FLYERS

The cruel irony of digital photography has long been that no matter how many megapixels your camera had, or how great its optics or sensor, home photo printers simply couldn't reproduce all that stunning detail and vibrant color the way film could. So amateur shooters settled for good-enough 4x6s, while pros and serious hobbyists paid hundreds of dollars for C-prints, or film-based enlargements.

With the contenders so close in image quality, you'll also want to consider usability. Don't want to tweak settings every time you hit Print? Both the Canon and HP take you easily through choosing paper and print quality based on what type of photo you're printing. But the HP also lets you remove red-eye, add a digital flash, smooth out low-resolution images, and fine-tune contrast, focus and sharpness. (And the HP has a flash-card slot, so you can print straight from your camera's memory card without ever booting up your computer.) The Epson offers the most adjustments, including saturation and gamma, plus individual control over cyan, magenta and yellow.