Rating: 
Summary: Wow! Text and Photo Printer in One!
Review: I admit, I have been out of the printer loop for some time. I had the HP Deskjet 990 CSE which is a great text printer but crappy on photos. I have a good digital camera, but did my printing using labs (ofoto, etc) as I didn't have the patience to fiddle with the HP printer settings, paper types (compatibility, quality, etc), and never could get a good print when I did try.A friend mentioned that I might look into a new printer to handle photos as well as the text demands. I was impressed by the Canon i860 and I was quite impressed by reviews. I don't just need a photo printer, but do a lot of simple text printing as well. I knew there were good photo printers, but typically the text output on these was slow and not very good quality... These reviews pointed out that this printer does both tasks well (note the i960 is slow with text but a great photo only printer) I now own the i860 and cannot tell you how amazing this printer is. Fairly priced, separate ink cartridges (two blacks, 3 color), very FAST for both text and photos (much faster text than my 990cse), and outstanding quality. The text looks great on cheap paper and the photos are lab quality (to my untrained eye at least). I have printed photos on plain paper, and 4x6 glossy (canon paper), and also printed an 8.5 x 11 format (Kodak premium glossy). All looked great, of course far better when on photo paper. Good color and well they just look great. A cool feature is the separate 4x6 paper tray and the extra pigment-based black ink for sharp text, this differentiates it from the cheaper i560, which is apparently also a great buy from what I have read. I might have purchased the i560 if I was paying for the printer myself. Because I wasn't, I went for the convenience of the paper tray and extra black ink. The i860 is a great buy. If you are looking for an all purpose photo/text printer this is it! I have only had it for a day, but had to write this review to highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Comparing the i860 to the i960
Review: I own both the Canon i860 and i960 printers, plus a Lexmark Z52. If you are wondering how the i860 and i960 compare, this may help. The i860 operates on a five ink tank system, while the i960 has six ink tanks. Better to have six? No, because Canon has developed a wonderful photo-enhancement technology that AUTOMATICALLY selects the inks that it deems will produce the most beautiful photos. The photos from either printer are really very similar, and both will do a fine job. If I had to choose, I would have to say that the i860 has a very slight lead in photo appearance as far as crispness and color brightness, but the difference is minimal. The i960 costs about $50 more, which is probably due to the extra USB port for high speed data transfer, and the extra ink tank. One more thing: Dark values can sometimes go very dark with these printers and lose some detail. The i960 will show a little more detail when this happens, but I have found that unless I am printing night or very dark photos, this is not a real problem.
Rating:
Summary: Astounding
Review: I purchased this unit because I was looking to upgrade from an outmoded 1995 Brother laser printer. In addition to laser-like plain paper text printing, I wanted the added convenience of printing digital images at home. These desires appear satisfied with the Canon i860. This printer was easy to set up due to the large, step-by-step poster included in the packaging. I found orange tape in fascinating in every nook and cranny, every crease and crevasse, and every place that would possibly moved if shipped by the roughest, part-time, holiday delivery service imaginable. Flipping poster and inserting the packaged CD completed installation of the drivers and software. My first page was, of course, the Windows test page. I was not wowed by the sharp text on the 20 lb, 98 brightness page. Frankly, an older model 300x300 looks better, but not by much. At least is didn't streak like the older model inkjets. In addition, the paper wasn't as moist, but definitely not as crisp as a laser. The next six pages that I produced from the i860 were 4x6 glossies that were included in the packaging. This is the portion of my review where my eyes roll back, my tongue flops out, and I droll on myself. Although I had a learning curve to get the sizing I wanted on the 4x6 paper, I cannot believe that the photos coming from this machine and not an Agfa film development machine hidden behind the wall. Truth be known, however, that I am no professional photographer. I am an amateur with a 4 MP digital camera. So, from the eyes of novice, the picture printing quality is superb. But text printing with inkjet technology, at least with this model, although better than normal, is still sub-par in comparison to laser.
Rating:
Summary: Best multipurpose printer available on the market!
Review: After having disastrous results with a Hewlett Packard printer which died shortly after purchase, I learned my lessons and did some research before purchasing a new printer. The Canon i860, although not perfect, performed well in all the critical evaluation areas from places like Consumer Reports to the reviews on Amazon. Here is what I love about it: 1)It is EXTREMELY fast. (Especially with text) 2)Quiet. The occasional rumble, but nowhere near the cacaphony of most printers. 3)Great photo prints. 4)4 separte ink cartridges so that you only have to replace what you need to. AND, the ink mileage on this printer is excellent. 5)It's relatively cheap. It only cost me $320 Canadian. 6)Prints internet pages in full without cutting off the right margin. 7)Has substance. Actually contains some METAL parts! 8)Suits all my needs as a student and a desktop publishing hobbyist. I'm extremely satisified and I would recommend this printer to anyone who needs a multipurpose, fast office printer capapable of producting professional graphic and photographic output. Have fun!
Rating:
Summary: Small, fast, perfect pictures.
Review: This printer was easy to set up. The software that comes with it makes printing soo much easier as it has a built in layout program to do various sizes, corrections and cropping. Allows you to do borderless or bordered pictures. The colors are perfectly printed. When I used my Epson 1270, I never got perfect color matching. The Canon i860 delivers fast, clean, acurate pictures. I am very impressed with this affordable printer. It has 5 cartridges so that you only replace the ones that you need for far less money then replacing the color cartridge in other printers at $50.00. The Canon replacement cartridges are about $11.50 and you only replace the ones you use up. I recommend buying the 2.0 fast speed usb cable as this printer uses that technology for it's super fast printing. Took about 25 seconds to print a 4" x 6" photo. Load up the images you want to print in it's software program, clik one button and it prints all your pictures at one time. Super fast, Super Brilliant colors and the inks dry very fast. I replaced my $600. overrated Epson printer with this one. I made a great choice. I used my left over Epson photo paper on this printer and they print just as nice as the Canon paper. No need to buy special paper in my opinion. Epson's ink never dried and ink would bleed on to the backs of other photo's when you stacked them together and forget about putting them into a photo album, they would get stuck to the plastic. The Canon prints that I created with this printer came out of the printer dry. The inks do not stink like the Epson inks and I cannot say enough positive things about this printer. I wish it could print bigger prints but I chose the smaller model. Otherwise, this printer gets the thumbs up. Go and buy it, you won't really find anything bad about it. If you own a Canon digital camera, you can print from the camera to the printer using the plug in option in the front of the printer. Great Value, Awesome results. You will be satisfied.
Rating:
Summary: perfect all around printer for home use
Review: I've own a digital camera for 3 years, but I always had my photos developed by ifoto, shutterfly or snapfish. Recently I bought a new camera, and was looking for an all around printer to go with it. I was trying to decide between i850 and i950, when the new ones came out. Not only were they cheaper, they print better quality photos! My hardest decision was to get the i860 or i960. After visiting the local electronic store countless times and scrutinizing the photo print quality of both printers. I decided to get the i860. The print quality for both is excellent, with the i960 a tiny bit better. But the i860 is much faster in printing regular documents. For home, sometimes I need to print driving directions or emails, so the i860 seems more appropriate. Don't worry, you're not giving up much to the i960. I still can't believe the quality of photos coming out of this baby. Compared to photo developed at drug stores and supermarket, it blows them away. And for less than $150, you really can't go wrong! You if want a printer solely dedicated to photo printing, then go for the i960. Otherwise, get the i860 and you'll get the best of both worlds.
Rating:
Summary: I LOVE THIS PRINTER!
Review: I've been an HP person for many years. I've recently had to replace my printer but didn't want to spend a lot of money. I also recently started taking digital photos and need a photo printer that actually prints good quality photos, like the samples that they put out next to the printers at computer stores (but you can't actually achieve at home). Well, look no further. I was so excited when I printed my first 4x6, the colors were so brilliant; this photo looked like I had it developed. It was on the Cannon photo paper pro, the sample paper that came with the printer. I also printed on 2 types of HP photo paper (hp premium plus glossy and the hp premium glossy). The results were good but if you want excellent, you need to buy the Cannon photo paper. I finally found an awesome printer and it cost less than $150. WOW! Haven't yet attempted 8 1/2x11 but when I do, I don't think I'll be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Price to Performance Ratio!!!!!
Review: I have had this printer for a few days. I just returned from a trip to Japan and needed to print photos from my digital camera. I searched Amazon and this printer was right at my price range and seemed to be rated well. Bought it and after 15 min of setup i was printing 4x6 prints with the enclosed sample photo paper. WOW these prints are just as good as if i had went to a camera shop to get them developed. The printot is slower w/ a parallel cable. When you use a USB it is quick and quiet. My only caveat. Do not use cheap paper. I tried a bargain brand just to see if there was a difference. The ink doesnt dry properly and the prints stick together. This printer Rocks!!!
Rating:
Summary: Quality of a laser, versatility of an ink-jet
Review: I really wanted to buy a b&W laser printer, but with a small kid at home, I knew I also needed color, both for digital pictures and crafts projects. After doing a *ton* of research online, I decided on the i850, only to discover it was relpaced with the i860, which I bought based on the strength of the 850's reviews. This printer is great -- for text printing it uses a pigment-based black ink which looks sharp on *any* paper (even some crappy old typing paper I had lying around). For printing color images, it uses a dye-base black in (and dye-based cyan, magenta, and yellow inks). The results are great: When printing text, this printer is FAST -- nearly as fast as my laser-jet at the office. The pigment based text is genuinely laser-quality. You simply cannot tell it was done on an ink-jet. For printing color images, the usual caveats apply (items look best on Canon products, etc.), but the results easily outpace six-color ink jets. Finally, I've found that the ink is *much* cheaper than with competitors, making your cost per page much lower with this printer than with a Lexmark, Epson, or HP. If you're so inclined, it also does not have chips in the ink cartridges, so you can refill them easily as well.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable quality for the price!
Review: I received this printer from Amazon a few days ago and I am blown away by the quality of the prints that come out of this inexpensive printer! The quality of the prints are just as good as photo lab prints! The printer was very easy to set up and the EasyPhoto print software that came with it is easy enough for my eighty-year-old grandmother to use. NEED I SAY MORE! Just get it and you won't be sorry!
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