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Canon i860 Photo Printer

Canon i860 Photo Printer

List Price: $199.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Interesting Tips - Things your mother should have told you.
Review: Quiet Mode - Doesn't just reduce noise. Will also slow the printer's operation a bit. Why would you want to do this, you may ask? I ran in draft mode and the printer was so fast it sucked the paper from the paper tray at an impressive speed ... so fast that it can feed the paper slightly askew and almost throw it across the room on eject. In "standard mode" plain paper printing can be so fast the ink hasn't completely dried. So ... it can sometimes be a good thing to slow this creature down a bit and Quiet Mode is the way to do it. I run that way all the time and life is good.

Ink Cartridges have no "stale date" - Don't make yourself crazy trying to read the dotted characters at the package bottom to read a date into it. They're lot numbers, not encoded dates. Unlike all HP cartridges and most Epson cartridges, Canon just doesn't date its ink. It "seems" that ink cartridges without self contained print heads have very long shelf lives since there are no internal jets to clog as the sealed cartridge ages. I will believe the Canon rep on this one since it makes sense, although I'm always more comfortable knowing the age of the ink. Like many of you I want a reserve of ink "at the ready" so I just buy from a retailer that always has a fresh supply like Best Buy, Staples, OfficeMax and probably Amazon.

The Nozzle Game - Don't let the salesman sell you a more expensive Canon (I860, I960) because it "has more nozzles". More nozzles doesn't mean anything in terms of printer resolution or precision. Each cartridge has a certain number of nozzles, no matter what printer it's used on. I believe Black has 320 and color 512 except yellow which has 256. The I560 holds 4 cartridges and if you do the math has 320+512+512+256=1600 nozzles. The I860 has an extra 256 nozzles but that's only because is can hold a 5th cartridge (black with 256 nozzles). Ditto with I960 which holds 6 cartridges at 512 nozzles each for a whopping 3000+ nozzles. So, consider the advantages of having more cartridges and the essence of these cartidges but don't be led to think that high nozzle counts means it prints better.

Warrantees and Print Heads - Just be aware that unlike HP printers the Canon I-Series has one installable print head which will likely determine the useful life of the printer. Since the cartridges do not have print heads they are less expensive, but they do not contribute to the useful life of the printer. I do know that the apparently simple and little print head is claimed by Canon to have a lot of electronics in it and is the most expensive component of the printer. So ... when it goes, the printer goes (costs around $70-$80). Canon expects their print heads to last 1-3 years, maybe more, and their $50 extended warranty covers it. I was tempted to buy the $30 extended warranty from Best Buy but was told the print head is a "consumable" and won't be replaced. So ... Buyer Beware on warrantees and expect to surrender your beloved Canon when the print head goes.

Enjoy your Canon and treat yourself to a new one every couple years or so. I'm very happy with my I560 and Canon support for this and my LiDE50 Scanner has been solid. (I pay for the phone call and in return they offer me courtesy, knowledge and they even speak English.)

-- Sam

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Canon Won't Stand Up for Its Defective Products
Review: Product failed after 4 months of very light use. Canon was initially responsive and sent a replacement print head, but that failed to resolve the problem. Canon refused to replace or give a refund. Was convinced by top Consumer Reports ratings that Canon was top notch manufacturer. Don't be fooled. Buy an HP.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best...
Review: This printer is the best. It has 2 different blacks, one for regular printing and one for photo printing. I printed a picture from my digital camera and if I didn't print it myself I would have thought it was printed at a professional place. This is worth the price. If I could give it more than a 5 i would.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It WOWED me!
Review: Although this was not the latest or most expensive of the Canon consumer printers, I chose it because it had separate ink tanks for each color and an extra large black ink tank for printing text. Every time it prints, it gives me an update on how much ink I have left in each of the tanks. It was a snap to set up, very, very quiet (compared to my Epson), fast, and the output is just gorgeous. Not only does it print well, it's intuitive and friendly, like the Mac I use it on, so it's a perfect fit!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Perfect Home Printer At a Great Price
Review: I did a lot of research before purchasing an inkjet printer and my home's demands are very diverse. My wife wants good photo printing quality for pictures, cards, and labels while I need laser quality text printing and the occasional photo. I read the postive review for the I860 on CNET, but I was even more surprised when I read the reviews on Amazon. Everyone out of 47+ reviews gave it 5 stars. I have been buying computer products for a long time now and that is almost unheard of. Everyone thought it was that good? I had to see it for myself. Well, the reviewers are 100% correct. This printer does it all and at sub $150 how can you beat it? I work in IT tech support and have used many high quality photo printers in different price ranges(ink and laser) and have not seen one beat the quality of this printer for the price.

PROS:
5 ink tank system. Run out of yellow? Just replace the yellow not every tank! Sweet.
PortsGalore: USB 2.0, Parrallel, Pictbridge
Speed: This thing is fast. I printed a 23 page PDF over my 802.11b network with the printer using a USB 1.1 port and it printed in about 1.5 minutes. Using my old printer that would have been a 3 to 5 minute job.
Draft Quality: Draft is perfect without looking too faded when I just want to read an email or a web page offscreen. I even print parts of my e-books in draft quality and it is still easy on the eyes!
4 x 6 Feeder: It works well, looks cool and is easy to use.
No Dust: The trays fold up nicely to block any opening on the printer in order to keep dust from getting in. BIG PRO when it come to maintaining the printer.

Cons:
Some say its a bit to bulky and I might agree, but I still find the printer pleasing to the eye. It definately won't be a piece of equipment that you will want to hide.

Overall I would recomend this printer to anyone who needs a multifaceted printer at a great price. In fact I can't see any point to spend more on a printer (given my needs), although one day one may want a large format printer for photos.

This printer is the best I have ever owned!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works perfectly on OS X 10.3
Review: I've read a few reviews where people had problems using this printer on their Macintosh using OS X. Not me. This printer works perfectly with my Mac running 10.3.1. The Easy-Print software makes it SIMPLE to print your pictures, and it's lots faster than iPhoto. The prints are gorgeous. They are as good or better than prints from a photo lab, and my images are from a lowly 1.3 megapixel camera. I imagine better cameras would get even better results, though I'm not sure it's possible. This is a great deal, and the price seems to keep dropping. The price is right. The replacement ink tanks have the lowest price in the industry. The pictures are lab quality. It works like a dream on OS X 10.3. Buy this printer! Now!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very Impressive Printer
Review: I always said my next printer was going to be an HP, and when I decided to upgrade I started to do some research, and the new Canon i-series printers sounded very impressive. So I decided to get the i-860 and am glad I did! I have had this printer for almost 2 months now and it still amazes me. Its most impressive feature is the quality of photos it produces. With Canon 4x6 glossy photo paper the quality of prints I am producing equal and even surpass 35 mm prints I have recently had developed. And I really like the individual ink tanks. Should prove to be alot less expensive when replacing unlike HP, Lexmark, Epson, and many other manufacturers. I have recommended this printer to a few others, and they are just as impressed as me. You wont go wrong with this printer...especially for the price!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The BEST printer I have EVER owned
Review: This is by far and away, the best printer I have ever owned. There are so many positives about this beauty that it is almost impossible to know where to start and stop. But I will try.

The Good: Speed, speed and more speed. This printer kicks out black and white pages like it was laser printer. I just finished printing my 22 page tax return for 2003 and this printer had it complete in under 2 minutes. The quality (on normal setting) is virtually indistinguishable from a laser jet printer. This printer is also remarkably quiet; almost to the point of being silent. Even the movement of the print head is virtually silent. As far as the photo printing capabilities of this printer go, there are no equals for the price range. The photos are truly indistinguishable from a commercial lab. If you think I'm joking, check out all of the other reviews here. The color management on the photo side is great, and photos actually come out looking like what you see on the screen. Imagine my amazement when I saw a commercial grade photo come out of the printer in under 45 seconds. Thats right, 45 seconds.

The Bad: Overall, the size of the unit is a little larger than I am used to/expected. There seems to be a lot of wasted space on either side of the printer. But hey, I can live with that for the quality of the printing.

The Ugly: The software package that comes with the printer is not really that impressive. I have other commercial programs that basically will do the same thing. In particular, one program, called Easy WebPrint installs itself into Internet Explorer and adds a toolbar to the application. Yes, I could have chosen not to install it, but geez, I was too excited about getting the printer up and running to worry much about that.

Overall, there is simply no reason not to purchase this printer. I would buy it over and over again if I had to. Just look at the reviews on here, there is a reason it is one of the few products with a perfect 5 star rating.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Printer!
Review: This printer has by far exceeded my expectations. It is fast and the quality of the print is awesome! Easy to setup and use, you will not be disappointed!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Incredible bang for the buck!
Review: First off let me start by saying why I only gave this printer 4 stars. My previous printer is a Canon BJC-8200 - the top of the line photo printer in its day. I still think the 8200 produces a better quality photo but it is slow, noisy and doesn't do the best job with my daughter's school papers. The new Canon i-960 would be an apples/apples comparison. I bought the i-860 kind of on a whim because I needed 4 new ink tanks for the 8200 and the price of the i860 is so low that I thought I would try it. I didn't realize until I opened the box that it is a 'hybrid' printer - part photo printer, part text-only printer (the 2 black print heads). For 99% of what I do this printer is perfect! It prints a very good photo *very* fast and my daughter's papers look much better and also print very fast.

Like all good photo printers you'll need to "tweak" the color profile a little but the Canon driver makes it easy.

Having both printers at my disposal gives me no regrets and I find myself turning the 8200 on less and less. The i-860 is very good at its dual-personality job...


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