[+ spiral +]

I read <star-wars-character-in-unfortunate-circumstance>'s thread about the Canon i960 when i was thinking about getting a printer and was convinced that was the right one for me. But i just hought a Powerbook and it came with a "free" Canon i450 after rebate. What is the significant difference between these two printers other than 510?

Should i sell this printer on ebay and get the 960? What are you getting with $150 more? Thanks wise inkjet people.

[Footy]

Here... this should help. I added the i850 in there because I bought one a few months back and LOVE IT.

http://www.usa.canon.com/html/conCpr...product14=9443

Don't know that I'd sale the i450 though since it's only a 50 dallor printer anyway. Think I might just hold onto it for a backup.

-Footy

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

The i950 is a PRO photo printer. If you are printing mostly Photos then the 950/960 is the way to go.

Or read more here on the 450:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/consume...725/index.html

[+ spiral +]

Awesome.
The broader cosmological question is ... what are the massive PRO benefits that the i960 brings with 4x's the pricetag as compared to the i450.

The resolutions are the same ... is the image quality much better? Is the PictBridge (or whatever the standard direct print feature is called) technology one of the features that drives the price up? Color accuracy? Consistency? Do the six inks on the i960 give images a more continuous tone? Doubles as a turkey roaster/pasta maker?

The chart was pretty helpful but i can't really see a major difference ... or rather, i really don't know what to look for.


Give me the dirt and help me justify a printer purchase. Thanks!

[Footy]

My i850 prints great photos. Compairing the i950 to i850 in store I couldn't see a difference but the i450 might be different. I know your looking at the i960.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/printers.html

Steve's digicams do great reviews. I don't see the i450 on there but you can check out the others (i850, i950, i960).

[schk]

Originally posted by + spiral +:
Awesome.
The broader cosmological question is ... what are the massive PRO benefits that the i960 brings with 4x's the pricetag as compared to the i450.

The resolutions are the same ... is the image quality much better? Is the PictBridge (or whatever the standard direct print feature is called) technology one of the features that drives the price up? Color accuracy? Consistency? Do the six inks on the i960 give images a more continuous tone? Doubles as a turkey roaster/pasta maker?

The chart was pretty helpful but i can't really see a major difference ... or rather, i really don't know what to look for.


Give me the dirt and help me justify a printer purchase. Thanks!

The i960 is blazing fast with print speeds and with fantastic output. Whereas all the models below the 960 have 4 ink tanks, it has 6 (photo cyan and photo magenta) so difficult colors come out nice and there are better gradients. You can see the small dots that make up the pictures on the lower end models, you will be hard pressed to tell the i960 from a real photo if you own a decent camera 4MP and up. If you only print photos and want the best, then get the i960. It's a waste if you don't have a good camera or barely print out digital photos. Also, on lower models, banding is more visible, which is really annoying. The i9X0 series have no banding whatsoever.

I had the i950 because I was able to use employee discount at the time and buy it for $145 shipped. But I realized I barely print pictures so I sold it. But the pictures were awesome. I know the i950 wasn't that great on black and white photos as well, so keep that in mind and try looking at the forums at dpreview.com

[EvanV]

I was wondering this too. I just got the i450 'cause it was free with my PowerBook and iPod....

[dgbatchelor]

Originally posted by schk:
The i960 is blazing fast with print speeds and with fantastic output. Whereas all the models below the 960 have 4 ink tanks, it has 6 (photo cyan and photo magenta) so difficult colors come out nice and there are better gradients. You can see the small dots that make up the pictures on the lower end models, you will be hard pressed to tell the i960 from a real photo if you own a decent camera 4MP and up. If you only print photos and want the best, then get the i960. It's a waste if you don't have a good camera or barely print out digital photos. Also, on lower models, banding is more visible, which is really annoying. The i9X0 series have no banding whatsoever.

I'm looking for some of the accessories which are supposed to work with the i960... namely, a duplexer and extra paper tray/feeder... Anyone have experience with these on the i960 and any clue where I could find them?

[jivefeind]

I have just bought an i455 and have to say that it prints out top quality photos. They all support PictBridge but there aint that many cameras that support it yet so not a big selling point really. The main difference will be the speed.

Personally I would stick with your 455.

Cheers
JF

[neilw]

I am a happy i850 owner.

If I were buying now, it would definitely be the i860, which looks to me like the real winner among the new crop.

The i960, with 6 photo inks, will do the best photos, period. However, the i860 will be better for all-around use because it includes a pigment black ink cartridge, which is better for text printing. Relative to the cheaper models (and to the i850 it replaces), the i860 also adds a dye black cartridge which should improve photo printing. This makes the i860, unusually, a 5 color printer, with four for photos and one for text.

It also adds a separate 4x6 photo feeder, which means you can leave it loaded all the time with 4x6 photo paper and 8.5x11 general-purpose paper. I would *love* this feature.

Add that all up for $149 list price and it sounds absolutely perfect as an all-around printer. And Canon's OSX support is good; I've had *very* few problems with drivers, and my printer works flawlessly under Panther.