Canon today announced the ImagePrograf PRO-1000 Professional Inkjet Printer, a 17x22-inch, large format solution with technological advancements over its predecessors, such as a new print head, new ink set and a new image processing engine. Canon claims that the printer is designed for photographers who are what the company calls "equally obsessed" with the printed image.
This is the first in a new series of ImagePrograf printers that are marked by the Canon red line across the body of the printer, echoing the same red line on Canon's EF L-Series lenses. Compared to the Canon Pixma PRO-1 printer, the ImagePrograf PRO-1000 printer features a 50 percent larger print head, which also expands the total number of nozzles to 18,432 for each of the 12 channels.
The new print head design utilizes a real-time ink ejection system which helps to maintain a consistent print head temperature allowing for consistent ink droplets. The new print head helps to further reduce the amount of wasted ink through anti-clogging technologies where ink ejection conditions are checked with sensors, and if a clog is detected, another nozzle automatically provides backup.
The new Lucia Pro 11-color plus Chroma Optimizer in the system has resin-coating of each pigment, allowing for denser droplets to be applied to the media, resulting in an increased color gamut of up to 19 percent over the Pixma PRO-1 printer. The Lucia Pro ink system also allows for an improved level of black density. The ImagePrograf PRO-1000 printer is designed to work with changing media types. Photo Black and Matte Black inks have their own dedicated nozzles, so no switching is necessary. The new ink system includes matte black, photo black, gray, photo gray, red, blue, magenta, photo magenta, cyan, photo cyan, yellow and Chroma Optimizer. The size of the ink tanks is 80ml per tank.
The new processing engine, L-COA PRO, controls the balance of inks and the precise placement of ink droplets using various factors including color reproduction, tonal gradations, black density, graininess, glossiness, anti-bronzing and elimination of metamerism. To bring further accuracy to ink ejection and limitation of color unevenness, the ImagePrograf PRO-1000 printer offers a two-way vacuum paper feeder, which keeps media flat and even, helping with accuracy of ink ejection.
A built-in calibration function helps prevent variability of color output by aging changes or printer differences. Enhanced rigidity in the printer chassis allows for improved dot placement, helping to produce sharper prints, including borderless images.
Print speeds for the new model are approximately 4 minutes and 10 seconds for a 17x22-inch bordered photo, and 2 minutes 30 seconds for a 13x19 print. Print resolution is up to 4800x2400DPI. OS X 10.7.5 and up are supported, as well as Windows Vista SP1 and newer.
Connectivity is provided by USB 2.0, 10/100 Ethernet, PictBridge, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. The printer is an Airprint-compatible device.
The Canon ImagePrograf PRO-1000 is scheduled to be available end of October 2015 for a retail price of $1,300. Retail price of each color ink is $60, with the Chroma Optimizer selling for $55.
A whole new set of inks ran close to a grand, but that machine was a hell of a money-maker. I just looked up the 60" wide version of this Canon beast. It also uses a dozen tanks, 330ml each, and they're "only" ~$150 each.
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