[Nass]

Hello,

I'm in the market for a reasonably priced a3 printer that doesn't clog with sporadic use and which produces prints to be drymounted that I can reasonably give away as presents and won't degrade too much over time. I couldn't care less about the print speed. I've heard very good things about the Pixma range, is anyone here able to back this up for me?

Many thanks in advance.

[wowtip]

I am not a printing expert and have not used any of these more expensive printers. But from the reviews and tests I have read many point to the Epson A3 printers in the same price range is comparable, if not better.

[thazooo]

I've had the Pro9000 for around a year, makes stunning prints.
I've used the Canon, Kodak, and Inkpress papers; of varying sheen's with
consistent results.
Like you've asked, I don't print print every day. Sometimes it may be several weeks or a month between prints. I've never had nozzles clog. Lately I've gotten into the habit of running a print of a test target at least once a month. It verifies that all nozzles are working and that my Monitor calibration hasn't drifted. The Canon head can be cleaned easily and replaced if needed. That's the one selling point that really sold me on the Canon vs, the Epson.
I use OEM ink, it costs more but I like the consistency of the color. I use aftermarket ink in a Canon i960 and have never been happy with the colors.
How long does it last ? Don't know, if it makes it 20 years I'll be happy, after that
Heirs can do a reprint ;-))

[denpapp]

I have had the Pro 9000 for about 2 years. The longest I've gone between prints is maybe 3 weeks. I try to print something even if I don't need to, just to keep things flowing.

I've was surprised with the quality of the color prints, right out of the box. The reader above says, stunning, that is my opinion too. My best results have been with Canon Paper Pro (now changed to Platinum) and Iford Classic Pearl. I use nothing but the Canon ChromaLite 100 inks. Never have had a clogging issue.

The Black & White prints are adequate but aren't eye popping, I suppose due to not having dedicated greys and blacks.

All in all, a printer that I do not regret purchasing in the least and recommend for someone who wants to occasionally print up to 13 X 19 with great quality. In my opinion a printer with a high benefit to cost ratio. Also take a look at Vincent Olivers review here Digital Photography at photo-i

[Nass]

Thanks guys

I've had enough of Epson printers clogging hence using Canon. The 900 looks like a good thing

[WerTicus]

Any printer will clog without use.

Pigment inks are more likely to clog however.

At the same time the toughness of pigment inks is wonderful, and i would not go back to dye inks ever again.

I have an epson 3800 a2 pigment ink printer, its very good, before this I had canon a3+ dye ink printer. The main reason I swapped was because the dye inks are too fragile, unless you frame the prints behind glass they would get damaged half the time, you certainly could not give clients raw prints from a dye printer and expect them not to 'break' them.

As far as clogging goes, yes it will clog up after 3 months with no use half the heads will be blocked (i went on holiday) but the printers cleaning mechanism will clean it no problem in a few passes. After 3 weeks, a couple heads will be blocked and it will clean off easily with the printers cleaning mechanism in one go.

Its very easy to see if the printers heads are good, you just run a head check and it prints a line for each nossle, so if there is a break in the line it needs a clean. I run a head check before any photo prints go through.

also a2 printers are far cheaper to run than a3 printers... Half the cost in ink. They pay for themselves after one refill.

The only reason why one printer might not clog up is if its running a cleaning operation every time you turn it on or the printer driver runs one every so often based on the date and time it was last turned on. This just wastes ink if the clean isn't really needed, so I do it manually. (all consumer grade printers will do this)


As for my opinion specifically on the pro 9000 is that its only an a3 printer, do the math on the cost of ink vs the a2, and Dye inks suck.