Pro9000 Hobbicolors Inks ... Magenta Cast

[RMM]

Well guys I don't have time to write a full in-depth report at this moment but I thought that I would give a quick update.

Last Saturday I ordered the Profile Prism software. I spent an hour or so each day both fooling with the printer (trying to get it to make the best prints by manual adjustment) and also reading up on the Prism software guide so that I understood everything.

I picked up a secondhand Canon LiDE 600F scanner so that I could make a good scan. I also picked up VueScan for multi-pass scanning capability. This added some to the cost but I wanted to make sure that I could get a good scan as it is absolutely crucial to getting a good profile with this software.

Last night I spent a few hours (after I already had a dried target print) and made a few profiles.

WOW! I guess that these may not be perfect yet, but WOW. To me and my wife the prints look absolutely fantastic, both test prints and actual photos.

The colors are very accurate and vibrant, true grays, and excellent detail. I was so excited to see how well it actually worked after reading about so many people who had a hard time making it work.

I'm excited now to get profiling with other papers and printers.

This is just my opinion, but if you want to use Hobbicolors inks with your Pro9000 get a profiling software. My other printers (4 Color Canons) haven't NEEDED a profile yet with Hobbicolors although I'm sure they will be better with one, but the Pro9000 produced bad prints without the profile.

More to come later about the process I used and also profiling on different printers. + I will scan (using my new fancy scanner ) the same test image with the profiled print.

Thanks for all of your help!

 

[Tin Ho]

There are 3 variable involved in inkjet photo printing. They are ink, profile and paper. When you print with Canon OEM ink and Canon photo paper with built-in profile all the 3 variables are set by Canon. The result may be good but to many people it's never good enough.

When you print with a 3rd party compatible ink on a 3rd party photo paper with the same built-in profile all these 3 variables are changed at the same time. You are using the built-in profile that is not produced for the ink and the paper. And the ink and paper are not the same OEM either. You should anticipate a result not as you expected. In fact when you print on a non OEM brand of photo paper, which is changing only one out of the 3 variables, the result can be significantly different already. This was discovered and reported by many who reviewed Canon printers some 4 or 5 years back. In those reviews they pretty much concluded that you have to use expensive OEM photo papers for Canon printers to perform well.

If 3rd party ink is used the 2nd variable is changed. That's 2 out of 3. The result would be like tossing a dice. If you get high points you are merely lucky. But if you make a custom profile you are bringing these 3 variables under control in your hands.

 

[RMM]

I have printed a few dozen photos so far and I am very happy with the output. Here is the test image printed with the profile.

 

[l_d_allan]

There are 3 variable involved in inkjet photo printing. They are ink, profile and paper.

Actually four? Or more? The printer is yet another "degree of freedom" and I think it counts as a fourth variable.

All Canon Pro 9000-2 printers aren't the same, for example. They are simiilar, but not the same. Even if they start off similar enough at the start "out of the box" to share the same profile, I would think they could "drift apart" over time with different usage, wear and tear, maintenance (or lack thereof), operating conditions, etc.

And perhaps a fifth variable with the factor of time. A profile that was excellent when the printer was two months old might be only satisfactory when it was two years old. With monitors, the guidance is to recalibrate regularly as they age.

And the weather conditions at the time of the print vs. when the profile was made? Humidity? Temperature? The age of the paper? If you are using the same paper from the same lot number, it still is older at time of printing than when the profile was made.

This is just my speculation on my part. Or the "proposed" 4th and 5th or more variables may be much less of a factor than the ink, profile, and paper. I suppose it depends on how fussy you are.

There is a quote my wife likes ...
"He did the best he could under circumstances not entirely under his control" :/

 

[The Hat]

l_d_allan Actually four? Or more? The printer is yet another
All Canon Pro 9000-2 printers aren't the same

I dont know where youre coming from, but I will have to disagree with it because youre way off the mark.
Canon printers are churned out of their factories all right, but each of their individual models print 100% the same.
Print side by side there are no differences, when you get another pro 9000 mark II then you can make a correct comparison yourself, sorry..