Anyone willing/able to share their experience with this printer?

Reviews I've read seem to say good, but a little overpriced. Prices are drifting down to the $650 mark now & I'm wondering whether I should finally make the leap. I'd love to read some real-world feedback before I make the decision.

You can get one for $549 from Newegg.com after the $200 Mail in rebate. I ordered one based on prints I've seen from the printer and on some of the reviews I've read. Unfortunately, I won't receive it until the 9th of November so I can't give you any more info than that. (Note: Newegg's price includes (underline that - it's worth about $40 by itself) shipping, and no taxes (for most places).

Good luck.

John

I considered it when shopping for a printer last month. I ended up buying the Epson R2880 which I'm happy with so far, but I've only done a few prints with it. One thing that helped with my decision is the support at Epson. You can download ICC profiles for their high end papers which are very useful in getting the most out of your printer & the ink. Try as I have I can't find the equivalent at Canon's site.

I'd been debating between the Epson 2880 and Canon and finally chose the Canon because I didn't care for the idea of having to swap out ink cartridges based on printing matte or glossy B&W photos. The Canon doesn't require this.

I've seen photos from both and they are simply gorgeous!

As far as paper goes, I'll probably continue to use Red River and Moab papers, and add Ilford's Gold Fiber Silk (I've heard marvellous things about the Ilford). All of these have ICC profiles available for the Canon.

Had mine for a couple of months now. Love it. Color prints look great and hold up well. But B&Ws are where it's at on this printer. GREAT B&W prints. Colors handled by the application are spot on. Speed is tolerable, but not a speed demon. Ink is high and the small tanks are a minus, but for the amount of printing I do, it's not a big deal.

Canon support was GREAT when the fiirst printer I received was bad. Sent me a free printhead in a day or 2 to troubleshoot. Had to have the printer replaced and even received a free full set of inks upon request.

Got mine for $549 (after $200 B&H rebate). Not seasoned with the Epson printers to compare, but give this one an 'A'.

The bad thing is Canons really small ink tanks. Which make the ink very expensive. And you also have change ink tanks all the time

Small ink tanks was definitely a negative factor - almost enough to make me get an HP B9180. But after HP decided not to provide drivers for the 8450 for MS Vista, and not provide replacement parts for the printer, I decided maybe it was time to change to a different manufacturer. They all have their quirks I guess.

I've had mine for about 3 weeks and couldn't be happier. Prints are just plain gorgeous and I agree with Circle - the b&w's are terrific. Ink usage is tolerable (for me anyway) and after ~sixty 8x10's and two 12x18's I've had to replace the gray tank twice - I'm on the third tank now after changing just yesterday. It drinks gray like crazy.

I got in on the $200.00 rebate from B&H, which I guess is still available. It's my first "real" printer so I can't give any advice on other brands, but the experience so far has been very good. Profiles for Canon papers are available from the Canon sites buy you may have to browse a bit to find them. I have trouble with the USA Canon site too, so I can understand the frustration there.

Allan

Thanks for the input everyone. jtstrong, yes, I spotted the newegg deal shortly after I posted here - yet more tempting! Unfortunately, ink seems to be the archilles heel of inkjet printers. The Canon has multiple very small tanks, the Epson I was also considering seems to require tank swapping depending on the paper being used ... Another issue is the availability, some of the user reviews I read suggested ink cartridges for the Canon were hard to find(?).

I hope ink's not hard to find! Yikes! Anyway, a good source might be Atlex.com - inks there are usually discounted a little bit.

jtstrong wrote:
I hope ink's not hard to find! Yikes! Anyway, a good source might be Atlex.com - inks there are usually discounted a little bit.

I've been buying mine through the local Staples and here's why. If you purchase more than 50.00 (3 tanks), shipping is free and in my case anyway, they're delivered within two days by UPS. They also give you a 3.00 credit for recycling the tanks so if you're on their 10% Rewards club thingy, the tanks are actually no more than buying from B&H or whatever. Initial price for three tanks is about 19 bucks each, minus 10%, minus 3 bucks for recycling so it ends up about the same as being cheaper online plus shipping.

The advantage of having a local store is the best part.

Allan

Thanks Allan - I'll check that out when I get my printer (scheduled for delivery Monday)...

John

globalkiwi wrote:
Thanks for the input everyone. jtstrong, yes, I spotted the newegg deal shortly after I posted here - yet more tempting! Unfortunately, ink seems to be the archilles heel of inkjet printers. The Canon has multiple very small tanks, the Epson I was also considering seems to require tank swapping depending on the paper being used ... Another issue is the availability, some of the user reviews I read suggested ink cartridges for the Canon were hard to find(?).



Ink is not hard to find at all. May not be able to get inks at Walmart, Best Buy or the such, but inks are widely available online. B&H has about best price on ink that I have found. May be some more outlets that are cheaper, but B&H is who I use.

If you're worried about running out at the wrong time, I ordered extra set of inks when I bought the printer. When one goes out, reorder another and pop the extra in. Never have to worry about running around town to get ink at the last minute.

To the user that mentioned the grey tanks, HE IS NOT KIDDING! All my tanks (original tanks) are about 1/2 full while I'm working towards the end of my 2nd grey tank. Don't know if it has to do with the B&W printing. All in all though, I'm tremendously pleased with the printer.

I've just setup my 9500mkII. I'm thrilled to have such a wonderful printer as it was a xmas gift from my wife. However, this is my first high end printer and struggling to get the everything dialed in right. I printed a landscape and the resolution was incredible. Initially, I was really please but looking at the original in PSE8 on my iMac I noticed the print is significantly darker.

If anyone has a suggestion on how best to configure the printer, PSE8 or anything in between I would be grateful.

I changed my display to use the sRGB profile since that is what my canon 40d is set to. This seemed logical but could be completely wrong. I believe I selected the correct profile for the paper I used (Canon Paper Plus Semi-Gloss 13x19). I scaled the image to 220dpi in PSE8 which I'm not sure was necessary.

If you have pointers to good reading material on these topics, that would be welcome.

Thanks

spc337 wrote:
I've just setup my 9500mkII. I'm thrilled to have such a wonderful printer as it was a xmas gift from my wife. However, this is my first high end printer and struggling to get the everything dialed in right. I printed a landscape and the resolution was incredible. Initially, I was really please but looking at the original in PSE8 on my iMac I noticed the print is significantly darker.

If anyone has a suggestion on how best to configure the printer, PSE8 or anything in between I would be grateful.

I changed my display to use the sRGB profile since that is what my canon 40d is set to. This seemed logical but could be completely wrong. I believe I selected the correct profile for the paper I used (Canon Paper Plus Semi-Gloss 13x19). I scaled the image to 220dpi in PSE8 which I'm not sure was necessary.

If you have pointers to good reading material on these topics, that would be welcome.

Thanks

You need to calibrate your monitor. There are a number of devices that will do this. Just google "monitor calibration" or something along those lines and you will find plenty of information.

One option (I am not recommending it necessarily, I am just linking one example so you know what you are looking for)
http://www.amazon.com/ColorVision-S3P100-Spyder3-pro/dp/B000X4X37A/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1262119427&sr=8-6

Is there something makes you think it is the monitor and not something else between the Camera & Printer? Just curious so I understand how to dial this in properly.

I read about the Spyder3 and it seems to have mixed reviews. Did you use it or something else?

Thanks

Assuming you chose the correct paper profile as you stated, then almost any differences you see between monitor and print are generally going to be a result of the monitor being poorly calibrated or not calibrated at all. Pretty much all monitors need calibration.

I currently use a Pantone Huey Pro on both of my monitors (the pro supports dual monitors.) It is basic but has worked well enough. I bought it because I got a deal at the time. At some point I will likely get the Spyder studio, as I would like to create my own printer/paper profiles as well.

In general the monitor gamma is going to be brighter than the paper. You should at least calibrate your monitor with Adobe Gamma (see your Windows control panel). I run a gamma of 2.0 on my screen. I'd need to pick up a spyder or x-rite device to calubrate my monitor. I'm pretty happy with my current results but I always think there's room for improvement. Aside from that...

I do have this printer but not PSE8. I have seen the best results when printing from CS4 and using color managed workflow. Here's what I do:

- Work in Adobe RGB for images to be printed
- When printing make sure Photoshop is managing the color (not sure what this option looks like under PSE8)
- Use black point compensation
- Choose Relative Colorimetric rendering
- Choose the correct media type (i.e. "Canon Paper Plus Semi-Gloss")
- Choose the color profile (.icc file) that matches the paper (and printer of course)

I have mostly been using Red River paper and have downloaded the color profiles from their website. I have not used any Canon paper but I do see they have some profiles to choose from, such as "GL1" (I'm assuming GL = glossy). At any rate the above should give you a starting point, maybe leave you with more questions There are others here who know much more about color management, calibration, etc... If the above doesn't help I'm sure you'll be able to get some better info.

Can anybody comment on black and white printing, is it much worse than on the Epson printers with 3 black/grays?

Doo-bop wrote:
Can anybody comment on black and white printing, is it much worse than on the Epson printers with 3 black/grays?

Well what printers specifically are you looking to compare? I use an Epson 3800, which is amazing for black and white, but everything I have read says the Canon 9500 II is excellent for B&W as well. I do seem to remember hearing that the first version of the 9500 did have a tendency to impart a slight color cast though. I'm not sure if that was a general problem. If it was, maybe they fixed it in the new one...?