C
CR Optiker
Having gotten fed up with HP for various reasons, and after checking the
various forums and reviews, with some reservations regarding plugged
nozzles, ink/paper compatibillity, ink usage, etc., I bought a Canon PIXMA
iP5200. My needs are for a general use color printer for all purposes, plus
photo-quality printing at up to letter-size from tiem to time. It was
delievered a week or so before Christmas - CompUSA, $130 after rebates,
free shipping.
My first project was printing Christmas newsletters, Christmas cards, and
envelopes, printed at normal quality..
Cards were two per page, so about half of one side a color photo, and one
half of the other side text that was perhaps half as dense as a typical
text document. I printed 50 of these duplexed on 65 lb. parchment paper fed
from the upper feed with mostly normal settings, but some color adjustment
for the color which to my eye, was too bright and to warm.
Letters were two-sided duplex printed on plain paper from the casette.
These were typica text density, but with approximately 25% on each side in
color photos or graphics. There wer about 100 of these.
Envelopes were quarter-sheet size to fit the quarter folded letters and
folded half-sheet cards. They had a typical address in a heavy, bold, 16-pt
font, return address in 10-pt font, and a small (1 cm square) graphic next
to the return address, and a full-width, 2/3 height photo, fading from full
color at the lower-left corner to white at the uper-right corner. There
were about 100 of these.
IUn addition, there had been a few test prints.
By the time this project was 75% printed (about 75 of each), I got a
low-ink indication on cyan and magenta. Yellow and black pigment were down,
and black dye was still nearly full. I was able to finish printing the
remaining 25% of the project before the magenta ran out and I had to
replace it.
On the following project, cyan quickly ran out, and I am still working on
that project, with yellow now nearly out. The second project is a calendar.
So far, I've only printed some test prints - a couple of full pages of
thumbnails at normal quality, two or three full page (letter-size) photos,
and a full page borderless photo, all at normal quality.
This is my first photo inkjet printer, and after reading posts on this and
other forums on ink/paper incompatibility problems, banding under various
conditions, bronzing, etc., I was wondering if I'd bought the wrong printer
since I tend to stay with OEM ink, but a wide variety of papers.
The calendar pages are printed on two sides, and the paper I happened to
have on hand that I wanted to use is Staples "professional" double-sided,
heavy matte finish photo paper that I bought fairly inexpensively last
year.
Last night I tried my first test print on the paper - the cover photo - but
at only about 20% size on a small waste piece of the paper. It looked
really good, so I tried the full size (letter size) borderless print - all
still on normal quality. I printed from IrfanView after having worked the
image in The Gimp and exporting to a several MP high quality JPEG. Just as
I finished, the low ink warning popped up for the yellow cartridge.
I was delighted! The print looked every bit as good as a traditionally
processed photo of comparable size.
CONCLUSIONS - first, at least for plain paper (standard copier paper,
"parchment", and envelopes) and the Staples photopaper I tried, I could
hardly ask for more. Speed is great - but keeping in mind that my previous
printer at home was an HP 720 - pretty old and prety slow to be comparing
against. My work printer is an HP 6122 (not a photo printer), but the Canon
is still impresive compared to that. I haven't had the printer long enough
to expect any clogging problems, so can't comment on that. I don't use it
every day, but it probably is used a minimum of once or twice a week -
usually more. It rarely is idle more than a week or two.
My ony reservations at this point is the ink usage. It's hard to make
comparisons. I did essentially the same (different photos and letter
content) Christmas projects last year but don't really recall what the ink
cost was. My gut feel is that while this printer may have taken more or
less ink for the project, at the cost of the cartridges, I think the Canon
may have been more expensive. Tiem will tell. I have, in the past, stayed
with OEM cartridges since I choose to have the assurance of quality and
predictable colors, but if they don't come down in time, third party ink
may be very tempting. I am not into refilling - tried it years ago with my
previous HP and was never satisfied with the result.
Interestingly, I saw essentially no variation between online and local
store prices of the cartridges. Online would even add shipping, so had no
advantage. I bought at Staples (dye-based cartridges, didn't have the
pigment cartridge) and OfficeMax (pigment black) for the same price as they
were at a variety of places online, where I could find them. The exception
was Office Depot, who only showed one of the dye-based cartridges (forget
which one) and it was priced roughly twice the cost of the same at other
places - wierd!
Anyhow, thanks if you stayed with this. As a new photo inkjet printer
users, new Canon convert, and with a just out printer (5200), I htought
first-hand experience might be of interest.
Optiker
various forums and reviews, with some reservations regarding plugged
nozzles, ink/paper compatibillity, ink usage, etc., I bought a Canon PIXMA
iP5200. My needs are for a general use color printer for all purposes, plus
photo-quality printing at up to letter-size from tiem to time. It was
delievered a week or so before Christmas - CompUSA, $130 after rebates,
free shipping.
My first project was printing Christmas newsletters, Christmas cards, and
envelopes, printed at normal quality..
Cards were two per page, so about half of one side a color photo, and one
half of the other side text that was perhaps half as dense as a typical
text document. I printed 50 of these duplexed on 65 lb. parchment paper fed
from the upper feed with mostly normal settings, but some color adjustment
for the color which to my eye, was too bright and to warm.
Letters were two-sided duplex printed on plain paper from the casette.
These were typica text density, but with approximately 25% on each side in
color photos or graphics. There wer about 100 of these.
Envelopes were quarter-sheet size to fit the quarter folded letters and
folded half-sheet cards. They had a typical address in a heavy, bold, 16-pt
font, return address in 10-pt font, and a small (1 cm square) graphic next
to the return address, and a full-width, 2/3 height photo, fading from full
color at the lower-left corner to white at the uper-right corner. There
were about 100 of these.
IUn addition, there had been a few test prints.
By the time this project was 75% printed (about 75 of each), I got a
low-ink indication on cyan and magenta. Yellow and black pigment were down,
and black dye was still nearly full. I was able to finish printing the
remaining 25% of the project before the magenta ran out and I had to
replace it.
On the following project, cyan quickly ran out, and I am still working on
that project, with yellow now nearly out. The second project is a calendar.
So far, I've only printed some test prints - a couple of full pages of
thumbnails at normal quality, two or three full page (letter-size) photos,
and a full page borderless photo, all at normal quality.
This is my first photo inkjet printer, and after reading posts on this and
other forums on ink/paper incompatibility problems, banding under various
conditions, bronzing, etc., I was wondering if I'd bought the wrong printer
since I tend to stay with OEM ink, but a wide variety of papers.
The calendar pages are printed on two sides, and the paper I happened to
have on hand that I wanted to use is Staples "professional" double-sided,
heavy matte finish photo paper that I bought fairly inexpensively last
year.
Last night I tried my first test print on the paper - the cover photo - but
at only about 20% size on a small waste piece of the paper. It looked
really good, so I tried the full size (letter size) borderless print - all
still on normal quality. I printed from IrfanView after having worked the
image in The Gimp and exporting to a several MP high quality JPEG. Just as
I finished, the low ink warning popped up for the yellow cartridge.
I was delighted! The print looked every bit as good as a traditionally
processed photo of comparable size.
CONCLUSIONS - first, at least for plain paper (standard copier paper,
"parchment", and envelopes) and the Staples photopaper I tried, I could
hardly ask for more. Speed is great - but keeping in mind that my previous
printer at home was an HP 720 - pretty old and prety slow to be comparing
against. My work printer is an HP 6122 (not a photo printer), but the Canon
is still impresive compared to that. I haven't had the printer long enough
to expect any clogging problems, so can't comment on that. I don't use it
every day, but it probably is used a minimum of once or twice a week -
usually more. It rarely is idle more than a week or two.
My ony reservations at this point is the ink usage. It's hard to make
comparisons. I did essentially the same (different photos and letter
content) Christmas projects last year but don't really recall what the ink
cost was. My gut feel is that while this printer may have taken more or
less ink for the project, at the cost of the cartridges, I think the Canon
may have been more expensive. Tiem will tell. I have, in the past, stayed
with OEM cartridges since I choose to have the assurance of quality and
predictable colors, but if they don't come down in time, third party ink
may be very tempting. I am not into refilling - tried it years ago with my
previous HP and was never satisfied with the result.
Interestingly, I saw essentially no variation between online and local
store prices of the cartridges. Online would even add shipping, so had no
advantage. I bought at Staples (dye-based cartridges, didn't have the
pigment cartridge) and OfficeMax (pigment black) for the same price as they
were at a variety of places online, where I could find them. The exception
was Office Depot, who only showed one of the dye-based cartridges (forget
which one) and it was priced roughly twice the cost of the same at other
places - wierd!
Anyhow, thanks if you stayed with this. As a new photo inkjet printer
users, new Canon convert, and with a just out printer (5200), I htought
first-hand experience might be of interest.
Optiker
