Canon i9900 owners

[Soja]

I just ordered a Canon i9900 after tons of reading here and elswhere, perhaps you've seen some of my questions.

I thought that, perhaps the i9900 owners could make themselves avalable for newbe questions. Such as:
Which non-OEM ink works best for them?
Is profiling software necessary or do the stock profiles included do the job?

I would very much like to talk to some i9900 owners as I have been an 'End User' untill lately and I would like to get into the nuts and bolts of printing with the printer when it arrives.
I appreciate any response, thank you.

Soja

 

[yrollaM]

I have been a i9900 user for several months now and would be glad to answer any questions that I can.

The i9900 is an awsome printer. I have never second guessed my decision to buy it.

I use bulk ink (from Computer Friends) and refill my cartridges which saves me a ton of money. I honestly believe that if you are not going to either use 3rd party carts or refill with bulk ink, that it is cheaper to have someone else print for you (Costco, Wal-Mart.....etc).




Here is a site that helped me when I first bought the i9900 :

http://www.neilslade.com/papers/inkjetstuff.html

 

[Soja]

Thank you for the reply. I have been reading Neil Slade's page for days now. This is part of the reason I decided on the Canon i9900. (It should be here today!) I have had the best luck with Canon printers, reason #2.
Now, on to questions.

What kind of large paper do you use and where do you get it?
Neil Slade seems to prefer MIS ink refill. What do you think? (If you used it)

Thanks again.

Soja

 

[fotofreek]

I use MIS inks in my i960 (six color) printer and am very happy with them. Granddad uses Formulabs (from Alotofthings) in his i9900 and has published custom color profiles for them on this forum. He is very critical about getting the best color response and does like the formulabs inks.

 

[yrollaM]

I have been using Ilford Classic Pearl in the 13x19 size to do a large number of prints for my office, home and for friends. It has worked out very well. I really like the finish (kind of in between semi-gloss and matt). With this paper I use the Ilford profile downloaded from their web site. It makes a big difference in the print quality. I look for the best bargain I can find when getting paper. The last time I got the Ilford from Adorama.com for $28.50 (plus $8.75 shipping) for 25 sheets, but I've notice that they've raised their prices so I'll probably look elsewhere when it comes time to reorder.

Since I'm refilling my carts, the majority of my cost for a print is in the paper, so I look for specials where I can find them.

I do like gloss prints and buy the 8.5x11 Ilford gloss from Sam's Club for $24 for 100 sheet. It works extremely well using no printer profiles (just the Canon defaults). Ilford says that the Sam's Club paper is different from their 'original' paper with the same name and that the profiles on their web site should not be used.

As far as ink goes, I followed Neil Slade's advice and ordered my first refill kit from "Computer Friends", but was disappointed that the refill kits did not come with blank cartridges, just the stuff needed to refill the OEM carts. The carts are really easy to refill. Neil advised to switch to MIS ink because it was cheaper, but Computer Friends must have dropped their prices, because when I checked, it was actually cheaper than MIS. I have been using their bulk ink ever since. Since finding this web site, I've been giving alot of thought to switching to Formulabs ink, because of the quality and availability of profiles.

Being an Accountant, I probably over-analyze everything, but here are my numbers for ink costs (paper not included) :

Size OEM cart 3rd Party cart Refill own

13x19 $3.39 $0.87 $0.15
8.5x11 $1.28 $0.33 $0.06
8x10 $1.10 $0.28 $0.05
5x7 $0.48 $0.12 $0.02
4x6 $0.33 $0.08 $0.01


As you can see, if you use Canon OEM carts, it's much cheaper to have them done at a lab.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Oh yeah...I would recommend getting a copy of QImage software to print with. It has a bit of a learning curve, but is well worth the effort.

 

[gamarlin]

If you want a great media, try your i9900 with inkjet canvas. I have used Fredrix for 8x10 and 11x17. For 13x19 I have used Inkpress
Canvas. I profiled Nectron Ink and both canvas medias and the final results are spectacular. I think my cost were not much higher than
a top grade inkjet photo paper. Let me know if you try it and what you think of the end results.

 

[yrollaM]

gamarlin,

Did you profile the canvas yourself or purchase a profile. If you did it yourself, which profiling software did you use?

Thanks.

 

[Soja]

Hi all....

My printer came today! I'm still floundering about trying to get the right color.

As far as profiles go, up to now I have been just using whatever 'automatic' settings were used upon install. If the color cast was off, I just adjusted in Adobe and printed again. I am not even sure I'm using profiles properly. I have Qimage as well as Adobe photoshop but I'm more used to Adobe. Qimage is a bit intimidating.
I had thoughts about getting that profile program that the makers of Qimage sell and starting from scratch but I think I have to learn a bit about profiles first. I have been reading all the suggested pages and links given here but I come away a bit confused. Is there a "Profiles for dummies" anywhere?
I'm going to send for some of that 13x19 Illford paper from the site recommended here so I need to get into profiles enough so I can understand what I'm doing.
As far as ink goes, I will go with one of the suggested inks, MIS, Formulabs, etc. I'm going to cruise their web sites a little more while I use up my OEM's.
The paper I use for family photographs is Costco's glossy photo paper.
I want to thank you all for responding again and let you know is has helped a lot and any other info will also be appreciated.

Soja

 

[gamarlin]

At the present time I use Monaco EZ Color or Profile Prism Software for profiling. I also use the Monaco Optix with EZ Color for Monitor Calibration. Profile Prism just released a new version of their software and I feel that it gives the more accurate printer profile of the two. Both require a good scanner. I am using a Canon LiDE500F and have had no problems at all. Most profiles with the new ProfilePrism give good results on first pass and do not require editing to obtain good color match. Also I use Qimage for printing with profile interpolation.
With this overall system I feel my prints are as near color exact as I can attain.

 

[tyamada]

Good ole Granddad35 has posted numerous printer/paper profiles for the Canon i9900 printer, you might be able to use one of his. Check the profiles posted here: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=8