The printer arrived yesterday, the box was damaged but not that bad, it looked worse on the pictures the seller sent me than actually how it is.
I unboxed and didnt noticed any scratches, hits or anything weird.
Took me 15 mins to set it up and running then I had to install the drivers, softwares etc.
I've also installed Adobe Print Utility as per recommended by José Rodriguez. Works well and did all my Reference charts print test with it.
My Mac OS has then updated the Canon Printer drivers.
Here comes the first issue : my printer has firmware 1.00 and I couldnt update it via their "pinter update" procedure. Im on MAC OSX Sierra using either an Imac or a MacBook Pro. Im following all the steps but the printer is not seen by the utility software via USB.
But I can do prints or tests with the printer while connected by the USB Cable, so communication is definitly working.
I've not installed any of the junk Canon is offering, only the drivers, network utility and Print Studio Pro.
Print Studio Pro installation went well, no errors, but the plugin doesnt appear in either in Lr or Ps. So far I've been not able to use it.
I've took some time to do all the head alignment, nozzle check and reference image tests. No issues, all went fine and I've printed the Reference Image and looked closely to any color shifting etc but Im very impressed by the gamut and color precision of this printer.
Im using 2 calibrated displays (well actualy 3 as my laptop display is also calibrated). A 5K Imac, A 24" DELL IPS 98% Adobe RGB and while the sharpness is amazing on the Imac Screen I find the gamut to be superior with the DELL display.
Im using the X-Rite iDisplay has my calbration tool btw.
So I compared the actual reference prints to both screens and they looks very very close, almost perfect to my eyes. I only noticed some light shift toward magenta in the RED's. My GF who has better eyes
said there is also a slight shift in BLUE's toward magenta.
It's looking very minor to me and I've had quiet worst experience with online lab prints. I dare to say that except for some great B&W I ordered on Baryta Papers with Negatif+ in Paris, none of the Lab prints matches so closely my monitors
I have 3 Canon Pro Papers, Platinum, Luster and Matte. I tested them all. Color wise the latter is wayyyy different, with some delibarate shifts in the blacks for example but I love it !
Platinum Pro and Luster (my favorite so far) are gorgeous, and I can see a learning curve here, choosing which paper for which image.
I choosed 3 of my photos and print it with every 3 papers type in A4 size. All best quality.
I use the Soft Proofing in Lr to see how the results would look, had to create a Reference copy for the Matte papers, adding +10 in contrast and +5 in saturation (but after seeing the prints I dont need any boost in saturation).
Then I used the print module, choosed the ICC profile for each paper, either picked relative or perceptual depending on the image soft proofing (I need some more learning here!) and no print adjustment.
I went thru an issue with the Matte Pro Paper giving me an Error code 88 saying the margins are not correctly set if I choosed the Fine art Paper Pro Matte from Canon, I had to choose the regular Matte photo paper instead, weird ! Looked internet but couldnt really understand the cuplrit so far.
One photo is a B&W portrait, one is a Long exposure sunset and the last one is a Vivid Macro shot.
Portrait looks great on Matte and Luster.
Sunset and the macro shots are great on all 3
I can see the paper looks like it's the main responsible for prints rendering, all 3 images or so different in each papers it's amazing.
I can't be more happy with this printer
I will have to watch carefully the ink usage though !