[LRflex] A personal Canon Pixma printer review
- From: Miha Golobic <miha.golobic@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:13:32 +0100
Dear Flexers,
Because I only ask questions, I have decided to share with you a personal
review of my new Canon Pixma iP4600 photo printer, which I got on saturday
as my birthday gift :-))))
This printer belongs to Canon family photo printers (iP1900, iP2600, iP3600
and *ip4600*). Max resolution is 9600 x 2400 dpi, max print format is A4,
price is 100 EUR/USD.
First of all, this is my only photo printer, so I can`t compare the results
to any other printer. But as a "photographer" I can compare prints with RA-4
prints (let`s say Fuji Chrystal Archive paper).
*Instalation and operation*: Very easy. You turn the printer on, insert the
5 cartriges (4 for photo printing, and a bigger black one for regular text
printing), turn the printer off. Insert the CD in to your PC/Mac and follow
the instruction, you basically just press "Next" several times. Then you
conect the printer and the computer and turn the printer on again. That`s
it, you are ready to print.
The software suplied with the printer is very straightforward too. In the
main menu you select what you want to print (photos, album, calendar,
CD,...). In our case, you select fotos (by clicking the icon). In the next
step you select a photo from the folder, then you selct the paper (you have
all Canon brands plus some other) and the paper format. In the last step you
select the layout (bordless, borded, 2,4,...prints per sheet, index
print,...) and click "print".
If you click the Printer icon on your desk top, you have acces to the
printer settings. I set the quality to "1" or finest and I also set
"halftoning" to "diffusion" intead to "auto". I do not want to mess with the
color profiles or drivers.
*Print quality*: What can I say, It`s amazing! I downloaded some huge files
made with Canon EOS 1Ds III camera (from dpreview.com) to test the
resolution. I can honestly say that I didn´t expect so much. By judging the
resolution, I couldn` tell prints made with my canon and those made by photo
lab on Fuji RA paper apart. I would even say, that you need a good photo lab
to match the resolution of this printer.
Colors are great too. They didn`t exactly match my computer screen, but my
screen is not calibrated. The prints were a tiny bit warmer compared to my
screen, with slight more magenta in the blue sky. The caucasian skin colour
is perfect for my taste. Very similar to fuji portrait films.
I was using HP premium plus (their best) and Avery Zweckform paper. The
later has more gloss, but I prefer HP. I should use Canon paper, but It was
not avaliable locally on saturday.
I would like to stress once more that prints made with this Canon printer
leave little to desire!
*Speed*: It is very fast. It takes about 90s to print one A4 print in full
res.
*Build*: It`s made of fragile black shiny plastic. It looks expensive and
doesn`t occupie too much space on your desk.
As with all fast inkjet printers, you should put it on a stable desk,
otherwise the desk will shake as the head runs left and right!
*Would I recommend one*: You already know the answer :-))
I might add that in the digital era, everybody shoots a lot more and print
much less. So many photos never see the light of day. And photos look much
better on paper than on LCD screen...
That`s it.
Best,
Miha
O yeah, running costs: pretty high! you can print about 50 A4 prints with
one set of cartridges. All four cost about 45 EUR. You can change them
separately.
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