Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

cantona7 · Oct 3, 2004, 05:19 PM

hello all,

need some pointers. looking for a new photo printer and unsure as to which i should get. currently have the epson 1280 and its slowly dying. paper feeder is playing up. i would like the new printer to print quite large (at least like the 1280), print high quality photos and cost in the region of $500. also, print borderless and work in osx of course.

thanks

Disgruntled Head of C-3PO · Oct 3, 2004, 05:31 PM

And Canon over $200 is the way to go.

Ishan Bhattacharya · Oct 3, 2004, 08:12 PM

Originally posted by Disgruntled Head of C-3PO:
And Canon over $200 is the way to go.

I just bought two Canon Pixma IP5000s and the output with Canon's photo paper is simply fantastic. I don't know how "large" you need your prints but the PIXMA series has photoprinters which will print to larger/longer paper.

ishan

maxx9photo · Oct 3, 2004, 08:19 PM

i9900 is what you'd like to try.

bbales · Oct 3, 2004, 10:26 PM

I just got a Canon Pixma i4000 and while it's less than $200 (it was $150), it is absolutely fabulous. Pictures are very good quality. I got mine right after the new Pixma line came out. The i5000 an earlier poster talked about wasn't part of the line then; had it been, I probably would have gone for that one. But it is more expensive. Overall, I'm very, very pleased with mine, so I'd echo the suggestion to look at the Canon Pixma line. Great printers.

cantona7 · Oct 4, 2004, 11:11 PM

thanks all.

like the look of the i9900. will research this printer some more.

zigzag · Oct 5, 2004, 02:46 PM

Originally posted by Ishan Bhattacharya:
I just bought two Canon Pixma IP5000s and the output with Canon's photo paper is simply fantastic. I don't know how "large" you need your prints but the PIXMA series has photoprinters which will print to larger/longer paper.

ishan

ishan: I've been trying to decide between the ip4000 and 5000, but haven't seen any direct comparisons. Were you able to make any comparisons or did you just decide to go for the 5000?

cantona7 · Oct 7, 2004, 06:12 PM

decided to go with the i9900. so far very impressed. photos look amazing. if anything changes, will post back.

thanks again.

Jake_11 · Oct 7, 2004, 07:14 PM

I have the Canon i850, which is far less than the range you are looking at. I think the photos look better than those developed at walmart of target. i know they make a 9000 series which is probably what you are looking for. i'm sure the quality can only go up from my sub $200 printer. It worth checking out.

Ishan Bhattacharya · Oct 9, 2004, 07:56 AM

Originally posted by zigzag:
ishan: I've been trying to decide between the ip4000 and 5000, but haven't seen any direct comparisons. Were you able to make any comparisons or did you just decide to go for the 5000?

I assumed (I might be wrong) that the one picoliter droplet size on the 5000 vs. the two picoliter droplet size on the 4000 might make a subtle improvement. I have printed out the same image from both printers, but using different Macs with different color calibrations, so Ican't really tell if one is dramatically better than the other, and it wasn't blinded, i.e., I know beforehand which photo was from the 5000 vs. the 4000.

Either printer is a great value for the money, so I don't think you'll go wrong buying either one. The only situation where it might make a difference is if you shoot a lot of ISO400/800 stuff and don't want to spend a lot of time in postpprocessing the images. I keep my shots at (ideally) ISO 200 or less, so graininess with 8 x 10 prints taken in low light conditions hasn't been much of a problem so far. HTH.

ishan