johnst1001a wrote:
canonphotopro 100 , $159 AFTER REBATES FROM B&H, check for the rebates , they run this promotion often, a great printer. ink is expensive but you get a lot of pictures m and you really have to change then ones that run out, mostly the black ones.' I'm on second one, i had one go bad one of the cartridge slots went bad.it was 14 months old, out of 1 tear warranty but Canon replaced it it free of charges.
I agree!
The Canon Pro 100 is one of the best values around for a truly photo-capable printer.
However, the price at B&H is actually $149.99. (Note: You'll be charged 399.99 for the purchase, but will get back $250 with the mail in rebate).
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/893738-REG/Canon_6228b002_Pixma_Pro_100_Photo_Inkjet.html/accessoriesThis is actually a 13" wide format printer.... So you
could make prints larger than 8x10, if you wished. (In fact, the printer usually comes with a pack or 50 sheets of 13x19" photo paper... as well as a full set of inks.) But no one is forcing you to make prints that large. I use one sometimes to make as small as 4x6" prints (actually coupons, but they use a photo illustration).
The Pro 100 is fairly large and not exactly light weight. It uses eight individual ink cartridges (included three monotone for very good black & white prints). The ink is dye-based, which used to be a problem for longevity, but the current formulas are rated for 100+ years life (if you wanted more than that, get a printer that uses pigment-based inks, such as the Canon Pro 10... those inks are rated for 200+ years).
Many "lower cost" printers use 4 colors and aren't particularly good for photos. They also gang up the inks into one or two cartridges.... all colors in one or separate black and a three-color cartridge. These end up being wasteful, since you have to replace then entire cartridge when one color runs out.
If print quality is a concern, I'd highly recommend you look for a printer with at least 6 colors using and individual cartridges. Those will be able to do better color prints of photos (although not particularly good black & white... more cartridges need for B&W). Individual cartridges will allow you to only change out the one color that's needed, not wasting ink the way that the multi-color cartridges do.
I've been using a Canon Pro 100 for a couple years and it's worked flawlessly. Never had a clog, even though it's sometimes sat unused for two or even three weeks. It can be used wired or wirelessly, has efficient auto start and stop modes, and even though it's ink cartridges aren't large, seems pretty efficient. A full set of inks for it runs around $125... or bought separately they're typically about $17 apiece. While this sounds a lot, it's not bad. My Pro 10 replaced a 6-color Epson where the cost of a set of inks was around $75... but they were smaller and less efficient, actually ended up costing more.
I also use an HP B9180 8-color printer (pigment-based, which I prefer to archival prints on smooth, matte "museum" quality papers). That uses HUGE cartridges... they look to be about 3X the size of the Canon Pro 100's... But OEM HP inks cost $40 to $60 apiece and getting really hard to find for this discontinued printer. I find only two of the colors currently available at B&H, three colors avail. at Staples, and haven't looked at other sources yet. Nice thing about the B9180 is that it's print heads can be removed for cleaning or individually replaced if necessary. There are four of them (2 colors each). But, like the inks, those are getting hard to find now, too.
I've found the B9180 a really good printer... But haven't made any of the type of prints I used it for recently. Before I can do so again, I'll probably have to replace it. If I do that, I'll probably not get another HP.... I'm disappointed that they haven't supported it very well. Probably will get the Canon Pro 10, after the good experiences I've had with the Pro 100. (Normally the Pro 10 is about 2.5X or 3X the cost of the Pro 100... If I could get a Pro 10 for the price mentioned above, I'd jump on it even if I didn't have immediate use for it!)
Before the HP, I used a couple different wide format Epson printers which made nice prints, but they were pretty inefficient with inks and expensive to run. The smaller (8.5") 6-color printer I mentioned above where small cartridges made for higher ink costs, was also an Epson. Maybe newer Epson models are more efficient with ink. But one thing that really turned me off was that after using that 6-color Epson for a year or so it suddenly shut down and gave me a "printer worn out, must be replaced" notice. Turns out, Epson set up a page counter on their printers that shuts them down after a certain number of pages, to make you go out and buy a new one! I found a third party applet online that allowed me to reset the page counter so the printer would work again, then used it for a year or so until I got the same shut down and notice again. Once again, I reset it and it worked fine! In fact, I reset it a total of four times.... worked fine, but then started having trouble with misfeeds and clogged print nozzles, ultimately leading me to replace it (with the Canon Pro 100... which has never misfed or had a single clog in two years). However, it sort of pissed me off that Epson was pulling that scam, programming their printers to shut down and declare themselves dead and in need of replacement like that.... When the printer was fine. I don't know if Epson still does this. I sure hope not!
EDIT: I just looked on Amazon and see that they have the Pro 100 ink sets on sale for $108.45 right now. I don't need any right now, but might just buy a set since that's the lowest price I've seen for that set.