I've had the Canon S9000 (wider version of the S900) for about 5 months. I
got it for photo work, after playing with an Epson 860 for a few months and
finding its print speed unacceptable (you'll see why in a minute.) The
Canon produces what I consider beautiful color prints when I feed it the
properly adjusted files. But I really got it to do B&W work, largely on
the expectation that I could get a spare printhead to keep loaded with B&W
inks, whatever I finally settled on. Unfortunately, Canon has been
unwilling to sell me a spare printhead (saying they're available for
warranty repairs only,) but I continue to have hopes. Now that the S900 is
down to $249 I'm even being tempted to get one of those as well, to have
color inks in one and whatever I figure out for B&W in the other.
Anyway, I used the regular Canon color inks to make about 400 8x10 B&W
prints to give away as Christmas presents. At about 2 minutes a print it
took quite a while, but I'd still be sitting here if I had tried to use the
Epson 860. As they came out of the printer, I thought the prints were
wonderful, at least as good as what I have made in the darkroom for the
past 35 years or so, although with a different "look" and certainly a
different tone than my chemical prints (of which I made about 300 - I
switched to digital mid-year.) All of these prints are bound up into 8
different books for various family members - I've been doing this for about
20 years, beginning shortly after my oldest child was born. The inkjet
prints were on Ilford Smooth Gloss paper, which is a close surface match
for (but on a heavier stock than) the Ilford Multigrade paper I use in my
darkroom.
Printing was done over about 3 weeks. Prints were stacked as they were
produced, then when all were done they were sorted into separate stacks for
each recipient before being bound between mat board covers. As I began to
look at some of these prints during the sorting process, I saw that some of
them were showing signs of localized color shifting (or something - parts
of the image began to have a magenta cast.) These prints were all made
from a worksheet prepared before any printing began, and I kept track of
when I changed each of the ink cartridges to try to get a feel for how many
prints I got out of a set (about 50 for the Photo Magenta and Photo Cyan,
about 150-160 for the Magenta and Cyan, 185 for Black and 215 for
Yellow.) I could not relate the color shift I saw in some of the prints to
ink cartridges running low, although when printing I did ignore the printer
warning that ink was running low and waited for the printer to stop when a
cartridge was empty before putting in a new cartridge. I did nozzle checks
the first few times I put in a new cartridge but they always came out
perfect, so after a while I just put in new ink and kept printing. I
suppose it is possible that the overall color balance of the ink mix on
paper changes when ink starts to run low in a particular cartridge, in a
way that only shows up days or weeks later, but I think it's peculiar that
the only color that shows itself as out of balance on the print is magenta.
All images were processed the same way in Photoshop 7 before being printed
using QImage software - it gives full control over image placement on the
page, gave sharper images than FotoSlate (an ACDSee related program,) and
remembered printer selection and settings between prints, which made it the
convenience as well as the quality choice. I am at a loss to explain why
some images began turning while others didn't, but it has strengthened my
resolve to find a different (read: cheaper) ink that I can get adjusted to
produce relatively neutral B&W images. I've tried the Inkjet Goodies inks
in refillable cartridges, and like it better than the Canon ink for color
prints, but so far have not been able to get rid of a persistent magenta
cast in B&W prints - which is why I used the Canon inks for this project: I
just ran out of time to keep fiddling with the refillable cartridges. I
understand that Lyson has now got one of their B&W ink sets available in
Canon cartridges, and I've given some thought to trying that although I
expect that it will not be cheap (maybe it will be available in bulk, as I
don't mind refilling carts.)
It is my understanding that the nozzles in these Canon printers cannot
handle pigmented inks, so that limits the choices to dyes. Canon, Lyson
and third parties make color sets, and only Lyson (that I am aware of)
offers a quad (or hex) ink set for these printers. (I learned today that
my local photo store has 6-ink Lyson Quad Black ink sets ON HAND, but upon
inspection it appears that they're for a different - older - line of Canon
printers.) There has been a note on the Lyson web site for most of 2002
that their Small Gamut inks are coming for the Canon 9000 "Fall 2002" but
so far I've not seen any sign of them. Small Gamut is a quad black set
with the ability to change the tone of the print from warm to cool - and
from reddish to greenish if you're not careful with your settings - but is
still basically a monochrome ink. I used it a bit on the Epson printer and
liked it - I would certainly try it when and if it becomes available for
the Canon printers.
Well that's my initial experience with one of these printers, FWIW. If I
didn't want to produce glossy prints I might be tempted to give it up, get
an Epson and switch to pigments, although it's clear from all the
discussion on this list that pigments aren't perfect yet either. But I do
want glossy, I like the Canon speed, and I still have hopes of figuring out
a way to manage the final tone of the print. Perhaps dialing in some sepia
or blue tone will work. I don't expect to be doing chemical darkroom
prints again, at least not for my Christmas books, so I don't have to be as
concerned about remaining close to the tone of chemical prints as I did
this year.
If anyone has other experience with these printers and/or other inks, I'd
love to hear it.
Cheers,
Kip Babington
At 12/31/2002 05:37 PM +0000, you wrote:
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>I am in the market for a low cost (under $250) printer to be used for
>color photos and also for all-purpose color graphics applications
>like greeting cards, tranfers, etc. In addition, I would like to
>choose the best printer in that price range to hopefully print decent
>b&w photos (just hobby photos, of the kids, etc., but still hoping
>they could turn out decent). I have been researching it a bit lately
>and it seems unless I would want to buy and dedicate a printer to b&w
>using costly Piezography BW systems that I may not be able to get
>decent b&w prints? Rather then trying to go that route I may be able
>to make due w/ a printer where one can tweek photos in photoshop or
>whatnot like some of the posts discuss, using regular color inks,
>etc, so I hope to find recommendations about which low cost printers
>can best do this. Has anyone used the Canon 900 to print b&w? Also,
>just in case I would want to someday go that route, does anyone know
>if the Canon S900 can successfully use these quadtone inks to print
>really nice black and whites like the Epsons do? I really am leaning
>more toward the Canon than the Epsons, but want to get a handle on
>this b&w issue first because I know I would really enjoy being able
>to make decent hobby b&w prints. Thanks for any assistance on these
>questions about the canon and/or any other printer recommendations
>that would work.