I ended up stealing one of these for $100. They retail for $400
currently. I also snagged 50 sheets of 13x19 canon satin paper in the
mix. I've done a few test prints now and I am very impressed. Unlike
the Epson and older Canon printers this one uses dye ink and man
is it
vivid. If you want to print stuff that looks like slide film this is
the printer for you. I haven't tried any skin tones yet, so I'll
maybe
follow up this post when I print a few portraits from it. The review
on imaging resource is looking pretty bad really. I think this
printer
is a lot better than what they present. I don't really know what
settings they were using, but when you run your images through their
plugin it seems to do a very good job with color using the stock
profiles. The black and white I printed on canon paper seemed fairly
neutral when I looked at it in direct sunlight. I actually print
things for a living and have used large format canons for some time
and always highly recommend them. I would do the same for this
printer. Just know that ink costs are up on this model but a full set
is only $109 for 8 carts. Not bad really. Individuals are $16.99 I
think, up from the $13 the older ones were. You can probably get
about
30-40 13x19s before you start swapping ink carts and of course your
mileage may vary. Obviously B&W prints will kill the three black
carts
pretty fast. One full size print didn't dent the first cartridge set,
but a black and white definitely moved the on screen indicators a
bit.
I prints up to 13x19 which is pretty decent really. I love 11x17 so
this is perfect for a lot of things. Borderless 13x19 looks fantastic
though you do give up some image along the sides. You can buy 13x19
frames too. It also prints CDs which is interesting.
If you are considering a printer I would definitely look at this. It
has pretty much all the features and quality that the Pixma Pro 1 had
and that cost $1000 new. The heads are easily replaceable on this
printer as well. I think the epsons are still not user serviceable.
One advantage that the smaller epsons have is that they print
rolls as
well. I think up to 20" wide right? so that gives the ability to
print
a bit bigger. Still I'm very happy with this and this is a lot nicer
than the old 9500 mark 2 I used to use. Much better print quality
with
much more accurate color. If you are someone that can sell a lot of
small prints this is a good printer to have around. I'm really hoping
that they move to adding RGB colors like their larger printers have
eventually. That would give them a huge color gamut. Still for 8
colors this thing does really, really well. Just know that its
best to
leave them on all the time so that they self clean which doesn't use
much ink in the long run. Otherwise you have to use a lot more ink
trying to purge and test print.
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