[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

This is a continuation from my other thread about wanting to replace my troublesome Epsons with an HP but ending up with a much better Canon model.

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=169502

I am a long time Epson user. After my Epson 700 Photo was nothing but trouble I swore I would never get another Epson.

I folded and replaced it with an Epson c80 thinking they solved the many problems of the old such as clogged ink heads and paper loading wrong.

I was mistaken. My c80 is always clogged, I print a photo on high quality paper and it comes out with lines or it runs out of ink half way though.

I always have to clean the heads every week even though I hardly ever print.

After looking into the HP's and other high end Epsons I decided on the Canon i950.

Here is why:

6 colour ink, this is the way Photo Printers should be. I can replace EACH colour individually.

Cheap ink compared to the HP and Epson.

Smaller droplet size.

Cheap cost per page.

VERY quite (on normal mode) and even has another quite mode.

The ink heads ARE replaceable if need be. It comes with one but if it is every totally clogged you can get a new one. An Epson becomes a paperweight. HP you pay to replace it with every ink cart even if you don't need it.

Borderless printing on 8.5 x 11

Nice design.

Awesome OS9 and OSX software.

You can leave the printer on as it shuts it self off. You CANNOT do this with Epsons as when they are on they heat and charge the ink. If you keep it like this the ink will spoil and the heads clog. Epson support told me the same.

Looks nicer, dark gray, white, and a brushed metal lid, looks great with Mac’s.

Downsides:
No built in media card reader.
No LCD
None of these things really mattered as I would NEVER print directly from a card, I don’t have USB 2.0 and the LCD is useless unless you print direct from a card.

When I got home I was even more impressed then I thought I would be. This printer has AWESOME software and features that no other printer I have ever used has....

For example:
Sleep mode, you can tell the printer to go to sleep (off really) after a set period of time of inactivity. You can set the time. It also turns it self on when it gets print data sent to it.

Print drying mode. The printer will wait between each page printed at a user selectable interval so the wet pages don’t sit on top of one another.

Silent mode. This one is really cool. You can set it to print in a quite mode, I assume it is slower but that is great if you have roommates and you need to print late. The cooler thing is you can set it to AUTOMATICALLY go into quite mode between certain hours. All these settings and changes and sent to the printers ROM so you don’t have to hold them on the computer and transfers if moved.

Now for the printing.

I took it home, the software is great, better then Epsons and people say they are good with software. Epson didn’t support borderless printing in OSX on some of the printers they are even shipping now! The Canon does.

The printer is quite and fast with graphics. About 60 second for a top quality photo on Photo paper on 8 x 10.

The Utility menu is more precise with head alignment and got it right on the first adjustment, the Epson NEVER aligned properly.

Quality. Awesome. Printed a 8 x 10 Photo that was only 72 DPI on premium photo paper. The colours were bang on, but a bit darker then what was on my LCD, since my LCD is rather bright this always seems to be the case.

Then I printed a full page grayscale poster I designed at 300 DPI on plane paper. Perfect. Not one line messed up.

After 4 full 8 x 10 photos 2 pages text and one black and white photo at 8 x 10 ALL the ink carts still show 100%.

So I am really sold on this Canon and now I understand why people keep raving about them. I HIGHLY recommend this printer to anyone who is serious about Photo Printing. Get rid of your Epson and get this Canon!

http://www.usa.canon.com/html/conCpr...;section=10214

[GORDYmac]

Direct CD/DVD printing has given Epson's printers a new lease on life on my desktop.

[The Placid Casual]

Congrats on the purchase! That is one cool printer...

I also hope it serves you as well as my Canon printers have served me over the years! As I said in the other thread, I won't buy anything else these days...

Peace,

Marc

[Timo]

I've been reasonably happy with my i950.

[Monkeymike]

I have the same printer and I love it. I actually tried out 2 others before getting the Canon but it was the best printer I could find!!

[::maroma::]

Thanks for the info. I've been in the market for a new printer lately, and I too have sworn off Epson. After they took 2 years to support my Photo 1200 (and halfassed support up to now) I will never buy Epson again.

Your Canon sounds great. It's going on my list.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by Timo:
I've been reasonably happy with my i950.

What are the downsides for you?

[Timo]

Originally posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker:
What are the downsides for you?

1. I wasn't blown away by my first photo prints on the photo paper. But to be clear, a) I have no other inkjet prints to compare it too and b) I might need to tweak the photo more. The upshot is I don't know if the printer or the user is more to blame.

2. The printer rocks pretty forcefully from side to side as it prints. Not a huge problem, but not ideal.

[Eug]

How much for the printer? How much does it cost to replace the Canon print head?

The Epson Stylus Photo 890 printer I have at work has excellent print quality as well, and it's quite quiet. However, the ink cartridges are rather expensive. (The ink cartridges are 6-colour. Separate black and white cartridge, but you can't get the individual colours separately.) I don't use it in OS X though, so I don't know how good the OS X drivers are, either. As for clogged print heads, I haven't had that problem yet after 2 years, and strangely enough I don't use it much. I usually just leave it on though, 24 hours a day, unless someone else turns it off. No overheating issue.

Maybe it's an issue with the model. The Epson c80 is a low budget printer.

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Originally posted by Eug:
How much for the printer? How much does it cost to replace the Canon print head?

I got the printer for $360 CAN on sale but normally it is $399 the same as the 3x slower HP 7550 3 colour ink printer that I was looking at.

The ink head replacement is about $30 I think which is nothing.

The ink is also cheap. My Epson was $20-40 bucks for EACH colour cart and $59 for the black one that wasn't that much bigger.

The Canon is $20 for each colour but 3 of those colours hardly ever get used. The black is a meager $24. I love that.

The c80 was not a low end printer, it was $250 CAN when it came out. The Epson 700 Photo was even more when it came out. They are both mid range printers that should behaved better for the money.

The Epson c60 was low end but it acted the same as the high end Epsons that I have used. They all generally have the same mechanics just the drop size and speed differs.

No epsons let you change the ink head and they all make a bloody racket, waste ink, and can't be left on.

These problems I call came to expect from using Epsons over the years, I thought getting a print with lines all over it and chugging ink was normal.

I can't tell you how thrilled I am that after printing 5 8 x 10 photos, text and a couple posters that ALL of them have come out PERFECT on the Canon. I am shocked really as the Epson would have messed 3 of them up one way or another.

[Eug]

Originally posted by Socially Awkward Solo:
No epsons let you change the ink head and they all make a bloody racket, waste ink, and can't be left on.

I leave mine on however, and it is very quiet.

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Originally posted by Eug:
I leave mine on however, and it is very quiet.

You really shouldn't if you read my reason above why. Also that was a high end printer, the less expensive ones are loud as hell.

Also the Canon is so quite printing (not even on quite mode) that a normal voice conversation will mute it out totally which is great.

[rezzi]

Quote by Severed Hand of Skywalker: "I folded and replaced it with an Epson c80 thinking they solved the many problems of the old such as clogged ink heads and paper loading wrong."

Did you buy the C80 recently? If so, you were backpeddling as it has been superceeded by the C82, but it TOO has some of the same issues. The ink in them dries too quickly for some reason- resulting in blocked tubes and/or print head.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by rezzi:
Did you buy the C80 recently? If so, you were backpeddling as it has been superceeded by the C82 and it has some of the same issues. The ink in them dries dries too quickly for some reason- resulting in blocked tubes and/or print heads.

No I got the c80 about 10 months ago or so.

The reason it clogs is because when you turn ANY Epson printer on it warms the ink tank to get it ready to print. HP's do not do this.

If you leave it on the ink spoils and the heads clog.

[mbryda]

Originally posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker:

The reason it clogs is because when you turn ANY Epson printer on it warms the ink tank to get it ready to print. HP's do not do this.

If you leave it on the ink spoils and the heads clog.

Not here. I have both an Epson 880 and a Photo 875, both on 24/7 and I print to each maybe a couple pages a week, if that. Occasional clogging, maybe once a month or so - definitely within acceptable limits. I use maybe 2-3 ink cart's per year....

[OldManMac]

I had an Epson Photo 870 for almost two years, and I've had a Photo 960 since March. The 870 was left on for the entire time I owned it; never had ink clogging problems, or other issues. The 960 is on 24/7, and it has functioned perfectly. I print color photos with them only, as I also have a laser, and I don't use my ink jet every day. I wouldn't buy anything but Epson.

BTW, glad you like your Canon.

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by Socially Awkward Solo:
You really shouldn't if you read my reason above why. Also that was a high end printer, the less expensive ones are loud as hell.

Also the Canon is so quite printing (not even on quite mode) that a normal voice conversation will mute it out totally which is great.

I've had the Epson for around 2 years now. Hopefully it will last.

It sounds like the noise is about the same as the Canon.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by Timo:
1. I wasn't blown away by my first photo prints on the photo paper. But to be clear, a) I have no other inkjet prints to compare it too and b) I might need to tweak the photo more. The upshot is I don't know if the printer or the user is more to blame.

2. The printer rocks pretty forcefully from side to side as it prints. Not a huge problem, but not ideal.

I've had and used some very high quality printers, every brand. So far the Canon i950 is the best I have ever seen. Perhaps you need to tinker with the image a bit in Photoshop first.

My Canon is dare I say, very gentle. It is smooth and loads/prints was smoother then the Epsons, lexmark I have had.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

I just talked to someone at Staples who said that canon covers the print head in the warranty so since the printer is rather new they don't even carry the heads yet as there is no need.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Found another great review on it:

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_...anon_i950.html

" Compared to other photo printers like the Epson Stylus Photo 925, the Canon i950 is smaller in size, a lot quieter and much faster. Perhaps the most significant feature besides the speed is the ThinkTank ink system which we will cover on page two. You replace the individual color tanks rather than tossing a multi-color cartridge out when any one color runs empty. The user can also replace the print head assembly if needed without requiring a trip to a service center.

In actual use the i950 is so quiet that you almost don't notice that it's working. I printed a borderless 8.5 x 11 inch photo using the glossy photo paper and "High Quality" print settings in the driver. The finished print was ejected only one minute and fifty seconds later. It was the equal to the best print that I've ever made on any Epson or HP photo printer and completed in less than half the time. "

[tooki]

I don't know who came up with that nonsense of an Epson heating the ink. I think it was someone misusing the term "warming up" to refer to the power-on cleaning, thinking that like a laser printer, it actually needs to warm up. Heating the ink in a liquid inkjet would be insanity, especially considering that, unlike Canon, HP, Lexmark, etc, Epson doesn't use a thermal inkjet system.

(The only inkjets that DO heat the ink are the Xerox/Tek solid-ink inkjets, which basically melt high-tech crayons and spray said molten wax onto the paper.)

tooki

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Originally posted by tooki:
I don't know who came up with that nonsense of an Epson heating the ink.

Epson Tech support. It does charge the ink electrically and leaving it on is a very bad idea.

Not to mention Epson even says in the manual that ink will only last 6 months in or out of the package which also sucks.

[OldManMac]

Originally posted by Socially Awkward Solo:
Epson Tech support. It does charge the ink electrically and leaving it on is a very bad idea.

Not to mention Epson even says in the manual that ink will only last 6 months in or out of the package which also sucks.

So, just because some "tech" at Epson said so, that must be gospel?

It doesn't charge the ink until you issue a print command. I've owened three Epsons in the last four years; they've been flawless, and they're left on 24/7. I have friends who own Epsons who leave them on 24/7, and they don't experience any problems.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by KarlG:
It doesn't charge the ink until you issue a print command. I've owened three Epsons in the last four years; they've been flawless, and they're left on 24/7. I have friends who own Epsons who leave them on 24/7, and they don't experience any problems.

That's nice, I am glad it works for you. I ask the 10 people that I know that have used high end Epsons for the past 5 years and they all agree with my points and concerns 100%.

They also are NEVER getting another one.

For one, I take tech support suggestions over "your friends" though.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Oh and I just checked on Epsons site and it clearly says that the ink cart is electrically charged.

[tooki]

Originally posted by Socially Awkward Solo:
Epson Tech support. It does charge the ink electrically and leaving it on is a very bad idea.

Not to mention Epson even says in the manual that ink will only last 6 months in or out of the package which also sucks.

Huh?!? Epsons don't charge the ink; they use piezoelectric print heads, where a piezo element creates a bulge in the nozzle, thus forcing the ink out. Only Iris inkjets (which are continuous -- not on-demand -- inkjets) use electrostatically charged ink.

Epsons do NOT heat the ink, nor do they electrically charge it. From the ink's point of view, the Epson printing process is strictly mechanical.

The "warm-up" process in an liquid-ink inkjet printer is just a head cleaning, in anticipation of making a printout.


The ink in an Epson cartridge lasts for 6 months after being opened. An unopened cartridge is good until the expiration date printed on it. [Note: this applies to any other inkjet, too.]

tooki

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by tooki:
Huh?!? Epsons don't charge the ink; they use piezoelectric print heads, where a piezo element creates a bulge in the nozzle, thus forcing the ink out. Only Iris inkjets (which are continuous -- not on-demand -- inkjets) use electrostatically charged ink.

Well it does do electric pulses to causes the ink wall to deflect inward. Who knows what it is doing while on all the time.

Personally, i don't care if it dances the hokey pokey, all I know is that I get bad reliability and extremely high costs per page with Epsons over the years.

[videian28]

any info on the i850? is it technically the same but with only 4 individual colors?

[maxintosh]

I also vote Epson. I have a CX5200 and it is fantastic. I never thought I'd like a multifunction device. It too has individual ink tanks, and archival ink that is garunteed to last at least 80+ years.

The heating business is nonsense. It does charge the ink HEADS electrically, and on start-up and cleaning it does force a small amount of ink out... but so does HP. I replace my cartridges maybe 2-3 times a year.

It's also very quite, except for paper loading on "fast" mode which makes a big CLUNK when it's feeding it at the beginning. Old Epsons were notoriously loud, like the 740.

Epson also covers the print head in warranty, and they have a nice overnight replacement program.

[emdash]

I said it in the other thread, I'll say it again: The Epson 2200 is awe-inspiring. Truly stunning prints, pigment-based ink, 13x19, spot-on color reproduction. Best printer I've ever used.

[Hydra]

I vote for the Epson Photo 960. It has quality very similar to the Epson 2200. It can do border-less 4x6 and 5x7's, 4inch roll paper,8inch roll paper. Auto-paper cutter for the roll paper Direct printing on CD-R DVD-R blank printable media . 7 individual ink tanks (two black). Really an awesome do-it-all for around $300. I love it and I thought my Epson 875 had great ouput but this 960 blows it away.

-Jerry C.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Well one of my cats really gets a kick out of the canon

[tooki]

Originally posted by videian28:
any info on the i850? is it technically the same but with only 4 individual colors?

Actually, believe it or not, the i850 is actually superior other than having 2 inks less than the i950.

The i950 has one set of nozzles for each color (512 nozzles x6), while the i850 has one very large array of nozzles for black, and two arrays for color. Each color array consists of two separate arrays for cyan and magenta, one each for 5pl droplets and 2pl droplets. Yellow gets one set of 5pl nozzles in the array.

One of the color arrays, however, is a mirror-image of the first.

Why do this? To eliminate banding. In a normal printer, printing in bidirectional mode, ink is laid down as, say, CMYK in one direction, and then KYMC in the other. This creates banding. The i850's symmetrical print head always lays down ink in the same order, regardless of the direction it's printing in. (The black array is twice as wide as the color, so it only needs print black in one direction when printing color.)

The i850's black array is much wider than the i950's, so if you plan on doing lots of everyday black and white printing, you may benefit from the i850's faster black and white mode.

tooki

Edit: Disclaimer -- I recently bought an i850, and I love it.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by tooki:
Actually, believe it or not, the i850 is actually superior other than having 2 inks less than the i950.

You might want to look at some detailed reviews before you decide. For me the photo prints for the i950 look much smoother and cleaner then the 850.
Both are great printers though.

http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer...9/i950-02.html

[Eug Wanker]

Anyone use the i950 with both XP and X? How long do the cartridges last?

[Hash]

i850 has an incredible black/white text printing speed compared to any other inkjets including 550 and 950. And it also has awesome photo quality, only slightly lower than that of 950. If you plannning printing a lot of text, and only occasional photos, i850 is much better.

I though went with Brother 1440 laser printer for text. If I need a printer only for photos, I probably would choose 950.

But i would buy 850 if I had to have one for everything.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
How long do the cartridges last?

This is unbelievable. Having the printer for more then a month now and having used it just about every day for PHOTOS, graphics and a little bit of text this is the result.

I have printed about 50, 8x10 photographs at the highest setting.

Five 4x6 borderless photos.

About 20 pages of mostly graphics such as charts and poster type material. 90% coverage.

10 pages of text.

Out of all those prints ONE of them had slight banding on it, nothing serious and I didn't do anything for the next print to come out fine.

If this was one of my Epsons the ink would be LONG gone and 50% of them would have some sort of problem.

Anyway, these are my ink levels after all these prints which just tickles me to death. I heard that only Photo Magenta and Photo Cyan run out fast when printing photo's. Still, these suckers are lasting waaaay longer then I would have ever thought and since each cart is only $20 CAN I can't complain.

[+ spiral +]

I finally got the i960 based on your recommendation. It is amazing. I've never been a huge fan of inkjets because i felt like the quality wasn't quite there yet ... but it is now!

Few questions: where is that ink-level / printer utility? Is that a separate software install? I can't find it under Apps or Utilities.

What kinds of paper do you buy that work well? I bought the Canon matte paper, but would like to get something in larger quantity and cheaper. Suggestions?

Thanks!

[Link]

lol wow the battle between canon vs epson seems like between mac and PC, both claiming to have the best, etc.

On this front, I side with canon.

While epson makes some nice printers, one thing canon has on my side is past experience. I've gone through several canons before, and despite the continuous ink system you can get on high end epsons, on most canons the ink tanks are cheap and easily changable, not to mention some are EASY to refill.

Thus you get MUCH more mileage for the $ then you do out of an epson. Not to mention, IMHO they look a little nicer.

The only thing that has annoyed me in years past about canons are the time they spend preparing. I am about to retire my multipass 5500, which while rather cheap per page, is one of the slowest printers I have ever owned.

I turn it on...

CLICK CLUNK WHIRRR... CLICK CLUNK WHIIIRIRR click click clikc..... *pause* WHIiiirrrrrrr click click click click whiir whiirr (the whole process takes nearly a minute, if not more!!)

Finally, ready to print. Alright. :sends print job:
Click clunk whirrrr click clunk whirrr.. . click click whirrrrrr whiir (ok 15 seconds later it starts printing)

Let's not even get into copies. It takes about half a minute to copy ONE page on that sucker.

THANKFULLY, it wasn't compatible with my powermac. Poor machine. $400 down the drain after 3 years.

I used it as a fax/copier machine up until 2 weeks ago when my mom needed to get this important paper, while I hesitated, I plug the machine in, 2 minutes later the fax comes in, and of course, the printer starts spewing out what? lots of nothing. Just white pages with a little mark at the top.

Printer realizes about 2 pages in that it's out of ink and pops up an error. SAVED TO MEMORY! good.

I check the ink tanks, I had just refilled them a week ago! Grrrr. They're still full.

Yep $45 'cartridge' needs to be replaced. How annoying (I'm talking about the print head here.)

The ONE THING I hope when I get my next canon is that they've improved it. I truly loved this system since of course, ink tanks are sooo cheap and easy to refill. No big deal.

Of course that thing cost me about what.. $175 for about 4 years of happy service (no pun intended there)? Not bad at all! Considering that I printed more pages then I can remember, let's just say I used the print heads for about 2x the pagecount they were meant to be used for. I think I went through 4 print heads including the stock, so yeah. Definately not bad at all (These things aren't expensive if you find the right place)

It was just slow. Yet again though, I find the mid/high end inkjets have none of the problems my poor multipass did. As a printer, I replaced the canon with a lexmark, which in turn was replaced by an HP. Truth be told, HP makes a solid printer, no doubt it's one of the heaviest I've ever owned, and I even sorta like the fact it prints out "nice" pictures, nothing special but generally decent on it's REGULAR ink setting, something I've never had a printer do for me before.

HOWEVER HP printers are HORRIBLE in ink consumption. I've gone through a handful (5 or 6) black cartridges in the past 14 months, which is a really steep price for page.

Needless to say, I'm going back to canon next time. However I won't be getting an all-in one this time, no thanks to panther I'll just grab a canon Lide 60 and a nice i950 or something. If only I could afford a good digicam to truly take advantage of that.

[dgbatchelor]

Anyone know the difference between the i950 and i960? Are the the same printer with slightly updated interfaces/firmware?

Anyone have experience and/or looked into both of these?

TIA.

[CaseCom]

The i960 supports USB 2.0, and it has a port on the front that lets you print directly from the camera if your camera is compatible. Canon also lowered the price by 50 bucks ($200 vs. $250 for the i950).

Printing specs look the same. This Web site says it's faster than the i950, although Canon's claimed speeds for both printers are the same, so maybe take that with a grain of salt.

[dgbatchelor]

...so it sounds like a no-brainer between the i950 and i960 (pick the i960 if given the choice).

Thanks.

[tooki]

More importantly, the i960 (and i860) allow you to have 4x6" and regular paper loaded at the same time, and accessories are now available: a duplex unit and extra paper tray (and in Europe, apparently, a CD loader).

tooki

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by CaseCom:
The i960 supports USB 2.0,

I thought the i950 did also. They mean the slow USB 2.0 don't they, not high speed.

[dgbatchelor]

Originally posted by tooki:
More importantly, the i960 (and i860) allow you to have 4x6" and regular paper loaded at the same time, and accessories are now available: a duplex unit and extra paper tray (and in Europe, apparently, a CD loader).

tooki

Where can I find out more about these accessories? I couldn't find them on the Canonusa website...

[Timo]

Any problem running the i950 from Panther? I see driver 1.9.0 is included in the install:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25588

[dgbatchelor]

Originally posted by Timo:
Any problem running the i950 from Panther? I see driver 1.9.0 is included in the install:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25588

Same question for i960... I don't see i960 listed in the referenced article... Most likely because the i960 is so new. Has anyone used one of these new i960 printers with Panther?

-- Don --

[davidflas]

Originally posted by Socially Awkward Solo:
I got the printer for $360 CAN on sale but normally it is $399 the same as the 3x slower HP 7550 3 colour ink printer that I was looking at.

Just to set the record straight, the HP 7550 is a 7 color printer, has a built in lcd, and a media reader. I'm not saying its perfect, but I find its photo and text quality to be quite good.

[tooki]

Originally posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker:
I thought the i950 did also. They mean the slow USB 2.0 don't they, not high speed.

The i950 (and i850) is advertised as being USB 2.0, but it's USB 2.0 Full Speed (aka USB 1.1 Full Speed).

The i960 is actually USB 2.0 High Speed.

tooki

[Landos Mustache]

Originally posted by tooki:
The i950 (and i850) is advertised as being USB 2.0, but it's USB 2.0 Full Speed (aka USB 1.1 Full Speed).

The i960 is actually USB 2.0 High Speed.

tooki

Can any printer print that fast though?