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Summary: i960 printer
Review: Absolutely an increditble printer. Some awkward features which take some getting used to. Doesn't include the USB cable. Great Prints
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Summary: Canon does it again
Review: I am very pleased with the i960. I formerly used the S800, which has the same ink cartridge setup. But this printer is a whole new world. As with the S800, the print setup (driver) is feature rich - duplex printing, adjustments for paper type, lots of scaling and enhancement options. The print speed, nearly silent operation, print quality and paper handling features are outstanding. It runs either USB 1.1 or USB 2.0. It lacks a photo card reader, included on several competing brands, but it has an input for direct linking from EXIF-enabled cameras. BTW, I've tried generic ink cartridges in my S800. Not a good move as quality/color is inconsistent. Bite the bullet, pay the extra for Canon cartridges.
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Summary: What a Printer!
Review: This printer is the best so far. The prictures are clean and crisp in detail. The color is outstanding. The 8 x 10's come out looking very professional. You can print directly from a compatible camera. With the 2 extra colors really makes a difference. Canons new printer coming out in May should be awesome with a total of 8 colors.
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Summary: Interesting Tips - Things your mother should have told you.
Review: Quiet Mode - Doesn't just reduce noise. Will also slow the printer's operation a bit. Why would you want to do this, you may ask? I ran in draft mode and the printer was so fast it sucked the paper from the paper tray at an impressive speed ... so fast that it can feed the paper slightly askew and almost throw it across the room on eject. In "standard mode" plain paper printing can be so fast the ink hasn't completely dried. So ... it can sometimes be a good thing to slow this creature down a bit and Quiet Mode is the way to do it. I run that way all the time and life is good.Ink Cartridges have no "stale date" - Don't make yourself crazy trying to read the dotted characters at the package bottom to read a date into it. They're lot numbers, not encoded dates. Unlike all HP cartridges and most Epson cartridges, Canon just doesn't date its ink. It "seems" that ink cartridges without self contained print heads have very long shelf lives since there are no internal jets to clog as the sealed cartridge ages. I will believe the Canon rep on this one since it makes sense, although I'm always more comfortable knowing the age of the ink. Like many of you I want a reserve of ink "at the ready" so I just buy from a retailer that always has a fresh supply like Best Buy, Staples, OfficeMax and probably Amazon. The Nozzle Game - Don't let the salesman sell you a more expensive Canon (I860, I960) because it "has more nozzles". More nozzles doesn't mean anything in terms of printer resolution or precision. Each cartridge has a certain number of nozzles, no matter what printer it's used on. I believe Black has 320 and color 512 except yellow which has 256. The I560 holds 4 cartridges and if you do the math has 320+512+512+256=1600 nozzles. The I860 has an extra 256 nozzles but that's only because is can hold a 5th cartridge (black with 256 nozzles). Ditto with I960 which holds 6 cartridges at 512 nozzles each for a whopping 3000+ nozzles. So, consider the advantages of having more cartridges and the essence of these cartridges but don't be led to think that high nozzle counts means it prints better. Warrantees and Print Heads - Just be aware that unlike HP printers the Canon I-Series has one installable print head which will likely determine the useful life of the printer. Since the cartridges do not have print heads they are less expensive, but they do not contribute to the useful life of the printer. I do know that the apparently simple and little print head is claimed by Canon to have a lot of electronics in it and is the most expensive component of the printer. So ... when it goes, the printer goes (costs around $70-$80). Canon expects their print heads to last 1-3 years, maybe more, and their $50 extended warranty covers it. I was tempted to buy the $30 extended warranty from Best Buy but was told the print head is a "consumable" and won't be replaced. So ... Buyer Beware on warrantees and expect to surrender your beloved Canon when the print head goes. Enjoy your Canon and treat yourself to a new one every couple years or so. I'm very happy with my I560 and Canon support for this and my LiDE50 Scanner has been solid. (I pay for the phone call and in return they offer me courtesy, knowledge and they even speak English.) -- Sam
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Summary: Very good photo printer
Review: I bought this printer to print photographs and it does that very well. Prints on glossy paper are indistinguishable from processed photo prints. Don't expect many frills from this printer such as a memory card reader, LCD, or fancy software. Text printing looks good but is slow for compared to other ink jet printers. Color printing, on the other hand, is very fast. 8" X 11" prints take only about 1 minute to print on the highest detail setting. 4" X 6" take about 30 seconds. This printer was built to do one thing very well: Printing high quality color photos. Ink consumption and price is very reasonable. Ink cartrages may be replaced seperatatly for a very reasonable price, $10 to $12 for Canon cartrages or you can get generic for about $5.50 each. This printer is perfect for people who like to take a lots of digital pictures, print them, and give them away to friends and faimly. They will not be able to tell that you printed them yourself.
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Summary: Kudos from a photo restorationist
Review: I restore mostly black & white/sepia photos and this is the first Canon photo printer that prints perfect grayscale and beautiful color photos, especially when using Canon Matte Photo Paper. The two earlier Canon models I bought always had a slight cyan cast. I am thrilled with this photo printer!
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Summary: Now that I've had it a while :(
Review: Now that I've had it awhile, I am truly sorry I bought it, and that I bought it from Amazon.com (makes returning it harder and costly). It was very easy to put together, and it does give me great photos, BUT something in the PRINTER sends messages to my computer saying it is "offline" even though it is not. This happens sporadically and causes TREMENDOUS ANNOYANCE. The other BIG problem I am having is that the paper tray for smaller items stays stuck in the up position (thereby not descending to the poisition where it feeds the paper), requiring me to feed the paper in by hand (that is once I manage to remove the tray from the printer). Another problem with hand-feeding is I cannot always determine if the photo will be printed in the right place on the photo paper--lots of EXPENSIVE paper and ink WASTED. Since the tray (and entire printer) is made of PLASTIC, I cannot twist, pull, or push (even using the proper release levers) too hard for fear it will break. Needless to say, I have learned my lesson. Next time I need something besides books, I will buy locally, and I will try the product out AT THE STORE, where I can return it for a FULL REFUND if necessary. I do not find the HELP tool on the toolbar very helpful either. It is far too unhelpful--I am not a computer nerd, but I am an intelligent person, and I can figure out more than what the help options tell me. Oops--just lost another star... On the PLUS side, the photos are GREAT, it does perform SELF-MAINTENANCE, and it is FAST--once it gets started. And the PRICE at Amazon.com was good, too, considering they delivered free to my home. Ok, I'll give it back a star.
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Summary: Where can I find best deal for replacement inks?
Review: I purchased Canon i960 (first time Canon buyer) last December 2003 and I am happy with it so far. My question is where can we find best deal on replacement inks? I saw cheap price at http://www.abcink.com -- they charge only $4.00 per cartrdige. Is it good deal or what? gwlj
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Summary: Excellent photo printer
Review: I bought this printer about a month ago for two main purposes.
1) To do some small color school projects with our daughter.
2) To see how well it prints photos. For school projects the i960 does all I expected - a solid inkjet performance. But it's the photos where it just completely surprised me. Originally, I had my eyes set on a thermal printer from Sony, but no more. After printing the first photo on i960 I was stunned with its photo quality. Nearly picture perfect and I venture to say better than what I get from OFoto. If you need to print photos from your digital camera for normal use, i960 will do the job nicely. It's fast. It's quiet. The photo quality is gorgeous (3Mpixel pictures blown up to a letter size look great). I recommend Cannon Photo Paper Plus. The more expensive Photo Paper Pro didn't deliver noticeable difference (in fact, the Paper Plus prints seemed to look better). Borderless printing is fabulous. Not sure about the cost per photo, but that's not a major issue. The convenience of printing at home is more important to me. The prints can scratch, so treat them carefully. After printing they also 'stink' a little (ink), but don't worry the smell almost totally disappears after a while. Overall, this is one great printer. Highly recommended. I took some pictures of my friends at a birthday party and had the prints ready five minutes later - they couldn't believe it!
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Summary: Highest quality, good cost per print with great ink system
Review: I have owned several "photo" or mixed-use ink jet printers (including a HP 2200 series I got last year), and this produces the best output by far - true photo-quality when printed on Canon's "Photo Paper Plus - Glossy". Like most printers, the output is much better when using the manufacture's own paper (as opposed to the cheaper generic paper), but there is no need to buy the most expensive "Pro" paper as neither I nor my wife could discern ANY difference between the two. There may be a benifit to the "Pro" paper that cannot be seen (lasts longer?) but at almost twice the cost it is not worth it. The part I like the best about he printer is the ink tank system - it uses 6 individual tanks made of CLEAR plastic so you can confirm with your own eye they are empty when the printer tells you they are (there will be a little unusable amount in the "sponge" portion of the tank, but NONE in the main tank section). Because the tanks are just ink (no print head like in most HP and others) the price of new tanks is quite cheap (no need to risk the printer or the quality with refills or generic ink); and because there are 6 individual colors you only need to buy the color you ran out of, rather than buying a new "color" or "photo" tank like I have to do with my HP whenever one color goes out. You DO go through some colors a lot more than others - while it will vary depending on what you are printing, after printing out several hundred 8x10s I have gone through 3 "photocyan" tanks, 3 "photomagenta" tanks, 2 "cyan", one "magenta", one "yellow" and am still on my first tank of the other 2 colors. In ink savings alone, I have paid for this printer, and you feel MUCH better when you can pull out that little tank and confirm you really did go through the ink (I have often had my doubts). If you print a lot of 4x6 snapshots, there is a seperate feeder for them that you can even leave in place while printing 8x10 sheets (or you can just lift it out if you want to load more 8x10 paper, as it cuts down the amount that can fit). I can't say how it would work with printing text documents, as I use it exclusively for photos. And if you work on a Mac, it works Great with OSX.
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