[OldCodger73]

My old Epson Stylus Photo 870, which has been slowly dying over the last several months, is now on it’s last legs and needs replacement.

I had originally planned on replacing it with the Epson 2200 Photo Printer, which I gather is/was considered the “gold standard” for photo printers, but lately I’ve been hearing good things about the Canon i9900 Photo Printer and the Canon Pixma IP 8500 Photo Printer.

I’ll be printing photos on 8x10” paper, so while the wide printing ability of the 2200 or i9900 would be nice, I don’t really need it. From what I’ve read the IP 8500 has the same print engine as the i9900 and the printed results should be similar. Does anyone know if this is correct?

Also, has anyone had first hand experience with any of the above three printers?

And finally, I have some Epson Premium Glossy photo paper. I know that one usually achieves best results when using the paper from the printer’s manufacture, but if I do go with one of the Canons does anyone have an idea what kind of results I could expect using up the Epson paper?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

You will LOVE any of those Canon printers. I have the i950 and it is outstanding, no complains and never in 1.5 years had to clean the heads once.

I use Kodak picture paper myself.

[MichiganRich]

The Canon printers are getting the 'state-of-the-art' mentions that the Epson 2200 was getting last year. Any of the higher-end Canon printers would be a great choice. I have an Epson 875 (same engine as yours) and a Canon Pixma iP3000 at home, and I am waiting for prints to come out of the 2200 here at work. If I was going to buy a home photo printer (rather than the multi-purpose iP3000 that I wound up with), I would get the iP6000 if i was feeling thrifty, and the iP8500 if I was feeling uncompromising. The Epsons are finicky with paper, they only give repeatable and neutral results on their paper. The Canon is much less insistent on using Canon paper. The nice thing is, every couple weeks or so Staples has a sale on the Canon Photo Paper Pro for like half off. Personally, I used to have a strong allegiance to Epson because they were the only ones supporting Macs (back in the mid-late 90's) but now I think that the Canons are better printers, with decent OSX software.

[OreoCookie]

If you don't need proofing, the i9900 is your printer of choice if you need A3 (the 2200 is also an A3 printer). If you don't need that, get the Pixma. I had an S630 until recently (it died after almost three, four years of faithful service, printing *a lot*).

The only reason I didn't take a Canon again was because I wanted a laser printer.

[MichiganRich]

Oh yeah, when you get your Canon home please post what you think in comparison to the 870. The 870/1270 series used a nice wide-gamut dye based ink, and had the most vivid colors in their day. I'd like to see what you think about the comparison.

[tooki]

I have found my Canon to be much less forgiving of third-party paper than my old Epson. But Epson's glossy paper works fine in the Canon, and I have had outstanding results with Ilford's "smooth pearl" and "smooth gloss" papers. (The "classic" series does not give me good results on my i850, nor does Burlington's paper, or the old Kodak paper I tried.)

tooki

[OldCodger73]

Thanks for your responses. I decided to go with the Pixma IP 8500 and ordered it from NewEgg yesterday. I should have it Monday afternoon and will definitely post back how I like it.

Acting on the Staples tip I went to the local Staples store and was really disappointed by the almost lack of Canon paper. I'm going to the Woodinville Staples tomorrow, hopefully they'll have a better selection.

[tooki]

For some reason, none of the big office chains seem to carry much, if any, Canon paper. CompUSA carries most of it, and the Apple Store does, too.

It's also easily available by mail order.

I also suggest that you try the Ilford Smooth Pearl paper. It's got the same finish as the "matte" (i.e. not really matte, but textured gloss) photo lab paper.

tooki

[OldCodger73]

I ordered a Pixma 8500 from NewEgg last Wednesday and received it last Friday. I was unable to find time to set it up until Sunday. Setup went smoothly and fairly quickly using tthe illustrated setup sheet.

I'm really impressed with it. The Canon drivers seem stable and give a lot of control. I really like the cassette, which works perfectly with 4x6 paper. And the preview feature, which my old printer didn't have, is a great way to eliminate setup mistakes.

This is my first Canon printer and it replaced an Epson Stylus Pro Photo 870 that was in its death throes and finally died after printing 2 out of 3 eight page booklets which contained photos and a small amount of text on premium glossy photo paper. I used the Pixma for the third booklet. It was interesting comparing results. The Epson, while old, had a great print engine but the Pixma seems to give a better color gradient and more shadow detail. I haven't printed anything yet with bright vibrant colors, this is where the Pixma should really shine.

I'm very happy with my purchase.

BTW, I had about 30 sheets of Epson Premium Glossy Photo paper on had and did a test print on the Pixma with it. The paper gives very similar results to the corresponding Canon paper, which is a relief as now I'm not stuck with unusable photo paper.

The only negative so far is that the full line of Canon paper isn't as readily available locally as say Epson's. The local Staples store only had 4x6 Photo Paper Pro, 8.5x11 Photo Paper Plus Glossy and 8.5x11 Photo Paper Pro, while the Everett Office Depot and the Bellevue Square Apple Store only had the first two papers. I had really wanted to try the duplexing feature.

[AdotWu]

the 2200 does not was not designed to print on glossy paper. sounds stupid but its true. Since the 2200 is a professional grade printer, you will get good results from ONLY using the EPSON LUSTER paper. Reason for this is because the inks used in the 2200 (i forget if its dye or pigment) arent made to be aborbed by glossy paper. Trust me on this one. if this is going to be for everyday use, get the 8500. its uses the exact same engine as the 9900 but cant print on anything larger than 8.5x11.