Pros and Cons-9000 Canon printer !!!!!

[Paul Shields]

Originally Posted by Worm324

My vote goes for the 9500!! Althought the BW images on mine in grayscale mode are incredible!! Even compared to the lab IMO.

Best
Jay

I think you're right, and I'll correct my previous post for referring to them as 5900 (brain fart...) ).

[Tom Swaman]

Dear PhotoCamel Printers,

FYI, Epson makes better professional printers for less cost and with better pigment inks than does Canon. You may well be shooting yourself in the foot with a Canon. Please do not compare the now discontinued excellent Canon, higher speed dye-based printers with the newer pigment based printers. All Canons are not created equal just like everything else!

Just my sincere heads up to you,
Tom

[Paul Shields]

Tom, I do like strong views such as yours . I've not found an Epson A3 pigment printer that was close to the same cost of the equivalent Canon or HP. What models are you referring to? Are you looking at lifetime costs or upfront costs? I'm so close to picking up a printer that I'm really interested in your detailed opinion on this.

[Jason Hermann]

Tom,

The only reason I went with the Canon over the Epson so-called equivalent was the reviews on the printers I read. I constantly kept reading the Epson's Clog and the amount of ink the use to unclog themselves was very costly.

I had no experience with either printer before my purchase, so the reviews and the people here were my only source of info.

I don't want to start a Canon versus Epson war, so don't take my comments the wrong way! I'm sure the Epson does a better job if your saying it does based on all your experience with both, but have you ever had any clogging issues??

I'm interested primary, because my next purchase will probably be Epson based on your real world reviews.

Thanks,
Jay

[Max@Home]

Originally Posted by Worm324

I'm interested primary, because my next purchase will probably be Epson based on your real world reviews.

...more real world reviews, inclusive of comparison tests between the Canon/HP/Epson line...

...€0.02...

Max@Home

[Paul Shields]

Originally Posted by Max@Home

...more real world reviews, inclusive of comparison tests between the Canon/HP/Epson line...

...€0.02...

Max@Home

Yes, that's a great site for printer reviews Max, though I find that almost every printer reviewed is fantastic according to Vincent . For example, I'm really interested in the HP B9180, which I can pick up at a great price and Vincent thinks it's a benchmark for all A3 pigment printers. But then I read the 9500 review and maybe that's the benchmark. Despite that, it's the best place to go for comparative reviews, and the print forum is quite useful to find out real world experiences.

[Jason Hermann]

Thanks max

Paul, I can send you a real world example of 1 of my prints if you wish

best,
Jay

[Jason Hermann]

"Canon are not sitting back on their success with dye ink printers, they also have a pigment ink printer, the Pixma Pro 9500 sitting in the wings waiting for the final nuts and bolts to be tightened"

I had no clue that was pigment ink vs Dye ink! Thats why it so much more money I though it was just the extra 2 gray colors.

[Tom Swaman]

Paul,

Since I sold my three wonderful Canon inkjed dye-based printers, I have not looked at ink use cost, etc. I am using the K3 Ultrachromes of Epson and I use only epson inks. It is easy enough to look at the per ounce cost, but it is not realistic to look at anyone's calculations of use cost unless all pictures average to using the same amound of ink. This, of course, is tantamount to being ludicrous. In round numbers Epson inks, all od which have the same costs are about $55 U.S. per 80 ml cartridge for the 3800 and the prices decrease from there.

Paul, I really care more about the quality of the print and the continuing, troubble-free printer operation than I care about someone's hypothetical ink cost that might even be biased. My ink costs went down when my ink cartridge size went up. Furthermore, how can one reasonably compare ink use costs when different ink systems, with different ink drop sizes, different dpis, etc., etc., etc. are involved in printing on different papers?

************************************************
Jay,

No attempt to start a war or even to tell anyone what to do. i do not even own stock in either Epson, Canon or in any other printer manufacturer. I am only trying to give my friendly camels some real life experience.

Jay, I believe what you read. I have had ink in my printer for seven months with zero clogging, perfect nozzle alignment and zero problems. I like you have read that it takes a lot of ink to unclog an Epson Stylus Pro printer. I am aware that there are two separate nozzle cleaning practices. I know this as I own the printer. I have never had to try either cleaning step.

Jay, please do not trust me. All you need to do is to visit a dealer who carries both lines. Epson wins hands down when you do this unless you think that microeconomics makes the difference and I do not know the microeconomics. I do know that at about $1200 Us including about $500 worth of pigment ink, it is hard to buy a printer as compact as the Epson Stylus 3800 Pro that can be configured with RIP software iof desired and tjat prints top quality prints at 1440 dpi or at 2880 dpi with two speed options.

I own Canon equipment, Nikon equipment and Epson equipment. Currently, Epson has the best printers for the low to medium volume advanced amateur to professional market in my opinion. Good luck and my comments ar finished. I am only sharing what I have objectively and subjectively encountered.

Happy ink usage and printing,
Tom

[Jason Hermann]

Thanks for the continued info Tom! My next purchase will probably be to the next level of quality hence way more money than I spent on the Canon pixma pro 9000. I will certainly go to a dealer when I spend over a grand for my next printer

I wonder if the clogging issues are from lack of use? perhaps a few weeks of none use then a clogg happens or something.

In any event, thanks again

Best,
Jay

[Tom Swaman]

Jay,

Now I can be very specific as I owned and used hard two Pixma IP 9900s and one PIXMA iP 8500. Jay these are 8 color dye-based printers the former of which can print 13 inch width if I remember correctly and the latter prints 8.5 inch width. These are not really comparable with today's better printers. Their ink consumption use was relatively high and anyone doing a lot of printing spent a whole lot of time changinging cartridges. These printers printed at roughly twice the speed of either the Canons or the Epsons being discussed. JAY, I NEVER EXPERIENCED A SINGLE PROBLEM WITH ONE OF MY THREE CANON PRINTERS. IN THEIR DAY< THESES WERE EXCELLENT!

I believe the PIXMA IP 9900 cost either $600 or $69 U.S. when it was discontinued and the 8ml ink cartridges were around $11 to $12 U.S. in quantities of either 10 or 12 cartridges. So now you have a real comparitive new ink cost of the dye-based versus the latest pigment based inks.

I have let my Epson sit for three weeks without printing, but I do not know if I have let it sit for longer. As I stated, I have not had any clogging issues.

Jay several folks on this forum use these printers. If you do a search, you can certainly PM others.

By the way, I did get one ink cartridge with a defective chip out of 22. Epson replacd this with shipping unquestioned and at no charge. The ink is fine it is just that the level control of the cartridge does not properly show in the LCD display on the machine.

Tom

[Jason Hermann]

Tom, your killing me!! Now I have the itch to go drop 2 grand on a printer I just purchased a new monitor and a Wacom Tablet so I can't afford anything for a while

Still, Mine works great for now and as I said before I really appreciate your input on this subject!!

Best,
Jay

[Tom Swaman]

Jay,

Do yourself a favor and decide whether you wand to print larger than 17" X 22" sheets and whether you want to print on roll paper. If you want to go to roll paper or bigger than 17 X 22 inch sheets, yes, you need to spend two grand. If 17 X 22 isheets does it, you need spend between about $1,150 and $1,250 and this include about $500 in ink and an empty waste ink tank. This ink goes along way also from my own experience. If you decide on the larger printer, you may want to compare the existing XX00 series with the new XX80 series. Also remember that once you go past the 3800, you are now talking about a 90 to 100 pound printer or more. If size is a consideration, this may limit you to the 3800 as it did me, by my own choice.

Jay, I absolutely get professional quality prints routinely up to 17 X22 with zero problems to date and Epson offers great technical support by phone and a replacement policy that I do not think can be beat if you elect to buy this. After seven months of loving my printer I splurged for the policy so that I am 100% parts and labor protected for 3 full years. If you have any doubts, call and talk to these folks. I did this before I made my final decision and I absolutely considered the Canon printer and I spoke both with Canon USA and with a major repair station for Canon and for Epson.

Tom

Originally Posted by Worm324

Tom, your killing me!! Now I have the itch to go drop 2 grand on a printer I just purchased a new monitor and a Wacom Tablet so I can't afford anything for a while

Still, Mine works great for now and as I said before I really appreciate your input on this subject!!

Best,
Jay

I love my p9000 ,have not a problem yet been printing about 6 months.

Tom how do you find the Wacom tablet for photo shop work?

[Tom Swaman]

David,
I do not know the first thing about a graphics tablet. I have never looked ito these in any way and have it in the back of my mind to do this at some time in the future. Right now, I am consumed with issues associated with troubleshooting Adobe CS3, my computer and my printing. Everything went caca last month when I switched to CS3 and I cannot seem to lick the problem. Adobe is trying to help me, but no luck yet!

Tom

[Jason Hermann]

Originally Posted by D.Rodgers

I love my p9000 ,have not a problem yet been printing about 6 months.

Tom how do you find the Wacom tablet for photo shop work?

I believe Rense has a wacom Tablet if I'm not mistaken. I've see so many tutorials where the Pro's are using then and can't say enough good things about them. Also I spend so much time editing photos that I think the pressure sensitivity alone will increase my work flow by 25 percent minimum.

Tom, Sry to here about your CS3 issue! I hope that gets iron out soon.

As far as size of prints? Thats a tuff call. I would have to see how my business progresses over the next year to justify larger prints than the 17x22, but you never now

Best,
Jay

[Tom Swaman]

Jay,

Me too, I am very satisfied with 17 X 22 prints. If I needed bigger, it is easy to outsource these and not have to inventory paper. I prefer sheets to rolls. Sure rolls sound cheaper until you price the time you spend cutting prints, mis-cutting prints and occassionally cutting through prints and having to repeat the process.

Jay thank you for your sentiments. I have now made about 150 8-1/2 X 11 prints that fill a waste basket and waste a lot of ink. Adobe staff tell me one thing. Adobe's website says the opposite. My prints keep coming out way too dark. Now can you believe that I am using up Light Black and Light Light Black ink faster than Light Cyan and Light Magenta since I switched to CS3. So far, the only solutions that work are to use CS2, edit in CS3 and print with CS2 or to turn color management in CS3 off and use the printer driver to manage color. Am I alone? Heck no, there are complaints all over the Internet. This one has been and continues to be a nightmare for me. I thank you again and I sure hope this goes away soon.

Have a wonderful evening,
Tom

[aam1234]

Guys, if I may hijack the thread for just a bit. Is there a way to print wirelesslly (through Bluetooth perhaps).

Thanks

[Paul Shields]

You could use one of the printers that have network support (the HP B9180 for example) and add a wifi bridge to it I guess? Not aware of any of the A3+ printers using bluetooth or wifi, though it would be a nice addition (especially wifi due to the extended range).

[aam1234]

Thanks Paul.

Agree that BT is not the best option because of its range (10 meters).