated colours are complemented by accurate skin tones, and greyscale prints look the part too, though these do show a faint cyan colour cast if you really scrutinise them.
Our test chart proved how well the iP8750 maintains greyscale separation. However, the fine diagonal and circular test patterns were slightly pixelated compared to the professionalstandard PRO-100’s output. Still, real-world prints are unlikely to show these minor flaws, and you’d need to shell out about 60% more for the PRO-100 to do better.