perfect for photos
Written: Nov 15 '02
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Pros: excellent quality, speedy prints
Cons: text resolution
The Bottom Line: If you need to print out excellent photo-quality prints in a short amount of time and you have a backup printer for any heavy text use, buy the S9000.
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| dukoolio's Full Review: Canon S9000 InkJet Photo Printer |
Choosing the S9000
This is my 3rd printer this year. I had been using a Lexmark Z43 for awhile now, but since I have bought myself a digital camera, I've been in need of a photo-quality printer. At first, I bought a $100 Epson Photo Stylus 820. Although I was initially happy with it, when I went to the computer store to buy some more paper I got a demo of the Canon S900. Comparatively, the Canon was about 5-6 times as fast and the quality of the output was much higher. I also liked the ability to buy the print cartridges separately. You tend to run out of the Photo Cyan, Photo Magenta and Yellow well before the Black, Blue and Magenta. Being able to only replace what you need will surely save some money down the road. So I returned the 820 and purchased the S9000 (over the S900 because of it's wide-format capability).
Performance so far
Since I've had it hooked up, I've printed about 100 4x6 borderless photos. This is probably my favorite feature. A 4x6 borderless print takes about 45 seconds and comes out looking like a real picture. I have printed some larger format pictures as well. The borderless 8x10 is excellent and being able to do 13x19's is awesome, but my camera doesn't have a high enough resolution for this. I suggest at least 4 megapixels for 13x19 prints. Even though I don't need this feature today, I like having the ability to use it within the next year when I get a better camera.
Text quality
I print out a lot of black text and I had been using my Lexmark Z43 for it even after I got the S9000 up and running. However, after running out of black Lexmark ink, I did print off several documents on the S9000. The speed is definitely pretty good and the quality on the best setting is decent for an inkjet-technology printer. But if you are going to be printing a lot of text, you may want to consider getting a small personal laser because the text quality falls short of presentation quality.
Paper feed
Being a top-loaded printer, I expected to get my share of paper jams. While it is very easy to jam this printer if you are not careful to set the paper tray width, once it is in place there does not seem to be any problem. The paper comes out very straight with no sign of any bending. Be careful when switching between 8x10's and 4x6's to move the level all the way over because you don't want to waste photo ink on the inside of your printer if it happens to feed diagonally.
Software
Canon's EZ-PhotoPrint software tops the list of applications included. It allows you to select a list of pictures to print and then choose a format (4x6, 5x7, 8x10, etc.), options (borderless, etc.) and paper type (4x6 perforated, 4x6 borderless, 8 1/2 x 11, etc). It automatically resizes your pictures to fit 1,2,4 or more on one page. Printing out a contact sheet is nice if you are printing out pictures for someone who would like to preview them first. The ZoomBrowser software is similar in interface to Apple's new iPhoto, but it doesn't come across as smoothly. But for just browsing through your photos, you may find it to be a useful tool.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 350.00
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
dukoolio
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Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
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