Phabulous Photos and More!
Written: Dec 25 '03
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Pros: Beautiful prints, speed, ease of operation, great software, looks, price, economical ink system.
Cons: Small overscan on borderless prints, somewhat larger than many other printers. No USB cord included.
The Bottom Line: This printer is inexpensive, versatile, fast, top notch photos, relatively cheap to use. It's a quantum leap ahead from printer technology of just a few years ago.
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| homefndr's Full Review: Canon i860 Photo Bubble Jet Printer 23/16ppm Print... |
My home office now has four printers...with the Canon i860 being the latest addition to the collection. Printing photographs hasn't been a high priority until I recently became a grandfather. That changes things! I tried to print a few digital photos on my older HP Deskjet 855C, but the results were unacceptable. The Lexmark I have sits idle because of the cost of ink. It's a pretty good printer, but too expensive to use. I have another Canon printer that does pretty well, but it is a multi-purpose machine I use mainly for faxes and such.
In fact, I considered printing digital photos to be a waste of time, especially since you can take your digital media to a Walgreen’s or Costco and print what you want for as little as 29 cents a print. Then, my son gave me this i860 for Christmas. Setting it up was a snap. It's a bit on the large size, but nice looking. The included software is a nicely bundled assortment of editing and printing applications that are totally intuitive, that is, they don't require a thick manual to understand. There are five ink tanks, so you don't have to replace a large cartridge if only one color is empty. You have the capability of direct camera to printer printing without a computer if you so desire, though that isn't a feature I would use routinely. I noticed other reviewers mentioning that the printer is a little noisy. Funny, I think it is by far, the most quiet printer I have ever owned. Within minutes of unpacking, I had a 4x6 print spitting out of the bottom of the printer so quietly I thought it wasn't working. This printer is F-A-S-T! My first print (of my grandson of course) was absolutely perfect, and it took less than 30 seconds to print.
I can't praise the quality of the photo print results enough. The colors are excellent, in fact far superior to the typical print you get at a Walgreen’s, etc. There are no tell-tail "bars" of color, and the finish on the Canon paper provided is superb! How the quality compares to the other like-priced printers now available for high resolution photo printing I cannot say, except that I can't imagine there is any room for "better."
Borderless prints from this printer are beautiful, but there is one small feature regarding how they are printed that I would criticize. The borderless prints I made have a small amount of "overscan" or "enlargement" that will crop about a quarter inch off the edges of your photo. You can "trim" the photo with the Canon software, however you cannot (as far as I can tell) keep your borderless photos from over scanning, and cropping off some of the picture. In most photos, it makes no difference, but if there is detail you want to see around the edge of your photo, you have to print a "border" print.
In summary, I have extremely high praise for this printer because of the quiet operation, relative economy (compared to other printers) excellent quality prints, and high speed printing. It has converted me from using the Kodak digital print services at the drug store, and though it may a bit more expensive to print with the Canon i860 than using the drugstore, the quality and control...as well as the "do-it-yourself" spirit make this printer well worth the investment.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 130
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
homefndr
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Location: Russellville, AR USA
Reviews written: 27
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Retired AF Pilot. Married two kids, one grandchild. Hobbies, computers, golf, flying.
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