Are the Old Printers Better !

[The Hat]

The i9950 is a strange old printer and works so much different than most other new printers, for starters, there are no anomaly’s or hidden bombs in the firmware, it turns on and prints, even if you don’t have all the carts present, there is nothing to stop it..

Here is the ink status tab showing the levels of ink,

but they are not the true levels because this printer has no way of knowing how much ink is left in any of the cartridges, except for when the reservoir side of the cart becomes empty as in the second Pic.


When you change a cart that’s showing the yellow tab, the printer will refresh the ink levels and show the latest information, but if you change all the carts at the same time, only the one that was marked low with show full again, all the rest will remain at previous levels..

she's a strange old girl, but works fantastically and the quality of the text print is second to none..

Scanned at Same size and 300 DPI..

 

[Artur5]

Nice and friendly machine, as you said, No annoying chips, no need for software tools to reset the waste ink counter, but take good care of the printhead. If it fails.. goodbye i9950

 

[The Hat]

but take good care of the printhead. If it fails.. goodbye i9950

Yes it’s a one off, because I gave away my last new print head to a poor soul in bad need to save his Pro9000…
P.S. I don’t mind, because I fell out of love with all the dye ink printers..

 

[pharmacist]

Many years ago I tried pigment ink in this printer and it worked surprisingly well, because of the extra large nozzles compared to the 1 pl print heads. You have to use pigment ink compatible to bubble jet printers (type Canon or HP). The only problem is at that time I could not get red (orange) and green ink.

 

[Artur5]

Of course I take your word for the good compatibility of pigment inks on the I9950, but I don’t think its because of the nozzles being extra large, The printhead of the i9950 has nozzles with a droplet size of 2pl. which is equal or smaller than most Canon printers, be it photo dedicated or multipurpose.
For instance, the pigment black nozzles of the Pixma IP4000 have a droplet size of 30pl. while the dye based inks droplet ranges from 2.5 to 5.5pl.

 

[PeterBJ]

IIRC the difference between iP4000 and iP5000 is that iP5000 got a new printhead with 1 pl dye ink drops. 1 pl printheads were also used in many (all?) PGI-5/CLI-8 generation printers.

Edit: I attach a document, iP5000 Product Service Details.pdf. Scroll down to "Differences from the Pixma iP4000" and notice 1 pl nozzles (Only C/M)

 

[Artur5]

I think that 1pl nozzles were used only in a few printheads and I wouldn't be surprised if none of the current models has them. The IP5000 being a sort of 'rara avis' among Canon Pixma range. See that, in further generations the IP5xxx models stopped at the IP5300, while the IP4xxx has arrived at the IP4950. Among photoprinters, the Pro9000 had the same printhead of the i9950. .i.e,. with 2pl nozzles. I don't know about the Pro100/200 but my guess is they're limited to 2pl and so must be the pigment models (Pro-1/10/300/1000 etc..).
Anyway, the difference in size of 1 picoliter nozzles compared to 2 picoliter is not that big.
If 1pl droplet corresponds to a sphere of 12.4 microns in diameter, 2pl is 15.6 microns.
5 pl is 22.1 microns and the ‘huge’ nozzles of the IP4000 pigment black is 38.6 microns.
Maybe Canon considers that the slight resolution advantage of 1 pl. nozzles isn’t worth the increased chance of clogs due to the smaller nozzle size.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Epson is running 1.5pl droplets since a long time in their photoprinters e.g. the R265 or R800 from days gone. It's the effective resolution Canon or Epson printheads can acheive on paper at the end - as a combination of the driver - the dithering of colors - and the paper coating - ink spread - which varies widely between different papers.

 

[The Hat]

IIRC the difference between iP4000 and iP5000 is that iP5000 got a new printhead with 1 pl dye ink drops. 1 pl printheads were also used in many (all?) PGI-5/CLI-8 generation printers.

You know in all the time I have been using Canon printer, I have never once been curious to check to see if they had 1pl or larger nozzles, I just excepted what they had and worked with them..

Does that mean I’m sort of stupid or just not intelligent enough to notice or care.. I don’t need the white line on the road to stay on the correct side..

the Pro9000 had the same printhead of the i9950. .i.e,. with 2pl nozzles.

P.S. Only the newer print heads for the i9950 are compatible with the Pro 9000, the printer I got has the older head and it won’t work in the later models..

 

[PeterBJ]

You know in all the time I have been using Canon printer, I have never once been curious to check to see if they had 1pl or larger nozzles, I just excepted what they had and worked with them..

Does that mean I’m sort of stupid or just not intelligent enough to notice or care.. I don’t need the white line on the road to stay on the correct side..

P.S. Only the newer print heads for the i9950 are compatible with the Pro 9000, the printer I got has the older head and it won’t work in the later models..

I don't understand this. I meant no insult. My post was only an example of a 1 pl printhead which Artur5 meant was very rarely used. I think 1 pl printheads are more likely to be clogged from pigment particles and that experiments with pigment inks in a printhead intended for dye inks is risky.