Canon Printer

[chelmreich]

I have sold my D30 and pre-ordered a D60...
But now I am thinking about adding the Canon 900 photo printer to my set up. Could someone address the following questions regarding this and other/older Canon printers:

1) Dotphoto and printroom have pixilation on the images I printed with them. (it is fine/small but it is there) Will images from the Canon printers show pixilation. (4 x 6? 8 x 10?)

2) How much for the ink tanks? And how many images can I print per tank?

3) How much for the paper? What kind works the best?

4) Do the ink jets clog like my piece of crap Epson?

Thanks for your help. Here is hoping there are not any delays on the D60! (My D30 is headed for its new owner Monday.)

Craig

[onehotrx7]

Hi Craig,

(1) There are both photo & image optimizers included with the drivers with Canon bubblejets - try them while you're getting some experience with your printer so you can see the effects & changes they make... if you're getting pixellation on photographic prints, you're pretty likely to get them with the printer, as they're probably in your image itself - but the optimizers may clean them up...

(2) Ink cartridge and ink tank prices vary widely between retailers of cartridges - try to buy from a distributor rather than a retailer if you can... for an example, we sell ink cartridges at around 10% - 20% cheaper than most retailers...

(3) Use Canon PR101 paper - it's brilliant for photo's, can absorb the ink fast enough for the new printing technology that Canon are using, and it's available for not much more than most decent aftermarket paper - I've also had some great prints of Kodak Ultima paper - and it really feels like a photo then too... I'm finding these days that I use my printer mainly for enlargements, or proof sheets, as for normal 6 X 4 there's plenty of processing options locally that do a brilliant job, the latest I've found would be around US$ 20c per print, and they do a great job of printing what you give them - for film, I use a pro-lab which is about 40c per print, but they can work with what they're given - I already know what I want with the digital though... back to what paper to use, once you know what you can get on the PR101, then try the aftermarket stuff - but get to know what the printer can do on the right paper first...

(4) No, the jets won't clog like an Epson - that's an inherent problem with the printing system that Epson use... cleaning the heads once in a while doesn't hurt, but all in all the Canon system is pretty good... when you start getting fuzzy print it's time to replace the whole cartridge - but you can throw whatever ink tanks you're using into it & keep the sealed units that come with it until you need them...

Cheers,
Stuart

[chelmreich]

When I review my prints from Dotphoto and Printroom with the naked eye I see horozontal lines that I attribute to their printer. (They are extremly noticable in the Dotphoto images and are less noticable on the prints from Printroom.)

With a Loup they appear to be printer related. Besides, I would hate to think that 2 Meg Jpgs from my D30 have pixilation that would be visible with the naked eye on a 4 x 6.

Can some of you take a look at prints from printroom and or dotphoto and see if you see the patern as well.

Thanks,

Craig

[TBoyd]

Check out this review on the new Canon printer. It may not answer all of your questions, but it looks like Epson now has some serious competition:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/s9000.htm

TBoyd