Canon Pro-100 001

[wcandrews@sccoast.net]

I have just received this printer and will share my experiences with this printer.

The Canon Pro9000 using OCP ink has been my photo printer for some time. I make profiles for all my photo printers, and the Pro9000 with custom profiles for selected paper and OCP ink has produced the best prints I have ever made.

The Pro-100 was purchased because of the ridicules net cost of $89.00 including 50 sheets of Canon Simi-gloss paper. An additional reason is because it seems that Canon has gone away from using red and green ink that is required for the Pro9000. That makes getting red and green ink from third parties very difficult. My last order for red and green ink was back-ordered for about 30 days.

All of this is to say that the Pro-100 will be compared to the best photo printer I have ever owned. That is a very tall order. About 36 Pro9000 prints hang on my walls and new viewer, as well as me, are amazed.

1. Except for this printer being wireless which is a blessing the other hardware features are not all that different from the Pro9000. It just weighs a little more and is a little larger. I will add that it is the quietest printer I have owned.

2. The only source of third party ink I have found is from Precision Colors. They claim that their ink matches Canon OEM ink very closely. I have ordered a 4 oz. refilling kit and in due time can report on the success of the IS ink.

3. In addition to thje 25 sheets of 13x19 Semi-gloss paper from the seller, Canon included 5 sheets of 8.5x11 Photo Paper Pro Luster. While waiting to get started on refilling and my profiles, I decided to do some testing on the print quality using Canon profiles with OEM ink.

The results are a very bad mixed bag.
The Canon profile for the Semi-Gloss paper is far to magenta to be acceptable. It makes the printer look really bad.

The Canon profile for the Luster paper is very nice, but not excellent. It does show that with the proper profile, this can be a great printer.

4. Since Precision Colors says that the IS ink is a good match for the OEM ink, I decided to try their profiles with OEM ink on the same images and paper used with Canon profiles. Those profiles can be downloaded from the Precision Color web site.

But there is a huge problem. When you try to download the profile you get all kinds of junk wanting to be downloaded and installed. If by mistake you let that junk download, it will try to change your home page, among other nasty things. It took me over an hour to get rid of the junk and get back to where I was.

But about the profiles: They do show that the IS ink with Precision Colors profiles produce better results on both papers than the Canon profiles. The difference with the Semi-gloss paper is the difference between not acceptable and excellent. The difference with the Luster paper is slight.

5. As time goes by and time permits, Ill be testing this printer with IS ink and other paper using Precision Colors profiles and my own generated profiles. If there is any interest, Ill post the results. It really seems that this will be a great printer.

Good Luck!
Wil

 

[mikling]

I checked every single download link listed on my ICC list and got nothing but the download file. I am using win7 64, avast AV, regular use of Malwarebytes MBAM and the latest version of Firefox. No popups etc. I have not heard from anyone indicating that other stuff was being downloaded.
I am wondering if there is something on your computer doing the stuff or whether you had by mistake downloaded some other file in error causing your grief. Maybe it is the browser you're allowing popups etc.

I alluded to the Canon profile issue that creates greater "pop" and that it appears that OEMs (not only Canon) will not all the time give accurate profiles but profiles they think the user will like. A similar story is around other desktop printers. In store demos have to have sizzle. Reality does not impress...only trained eyes will appreciate reality. As you go higher up the food chain in printers this is toned down.

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=64833#p64833

 

[wcandrews@sccoast.net]

My system is win7 64, avast AV, Internet Explorer. I have not had these problems with other sites. It can be overcome.

On the good side. The Precision Colors profiles used with OEM ink produced the best match between print and monitor on both Canon papers I have ever seen. As picky as I am, that's something. We'll see how they do with pure IS ink.

Good Luck!
Wil

 

[wcandrews@sccoast.net]

This changes everything!

I have just used the Precision Colors profile for Kirkland paper with OEM ink. The print is the same file used for the two Canon papers. As reported earlier, the Canon profiles are not very good, and the Precision Colors profiles are great for those papers and OEM ink. The Precision Colors Kirkland paper profile is also excellent. It is even better than the profile I produced for this paper on the Canon Pro9000 using OCP ink.

All of the prints from all three papers look almost the same and match the images on a 24 calibrated monitor. They, in fact, match the monitor better than anything else that I have seen. And, after all, the object of color management is to get the print to look like the monitor.

My normal workflow when going to any third party ink is to purge all the carts, fill with the new ink, purge again, refill the carts and then create the profiles. That requires a lot of time and wasting all the OEM and new ink, but I have found that this workflow produces outstanding results.

But that was before coming upon third party ink and profiles that matched OEM ink so well. I have now decided to just refill each cart with the IS ink as each cart becomes empty. Ill only change this procedure if the prints ever dont match the monitor.

I expect the Precision Colors profiles to work at least as good with the IS ink after all of the OEM ink is gone. If that changes, Ill let you know.

Good Luck!
Wil

 

[mikling]

Wil

I'm feeling dizzy and about to fall.

 

[wcandrews@sccoast.net]

Problems come and some go away.

With all the positive things about this printer, a very large, deal breaking, problem showed up. Prints from this printer just would not print the images with the specified margins. This problem was common with both Lightroom and Qimage. The specified margins were perfect on screen from both applications, but in great error on the print. The errors were so great that one wouldn't display the prints with the margin errors.

Canon technical support always tries to provide excellent service, and my call to them on this issue was no exception. The only problem was that the tech didn't have a good handle on this issue. He kept trying to get the Canon plug in to Lightroom to work. It didn't work, and we ended up with Canon sending me a new printer.

After checking with several sources, it seemed that the problem could be in the print driver. The driver in my printer was posted in early 2012. The current print driver on the Canon web site is dated in Jan. of 2013. While waiting for the new printer, I decided to update the print driver and see if anything changed.

Sure enough, the new print driver solved the problem. The margins are now correct. If you own or buy this printer, be sure to install the most current print driver.

If you do decide to install the current print driver, there are drivers for both wireless and USB connection. Just be sure you install the correct one. If you have trouble, call Canon, they will help you.

Good Luck!
Wil

 

[jtoolman]

It might even come with BETTER ICC profiles so you can actually print neutral prints.

 

[websnail]

@mikling...

I think the issue with the downloads and "stuff" being offered is because of mediafire which is where all of the downloads are hosted... It likes to shove in adverts and more besides... Might clear up the confusion from the OP.