Canon PIXMA ip8500 Photo Printer

Rating:
Summary: Incredible quality and ease of use
Review: I bought my iP8500 to replace an older HP office type inkjet so that we could really make prints of our digital photo collection. With previous printers that I have used, there were always complications in getting a good print from the computer: Choosing the right paper, getting all the printer settings right, making sure the print heads were full and clean, etc. More often than not, the results were dissapointing and nowhere near comparable with a real photo print from the store. With the iP8500 now it seems that it would be difficult to get a bad printout,.

My setup is Mac OS X, using iPhoto for general organizing and quick printing, and PhotoShop CS for RAW work and more advanced editing. My cameras are a Canon S45 for everyday use, and a 20D for photographic hobbyist dabbling.

I had no problems installing the software, and the OS X drivers really do make it easy to select the right paper type and print mode settings. I tried the included Easy-PhotoPrint software and it truly is easy, but doesn't add much functionality over iPhoto.

When printing using any app, one thing that you have to remember to do first is select the printer and paper size from the Page Setup dialog, which includes the borderless paper sizes. And, a handy feature not often mentioned is that the printer will print duplex (both sides of the sheet) if you enable it in the Print dialog--good for regular office printing to save paper.

I went through our backlog of photos and printed a bunch of 4x6s on both the glossy and the semi gloss plus paper using just iPhoto. The process was extremely easy: put a stack of 4x6 photo paper in the top feeder. Select the paper size in the page setup. Select the paper type and source (top). Make sure that you select the correct paper type, as this determines the correct ink amount and print speed for the paper surface. Each print then takes about 20-30 seconds, and really does look like a real photo print.

The printer's paper handling is very solid--always grabbing exactly one photo paper sheet, printing straight, and never jamming. It also seems to do a self-cleaning of the print heads after each print job (the source of the clunking sounds) which reduces the maintanance work required. I've only once had to run a sheet of plain paper through it to clean up a little black streak.

I would definitely recommend this printer as an excellent combo home office + photo printer. As other reviewers point out, if you don't print photos, then this printer is overkill. But, its dual paper source and duplex printing make it great office printer too, saving you from having to have two printers.

Rating:
Summary: Best photo printer, ever!
Review: I bought this as a replacement for a HP PhotoSmart P1000, purchased 3 years ago. I was generally satisfied with the HP but the ink consumption and lack of top-notch (meaning real photo) output was what prompted me to start looking at the new offerings.
I did check out the HP models first but decided upon the Pixma 8500 based upon the excellent print features (8 ink tanks, high speed printing, 2 paper feeds, etc).

Installed it last night in <15 minutes and had the first photo printed in < 17. Quality is simply outstanding. I compared the results of several digital photos I had sent to the local photo lab for prints and the results from this printer and I preferred the Pixma's results.

Fast, fast printing of a 4x6, <30 seconds was amazing. I was used to > 2 min with the HP. Brought several into work today and my colleagues cannot believe they came from a home printer.

Pros: fast and high quality photos and easily replaceable ink cartridges add up to a great package.

Cons: Price is > $300, those ink cartridges are $12 a piece, a bit heavy and shakes the table when in use



Rating:
Summary: This Printer Rocks!
Review: I had previously only owned EPSON printers but decided to switch to Canon because I now use a Canon Digital Rebel digital camera, which is really great by the way. I went with this printer because I wanted to get a "really good" photo printer for once, instead of just a printer that could also print photos. This printer is really great, let me tell you. A few really cool things:
* USB AND USB2 connections, so if you have USB2 you can print blazing fast
* Dual paper input sources! Keep photo paper in one and regular paper in the other
* 8 Ink Tanks. Believe it or not, this is a good thing. Colors you've never seen!
* Borderless printing. It's true, it can print all the way to the edge of the paper.
* Fast. I printed a full color 8x10 photo in less than a minute!

I have 2 minor issues: 1. I use Mac OS X, and the installer CD that ships with the printer is very buggy. The Easy Photo Print software won't install at all. 2. What's worse, Canon doesn't offer a download of an updated, fixed version of the software.
This is not a huge issue for me, since I use iPhoto and PhotoShop for most of my printing needs, but it's still a shame.

In comparing the other PIXMA printers, I went with this one due to 8 ink tanks, which believe it or not can save on ink cost, AND print speeds. The dual paper source is really handy as well.

If you are looking for a PHOTO printer, this one rocks. If you are looking for a mid-range printer for mostly letters, receipts, emails, etc...don't waste your money on this one. This one is all about PHOTOS.

Rating:
Summary: Like having your own photo lab right at home!
Review: I have only had my ip8500 for a couple days but I already love it and am convinced it is one of the best printers on the market. I have previously been an HP printer person. But, no more wasting ink when one color was gone and the whole cartridge had to be replaced. Besides, with the 8 different colors the results are nothing short of amazing. When I took some of my photos to work they were amazed that they did not come from a lab, even though they know I am a confirmed at-home printer. I redid pictures that I had previously done on my HP and there was an obvious improvement in the color - much more accurate. I love the dual paper feeds, it is nice to not have to pull regular paper out to put photo paper in. The setup was simple - I have Windows XP - and in no time I was printing beautiful photographs. If you have the extra money, I would highly recommend this printer. But I suspect the lower priced models of the PIXMA group are probably almost as good, just not as many colors or ink jets. You won't go wrong with this Canon product.

Rating:
Summary: A Real Jaw-Dropper!
Review: I ordered this printer after seeing a co-worker's photos from his older model Canon. I currently have an HP Photosmart, and have been relatively happy. But after seeing my co-worker's pictures, I decided to look into these Canon printers. After researching the different models, I decided on the 8500, due to the 8 ink tanks and advanced speeds. My husband was very skeptical since there is nothing wrong with our HP 1315, and felt it was unnecessary to buy a new printer. Nevertheless, there was no talking me out of it! Well, he and I just hooked up the Canon 8500 and printed out a 4 x 6 and we both went into shock. It is AMAZING! My husband said, "Are you kidding me???" when he saw the picture. He said, "Let's go show your dad" and ran downstairs. My dad, who is very selective with his photos said, "Now that is quite impressive!" Honestly, it looks like it was printed at a professional photo lab.

Other than the outstanding picture quality, I think it's very easy to use, and is quieter than the HP. I also printed out a few text only pages and they were great too.

I can't imagine anyone being disappointed in this printer. It's an A+



Rating:
Summary: Canon gets it right again
Review: I purchased this printer as a replacement to a Canon i950, which I had always been very happy with. Boy, am I glad I did. Right out of the box it produced prints of an amazing quality. I printed shots on both the i950 and the Pixma ip8500, and the comparisons were enough to make me glad I spent the money for the new one. There is marked improvement in color and quality of the Pixma ip8500 prints, which in part can be attributed to the addition of the red and green ink tanks. Detail is amazing. I took some shots of caverns while hiking last weekend, and the prints are so detailed they look three dimensional. Print time is very fast, with 4 x 6's taking a matter of seconds. Set-up in XP is a breeze as well, truly plug and play. Another nice addition is the paper cassette, so you can have plain and photo paper loaded at the same time. And the print quality for text is more than acceptable, so this truly can be an all around printer, which cannot be said of most photo printers. I am thrilled with this new printer, and can't wait to go out and take some more shots. Definitely recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Prints photos rivaling film
Review: I read all the great reviews of this printer, but had a hard time finding vendors that were stocking it. I don't know if that is because it is selling well or that Canon is not producing many. I finally found a local store (Microcenter) that had it in stock and on demo. After seeing the quality of the prints it made, I bought it on the spot. I have been using an HP 990cse for four years, but it cannot compare to the quality of the ip8500. In addition, the Canon is much faster and quieter.

The only negatives I can mention are the high price of Canon Photo paper and the tendency of the printer to rock the printer stand pretty hard. The print head with 8 cartridges is pretty massive compared to the overall printer, and since it prints very fast, the acceleration and deceleration forces push it around fairly violently. The solution is to put the printer on a very sturdy support. In my case, it is sitting on a printer stand on a well-padded berber carpet, so it wobbles a bit when printing. This is a small price to pay for this wonderfully performing printer.

Rating:
Summary: The BEST color printer for home I have ever used!!!
Review: My wife has been nagging me, yes, I said "NAGGING!" me for some time now to purchase a color printer. We have dozens and dozens of digital pictures we've taken with our older Nikon Coolpix 880, which my wife (and myself) are very anxious to have printed out, mounted in frames, and given to friends and family. So, the search began!

We previously had an HP Color Printer, which literally died 28 days after the one year warranty. I can not describe to you the full bodied cell altering experience I felt when that almost $500.00 color printer kicked. I've never actually been beaten with a large stick, but it must be a similar experience. I vowed NEVER to purchase another HP color printer again. However, their black and white LaserJet's are diehard!

I have a computer design background, so I have used high end Fiery Printers. Simply put, a Fiery color print is used when color matching and finalizing your finished work. It's almost as close as you can get to your finished printed job. I wanted a printer that would give me THAT kind of print. I wanted a printer that basically gave me photographic quality. Because anything less, to use my wife's words, "... just isn't good enough." My wife wants the best! for under $100. HA!

So, you see my dilemma. I was successful in convincing my wife, that to get that kind of quality, more than likely we were going to have to spend more than $100.00. Call me crazy! I'm goin' out on a limb here! But, I'm pretty sure that, at least to today's standards, we're going to have to shell out a few more bucks. "Oh lovely" she said.

So, I did what no person in their right mind should do. I went to CompUSA. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! I know, this is taboo to all true Geeks and Techie's, which I'm really not. You have to understand, I was getting over whatever flu type virus that was spreading through the outskirts of Connecticut, so I really wasn't in the right frame of mind when I went in there. But, none-the-less, I ventured in. After a little begging, I found a sales person to help me decide what kind of printer would be right for me. And actually, they were very nice and helpful. I had read many great reviews about Canon color printers, so I wanted to check those out first.

The salesman first showed me the ip4000. Very nice color printer. Beautiful design, and printed wonderfully. I thought, o.k., for less than $200, this is great! Look at that quality. Then, I made the mistake of looking over at the ip8500. I say mistake, because it was $349.00 <gulp!>. Not exactly what I wanted to spend, but I'll take a look. I compared a print out from the ip8500 to the ip4000, and I must admit, there was no comparison. The ip8500's printout, looked like a photograph. It reminded me of a Fiery color print. The picture was printed out on Canon's Photo Paper Pro, and it looked like a photograph. For all intents and purposes, it WAS a photograph. Simple. I was sold. I was so happy I didn't even care how much it was. Just to see the look on my wife's face when I printed out my wife's 95 year old grandmother in full blown photographic quality, oh forget it! I WAS TO BE KING!!!!!!!! Do you hear what I am describing to you, KING!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!! I SHALL BE WORSHIPED FAR AND WIDE!!!!! EVERY WISH FULFILLED!!!!! GIVEN ENDLESS BACKRUBS UNTIL I CAN TAKE NO MORE!!!!!! I WILL BE INVINCIBLE!!!!!! Enough said. I bought the printer.

I'm not going to get into what this printer does resolution wise, or any of that stuff. There's plenty of information on Amazon for you to check out the specs. I'm simply going to describe what it feels like as a user owning this incredible machine. I knew the day would come when printing photographic quality pictures would be a household luxury. And now it is. I love how sleek the printer looks. It's got a wonderfully well thought out design. It's very attractive to me to look at. It's nothing I have to stick in a corner of the room. Guests love asking what it is because of it's cool black glossy look.

It's a very simple printer to operate. The directions were easy to understand and well thought out. It took about 10 mins. to setup the color printer. Loading the software was something else. I actually really like the software that came with the printer, which is rare with most computer products I find. The software is very easy to understand and very powerful. Although, it's a lot to load and took about 5 mins. The only thing I didn't figure out yet, if it can do it at all, is control how big the picture is when it gets printed out. I had to use Photoshop to adjust the printout. But it's got so many features I'm sure it's something I just missed. If your a Photoshop fanatic like me, you'll love the options to print directly to the printer without using their software. Simple, not an abundance of features, and yet powerful options. What I really love about this printer, is it does bleeds!!! YES!!!! A bleed is when you can print right off the edge of the paper. Borderless!!! Too darn cool!!!

It's a relatively quiet machine. Kind of knocks around a little before printing, but nothing annoying by any means. As for the color printout, I only have one complaint. Background images of let's say, a wall, or door, if it's too dark, sometimes comes out a little spotted. But then again, it could have been the picture, because other pictures I've printed, came out literally perfect! All-in-all, an amazing machine. I could not be happier and satisfied. Turn it on and it warms up in less than a minute. Oh, and also, if your deciding on whether to purchase the Canon Photo Paper Plus over the Canon Photo Paper Pro, go right ahead. You'll save yourself a little money, and you won't see any difference in the print. I like the Photo Paper Pro simply because I like the real Photo Paper feel. But if you don't care, save yourself some money and just purchase the Plus. I wouldn't try using non-Canon paper in the Canon Printer, simply because the results are typically horrible. These printers, it seems like all color printers I've tested and heard of from friends, will only use their photo paper for some reason. I don't know why, but that's how it is.

Oh! I forgot to tell you! I brought the printer out to the car where my wife was waiting, and the first question she said was, "How much?" I quickly replied, "But babe, you are not going to believe the quality of -", "I said, how much?" she said. After forcing down a rather large amount of saliva, I broke the news. It wasn't until we got home and I anxiously setup the printer and ran a test print, that her jaw dropped from her face. And the prophecy was fulfilled! I WAS KING!!!!!! HAHAHAHAA!!!!!!!!!!! No backrubs as of yet, BUT I STILL AM KING!!!!! HAHAHAHA!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Spectacular output
Review: This is a replacement for a dedicated dye sublimation photo printer (HiTi PhotoShuttle), which I overall liked but had lots of problems with, including jammed and melted film/toner. I also wanted to print letter size docs and pictures eventually (the HiTi, like most home dye-subs, only allows 4x6 formats).

The output of the Canon, even compared to the excellent dye-sub prints, is without a doubt superior, with far more vivid colors. I can't imagine photo printing getting much better than this for a home setup. On Canon Photo Pro paper the end result, finish, gloss, is identical to better than a photo lab or dye sublimation printout, I can't believe this came out of an inkjet! And, it prints about 3 times as fast as my "4-pass" dye-sub, which until the ip8500 I thought was very fast.

The software provided is stable on my Win XP system and includes easy to use utilities (althoough I prefer to use Photoshop for editing), the ink tank monitor is especially useful. I tried the "PicBridge" feature with my Canon G6 camera and it works like a charm. I usually manipulate and crop my photos before printing, but it's nice to know the feature is there for quick printouts without a computer.

Finally, the printer is sleek. When not in use, it looks somewhat like a high-end home theater component. The cassette paper feed below the unit actually allows you to stack stuff above it without ever feeding paper from the top, if overhead clearance is a concern, or you can use both paths to keep two different size papers loaded at all times, switching between them at the touch of a button or via software. Very clever.

The inks seem cheap compared to my "old" HP multifunction I use at work, and while Canon's best photo paper is very expensive, it is worth every penny for the results it yields. The ip8500 is on the expensive side for a home user, but you can get it for around 300 bucks delivered, by searching online a bit. Can't comment on its reliability yet, this is my first Canon printer, but I have always had luck with other Canon products and expect this machine to be just as reliable as my many Canon digicams I have owned. I am very satisfied.