canon i960 vs pro9500 or pro 9000

[virginia]

Have been using a canon i960 for a few years and loving it, beautiful images and color with almost no adjustments necessary, just a little sharpening. Concerned about the archivability I recently bought the canon 9500 pro and am considering returning it. Knowing it is a pigment printer I asked someone at canon what color differences there would be and she said none, the color would be identical to my i960. Noticing the picoliter size was 3 compared to 2 with the pro 9000, I asked whether the 9000 would give better detail and resolution, she again said no. Now with the 9500 I am seeing not as bright color, not as accurate color (caucasian faces, for example, look either very pale and cold or garishly pink or orange as if badly sunburned. Color tone in general is not as warm and natural as with my i960. Also, the woman at canon had said I would notice more detail with my new printer, but the opposite is true, there is less fine detail with the 9500 than with the i960. I do like the possibility of larger prints for exhibits. Am probably going to return this printer, maybe it is an issue with the 9500's or maybe just with this one. Wondering whether the 9000pro would be more to my liking, would like the color to be just like the i960 and maybe a little more fine detail. Inks are said to be more archival than the bci-6...any thoughts or experiences with any of these three printers would be appreciated. Wondering if anyone has seen prints from the pro 9000 and 9500 and/or i960 side by side.

 

[hpnetserver]

Pigment ink in general has a narrower gamut than dye based ink. Gamut is the range of colors an ink set can print out. Pigment ink based printers will not produce as vibrant colors as dye ink based printers. Well, regardless how Epson marketing pitch is this is really the fact. The only advantage of printing with pigment ink based printers is to print photos that will last a very long time without fading. Apparently the lady at Canon gave you a sales pitch that was obviously not based on too much fact.

Pro9000, i9900 and ip8500 are all dye ink based printers. With 8 ink cartridges they have the widest gamut among all inkjet printers. Your i960 has 6 ink cartridges which also make a vewry wide gamut thus is capable of printing vivid colors for your photos. However, the latest i9900, ip8500 and pro9000 are still better and especially are faster than your i960.

 

[pharmacist]

Hi Virginia,

Did you use the right type of paper ? On old Canon paper designed for dye ink, the result is very disappointing. You have to use the newer paper designed for pigment ink to obtain an optimal result. One tip: discard all your paper you have been using now until the purchase of your Canon Pro9500 printer. It just doesn't fit for your new pigment printer !

 

[virginia]

I would like to see a side by side print from the canon pro 9000 and 9500 to compare the pigment with the dye version of those printers. I did originally use the canon matte photo paper, which I usually use with my i960, but have also tried some of the fine art canon papers made just for these new printers, still not as good detail or color, virginia

 

[Trigger 37]

Virginia,... you would think that with a 10 color printer you would have a much larger gamut and have more stunning photo prints,... but like hpnetserver indicates, Dye inks are just more "Vivid" than pigment inks. I'm sure if you search on the web with professional photographers, you will find the reason why, but that's the way it is. The other problem with the 9500 pro is that all 10 PGI carts are chipped so when it comes time for refilling, it is going to get expensive unless you want to refill the ink carts yourself, and that brings in another issue with Canon Warranty support.

With the 9500 you not only have to use the right paper for Pigment ink, you have to take a close look at the Service Manual and find out what resolution you are actually printing. You don't get the highest resolution unless you select the correct paper. If you over ride what the Canon driver is set at you can get to a higher resolution, but the max for the 9500 is 4800x2400 dpi. I have the new iP6600d which is a 6 color printer like the i960 but mine has a resolution of 9600x2400 dpi. I have tested it at the highest quality and it is almost impossible to see the smallest ink dots using a 10X magnifier. However, if I print a top quality image corrected for size in Qmage, it is very difficult to see any difference in quality between the i960 and the iP6600D. You have to print a much larger image. I have an Epson 13"x19 " photo quality printer and it actually prints a panoramic photo, 13" x 44". That is where you can see the difference.

It comes down to all the hype about Pigmented ink and archival quality. Do you want sharp "Vivid" photos or ones that last for 100 years.

 

[virginia]

Thanks guys for all your great insights...I want vivid and lasting, and larger than my i960 prints, but I did here the canon 9000 pro dye printer (also 13x19) canon is saying has longevity too under certain conditions...maybe that would be a better printer for me...virginia

 

[hpnetserver]

Virginia, when you buy a high end printer you will want it to be capable of high end printing as well as low end printing sometimes. It may be desirable for your final print to be at the best you will also want to print economically before that. You will likely make many editing, including adjusting contrast and color balance, and print many test prints before making your final print using the best and the most expensive supplies. A Canon i9900, a dye based ink printer, will allow you to do that. You can use OEM ink cartridges and OEM photopaper for your final printing. You can use aftermarket ink and paper for all printing other than the final one. This flexibility will make your photo printing a lot more interesting. You will enjoy the print far more beyond a pigment ink based high end printer brings you.

I own an ip8500 which is essentially a smaller i9900. I having been using Hobbicolors aftermarket ink for my low end printing. The ink has essentially made it possible for me to print all I wanted without concerning the high cost of ink. I almost decided to buy an Epson R800, which is a pigment ink based photo printer. It was the high cost of supply that changed my mind. I would not have enjoyed as much printing as I could do with my ip8500. Not only I would have to buy extremely expensive Epson OEM ink cartridges I also would have to use Epson brand specific photopaper only to produce good quality photos. The number of photos I print would have been very few.

There are two different Hobbicolors aftermarket ink for ip8500 and i9900. I recently switched from an earlier one to a newer one called UW8. This is the ink I will recommend. Despite being fairly cheap it will make you think you're printing with OEM ink still. It will print all the brilliant colors Canon ink will print. It not only prints vivid colors but also matches perfectly with Canon ink. You will have much much more fun to print lots of photos with a Canon i9900 and this Hobbicolors aftermarket UW8 ink.

The only problem you will have to deal with is the refilling process. The usable capacity of Canon ink cartridges is only about 10 cc. You will have to master the skill of refilling. You probably will need to refill frequently for an i9900.

 

[virginia]

Well, last night before packing up my 9500 for return, I thought I'd use up the 13x19 sample pack of papers I had bought, the fine art canon papers were all represented and the photo plus semi gloss. I used the photo plus last because I usually don't care for shiny prints. What happened was I finally got some very vivid and clear prints on the photo plus paper. Looks like the fine art papers did very well for images that were mostly greyscale, such as a statue and an old worn wooden greyish building...for anything colorful they did not come through with enough color or detail. Interesting. Problem is, proofing would be expensive as I usually use the canon matte photo paper and that comes through very muddy and off color with this. So now I'm confused about whether to return the printer or not. Would like to try a 9000 and compare, maybe I'll just stay with the smaller format i960 for now as I am hoping canon will work out the thing about having to have the wide margins (I like it on the 13x19 paper but not on the 8 1/2 by 11) and the overly red canon tints...I never noticed this red problem with the i960, has that only happened since going to more cartriges including the red and green?