For photos, there’s nothing better than the Canon i960.
Written: Nov 22 '03
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Pros: Top-notch photo quality, blazingly fast (for pictures), separate ink tanks, super quiet.
Cons: Slow text print speeds. Ink usage worse than i950. Must use Canon’s paper.
The Bottom Line: This is the only game in town if you want a lab-quality picture in a hurry. Just don't expect fast text speeds.
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| samdavidowicz's Full Review: Canon I-960 Photo Printer Ink-jet Printer |
There are sometimes when time is money. That’s why I decided to purchase the Canon i960. Yes, I do have an HP Photosmart 7350, itself an awesome printer. Yet the 10+ minute wait time required to do an 8x10 (the size I like to do most, unlike most people) was driving me nuts after a while. At the time, the HP appealed to me because you can do both text and photos (you have to purchase the optional black cartridge for text though). When I won some money down in Atlantic City, I decided to relegate the HP for text and non-important color work and pick up Canon’s newest true photo printer, the i960.
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What you get.
Included in the box is the printer (duh!), the power cord, the 6 ink tanks (BCI-6BK black, BCI-6C Cyan, BCI-6M Magenta, BCI-6Y Yellow, BCI-6PC Photo Cyan, and BCI-6PM Photo Magenta), the print head, 5 sheets of 4x6 Photo Paper Pro, and all the software you need to get started, plus some bonus software.
The i960, like 99.9 % of other printers, does NOT come with a USB cable, so I’m not going to subtract points for something that is obviously an industry standard (though annoying).
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First Impressions.
The i960 has a rounded look that looks admittedly better then the square-ish i950, the previous version. The top right holds the power button and the paper feed button. Directly underneath the power button is the USB port for connecting most canon digital cameras and certain other camera makes that are Pictbridge compatible (Pictbridge is the new standard that allows compatible cameras of all types to be directly connected to any printer that supports it.). The top of the printer holds the paper feeder as well as the new 4x6 dedicated photo tray. In the back there’s two USB ports: One for USB 1.1 and one for the new 2.0 standard (Don’t know why Canon just didn’t combine both into one port), as well as the plug for the power cord. Users who worry about yet another one of those annoying power bricks will be happy to know there is none on the i960.
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Setting it up.
Once you unpack the i960, there’s the task of taking off the plastic bag and removing all the tape that protects the printer during shipment. After that, you plug the printer up and install the six ink cartridges and the printhead.
Setting up the i960 to your PC is simple enough but as with any USB device if you screw up you might have to resort to square one. Once you have installed the ink carts, you turn the printer off and connect it to your PC (or MAC, but I use a PC, so no MAC stuff here guys). Then you install the driver. When it prompts you then you turn the printer back on. If all goes well the i960 is ready to use in a few minutes.
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The i960: Canon’s one-hit wonder?
Now before you write me letters, this is NOT an anti-Canon section (Why would I buy the Canon if I was?). The reason I call the i960 a “one-hit wonder” for Canon is that it’s the only printer in their lineup that’s true photo quality, because of the light cyan and light magenta ink tanks besides the four regular colors. The i560 and i860 may be labeled “photo printers” but photos from these printers, even on Canon’s top-end paper, Photo Paper Pro, don’t look as sharp and are grainier (meaning it’s easier to see the ink dots) because of the lack of these 2 colors (the i860 does however compensate in the form of having two black ink tanks – one for photos and one for text). These printers are for people who are not as concerned with true photo quality as much as, say, text speed or quality. If you want a printer that’s more well rounded, get one of the HP Photosmarts, but these printers’ photo speeds are much slower. As a second printer for photos though, the i960 is tough to beat. Read on.
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Color speed
Printing graphics and illustrations on the i960 are quick but not exactly record breaking. If you want a printer for non-photo work and want a fast one, then the i960 may be left out in the cold. However, when you print a photo on glossy paper, that’s where the i960 really shines. Using a USB 1.1 connection, printing a letter size borderless photo on Canon’s Photo Paper Pro took less than 2 minutes, and that’s on the high quality setting. I’ve heard using the USB 2.0 connection can net photo printing times off lest than a minute and a half. I have no way of proving this, but if it’s correct, it makes it the fastest photo printer on the market as of this writing (The Olympus P-440 is actually faster, but that printer can only do photos, nothing else, and it cost $500.). Printing a 4x6 takes less than 40 seconds, and printing them is really convenient thanks to the new 4x6 tray (you don’t have to unload all the regular paper from the main tray anymore.).
Color quality.
Quality on everything ranging from graphics to photos is everything from good to superb. On inkjet paper, graphics looked really good. But photos is the i960’s main thing, and on Canon’s Photo Paper Pro photos looked nothing short of excellent. Color rendition and skin tones basically have the same quality as prints made by pro color labs. If you’re looking for a printer to complete your digital darkroom, this is it.
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Black and whit speed
Printing text quickly is not on the i960’s pros list. Text speed is equivalent of a 10ppm general-use inkjet, not the fastest thing out there.
Black and white quality
I can say that despite the slow speed text quality happens to be excellent on inkjet paper, mainly due to the preciseness of the printhead. If you want to make sure that report looks nice, and don’t care if you have to wait another 40 seconds, then print it on the i960. B&W photos are good but not as good as printers that have a light black (gray?) ink tank, like the HP 7960. However, as most people print only color photos, I don’t see this to be a problem.
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Noise level.
With the exception of the initial paper load and eject (and even that’s not as bad as some I’ve heard), the i960, like the i950, is as quiet as a mouse. When printing a photo you have to be right on top of it to tell if it’s even running.
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Software/driver.
The i960 driver is excellent and is easy to figure out. You simply select your paper type and size, weather you want borderless prints, and you’re ready to go. Advanced options let you fine tune color adjustment, image quality and even image noise, among other things.
Easy photo print as an easy way to print your digital images. It basically walks you through step by step, like selecting the picture, the size and layout, and a preview of the image.
East Web Print formats web pages so that they don’t get cut off when you print them.
Photo Stitch is a program that lets you stitch photos together to create a panorama of sorts. I haven’t used this program yet so don’t ask how I feel about it.
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Ways to print
The i960 can print photos three ways: from your PC, from any of Canon’s digital cameras that are Bubblejet Direct enabled, or any brand camera that is Pictbridge enabled.
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Complaints/Concerns
While you won’t be seeing me crying the blues about it, some people might get turned off at the fact that the i960 lacks slots for memory cards, or a preview screen. This printer is aimed at true “photo enthusiasts” or people who edit using regular software who never really need those features (I have yet to hear an owner of an EOS-10D complaining that printing from the PC is “complicated.”) and would rather pay for the extra speed this printer provides. The only real drawback to this printer is the ink consumption, which seems worse compared than the i950. Make sure you keep stock of the two photo inks as these run out up to twice as fast as the regular colors (the i960 obviously uses them a lot to add detail where the 4 regular colors might miss.). This could be worse; if this printer had a tri-color or five color ink cartridge the cost of usage would be very high. (Oh well, I guess Canon had to do something to lower this printer’s price to 200 beans.) The only other drawback is that Canon’s photo paper is pretty much mandatory. Using Canon’s Photo Paper Plus or Pro (spend the extra few bucks and get this) yields you the best quality. I tried using HP’s photo paper (Premium Plus glossy), and quality was good, but it did not look glossy at all, and the paper had the feeling that it still needed time to dry (after 30+ minutes!). If you use the cheap generic photo paper (not recommended at all for any printer), you’ll have the feeling that the salesman lied to you about the i960’s quality. Other than that, it’s just petty stuff – Canon still doesn’t use an automatic printhead alignment process (at least it’s now half automatic!), and the printer has a paltry 80kb of memory, rather than the 16mb of memory on the HPs (in it’s defense, the i960 is fast enough where you won’t have to worry about slowing down your PC for long). That’s about it really.
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Who this printer is for.
Anyone who: prints from the PC or from one of the new Pictbridge compatible digicams, or Canon’s digicams will be extremely pleased with the output quality from this printer. Add to that blazing speed (for photos), and you have a real winner here. However, those who are looking for a speed text printer should look elsewhere.
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Looking ahead: What Canon should do for the next model.
Add the BCI-3eBK black cartridge plus a much larger printhead for text and you’d have the only printer you’d ever need for everything (Note: Canon’s unlikely to do this as no one would consider the i860 series – the whole purpose of that printer is to achieve 80-90% of the i960’s photo quality and get speedy text printing – if Canon added the BCI-3eBK to the i960, then every one would gladly pay the extra 50 bucks to get the extra photo quality plus fast text, while the i860 would just clog dealer shelves). Another thing that would be nice is if Canon made a light black ink tank for B/W prints.
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Sam’s Summery
While not the best choice for general use, this makes the perfect printer to compliment that new digicam you bought – as long as the camera in question is either a Canon or a Pictbridge Compatible model or you are doing work from the PC. If you want to print direct from the printer and see the pictures before you print them, then get the i900D, which has memory card readers and a 2” preview screen but takes twice as long to print a picture.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200.00
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
samdavidowicz
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Member: Sam Davidowicz
Location: Tamarac
Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
I work tech support and also do freelance tech work.
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