Thursday, March 6, 2003
Canon i950: Oh How I Adore Thee
Posted by Jason Dunn in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 11:00 PM
Since Digital Media Thoughts still isn't live, you'll have to excuse this little off-topic journey.
About two weeks ago, I purchased a new printer: the Canon i950. I've been an Epson fan for a long time, and have been using a C80 for the past two years. I always swore by the vibrancy of Epson inks, but recently I had a chance to take a closer look at Canon printers, and was very, very impressed. Even their cheap $89 CND i320 produces surprisingly crisp borderless 4 x 6 images. I was looking at the i850, and had the geek desire to posses it, but as tempting as the 2/4 picolitre technology was, I wanted a "real" photo printer with a six ink system (the i850 was a general purpose printer with a four ink system). In a rare fit of self control, I opted to wait - and was rewarded with the release of the i950 a month later.
Oh what a printer!
The printer's 3072 nozzles spit out ink in 2-picolitre sizes at a resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi, which means finer overall quality. It's capable of border-free 4x6, 5x7, and 8.5x11 prints, which makes it ideal for printing digital photos. I've had images printed by Ofoto, Shutterfly, Kodak, and dotPhoto, but the quality of the i950 prints surpasses them all. The clarity of the images is stunning - I haven't done any huge comparative reviews by printing the same image on every printer, but I can't imagine getting anything better than the quality I'm seeing.
The printer is also amazingly fast - it prints a little slower than the specs would indicate (isn't that always the way), but it will spit out 4x6 images in about 40 seconds, which is fantastic when you need a photo just as someone is heading out the door. 8.5x11 prints take longer, about 3 minutes, but compared to the C80 I owned, this thing is a rocket. Style-wise, it looks slick on my desk - very clean lines, with a wonderful black high-gloss finish in the centre.
General text and line art graphics and crisp and far surpass my Epson C80. It's fast, very quiet, and quite good on ink so far. About the only think I don't like about this printer is the fact that Canon doesn't make 8x10 photo paper. Does anyone at Canon know how hard it is to find frames for 8.5x11 photos? It's breaks in logic like this that make me wonder if the people who market these products actually use them, but other than that, this printer has blown me away in every way - it's the best printer I've ever owned, bar none.
If you're looking for a photo printer, I can't give any other printer a higher recommendation. I'm sure some of the high-end Epson printers would be as good or better, but without getting into expensive large-format printers, this is as good as it gets. The printer can be purchased from Amazon.com. You can also search for the lowest price using Pricegrabber or check out the full specs.
About two weeks ago, I purchased a new printer: the Canon i950. I've been an Epson fan for a long time, and have been using a C80 for the past two years. I always swore by the vibrancy of Epson inks, but recently I had a chance to take a closer look at Canon printers, and was very, very impressed. Even their cheap $89 CND i320 produces surprisingly crisp borderless 4 x 6 images. I was looking at the i850, and had the geek desire to posses it, but as tempting as the 2/4 picolitre technology was, I wanted a "real" photo printer with a six ink system (the i850 was a general purpose printer with a four ink system). In a rare fit of self control, I opted to wait - and was rewarded with the release of the i950 a month later.
Oh what a printer!
The printer's 3072 nozzles spit out ink in 2-picolitre sizes at a resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi, which means finer overall quality. It's capable of border-free 4x6, 5x7, and 8.5x11 prints, which makes it ideal for printing digital photos. I've had images printed by Ofoto, Shutterfly, Kodak, and dotPhoto, but the quality of the i950 prints surpasses them all. The clarity of the images is stunning - I haven't done any huge comparative reviews by printing the same image on every printer, but I can't imagine getting anything better than the quality I'm seeing.
The printer is also amazingly fast - it prints a little slower than the specs would indicate (isn't that always the way), but it will spit out 4x6 images in about 40 seconds, which is fantastic when you need a photo just as someone is heading out the door. 8.5x11 prints take longer, about 3 minutes, but compared to the C80 I owned, this thing is a rocket. Style-wise, it looks slick on my desk - very clean lines, with a wonderful black high-gloss finish in the centre.
General text and line art graphics and crisp and far surpass my Epson C80. It's fast, very quiet, and quite good on ink so far. About the only think I don't like about this printer is the fact that Canon doesn't make 8x10 photo paper. Does anyone at Canon know how hard it is to find frames for 8.5x11 photos? It's breaks in logic like this that make me wonder if the people who market these products actually use them, but other than that, this printer has blown me away in every way - it's the best printer I've ever owned, bar none.
If you're looking for a photo printer, I can't give any other printer a higher recommendation. I'm sure some of the high-end Epson printers would be as good or better, but without getting into expensive large-format printers, this is as good as it gets. The printer can be purchased from Amazon.com. You can also search for the lowest price using Pricegrabber or check out the full specs.
