Canon Pixma MG8250 Inkjet Photo All-In-One Printer Review

Features
Handling
Performance
Verdict
Specification



Canon launched the Pixma MG8250 in August 2011 at the same time as the MG6250. They are both premium all-in-one printers with a matte black finish and connect to the new Pixma Cloud Link allowing printing from mobile devices. The MG8250, on test here, has an RRP of £299.00.

Canon Pixma MG8250 Features

The printer uses 6 inks and delivers up to 9600dpi print resolution and Canon's Fine print head technology, with minimum 1pl ink droplets, provides photo-lab quality 10x15cm borderless prints in approximately 20 seconds, plus fast ISO ESAT speeds of 12.5 ipm for mono and 9.3 ipm for colour.


Canon Pixma MG8250

Navigating the MG8250 is performed via the Intelligent Touch System, which is integrated into the surface as well as an 8.8cm / 3.64 inch TFT display. The built-in wi-fi makes it easy for multiple users to print and scan from laptops, computers and mobile devices.

The Auto Duplex Print allows printing on both sides of the paper, with 2-way paper feeds allowing you to load photo and plain paper at the same time. You can also print onto compatible CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs as well as scan 35mm film with up to 4800dpi resolution.

The Canon software allows you to turn movie moments into Full HD prints including Merge Frames and Layout Print. You can also apply Fun Filter Effects with Easy-PhotoPrint EX. Creative Park Premium is  an online service that lets you download photos, illustrations, paper crafts and much more, from internationally recognised photographers & artists.

Key features:

• Premium Wi-Fi All-In-One
• Intelligent Touch System
• 6 Single Inks, up to 9600dpi, min 1pl quality
• ISO ESAT speed 12.5 mono/9.3 colour ipm
• 10x15cm photo in approx. 20sec
• 35mm film / slide scanning
• Full HD Movie Print
• PIXMA Cloud Link
• Premium wireless All-In-One with 8.8cm / 3.46 inch TFT display
• Intelligent Touch System
• 6 single ink tanks, up to 9600dpi and minimum 1pl droplets
• Ultimate quality colour and greyscale printing
• Auto Duplex, 2 way paper feed and Direct Disc Print
• Access to Creative Park Premium when used with genuine inks

Canon Pixma MG8250 Handling

Inserting the ink cartridges is easy and when it comes to changing them each one has a light to indicate whether the ink is low or the cartridge needs replacing. To shut the cover you have to give it quite a firm push and it feels like you are forcing it down.

Connecting to the Wi-fi is easy, you just need to know the password for your required network. The tiltable screen and touch-panel combination is unusual and it does take a bit of getting used to, although it looks great when it is all lit up.

Loading paper is straightforward, there are front and rear trays so you can have difference paper in each, although the lower tray makes it very clear which way round to load the paper, the top loading tray does not. There is a separate holder for printing on to CDs and DVDs and this can be fairly tricky to get into place.



Shown above is the main control screen and on the right hand side is the shortcut menu that is shown on your desktop. This can be hidden if wanted. The main screen gives you shortcuts to all of the main controls: Photo print, Scanning, Canon Web service, Manual and Settings, as well as the main applications: Easy-PhotoPrint EX, MP Navigator EX, and My Printer as well as further printer information.



You can use the printer as a stand-alone unit, printing from memory card and even scanning straight to memory card / or USB stick, without having to use a connected PC. Although it's worth noting that it doesn't allow film scanning to memory card.

On the whole, the MG8250 is easy to use and the on-screen instructions make it an good experience.

Canon Pixma MG8250 Performance

Canon Pixma MG8250

Scanning: Scan quality options for Photos: 75-600dpi, you can also scan to PDF, TIFF or JPEG, for Film: 300, 400, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800dpi, scan to TIFF or JPEG.

Example Film Scans:

4800dpi Colour Film	Black and White 2400dpi	Slide 4800dpi Scan	Slide 4800dpi

Scanning Film: The scanner occasionally didn't like the idea of scanning a strip of film that was shorter than the full 6 frames and simply said: "No film found". Scanning other strips of film was generally fine, although often the scanner would only detect 2 out of 6 images, other times it detected and scanned all 5 frames correctly (beginning of film, so one was not a frame). This mostly depended on how well the images were exposed and lined up, and assuming well exposed images with correct spacing then the scanner coped perfectly with detecting all photos. Once scanned the program lets you alter settings to get the exposure correct. The film scanner supports scanning 35mm film (4/6 frames), or 4 individual slides. The examples shown above were scanned with default settings, with no post processing.

Canon Pixma MG8250 Sample Photos

Printing: Black and white printing is impressive, with very neutral black and grey tones. With a dedicated photo black, PGBK (Page black) for text prints, and a dedicated grey ink cartridge, black and white prints are good, very good, as expected really. The prints come out a little magenta originally, but after 5-10 minutes settle down to produce crisp black and white photos with dark blacks and good contrast.

The black and white photo scan is not entirely representative of the actual print, with the scan showing a magenta cast, we rescanned the same print on our office scanner (an Epson Perfection 3200 Photo) and the scan is much more representative of the actual print. Although it would be better to scan black and white pictures manually from the computer as this will allow you to scan as a black and white image.

The printer is capable of some very impressive looking prints, with a full A4 colour photo print taking 3 minutes on High Quality. It's possible to see that the high quality print shows better consistency with less banding when viewed magnified. For the most part standard quality prints produce very good results and from a distance look just as good as the high quality prints.

Skin tones - colour is a little duller than from alternative printers, such as the punchy more saturated prints from Epson. Colour and detail - shadow detail is impressive, although contrast is slightly lower than expected, and we would have preferred darker shadow areas.  The Canon deals very well with fine patterned detail and text.

Using the copier function to reproduce a photo printed earlier, it's possible to see the difference between the original and copy, with the Canon producing a more subdued rendition of the photo. Therefore we would recommend either printing the original file if possible or scanning the image and tweaking it on a computer if possible to get a more accurate print.

Canon Pixma MG8250 Verdict

The Canon Pixma MG8250 provides high quality prints, high quality scans of both documents and film, although perhaps not the best scans of black and white documents. One of the more impressive features of this all in one printer is the scanners ability to scan film and negatives at up to 4800dpi, creating a massive 31.2 megapixel image. The printer also gives you great connectivity with wireless, USB and ethernet connections. The software provided for use on the computer is easy to use and gives good results.

The printer is quiet in use, with an additional quiet mode, although you can notice the sound of the scanner. While the cost of the printer may seem high, the price of ink cartridges appears reasonable with genuine inks from Canon costing around £8 each, and compatible inks are also available for this model. While a dedicated photo printer is likely to produce slightly higher print quality, the Canon Pixma MG8250 does a lot of things very well and produces particularly impressive film scans, and is therefore to be Recommended.

The Canon MG8250 produces great prints and for anyone looking for the ability to scan film, it's recommended!

Canon Pixma MG8250 Pros

Works standalone
Easy to use
Good screen and controls
Includes film scanner (upto 4800dpi)
Wireless, Ethernet connections

Canon Pixma MG8250 Cons

Quite Large
Looks like it's constructed with cheap plastic
Unclear paper orientation guide for rear paper feed

FEATURES
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Canon Pixma MG8250 Specifications

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