The Epson Stylus Photo 830U looks very similar to the C62, and they are clearly from the same family. But apart from that cosmetic similarity they are very different to each other.

The main point is that the Stylus Photo 830U is a photo printer, so it has a colour cartridge that has six colours, rather than the usual three. This is an unusual approach to photo printing, as there is also a dedicated black ink cartridge, but the principle of giving the printer a bigger palette of colours to make photo printing as accurate as possible is tried and trusted.

Unusually, the Stylus Photo 830U has not one but two USB ports. This is also to help you when printing photos. This idea is that you use the USB port on the back to connect the printer to your PC then you can plug in a notebook to the front port if you have photos to print out, with no need to disconnect your PC first.

Of course you'll need to install the Epson drivers on your notebook first, and they are quite a piece of work. The emphasis is entirely on photo printing, and the drivers can be used to change every setting from contrast and saturation to the strength of each of the colours.

The result is that photo printing is excellent. The quality is absolutely beyond reproach, although the printer takes quite a while to produce its output. Text quality is less impressive and is similar to the Canon i320.

This makes a buying decision about the Epson Stylus Photo 830U quite straightforward. If you have little or no interest in the quality of printed text, but you demand the absolute best of your photos, the Epson Stylus Photo 830U is for you.