The Canon i860 Photo Printer ~ I can print again!!
Written: Nov 24 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: excellent results, borderless printing, direct from camera printing
Cons: a little big, a little noisy
The Bottom Line: an excellent easy to use printer that's given me great results!
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| MumMumMum's Full Review: Canon i860 Photo Bubble Jet Printer 23/16ppm Print... |
About a month ago my husband decided that he had had enough. He had heard more than enough complaining about my computer, had seen enough looks of complete incredulity on my face when my system would crash or my documents would disappear, had seen too often the troubles I had scanning pictures, and was fearful that I might actually toss my printer out the window (forgetting to open it first) if it refused to print another page properly. Since I decided to enroll in distance education courses at our local community college, he knew that I was going to need a system that was going to get me through my courses, and keep me online and not crashing on a regular basis. He also knew that a new scanner and printer were going to be a necessary part of that new system. Since he had already decided that I was going to be returned to the land of Mac, he had to find a printer and scanner that would be Mac compatible. He did his research, spoke to salesmen and friends, then took me shopping. It didn’t take long before we both agreed that we were going with Canon products.
The Canon i860 Photo Printer
Why did we choose the The Canon i860 Photo Printer? Well, there were quite a few reasons. Although it was slightly higher priced than some of the other options we had, we felt comfortable with the Canon name, and since we were going with a Canon scanner and digital camera, it wasn’t a far stretch to go with a printer that we knew would work well with all the other “toys” we were purchasing. (It didn’t hurt that Canon was also offering a rebate of up to $150 when a printer and digital camera was purchased.)
The The Canon i860 Photo Printer has a few features that I really like. One of them is the borderless printing. It can do so on all the standard sized paper (4x6, 5x7, and 8.5x11).
Another feature that I like a lot is the fact that it has five separate ink cartridges. All too often I had to throw out a whole ink cartridge because one or two of the three colours in it ran out. This was way more than frustrating, it was also expensive. With the The Canon i860 Photo Printer I also have a larger black ink cartridge. Considering the fact that most of the documents I print are text (school projects for my children, my school work), it just makes sense to have a larger black cartridge. The cartridges used in this printer are small black, large black, yellow, magenta, and cyan. I haven't had to purchase any ink cartridges yet, but my husband has checked the prices of the cartridges and doesn't find them to be overly expensive. The installation of the ink cartridges was quite simple, which is another feature I like about this printer. The printer utility will also keep track of the ink levels, which helps in replacing only the cartridges you need to replace.
Another selling point for the The Canon i860 Photo Printer is the ability I now have to print images directly from my digital camera. I don’t have to download the picture onto my computer and then print them, I can just plug my camera (or any Bubble Jet Direct or PictBridge compatible digital camera or camcorder) into the Direct Print Port that’s in front of my printer and go from there. I am sure that this feature doesn’t work with all digital cameras, but since I purchased a Canon digital camera it does work for me. I haven’t used this feature as of yet, but if the ease of use of the printer so far is any indication it will be a breeze. Another nice feature is the photo paper tray which can be attached to the auto sheet feeder. Both types of paper can be ready for your printing needs.
Now, obviously one of the major considerations I had when choosing a printer was that it be Mac compatible. The The Canon i860 Photo Printer is that, and the installation and set up of the printer was quite easy to do. Even though I was not familiar with Mac OS X, and was just getting used to being back on an Apple computer, it was basically a USB cable to the tower, plug into the power source, and install the software. The software installation was simple and straightforward and I was up and running in no time.
The The Canon i860 Photo Printer has a maximum print resolution of 4800/1200 dpi and speeds of up to 23 ppm in black, up to 16 ppm in colour, and borderless 4x6 photos in approximately 50 seconds. I’ve found the speed of this printer to be more than acceptable after the experiences I’ve had with my old printer, and the quality of this printer is fabulous! I’ve printed photos and text documents, and my son’s recent school projects printed on this printer have garnered ooh’s and ahh’s from his classmates. The text is clean and crisp, the colours are bright and vivid and look like they’re supposed to, there’s none of that dreaded banding, and we’ve been very satisfied with our results.
I do have a couple of nit picks about the The Canon i860 Photo Printer, but nothing that would keep me from recommending it. It is a little noisy. Its not a nice quiet printer, its actually pretty “clunky”. Not overly so, not enough to be overly distracting, but you’ll know its printing! The other small thing is the size of this printer. It’s not a space saver, that’s for sure. It takes up a lot of space on my shelf, with the paper feeder angled back and the paper exit sticking out 8-10 inches in the front, if you’re short on space you might want to think about where this printer might fit or if it will fit for that matter. Space wasn’t an issue for me, but it may be for others.
All in all, the The Canon i860 Photo Printer has been a great choice for me. It was incredibly easy to hook up to my Mac, the step by step installation instructions made the process very simple, and I’ve had great results with it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 230.00 Cdn
Operating System: Macintosh
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Member: Beverley
Location: Canada
Reviews written: 290
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So good to be home, but so very tired!
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