A4 Printers

[Greecian]

I wonder why Canon don't produce a 'professional' A4 printer i.e. one with as many inks as the A3 9000 or 9500. There must be other people like me who just don't have the room for or don't need A3 but would like the same print quality as the professional range.

I currently have an IP6700D (with six inks) bought in February last year, which was replaced by (I think) the 4000 or 4500 with fewer inks. This is my first printer bought after research told me that more inks meant better quality. The printer was a job to source because it was obsolete at the time (my thanks to Jessop's who obtained it for me from a branch some 200 miles away). I'm happy with the colour prints produced and, provided I tick the 'grayscale' box in printer properties, black and white are OK too, not 'muddy'. I print via the excellent print software called 'Qimage' on to 'Permajet' paper using genuine Canon inks.

When my IP 6700 gives up the ghost, I shall be looking for a printer with more inks than the current Canon A4 range. This may be difficult as I'm not aware of any make of A4 printer with 6 or more inks.

Gerry

[Martin]

Re: A4 Printers

Gerry,

With the multi inked heads of the 9000 and 9500, the size of the printer is much determined by the physical size of the head , and the actual size of the travel path to get all inks in the head across the paper. So the physical size is less a function of paper size as to those requirements.

Based on that premise, an A4 printer would be massive as well, and doesnt make either manufacturing sense or marketing sense. As the costs would be great and everyone would say why all that engineering on only A4.

I think the fact that none of the other manufacturers make such as printer is probably proof enough.

Monochrome printing via the greyscale method is not the best way to go, but generally colour printing to get mono is unsatisfactory too. I now use the Pixma Pro 9500 after a couple of years with the 9000. The difference for mono prints is like night and day, as the ink colours and shades, and type are geared for mono.

Martin

[Greecian]

Re: A4 Printers

Thanks for that Martin, I'll have to throw my son out and pinch his bedroom for my 'lightroom'!!!

But why did Canon reduce the number of inks when they superseded the IP6700d? I guess that was cost related as well.

Gerry

[keithgg]

Re: A4 Printers

Gerry,

The reasoning behind the reduced number of inks is that the latest Canon A4 printers use a one pico-litre ink droplet, so Canon claim that they only need four inks for photo printing, which will match, or surpass, their older six ink printers.
The quality from my iP4600 is at least as good as my old S820 (six colour) printer. BCI-6 inks, the same as the 6700D. ICC profile support must help with the newer printers.

If you really must have more inks then the Epson R800 has seven. Plus they are the UltraChrome pigment inks, rather than dye. It was, however, launched in 2006. See:

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Epson%20R800/page_1.htm

Epson USA says that it is discontinued, and “This product has been replaced with: Epson Stylus Photo R1900 Ink Jet Printer”.
I think that this must be the rumoured R900 printer. There are rumours of new Epson printers to be announced shortly.

The current Warehouse Express prices are £81.99 for the iP4600, and £264.00 for the R800.
The new Pixma iX7000 A3 printer also has four inks, however this is replacing the iX4000/5000 which only had three inks.

Cheers
Keith

[Greecian]

Re: A4 Printers

Thank you Keith, I'll see what's about when the time comes.

Gerry

[Archivist]

Re: A4 Printers

I have the previous canon 4500 and have great results from it use in competitive prints. In this months "digital camera" mag there is a comparison of printers..might be worth a look...

ps no commercial interest in the mag just passing on info.

[the tigg]

Re: A4 Printers

How about the ip8500 with eight inks for an A4 printer.I know this one is discontinued but I'll bet someone will be swapping theirs for it's bigger brother.

[Mike_W]

Re: A4 Printers

Archivist:

You say you use a Canon 4500, can I ask what paper do you use and what is your workflow - eg: do you use the canned icc profiles for the printer/paper combination or are you using custom profiles?

I have the same printer and gave up on it as the reds were absolutely way off and dull. I had Canon send me a sample print as a test and even that was below par with poor saturation and contrast.

My previous experience with Epson was far better and I am reviewing what printers they currently market.

cheers
Mike