I recently purchased a Canon Pixma Pro 9000 Mark II. I was looking for a quality printer as I’m getting asked for prints. Until recently the Pixma Pro’s had £100 cash back which always helps. I have had issues with Epsons in the past (both my own and supporting friends and family) so didn’t consider an Epson.
Initially, I opted for Canon’s own PhotoPaper Plus Glossy II A3 and Fujifilm’s Premium Plus Pro A4. I shall try Ilford, Hahnemühle and PermaJet paper in the coming months and see if I have a preference.
I will buy cartridges when they are on offer … as it needs 8 cartridges and a full set will cost £80. These will get consumed at different rates, the photo-magenta and photo-cyan going fastest. I worked out that an A3+ print will cost about £4 (in terms of paper, ink and a contribution towards the hardware). So I know what to charge people as a raw cost.
The printer is connected to an Iomega Network Drive which provides a print spooler and allows the printer to be shared. You still need to connect a computer directly to the printer to interrogate the maintenance features. But the cartridge bank has 8 LEDS which indicate the status of each cartridge, so a direct connection isn’t strictly necessary. The printer comes with software, including the drivers and plugins (Canon Easy-PhotoPrint) for contemporary versions of Photoshop and DPP. There are two versions a ‘consumer’ version and ‘professional’ version … both can co-exist and you can select which best fits your requirement on the day. The printer has two USB sockets, one on the back that serves as the connection with the print spooler, and the other on the front where you can plug in a PictBridge compatible camera. I have tried plugging my 7D and printing direct from RAW. You get a surprising amount of control from the cameras menu system; such as page layout, quality, size, effects, adjustments (brightness, levels), et seq.
The quality of the prints is stunning, far better (as would be expected) than my office multifunction (a HP Officejet 7310) which itself produces acceptable prints (especially if you temporarily replace the colour cartridge with a photo colour cartridge when doing a print run). With the Pixma, there appears to be much more detail with blacker blacks and more vibrant colours. I’ve yet to try printing OS maps on waterproof (I use Toughprint) paper on the Pixma, probably no point except as an intellectual exercise.
The printer itself is very well constructed (it’s heavy) and can support a number of print pathways. It can print on card and CD/DVDs. It runs fairly quiet when printing and I find the print time acceptable.
So all in all, I would thoroughly recommend this printer.
Initially, I opted for Canon’s own PhotoPaper Plus Glossy II A3 and Fujifilm’s Premium Plus Pro A4. I shall try Ilford, Hahnemühle and PermaJet paper in the coming months and see if I have a preference.
I will buy cartridges when they are on offer … as it needs 8 cartridges and a full set will cost £80. These will get consumed at different rates, the photo-magenta and photo-cyan going fastest. I worked out that an A3+ print will cost about £4 (in terms of paper, ink and a contribution towards the hardware). So I know what to charge people as a raw cost.
The printer is connected to an Iomega Network Drive which provides a print spooler and allows the printer to be shared. You still need to connect a computer directly to the printer to interrogate the maintenance features. But the cartridge bank has 8 LEDS which indicate the status of each cartridge, so a direct connection isn’t strictly necessary. The printer comes with software, including the drivers and plugins (Canon Easy-PhotoPrint) for contemporary versions of Photoshop and DPP. There are two versions a ‘consumer’ version and ‘professional’ version … both can co-exist and you can select which best fits your requirement on the day. The printer has two USB sockets, one on the back that serves as the connection with the print spooler, and the other on the front where you can plug in a PictBridge compatible camera. I have tried plugging my 7D and printing direct from RAW. You get a surprising amount of control from the cameras menu system; such as page layout, quality, size, effects, adjustments (brightness, levels), et seq.
The quality of the prints is stunning, far better (as would be expected) than my office multifunction (a HP Officejet 7310) which itself produces acceptable prints (especially if you temporarily replace the colour cartridge with a photo colour cartridge when doing a print run). With the Pixma, there appears to be much more detail with blacker blacks and more vibrant colours. I’ve yet to try printing OS maps on waterproof (I use Toughprint) paper on the Pixma, probably no point except as an intellectual exercise.
The printer itself is very well constructed (it’s heavy) and can support a number of print pathways. It can print on card and CD/DVDs. It runs fairly quiet when printing and I find the print time acceptable.
So all in all, I would thoroughly recommend this printer.
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