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February 23, 2006
[ CANON PIXMA iP6600D inkjet printer ]
Price: $400
Rating: 4 stars
The low-down: The Canon Pixma iP6600D inkjet A4 printer prints at a maximum resolution of 9600 by 2400 dpi, depending on the paper used. It uses 6 Chromalife100 inks, CYMK plus photo magenta and photo cyan.
Canon says the new inks produce prints that will last 100 years, provided they are kept in the dark! Rapid print fade has been a problem with Canon printers so any prolongation of print life is welcome. Unlike Epson, who created a new line of pigment inks to extend print life, Canon has stuck with conventional dyes.
The Pixma prints directly from camera or memory card (CF and SD) and it does double sided printing as well as printing onto CD/DVD blanks. The card reader is also recognised by the computer as an external drive.
There is an 8 cm LCD screen which has a number of uses, including previewing and selecting pictures for printing from a camera or memory card. A computer is not necessary.
The Pixma is reasonably fast. Once it gets started on a batch of postcard prints it churns them out at the rate of one every 46 seconds.
Like this: The output from the Canon Pixma is exemplary. Colours are rich and accurate. The prints are sharp with wonderful detail.
We tried leaving the printer to its own devices to run off 20 prints from an SD memory card. The results, using Canon’s best paper, were as good as we would expect from a photo printing shop. A4 prints on Canon’s Photo Paper Pro are superb.
Dislike that: For some reason we always have a small difficulty installing the printer software for Canon printers. This time the installation stalled while we were forced to hunt around for the Windows XP disc in order to install something called USB Human Interface Device. Why?
Parting shot: We compared the Canon Pixma iP6600D with the Epson R800, which is more expensive. We made a number of identical prints on both printers and came to the conclusion that the Epson probably has the edge in print life and it creates prints with richer, deeper colours. The Canon, on the other hand, produces prints that are sharper and more vivid and it has some extra functions. We could happily live with either and stand amazed that such inexpensive machines can create such astonishing results. The Canon is highly recommended and we love the Epson too!
Posted by terry at February 23, 2006 08:52 AM
Comments
The printer is available at www.cpl.net.au (in the "Green Guide" as well)for the seemingly excellent price of $329 and don't foreget that you can pick up genuine Canon ink cartridges at those weekend "computer swap meets" for around $17/$18 - don't ever pay the full RRP.
Terry, "you stand amazed that such inexpensive machines can create such astonishing results". Equally I stand amazed that the printer manufacturers rush their product to manufacture so quickly after developing, what seems to me, only marginal improvements on the last comparable model. Most of the improvements in the area of colour quality require a technical explanation and comparison and show little, if any, difference to prints viewed under ordinary circumstance.
Of course this rapid turnover is aimed at those poor demented souls who cannot stand to know that there is a printer out there that is "one dot better" than theirs - and they know they have got me hooked!!
Terry, are we to ever have the forum section resurrected
Regrads
John Smith?
Posted by: john smith at February 25, 2006 09:46 AM
John:
First, the Forum. We closed it down because we got sick of going through the postings every day to eliminate the pornography. Same with Trackbacks or Pings -- at least 200 links to porn or gambling sites every day. I don't know what to do about it.
Second, on the proliferation of models and their amazing cheapness etc. It was Karl Marx who first predicted that this would happen. It is an aspect of the trend to monopoly. He predicted more than 100 years ago that model life would get shorter and shorter and model variations would become more numerous as companies fight each other for the last customer. He told us that late capitalism would be the most energetically creative economic system the world had ever seen.
Karl was right!
Posted by: Terry at February 25, 2006 10:22 AM
Where can i get soft ware to print pics with canon ip 6600d . I am using microsoft vista on new hp desktop.printer does not respond to computer. had no trouble with xp home on older system am using pecaca to print with. any help would be app. Thomas.
Posted by: T Nelson at June 14, 2007 03:19 PM
You should download a printer driver for Vista. The old drivers for XP usually don't work. Go to Canon's driver download site at
http://canon.com.au/drivers/default.aspx
and fill in the details of your printer and you will be taken to the driver you need. Install that and you should be in business.
One word of advice ... when running the installation of the new driver make sure that your printer is disconnected from the PC until the point in the installation where you are instructed to connect.
Posted by: Terry at June 14, 2007 11:41 PM