The Canon i960 Photo Printer offers photographers the superior performance, high speed and superb quality that complements high end cameras.
Note: The Canon i960 is no longer being manufactured. You may want to consider purchasing the newer Canon Pixma iP5000 or Pixma iP6000d instead. Will photo labs soon be a thing of the past? They will be in your house, after you take a look at the outstandingly detailed, professional quality photos produced by the Canon i960 printer. It's your choice whether you print from images on your computer or directly from your camera or camcorder's memory card--thanks to Bubble Jet Direct and PictBridge technologies. Either way, the vivid tones and smooth imaging of 4,800 x 2,400 dpi and 2-picoliter droplets will make your photos entirely suitable for framing. (4,800 x 2.400 dpi is the maximum possible resulution, with 4,800 x 1,200 dpi maximum along the edge of the page.)
This printer can connect directly to select digital cameras. Learn more about PictBridge. |
Print sizes range from 4 by 6 up to 8.5 by 11 inches, with or without borders. The smaller size prints in just 37 seconds, while the larger is produced in just less than one minute (fast mode). Plus, you won't have to worry about wasted ink, thanks to the six individual tanks, designed so you only have to replace the specific color that's empty. Built to handle photo papers of a variety of weights and finishes, the i960 can also handle transparencies, plain or high-resolution paper, and envelopes. Canon provides a one-year warranty with Instant Exchange service.
What's in the Box
Canon i960 series photo printer, i960 series print head, power cord, BCI-6Bk ink tank, BCI-6PC ink tank, BCI-6PM ink tank, BCI-6C ink tank, BCI-6M ink tank, BCI-6Y ink tank, setup sheet, software CD-ROM; software includes printer driver, setup software, User's Guide, Quick Start Guide, PictBridge Instruction Sheet, Electronic User's Guide, Photo Application Guide, e-registration, Easy-PhotoPrint 2.0 and Easy-PhotoPrint Plus (Windows/Mac), PhotoRecord (Windows), ZoomBrowser EX (Windows), ImageBrowser (Mac), PhotoStitch (Windows/Mac), Easy-WebPrint (Windows, requires Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.5, version 6.0 recommended); USB cable not included
1 Great Color and Value
I just received my printer yesterday as a gift and it's the best one I've owned, hands down. I've printed an array of images from 4x6 to 8x11 and all of them are excellent. I also have a Canon PowerShot camera so I was able to start printing pictures without hooking it up to the PC. The detail is amazing and the colors are very vivid. Definately will be recommending this one.
2 As good as it gets
IMO: I was really turned off of ink jet printers after having owned and then thrown away my Epson 780. The print quality on this machine was spectacular...for the 1% of the time the heads were not clogged.
So I waited a few years, hoping that technology would improve. The Canon i960 got good reviews, and hardly anyone complained about clogged heads, and the unit was being discontinued so prices have dropped to an attractive level.
Print quality is as good as it goods, no question. No missing lines or other artifacts. I have one complaint though, because the colour tone is very slightly yellow, noticeable on skin tones. I had to go to manual colour correction and reduce the amount of yellow by 10 points (out of a possible 40 points). The advanced options give you colour correction "pro" and it seems to add a slight amount of colour saturation but it reduces detail in the blacks very slightly. I print mostly using matte paper because it gives the best dark colour performance (gloss paper tends to wash out blacks leaving you with one shade of black) and you can put the print next to glass, whereas with gloss, contacting glass with ruin the print and also give you a smudge mark on the glass. The very slight yellow on default software settings resulted in me giving four instead of five stars.
The unit is very quiet. Just a very soft swooshing sound as the head moves back and forth. No need to use quiet mode.
Quality construction. Yes, it's made of plastic but the build quality is very good. Some have complained about having to remove shipping tape. So what? You only have to remove it when it's out of the box. Lots of products require removal of shipping tape.
You can use non-Canon paper, but results will vary with paper so you will need to experiment. I got excellent results with Epson photo matte paper, actually better than Canon's own glossy paper samples that came with the printer.
Don't worry about printing directly to the printer. You will want to run your pics though a computer to get the software colour correction. I tried printing with no software correction and the colour tone wasn't very good.
3 Too Much "red" or "blue".
I bought the i960 last year. It will print "nature" photos very well -- nature like animals at the zoos. When it comes to printing photos with people, there is entirely too much magenta in the skintones. There is entirely too much cyan in clothing items in the photos of people. I am not as pleased with it as I thought I would be. I am researching other photo printer brands.
4 Incredible customer service! Nice printer, too.
I purchased this printer about two months ago--love it. It prints gorgeous photos that are difficult to tell from lab prints. But for me, the big deal is Canon's service.
I was printing a document last week when the printer made an incredibly bad-sounding noise and died instantly. I ran some diagnostics on it and was advised to call Canon. I called, went through only two layers of voice-mail selections, and was instantly connected with a knowledgeable rep who confirmed that the printer was indeed DOA. He then informed me that we would receive a replacement via UPS within two business days, and the package would include a postage paid label for shipping the dead one back to Canon. Sure enough, the replacement showed up in two days with the return label. Then--the truly amazing part--Canon called a week later to make sure that we had received the replacement and return label, and wanted to make sure that everything was fine with the new printer!!! This seems incomprehensible in these days of almost universally bad customer service.
I'm giving the printer four stars, since I would have preferred to have my original one last much longer. Without question, the service is five stars.
5 Great Printer, Great service!
This is my second Canon printer. I purchased the i550 for my daughter who was attending college and experienced no problems and excellent printing quality. So I figured if this printer could handle the rigors of college life it should be more than enough for me. So I purchsed the i960 because of it's extra capabilities, pict bridge connection for my Canon A80 powershot digital camera, etc. I also like the economics of the separate color cartridges. Replace only the colors that are low on ink, not the entire cartridge like other printers.
Great photo printer, great color reproduction, vibrant and clear. Text is more than adequate. I had some problems printing photos approx. 6 months down the road. Photos printed with a bias of green hue. Contacted Canon online support, (toll free phone support is also available 24-7) and received excellent and expeditious service. I received a new printer head component shipped by UPS 2nd day air at no charge. Replacing the printer head was a no-brainer, simple instructions included. No double talk or excuses, just great service.
I highly recommend Canon products because they stand behind everything they sell, 100%
You will be hard pressed to find another quality printer at this price with this support structure.
6 Amazing photo quality on Canon paper only
Photos printed on Canon paper look like they were developed professionally. They are the best I've ever seen from a photo paper. Photos printed on any other brand of photo paper look pretty shabby, even after fiddling with the printer settings.
Printing text is very, very slow on "normal" mode and printing envelopes frequently jams the printer.
7 You can't go wrong
I have owned just about every brand of printer since 1985 starting with a Star nine pin tractor feed. In color inkjet printers, I have had HP (two), Lexmark (five), Epson (two), and Canon (three). The best photo printer prior to my buying the Canon i960 was an Epson 820. I prefer Canon inkjet printers overall because of their quality, ease of use, speed, economy of use (you can't beat individual ink tanks that can be refilled), and long service life. I currently have a Canon i850 for general purpose use. After almost three years of daily use (a wife in college and a son in high school plus my usage) the i850 has performed flawlessly. I have refilled the ink tanks innumerable times with good quality bulk ink. This alone has paid for the printer many times over.
Thus, when my Epson 820 failed to print the yellow color (the fourth 820 in less than two years) and Mr. Epson refused to replace the printer again, I decided to look for another photo printer. The Epson 820 while producing excellent photos, was a "dog' in terms of quality. In less than six months the printhead went bad on the first 820. Since it was under warranty, Epson replaced it. The repacement lasted less than five months. It would not print yellow in spite of every "fix" tried by me and Epson's technicians. A third printer was sent. After six months the yellow color refused to print. A call to Epson resulted in my being told that the printer was out of warranty. My repeated complaints to Epson resulted in a fourth printer being sent. You gussed it, six months later it refused to print yellow. A call to Epson resulted in a flat refusal to replace the fourth printer. So much for customer satisfaction. A one year warranty that is only good for the original printer. This turns out to be a six month warranty. So, my quest for a new photo printer began.
By this time, the Canon Pixma series had been introduced. While sorely tempted to go with the newest technology, research showed that the Canon i960 was the best choice for me. I wanted a dedicated printer for photos only. Since my Canon i850 produces fast, high quality text print outs, the i960 became the choice to replace Mr. Epson's flawed 820. I couldn't have made a better selection! The i960 is everything the reviews have said. When I compared the i960 photos to the Epson 820 photos, the Canon came out ahead. I use Canon, Epson, Kodak, and HP photo paper. There is little difference in the finished product. The Canon paper has a slight, barely perceptible advantage in bright lighting. The i960 produces excellent text output but at a slower rate than the i850. This i960 printer can't be beat in its class, no exceptions! You can't go wrong with this printer!
8 Everything I was looking for in a PHOTO PRINTER
I had bought this printer back in January of '04. It has been nothing shy of excellent ever since. I did a lot of research before purchasing a home Photo Printer and have been nothing but ahppy with my choice. First off let me say i have only used canon inks and paper with this machine for 4x6 and 8x10 prints. They have all come out wonderfully, people have complained about the lack of an LCD, if your serious about your pictures, you probably don't want to use an LCD and want to use a program to touch your pictures up before you print them so that not an issue for most people looking at this canon, so not to worry.
Setup was easy, the printer has a small footprint and fits everywhere. The loading of the print head is easy enougha as are the inks, evn a child could do it. The very first picture i printed out had some banding, but no other picture has ever had a problem, so i attribute that to the inks having to get through the system?!
I printed about 40 4x6's the other night and it took roughly 45 minutes, thats with me having to reload the special 4x6 paper clip that limits you to 20 pages in there at a time. Thats pretty impressive and each and every picture comes out looking perfect with canon's proprietary photo print software. Using Photoshop is just as easy and the pictures come out no less marvelous as well. I have not used this printer for text yet, and its job is photo only at my house, we use the laserjet for day to day text/web printing. The only down side is no USB cable, make sure to get a USB 2 cable from amazon because its like 4 times the price in the local brick and mortars.
So if your serious about your pictures but less than a full blown amateur photographer this is perfect photo printer for you.
9 THE COLOR REPRODUCTION IS JUST TERRIBLE
HI, -- I GAVE THIS PHOTO PRINTER 2 STARS , RATHER THAN 1 STAR, BECAUSE, IT IS FAST, HOWEVER, IT IS USELESS TO ME, RIGHT NOW, -- I OWN A $900.00 CANON DIGITAL SLR CAMERA ( WHICH IS GREAT ) - BUT, I AM SO DISSAPOINTED IN THIS PRINTER, -- IT IS PRINTING PHOTOS THAT ARE WAY TO BRIGHT, AND THE HUE IS TO YELLOWISH GREEN, VERY NOTICEABLE WITH PHOTOS OF PEOPLE, -- WHAT REALLY BOTHERS ME IS THAT, I CAN PRINT THE EXACT SAME PHOTO, UNEDITED, WITH MY HEWLETT PACKARD 4 IN 1 5510 OFFICEJET, AND THE COLOR COMES OUT GREAT, JUST LIKE THE ORIGINAL PHOTO -- I DID READ VERY GOOD REVIEWS ON THIS PRINTER, -- AND I AM SENDING SOME PHOTOS IN TO THE CANON COMPANY, FOR THE ENGINEERS TO REVIEW -
( HAS ANYONE EXPERIENCED THIS PROBLEM ? ) - WILLIS KUHNS
10 Using Kodak With Canon & Dropping HP
I bought the i960 right before the Canon Pixmas came out. If I had waited I may have bought the Pixma ip6000D...or I may not have. This printer has been tested and reviewed, and the consensus seems to be that it is one of the absolute best for printing 8x10s. And that is what I mostly print.
I had been printing my photos on an HP All-In-One printer that I had bought for scanning. It is not a photo printer, but it produced beautiful 8x10s. But a plastic piece came off one day, and it was downhill from there. The printer started making lines in the photos, and I decided it was time to get a dedicated photo printer. I was also thinking of getting one that had individual ink tanks, because I prints lots of nature shots, which means all the green causes a premature death to the $35 HP Tri-Color cartridge. And it's a waste of both money and material to have to toss out an ink cartridge that is not totally empty.
Yet, I still seriously considered getting the HP 7960, because I have always liked HP products. But then I read more than one review stating their 7960 made pizza cutter lines in the photos. HP knew about it, knew it was not serviceable, and yet expected the consumer to compensate for this designer flaw by using the most expensive HP photo paper, where the lines would be not so noticeable! I e-mailed HP and asked them why a consumer like me should even consider buying a new HP printer that made lines in the photos, when I was getting rid of a "broken" one that did the same thing. Their reply? Their reply was not EVERY HP7960 made lines in the photos! Wonderful! Maybe I'd be one of the lucky ones who got a "good" one! In my opinion, that is absolutely outrageous. HP lost a sell for sure there, and I'll probably never seriously consider buying an HP photo printer ever again.
Thus, I went with Canon. I had my reservations, though. The main one being the repeated advice in reviews that only Canon paper should be used with Canon copiers like this one. I had lots of Kodak Ultima, and I did not want to switch. The Kodak paper is slightly heavier than the Canon, and is cheaper than the Canon Photo Paper Pro. I discovered the Canon paper only advice is totally unfounded. I tested it by making many, many 8x10 copies of one photo, using Kodak Ultima and Canon Photo Paper Pro, as well as both Kodak EasyShare software and Canon Easy-Photo Print software. In my tests, the absolute best print in the tests were made on Kodak Ultima and using Kodak EasyShare software! I took the photos to work, and once again the Kodak prints were picked out as the best. No one involved in these tests was a professional photographer, mind you. But I doubt most professionals even buy printers under $200. :) If you have Kodak EasyShare software, just make sure you have the latest drivers and settings for the Canon i960, that has at least 5 paper choices, as well as the "One Touch" option. If your settings don't show this, you need to go to Kodak.com and get the new settings. Also, anyone who wants to use Kodak Ultima paper can download the EasyShare software for free from that site. It has drivers and settings for lots and lots of printers.
Next, I tested 4x6s. This printer comes with a really nifty Photo Paper Tray for Canon 4x6 paper. The Kodak 4x6 won't work with this tray, because it's slightly larger than the Canon paper. But you can still make 4x6s with Kodak Ultima by not using the tray. You also must use the Canon Easy-Photo Print software, because for some odd reason Kodak does not offer the choice of making a 4x6 on a 4x6 sheet of paper for this printer! You can put a 4x6 on a 5x7 sheet or an 8x10 sheet, but not on a 4x6 sheet. Very strange! Thus, I did a test with one photo printing it on Canon Photo Paper Pro using Canon software, on Kodak Ultima using the Photo Paper Pro setting, on Kodak paper using the Photo Paper Plus Glossy setting, and one on Kodak paper using just the Glossy Paper setting. Of the 4 prints, the Kodak one using the Glossy Paper setting was the best; the Kodak one using the Photo Paper Plus Glossy was a close second; the Canon one was third, because the photo subject's face was over-exposed, when that was not the case with the Kodak prints; and the Kodak print using the Photo Paper Pro setting was HORRID! Do not use the Photo Paper Pro setting with Kodak paper!
My other reservations that proved unfounded: 1) You have to install the print head, which HP users don't have to do. The print head turned out to be one big piece of plastic that I doubt any sober person could install incorrectly; it takes like 3 seconds to install it. Installing the ink cartridges was just as easy--just don't squeeze the sides after you take off the orange plastic piece. And talking about ink--I have made at least 25 8x10s, at least 10 4x6s, and at least 10 text pages...and the only ink tanks that have moved even a fraction of an inch down is the Photo Magenta and the Photo Cyan...they are about 2/3 of the way empty...which I don't consider bad for all those prints. And they only cost $11 a piece. That's much easier to work in a tight budget than two cartridges that cost $25 and $35 a piece, as my HP ones did. 2) There is an ink waste tank in Canon printers that need to be serviced by Canon if they get full. That's where ink goes after you clean your ink heads, when you need to do so. Who knows if the tank will fill up during your ownership of the printer? I'm not going to worry about it. 3) Canon prints don't last as long as HP and Epson...this apparently is "proven" that Canon prints made with Canon ink on Canon photo paper should last like 25 years before fading, compared to at least 75 years for HP and Epson. The only thing is the various companies question the testing methods used in all these tests. I personally am not going to worry about this sort of thing, because I put all my photos on CDs, and can make additional prints in the future, if I need to. But each person must decide for themselves if this is a major issue or not. 4) It takes the prints a long time to dry. Mine dry as fast as the HP ones, if not faster. And there actually is a photo drying option, where you can choose if you want your prints to dry fast or slow. The default setting is fast.
This printer reminds me a lot of my Kodak DX6490 camera...you can do all sorts of creative things with it, or you don't have to! It's your choice. You can use the more difficult pop-up box to choose printer settings, or just use the Easy-Photo Print software. The Easy-Photo Print is as easy as they come. Your entire picture library is there, including anything you may have just downloaded, and you just pick the picture, pick the paper format, and pick what type of paper you are using. The selection of print sizes and such is terrific. Unlike the EasyShare software...and I'm still using the EasyShare 3 because the 4 is proving impossible to download!:(...with the Canon software, you can put one borderless 5x7 on an 8x10 sheet at the top or bottom, and then use the arrows to turn it around, so you can use it as a greeting card.
Talking about greeting cards, I would highly recommend the Canon Matte 8x10 for that. It is super cheap, and super great, as long as you print on the right side! The back side has no printing on it, so you can use card software to put a message on that side. Canon has a website www.photoprintplanet.com with all sorts of photo projects, like greeting cards and envelopes and such. Of course, if you like glossy best, just use glossy photo paper, and insert a bond sheet with the message with double sided tape. You can buy greeting card envelopes from Office Depot or Staples, or you can make really colorful ones at Photo Print Planet.
Other nice things about this printer: 1) It's big and heavy as photo printers go; a sign of quality in my opinion 2) It has loads of great software that was really fast and simple to install, including "photo stitch", where you "stitch" various photos together to create a panoramic one 3) It has a roller cleaner! This is what you need to use, if like me, you accidently tell the printer it's making a print on a larger sheet of paper than what's actually in the printer. When you do this, ink gets on the rollers, which shows up on the back of future prints as black lines. The roller cleaner directions are in the "Quick Start Guide" and it works like a charm!
Like my camera, I really can't say enough nice things about this printer. It's a great printer for either a beginner or someone with lots of printing skills and experience.
11 Very satisfactory for photos, less so for text
I'm a complete neophyte when it comes to printers. Well, that's not actually true. I've had a trusty HP LaserJet IIP since 1989 and have had absolutely no complaints about it. But it finally died, after fifteen years, and I figured it didn't owe me anything after that length of time. Further, my wife had been after me to get something that would print photos--grandkids, don't you know!--and in color. After some research I settled on the Canon i960. I was happy when it arrived, only to find--stupid me--that I didn't have an available USB port. No problem, I installed a four port USB hub and proceeded. Installation was a breeze. It's clearly well-designed for Plug-and-Play intallation; the process is entirely seamless. I've now printed text--which is just the slightest bit less distinct than my old laser printer was, but since I'm not printing much text these days, it's no big deal--and the photo printing, using Canon's Photo Paper Pro that is included and the EasyPrint software, also included, is a complete pussycat. Easy 4x6 or larger fabulous prints--borderless if you want them, or not. Actually my only problem now will be deciding how many pictures to print from each batch I take (or receive digitally from our kids via the Internet). Hoo boy! Who'da thunk an old guy like me could get excited about a hunk of plastic and metal?
My main point here is that this is a great little printer--at a great little price--for a photo- and printer-neophyte. If I can do it, you can, too.
Scott Morrison
12 i960 fully meets my expectations
Since my 4 year old HP 932c died, I was on the market for a new photo printer. I did a lot of reading and research, both online and going thru magazines. I considered Canon IP4000, IP5000, i560, i860, i960, Epson R200, R300, HP7960, HP 7660. As you can see, I went thru many printers as printing high quality photos is very important to me.
My top criteria are: cost of operation, print longevity, print quality. Unfortunately, no printers are perfect. They all fall short on at least one area. I even tried to print some photos on an Epson R300 as someone in the office happen to have one on his desk, the print from R300 is not bad but it is a little bit of fuzzy if you look closely...
My concern for Canon is the print tend to fade quicker if Canon's paper is used (go figure) as all Canon papers are nanoporous. They don't make swellabel paper which is more immune to fading. After I found out there are reasonably priced swellable paper that works well with Canon, the choice is obvious - Canon.
I've been very happy with my decision, the print is sharp, color is accurate, speed is fast, everything I expect it to be and it fully meets my expectations.
Another thing I have to say is the service I got from Amazon is superb, this is not the first time I do business with them but this time, their service simply stunned me - I placed my order on Wednesday and by Friday, the printer showed up, and this is with their free shipping option, I didn't pay a penny for shipping. No I don't work for Amazon, just an extremely impressed customer.
13 Lousy paper feed mechanism
I bought a Canon i960 in June '04 and by September '04 it was jamming every other paper when printing a document. This printer does an excellent job with photo's but don't buy it to print documents. So what I'll end up with is a used (factory reconditioned) printer from Canon for the price of a new one. I'm glad I didn't throw away my 7 year old HP 722C.
14 Supplemental information...
The "bumps" in the ink mentioned in the previous reviewer's friend's i950 were from using incompatible paper, not the printer itself (I know this the hard way)--if not that, then a setting was wrong, but Canon settings are so easy that it's probably not that. There should be no ink pooling or imperfection whatsoever if both the user & printer are functioning properly. Further testament is that the i950 & newer i960 have exactly the same printing mechanism, so there should be no difference in print quality. 3rd-party papers which work great in one printer may work horribly in another, & vice versa. Use Canon products & get consistent great results, or do your homework; I actually exchanged a Canon printer because of ink pooling on a particular 3rd-party paper which worked great in my Epson, not realizing the mistake was mine.
I do agree with the previous reviewer's decision to buy bulk ink & refill for medium & heavy users. There is a particular 3rd-party ink mfr which is best for Canon; I may or may not be allowed to say it here, but it can be found in archived newsgroup posts (i.e. google groups) if you search. You can also search which are the best 3rd-party papers, too. There are a number of good paper brands, but I would only recommend one 3rd-party mfr of ink, often sold under 4th-party rebranding. Otherwise, OEM Ink will cost about as much as paper in photo printing (yikes!).
If you want consistent great results with no homework, stick with OEM Canon stuff, but if you print a lot, judiciously-selected 3rd-party products results can be awesome, low-cost, and you really feel like you are getting away with something. When you see prints coming out of your own printer which are actually BETTER than your local "Mart" photo printing (be it 1-hour or 3-day), the enthusiasm bubbles. Plus, the degree of control you have doesn't have a price. The "Mart" places artificially jack up the color saturation for a "vivid" effect; with home printing, esp with the very easy Canon drivers, it becomes your choice. Power-user driver features are unintimidating and easily-available. Canon does FAR better on drivers than Epson! The other included softwares range from extremely useful to embarrassingly pathetic.
Updates/differences in the i960 vs i950: the i960 has the manual 4x6 paper tray, 2 USB ports, an updated PictBridge standard, different cosmetics, and a driver which permits viewing print details in Print Preview (which most wouldn't care about, but is the only thing I miss in my own i950). I see too many newbies looking for a printer with an LCD and I wince when I see that. Direct printing to me is a gimmick and I'm glad to not pay extra for an LCD.
Canon is the way to go in printers; the closest competitor is Epson, and having owned 4 Epsons and now 1 Canon, I have given away (2) or thrown away (2) all my Epsons, no kidding, and will never go back. Canon cartridges are also TTBOMK the easiest to refill. Canons are quieter, too (extremely quiet). Canon will eventually bring their 7- or 8-color widebody printer mechanism (i960 has 6) to the consumer market, but quality is starting to increase with diminishing returns. Even if you upgrade, your ink will still be useful; they have recently been adding extra colors but have kept the original BCI-6 colors/tanks the same.
My own tests show that this printer prints at LEAST at 20 Megapixel resolution on 8.5x11 paper. Print a 5-Megapixel photo on a quarter-8.5x11-sheet and you will notice that every single detail visible on your monitor will be visible on the print (both may require magnification).
I did an OEM fade test, and in 6+ months of bright indirect sunlight, I see no fading of the ink, and the back of the paper is slightly yellowed (noticeable side-by-side), being exposed to air & pollutants, not under glass (which is why you put prints under glass). PPP is not as "white" as cheaper papers--that's a good thing, as those brighteners break down & yellow even faster. Still, a wet chem print will be more resilient over years of exposure.
The i960's price is a little above half what I paid for the i950, which even then was a good deal for what it did. You now truly can have photolab quality prints (I mean good photolab quality, not those cheap laser-exposed prints most of us [used to] get) in your home for a great price, and IMO the new low cost makes people not appreciate how special a piece of hardware this is.
Before you go figuring out price per print, something which may surprise you is the amount of FUN you will (hopefully) have which adds to the value, as does the privacy & immediacy. Prints can be much cheaper than wet chem (depending), but you will spend far more in updating your digital camera, as that is where technology really lags behind. 5 MP prints do 8.5x11 with no visible pixellation, but as I said, the printer is at least capable of 20 MP resolution, something most won't have for years.
Despite the absence of a "light black" color, you can also get better-than-potolab results in B&W, too, with the added advantage of being able to control tone. Professional digital headshots can print in "actual" pro quality or better with top paper, so the printer can actually pay for itself for models & actors. No one will notice a difference, except that they're better, and there's no paper branding on the back.
Printing text on plain paper is good, but not quite like a laser (you have to look up close to see). This is due to the paper & ink, not the printer's ability to do "letter" quality or real straight lines, which it truly can on the right (i.e. photo) paper. Though quality paper helps greatly, toner doesn't seep into plain paper the way ink does, and it is beyond me why they include a plain paper black (pigment) cartridge in the i8x0 series and not in the more-expensive i9x0, which only has dye ink. I have not compared the i860's text printing. For light text duty, the i960 does well, but serious text printers will need a fast laser printer or perhaps ironically an i860, which also does great photo prints--I couldn't tell i8/960 samples apart in a store with poor lighting. Canon will mail you a sample from each upon request; request the same image for both.
Canon is also the least money-grubbing of the printer makers: first to come out with separate ink tanks, not making refill-proof designs, better cost per print. The good karma flows beautifully into every other superior aspect of Canon printers, gaining my patronage & word of mouth.
I have done mad amounts of research, as you may tell, and this is the one to go with. There is little reason to wait for a more-refined printer, and even when there is one, it will be a Canon.
15 The BEST Printer Ever
I had not considered buying a photo printer until my boyfriend bought his digital camera. I tried printing photos on his HP printer, but the photos were streaked and clearly pixelated. Being avid photographers, we fell in love with digital cameras because it was so easy to see if your shots turned out, etc. I tried to use an online photo printing service, but the upload speed was very slow (even on our cable connection). I found that the photo quality wasn't really all that either, not to mention it got to be rather expensive when printing hundreds of photos.
I decided that a photo printer was an absolute MUST! So I started researching different printers. I was originally going for an HP printer. After doing some digging though, I discovered the Canon I960 and the separate ink tanks. After a little more research, I found that the Canon ink tanks hold more ink (per color) than the HP cartridges. That sold me on the Canon product.
I have had my printer since January 04, and I have printed more than 500 photos on it. It is very economical on ink, it prints lab quality photos, it is fast and it is quiet. I absolutely love this printer and would buy another in a heart beat. I would also recommend it to everyone (and I do!). Since I bought mine, I have conviced several people to also buy them and they are all equally as pleased with it.
I can't say enough good things about it!
16 Minuses..
There has been a number of reviews highlighting the pluses on this printer. I don't disagree with those. I am giving 3 stars only for the following points:
1. No USB cable. We are paying here 150+ $ and don't get a USB cable. Even a simple free after rebate USB wireless adapter comes with a free cable.
2. No Parallel port. This is a nice to have option, just only because everything else goes thru USB and very soon we may run out of these ports.
3. Photo quality still under par to online print services. I compared the print produced by Ofoto with the same print produced by this printer. Either due to some advanced photo enhancing software on the Ofoto side or due to some advanced professional printing, the print quality is under par. Only other aspect to compare is how the prints degrade over time, which another user had reviewed that it is bad under exterme conditions.
4. No memory card slot. This is also a nice to have, though I think it is a bad idea to print directly from the card or camera without enhancing / cropping the picture.
5. Another nice to have is a photo preview on the printer.
17 Absolutely beautiful pictures
First, I want to give 5 stars to Amazon.com and UPS for its superb shipping. I ordered this printer on July 26 and received it on July 28 under the free shipping program!
The Canon i960 photo printing is simply amazing. I purchased an Epson 800 ink jet printer in 1997 that finally expired and purchased this one. For the price it is a stand out. I wanted a good quality printer with individual ink cartridges, fast paper printing, and great photo printing though I am not a big photographer. I was torn between purchasing the i560 or i960, but thought I would regret not buying the i960 so went ahead with the purchase.
This printer is used with an old Pentium III 233 MHz and I had to install 2.0 USB ports before hooking the printer up.
The set-up was easy. The longest time used was finding and removing all the tape on the printer used for packing. Also, installing the bundled software that comes with it took awhile. I guess total it took me about 40 minutes. Installing the printer head took a few minutes until I realized I had it upside down, then it went in perfectly. The features I like are the individual ink cartridges and the photo paper tray.
I have not fully explored the bundled software, but was able to print photos immediately and all I can say is WOW! No one is kidding when they say the photos look like pictures you get from photo labs. You cannot tell a difference between the two processes.
You can print directly from a camera, providing it is compatible with 'PictBridge' or 'Bubble Jet Direct.' However, there is not an LCD viewer on the printer and that feature would probably be a waste of ink if you did not preview your photos first. Anyway, I don't have a compatible camera.
Finally, though this is a photo printer, I'm not particularly happy when printing on regular paper. Maybe I'm spoiled from using a laser printer at work, but I find this one to be extremely slow. It's even slower than my old Epson 800. As I mentioned earlier, I have not fully explored the possibilities yet so that could be a moot point; however, that is why I gave it 4 stars.
18 Who Needs a Photolab?
This printer is awesome. Trust me. Ignore the negative reviews. First of all, I haven't bought a printer in the last 5 years that comes with a cable. It might not be right, but it is what it is. So you can't distract from Canon for that. Second, the print head/ink refills are a snap to use. No problems whatsoever.
LASTLY, and most importantly, you won't notice a difference between shots from this printer and ones prof. developed. There might be a difference, but you won't notice it. If I am printing prints to show my friends, then I use the Canon Photo Paper Plus. For prints I want to keep in an album, or really show off, I use the Canon Photo Paper PRO.
You will be amazed!
19 Excellent printer for the money
I read the reviews and did my research. I am very happy with the print quality, using any brand inkjet photo paper. I am a little confused as to why anyone would expect a cable to be included, never seen that one before. Anyone I show the prints to, from this machine, are amazed that they were not done at the local photo shop. I have recommended this printer to others, and have received many thanks for their experiences with this unit as well.
20 Poor Printer Head / Ink Cartridge Design
I am very disappointed in the Cannon i960 printer. The printer head is very poorly designed. I had great difficulty getting the print head and ink cartridges to work. I had to reseat the printer head 5 times before it would work. I had to reseat the magenta ink cartridge 5 times before it would work. It took 4 hours of reading the manual to diagnose all the errors I was getting and running tests to get this printer where it would print a color picture. Our last printer was an HP 895cse. The HP was easy to set up and ran great for 3 years. I wish we had bought another HP. I am very disappointed in the quality of this printer.
21 Direct, simple & complete.
After delivery, I checked out the directions printed on the sides of the box before opening it. My first opioion was that this was going to be a quick and easy assembly, along with uploading the application software to Zigzag, the name I've given to my computer. I unloaded the printer, power cable, the ink jet cartridges, & 4X6 photo paper insert. Then I unwrapped all the shipping tape stripping from the products. I placed the printer on its stand...please excuse my long windedness...attached the power cord, placed the ink cartridges in their appropriate spots, placed the 4X6 paper tray, expanded the paper outputs trays, pluged in MY OWN USB cable...since one didn't come with the purchase.
There it was, ready to go. My second opinion was that all was easy. I uploaded the software following instructions. All was easy like drinking fine wine.
My first photo print was two 2X3 photos on one sheet of 4X6 glossy paper supplied with the Canon i960. The detailed printing application was a breeze, the color and detail quality of the photo was excellent, as good/better than photo lab processing. I'm a Happy Photographer & Happy Photo Printer thanks to my new CANON i960. Enjoy.
22 DOESN'T WORK NO CABLE INCLUDED RUN
I can't believe why no cable was included knowing that it uses only one kind of cable. Now I have to go get a cable somewhere. So basically the price of the printer is $20 more then list price. If there were choices of cable to use I can understand but it only uses USB.
23 Printer is the best, but its printhead is the worse
All Canon products are the best comparing to its prices and pictures. However, I have a concern of the new printhead of this printer brand name. The printhead is easy damaged if the user does not use it to print 3 times per week. Because of its new ink technology, the ink as a result will be dried random in its printhead if the user does not use it during a month and a deep clean does not help.
Personally, I already had a damaged Canon printhead after 6 months. It failed already on the black and photo cyan colors. If everyone keeps using the Canon photo printers 3 times per week, the users will happy with its pictures for a three-year long. However, I am not because of the cost of Canon inks.
24 A little disapointed.
I bought this printer because of the raves canon recieves on various web sites for their printers. This one does work well but make sure you only use Canon paper I had bought other paper and had very poor imiage quality. I would have thought it to be my camera ( I have a 4mp and a 6 mp camera) until I spoke to a film developer who told me about the paper and I was amazed at the differance all though on the canon paper my images are more gray. I had a HP printer that came with my computer that when I used it with a photo ink tank seemed to work just as well but ALOT slower. Knowing this would have changed my mind hope it helps you.
25 Best Photo Printer I've ever seen or used on any platform!
I recently purchased this printer to replace my aging HP Photosmart p1000. That was a nice printer in its day, but the i960 blows it away.
However, my search for the i960 took very long. Why? Because many of the publications that reivew peripherals do a thorough job of reviewing the features and performance (even subjective as it must be with a photo printer), but almost all of them - even the Mac publications - hardly mention the driver quality (which makes or breaks any computer add-on device). If they do, they largely mention the Windows driver performance or software bundle.
Well, I want to tell all the OS X users out there that this printer rocks in OS X 10.3.4 / Panter. The software bundle is complete, functional, and best of all, the driver for basic operation and control of quality, borderless printing, etc. all work and work well.
Many manufacturers do a poor job in this area - either drivers overall, or they provide only minimal, or a poor effort in supporting OS X. Canon has made a convert of me.
I really love the 4x6 printing cartridge, the speed, the quiet... I can't say enough about this product.
26 What can you expect from an inexpensive photo printer
I bought my Canon I960 on February 11, 2004. Yes I purchased it to print photos. On June 1, 2004, I didn't expect my printhead to go out! Meaning my pictures were coming out with a reddish/pinkish hue. Good thing Canon backs their product with a 1 year limited warranty of which printheads fall under, or I would have been an unhappy camper having to pay $145.00 plus shipping for a new printhead. Otherwise the picture quality is excellent, aside from the printer printing at snails pace.
27 Nothing comes close to this !!!!!!!!!!!!
Unbelivable Pics better than studio pics.
If you want LCD, ability to print from Memory, go with I900D
If you wanter faster prints, go with this I960.
Both have same technology except for the diff i pointed out.
28 No more trips to costco to print!
This printer is incredible!! I have to agree with most of the other reviews; the photos do look like they came from a lab. They look even better when you print them in vivid mode. At first I was a little hesitant to buy this printer because I get my prints done at costco for only 20 cents each; and they look fantastic. Each sheet of photo paper costs about the same amount, but I dont' have to deal with driving to a crowded costco in Los Angeles. No more waiting in line to use a kiosk or picking up my photos the next day. Now I can print incredible photos at home without spending time driving. Another feature that nobody has mentioned is that with the included software you have the option of printing dates on your photos! This is a feature that I love and one that Costco does not provide. So that is another advantage to print at home. The only negative thing I have to say about this printer is that it does not come with a USB cable. So make sure to buy one before you leave the store of purchase. Other than that this printer gives you beautiful prints in under 40 seconds. Get one now while cannon is offering a $30 dollar reabate! Total cost of $169 at Best Buy!
29 Great Printer
This is absolutely the best printer I have ever seen. If you are looking for a photo quality printer and want one that is economical long term, priced competitively and gives stunning prints at reasonable speeds, this is for you. Text is great, I don't know what others measure text by, but the text looks good to me. I guess the only problems are my dangling participles, but that's grammatical. The most impressive thing is the photo print quality. I am no expert, but the prints come out as good as 35mm developed prints in my opinion. Colors are crisp and the images are duplicated to the smallest detail. I honestly did not believe prints like this could come from home. The software bundle is also extremely useful, it will take your jpegs and format them to fit from 4 X 6 to 8 X 10 photo paper. The borderless printing in my opinion is extremely impressive. Top it all off with very easy installation and, in my honest opinion, you have a great all around printer for less than 200.
30 Love this printer
I use my Canon i960 printer primarily for printing digital photos to use in scrapbooking. It is ideal for this. Very easy to hook up and install; ink cartridges are inexpensive because you only have to replace the color that you run out of with the six cartridge system; and printed photos look great!
31 Pretty good overall, but a few problems
Let's start with the strengths:
1) Good price
2) Ink cartridges don't expire before all the ink is used
3) Ink is cheap and 50+ 4x6" prints haven't made a dent in the ink levels.
4) Quality is excellent on high-res digital pictures
5) Whisper quiet. I still check to make sure it's working when I send a picture to it. It's THAT quiet.
Other weaknesses pointed out by other people that aren't that big of a deal (to me at least):
1) Hard to set up? Not really. Just follow the directions.
2) The 4x6" paper tray is flimsy? Yes, but functional and handy. But, be careful putting your $.20 a sheet photo paper in this tray, however, because the little indent for your thumb (to raise the cover on this attachment) will leave marks on the top sheet of your photo paper which will be evident in your printed photos. Put another piece of paper or something between that indention and your paper when you are inserting the stack of 4x6" paper.
3) Graphics on plain paper/B&W text printing slow and not very good? It seemed to take about 20 seconds per page of either text of full color graphics. Not great (and there are better inkjets out there for this), but a perfect compliment to a laser printer. The quality isn't the best I've seen but honestly, it looks fine. At least there are no stray printing marks (from guide rollers or whatnot). Bottom line: Get this printer primarily to print good 4x6" photos, and if you need to do other things, it can, but it's not the best.
Now for my gripes:
1) 36 seconds for a 4x6" photo? Mine all take twice that long, exactly (72 seconds). I am using USB 1.0 - anyone know if that is causing the difference? Anyone getting 36 second prints with USB 1.0 - if so, how?
2) You better only be printing high resolution images. A majority of my images from my digital camera are 640 x 480 (taken years ago, small to save memory). I tried some 640x480 prints from the included software, and they were horrid. It was doing some sort of strange interpolated smearing between blocks of pixels. When I was able to print the same picture from MS Word, the quality improved substantially. When I view the 640x480 images in any other software application, they look fine. The Canon included software at least shows you how it's going to screw up your picture before you print it. I don't know how I'm going to print 1000+ pictures that are this way. One at a time from Word or Powerpoint, I guess.
3) The included software didn't even sort my files by name, and certainly had no option to sort by size or creation date. I think the software was designed to be extremely simple (and it is), however it doesn't have much function other than sending what you have to the printer. My images are all labelled with a standard digital camera format like "DSC001234", and the program would never sort them all. Maybe because I had over 1000 in one directory; who knows.
I don't think any printer out there is perfect. This one is very good; it amazing to see what looks like a photolab print come out of it. Honestly. Get the 120 pack of Canon 4x6" Phot Paper Plus Glossy if you can find it; it's the best deal. I tried printing with the included sample of Canon Premium paper; no difference.
It is nice to see a printer that doesn't tell you an ink cartridge is dead (and requires replacement) simply because it passed some arbitrary date. HP does this (they also sell their ink carts for $35 a pop) and I've heard other brands do too. This would be like your car's engine shutting off automatically when you passed the 3,000 mile mark since your last oil change. HP is never getting my business again due to this practice.
Enjoy this printer, just make sure you set your camera on "high res" from now on.
32 Outstanding Photos
Best <$200 printer out there. The six individual ink cartriges allow cheaper printing than others printers. Software is excellent but be sure to ALWAYS preview your photos prior to printing or you will waste many prints.
33 Outstanding Photos
Best <$200 printer out there. The seven individual ink cartriges allow cheaper printing than others printers. Software is excellent but be sure to ALWAYS preview your photos prior to printing or you will waste many prints.
34 Amazing Printer
This is an incredible piece of equipment. I got tired of going to Costco and Sam's Club to print my digital images. Some times the results were no up to expectations. Also when on-site, sometimes it was a irritating to wait long lines to have your pictures done (using their 1 hour station).
With the printer you can have your beautiful pictures within minutes. I like the 4x6 dispenser and also the Easy print application. I would recommend this printer to anyone who's interested in developing great pictures at home.
35 Great for the price
Bought a new computer and wanted to upgrade our printer. Really happy with the photo and paper quality, and love the individual ink tanks. Had an HP from WAY back, and didn't like the three colors/one tank idea at all, very wasteful. Have been very pleased with this product and the Canon photo paper, too.
36 Pleasantly Surprized!
This printer surprized me. I did not expect to get the photo quality I got from this photo printer. It works perfectly with my Mac OS X iMac. I do not think I'll go back to a lab to develop prints again. This is the first printer I've owned that would allow me to make that statement.
It has very quiet print head. In fact, I was worried that it was not printing the first time. I also own a Canon S50 camera and it hooks up directly to the printer and prints without a computer. I did not buy it for this feature but I'm very gald it has it. It is so easy to use.
As for cost effectiveness, I do not know if this is cheaper than using the labs. It may be close to the same price. It depends on the price of photo paper and ink. I've only had my printer for a month now. I've printed about 60 4x6 photos and Photo Magenta is starting to get half empty. I'm not sure how many it will go through but I'm still impressed. This printer is for the immediate gratification. The quality is stunning. No one believes the photos I show them came from a inkjet printer.
Mark me as a completely satisfied customer.
37 Great Photos!!
I will start by saying that this printer is a photo printer so I will not write anything about it's text capabilities.
I received this printer yesterday. I had it set up in no time at all. I printed a couple of pictures and was blown away. I replaced an Epson 825 Photo Printer, which did a good job. The colors are so vibrant and true to life.
I love the fact that there are individual tanks for the ink so I don't have to throw out a cartridge just because one color is used up. That alone is a money saver. My only problem came up when printing on Canon matte photo paper. The paper is not like HP or Epson Matte paper, but the quality of the pictures is awesome as well. I am so happy with my new printer at at $149 (after rebate) I can't go wrong.
38 Awesome!!!
Nothing more to add after reading all the great reviews posted. You won't be dissapointed. Try and ignore the Canon haters who posted multiple 1-star reviews...
39 great buy!
Better than expected, particularly with Canon's top quality photo paper. It's worth investing in the best paper - results are spectacular for such modestly priced photo printer.
40 I have never been more impressed by a product
ABSOLUTELY FAB!!! This printer is the best and easiest I have ever used. My photos are exquisite and I am in awe that such technology exists in a world where it is said miracles are few. Miracles definitely exist and this printer is proof.
Any good photographer will shine in the eyes of her clients. I just printed the photos of an entire wedding (505 in total, including black and white) and my clients are thrilled that I could have the photos ready for the album so quickly.
I was tired of the sloppy workmanship of cheaper printers and their inability to print they way they should and also the expense incurred to have them processed. I read the reviews for this printer and purchased it on the spot. I am thrilled that the quality is of such a high standard, even on the 4x6s.
I recommend this printer highly; you will not regret a single penny spent.
41 Dark colors fade!!!
Its an excellent printer overall with great picture quality. There is one major drawback... the dark areas fade. I am using OEM ink and Cannon Photo Papper Plus Glossy. I do live in Hawaii but I am not leaving it in direct sunlight. Has anyone else noticed this problem, and if so is there a way to correct it? The reason I am giving it 3 stars and not 5 is I am disappointed with the fact that the colors fade so easily. Again other than that the picture quality is great, and I haven't had any other problems in the 2 months that I have owned this product
42 Stunning pictures with digital SLR
I purchased this from Amazon, and tried it out last night. It created shockingly good prints from my digital SLR camera, even on full-sized sheets. Set up took a bit longer than expected -- even though the price is reasonable, it's a fairly complex product. Interaction with my Macintosh PowerBook is fantastic. Tried Canon and Kodak paper with it, and the Canon Pro Paper (a sample is included) blew away the Kodak paper. Literally can't tell the difference between a print I had printed by Ofoto and one I made at home.
43 It's the little things that make it great
With five heavy PC users in the house, this printer gets quite a bit of work, and often for different purposes.
I use this printer mainly as a photo printer to print pics that I've taken with my Canon S400 or scanned with my Epson 2400 scanner. The quality of the pictures are stunning, especially when taking vivid color photos of scenery or portraits. Color is true (when using the right paper) and images are bright, rivaling what you get from a good film developer, and infinately better than the budget developers.
My kids use it for homework, school projects, and my little one uses it to print from her many Barbie PC games. It does it all well; text is excellent, color is true, and it's extremely quick.
The little things make this sub $200 printer a great purchase. The 6 individual ink tanks does indeed prevent waste, as I've found in our house that black often goes first, with photo cyan going next. Now I don't really care if my little daughter prints out 20 copies of Dora or Barbie certificates. For those with wireless networks in their homes (or wired for that matter), the auto turn on feature is just terrific. Leave the printer off, and when one of the kids doing homework has to print, it automatically turns itself on, prints the job, and turns itself off. No more hearing kids running down the stairs to turn it on (or worse, hearing them yell downstairs for me to turn in on).
The included 4X6 photo paper cartridge is well designed, and cool to watch. Now, with just a turn of the nob, I can print photos without having to unload the printer paper. Very convenient.
The USB connector in front is just the ticket for printing directly from your digital camera without going through the PC. A time saver when you just don't want to spool up PhotoShop.
This is a fast, quiet, and capable printer. Frugle with the ink, while producing excellent quality text and pictures. For this price, I don't see how this is not a must buy for the home. Awesome.
44 Another "Perfect 10" from Canon's Photo works!
I was in need of a second photo quality printer. last Fall I bought a Canon i850 printer to replace my old Epson Stylus Photo EX. I was tremendously impressed with that printer's ability to make economical, lab quality photographic prints. The i850 only uses Cyan, Magenta, & Yellow color inks.
That printer is now on my daughter's iMac DV and still chugging along.
I very nearly bought the Epson 1280 photo printer, but when my students use it at college, I noticed several things that annoyed me:
The Epson guzzles color ink like Kool Ade! Although very high in quality, I get sick of tossing perfectly good ink carts when only one color is depleted.
Every 5-10 prints we have to run deep nozzle cleaning on the Epson 1280 which wasted even more ink. In the 8 months I've had the i850, it only required a nozzle check once.
So I looked at the newer Canon i960, and after reading several reputable reviews and talking to people who actually own it, I took the plunge....
No regrets. Set up on my OS X Mac was a breeze, and I really appreciate Canon's well drawn step by step set up poster included in the box.
I did not think that the i960 could match the Espon Photo 1280 for color fidelity-was I wrong! This printer can churn out an 8x10 that looks like a real photograph. The first thing I printed (after the alignment patterns-which you MUST DO to get top output...) was a scan from a 120 medium format Ektachrome slide. The 120 chrome is the standard for excellence. Lens was a Carl Zeiss Planar....the i960 print really did this German lens justice. The color and contrast were spot-on when printed from Photoshop CS.
Translation: This is a PRO quality color printer.
There is a lot of misinformation going around the web that Canon inks don't last as long as Epson's. NOT true. When printed on Canon Photo Matte paper, the print is guaranteed for 25 years.
EPSON, READ THIS: I will NEVER buy another Epson printer again! Canon's individual ink tanks have saved me $300.00 already....plus Canon lets me replace the printhead at home if there is a problem.
The i960 is super quiet. You can stack two paper sizes at the same time. It's amazingly fast, and can direct print from most Canon digital cameras.
A Superb product from a truly innovative company...what else do you need to know?
45 Canon i960 - Superb Photo Printer!
This is my first Canon printer and will definitely NOT be my last! After receiving this at home, I set it up on my new Dell PC and used it to print some photo's recently taken on vacation with my digital camera. What an outstanding job the Canon i960 did printing 4x6 pictures on Canon Pro photo paper! The colors were exact and the quality of the photo was better than if developed by a photo shop. These were tropical scenes and the colors were reproduced brilliantly! As for speed and text printing, this printer performed just fine. I highly recommend this unit for anyone looking to print photos and even general home use. Canon really "nailed" this one right! HP should sit up and take notice of this one!!
46 Now A Cannon Fan! Unbelievable!
After many years of owning different printers and desiring them to do what I want them to do I can honestly say, "This is it!" I have owned many different brands of printers, Epson, Compaq(read Lexmark), HP, and yes even Cannon's.
All I have ever wanted was a single printer that is quick, quiet, affordable, easy to maintain, and great with photos. Boy does this one do it! Anyone that has complaints with this printer is awfully picky! I have had it for over two months now and I have not had to replace any ink. It does its job quickly and quietly. I use it primarily to print photos but I also use it to print web pages in color from time to time.
The photo printing on this machine is not even comparable to anything in its price range or even to the photo labs! If you have not seen the pictures go to any store that carries the I960 and compare them to any thing else at the store! It is that good!
I own a Cannon EOS Digital Rebel with a 6.3 MEG CCD. I owned an Epson previous to this. It was slow, it drank ink like a sailor on leave, the inks always had to go through a cleaning cycle everytime I used it (sometimes a week between prints), and it was expensive to replace the ink. Besides this when I printed my photos from my nice DSLR camera they looked like the point and shoot prints I had made previously. Since I had a CANNON camera I looked at their printers. I decided after looking at the photos this thing makes to stay true to CANNON. Boy! I am glad I did.
Of all the things I like most about this machine the main thing I like the most is the simple fact that it does what it is supposed to do. It works (even after sitting a week), prints quietly, and is cheap to operate (I have not bought ink for it yet). I have printed and given photos to all family members and friends and all are impressed that I printed these!
Everyone from a single mother to a semi-pro would love to have this printer. It is not complex, it is quiet and simple to use, it creates impressive prints, it is dependable, and it just plain works!
47 It has to be a great printer, cos I own the i950
If anyone is shopping for printers that have absolutely exceptional photo quality without wanting to break the bank, this Canon i960 series printer is top notch. You won't need to process photos at your local photo store anymore. This printer is especially a great buy if you pair it up with a 4 megapixel or higher Canon digital camera. Canon's software is calibrated as such to ensure that highest accuracy between the photo taken and the one you print out on your glossy or matted paper. The colors on a standard 4x6 photo are eye popping -- the blues are really blue, metal is metallic, flesh is fleshy, you get the picture.
I personally, am not in the market for a new photo printer right now, because I already own a great Canon Printer from the same family, the i950. But for those shopping for one, and are tired of the so-so output of their HP and Epsons, this model is the one to pick.
48 Great printer
After reading reviews I purchased one of these printers. Very seldom does a product live up to the hipe that is written, this is one of those rare occasions. I loaded the software and plugged it in and started to print pictures from a recent vacation. When I showed the pictures I took people had a hard time telling which pictures were from film and which pictures were digitals printed from my pc. All in all I highly recommend the Canon i960.
49 FAST, FUN, GREAT OUTPUT
My printer arrived from Amazon.com quickly, days before I expected it. Connected the printer last night without any trouble. My first photo from the 5 sheets (4x6) that came with the printer was fantastic. This printer is fast, quiet, fun when you can crop, adjust and print your fav digital pictures! Only trouble I current have is using the 4x6 paper feeder. When installed with a few sheets, I sometimes have trouble getting the photo print started. Maybe with 20 sheets in the feeder, I won't have this problem.
Love the output! Love the speed! Love taking digital pictures from my camera now, more then ever.
50 Replaced an S630
The difference is day and night. You could tell before the images were from a bubble jet, with this printer you can't. The quality is superb. It is also fast and silent, extra silent if you use "silent" mode. The only drawback I see to this printer is that the black ink cartridge is a small one. I did notice that when you do fast prints, very fast it tries to save ink so this may or may not be an issue, I am still on my first tanks of ink.
If you want to print photos then you really cant go wrong this printer, it is very impressive.
51 Beautiful!
I did a lot of research on color printers. I was a strong supporter of Epson printers. That's all I've had. I thought I was pretty happy about it, until I met up with the i960. It is, to be simple, OUTSTANDING! The color is beautiful. Pictures are stunning. They are truly smear/smudge proof on their paper. The ink is lasting for quite a bit longer than the Epson. In fact, if weren't for the fact that I had to change the Epson ink cartridges so often, I would still have the Epson.
Well, I'm glad I made the switch. I doubt I'll ever go back. Too many pluses for the i960. Yes, you do have to put out a larger cash outlay for this printer. But, for the quality and the cost of their supplies, I truly believe it is worth every penny.
52 An Excellent Printer
The Canon i960 is an excellent printer, having 6 ink cartridges and very good software accompanying it. One can print borderless photos if you wish. Set up is very easy and works well with Panther. Download the most recent driver and software form Canon web site, as CD has older versions. You cannot go wrong with this printer! Excellent.
53 It's good quality printing but at slow speed
Owning a Canon 900 & 9000 I was wanting to add another great printer for faster production. Much to my surprise this is twice as slow as the 900 &9000 (which prints 2 color pages in 1 minute). This does 1 color page per minute, for some reason Canon has slowed this new model down if your looking for speed, this is not your baby.
54 Canon i960 ROCKS
The printer is fantastic! I've been printining 4x6 photos non-stop on Canon's photo paper and they are beautiful. The speacial tray for the 4x6 paper is a great idea, don't know why it wasn't thought of before. Do yourself and your friends a favor, but this printer now! I wish I was able to report a fault with this printer but it doesn't have any. The only thing is that the ink can be pricey but that's a small price to pay for instant photos. I also have Canon's CP-10 and CP-300 and find myself using the i960 more often.
55 Great Printer!
I'm a serious amateur photographer and a professional writer. The i960 is great for photos and text. The photo quality is excellent, comparable in quality and price to a photo lab. I shoot digitally and get better results from the i960, because there's no telling what settings the lab is using in its machine.
Individual ink cartridges is great, and supposedly this printer wastes less ink than its predecessors by skipping ink-consuming calibration processes at startup. At any rate, I've had the printer for about a month, have printed lots of photos and haven't started running low on ink.
Some have said this printer suffers in the text department, but I haven't been disappointed. My pages look just fine, at least as good as any inkjet I've used. Other benefits are the 4x6 paper feeder, the folding paper catcher in front, and man, this thing looks cool on the shelf (hey, it helps).
Overall, the i960 is a fantastic printer and very affordable at its sub-$200 price. I'd recommend it to anyone.
56 Follow up
I know have owned this printer for 3 months. All I can say is WOW! I still impress myself with the pics I print. I talked my daughter into buying one too. She loves it! She did say canon photo paper is a must. I have used both canon and epson paper with excellant results. I have printed close to 150 4x6 and I have not replaced the ink. I have 2 tanks that are 1/2 empty but the other 4 are full. Truely amazing. My old Epson C80 was a INK PIG! They savings in ink alone jsutify the price.
57 delayed delivery by amazon.com-- follow up
I'm still waiting anxiously for my order which was placed on feb 29 . I cannot comment on the quality of this product because the delayed delivery by amazon.com, now the "estimated" delivery date is MARCH 11 - MARCH 17(suppose to be MARCH 7-MARCH 9TH). I'm very disppointed at amazon's service because it doesn't even give me any explanation or reason on the delay, and even though I'd like to cancel my order (it is not being shipped yet) but I just cannnot do so due to amzaon's policy.
I finally got the printer on March 8th, and the photo printouts are incredible. vow!
58 Quality Equal to Drug Store Developing
If you're like most amateur photographers, you take your film to be developed at the neighborhood drug store. Well, I'm pleased to say that there finally is a reasonably priced printer that does as good a job as what you'd see from the corner store.
I've tried a few different papers, but the Canon Pro is by far the best. I'm not sure if they planned it that way (to make sure I keep giving Canon my money!), but the Canon Pro Paper makes 4x6 photos that are simply terrific.
I'm sure if you're a professional, this would not be for you. But as a parent of six children who takes oodles of photographs, the Canon i960 is perfect!
59 i960 printer
Absolutely an increditble printer. Some awkward features which take some getting used to. Doesn't include the USB cable. Great Prints
60 Canon does it again
I am very pleased with the i960. I formerly used the S800, which has the same ink cartridge setup. But this printer is a whole new world. As with the S800, the print setup (driver) is feature rich - duplex printing, adjustments for paper type, lots of scaling and enhancement options. The print speed, nearly silent operation, print quality and paper handling features are outstanding. It runs either USB 1.1 or USB 2.0. It lacks a photo card reader, included on several competing brands, but it has an input for direct linking from EXIF-enabled cameras. BTW, I've tried generic ink cartridges in my S800. Not a good move as quality/color is inconsistent. Bite the bullet, pay the extra for Canon cartridges.
61 What a Printer!
This printer is the best so far. The prictures are clean and crisp in detail. The color is outstanding. The 8 x 10's come out looking very professional. You can print directly from a compatible camera. With the 2 extra colors really makes a difference. Canons new printer coming out in May should be awesome with a total of 8 colors.
62 Interesting Tips - Things your mother should have told you.
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 cartridges 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
63 Very good photo printer
I bought this printer to print photographs and it does that very well. Prints on glossy paper are indistinguishable from processed photo prints. Don't expect many frills from this printer such as a memory card reader, LCD, or fancy software. Text printing looks good but is slow for compared to other ink jet printers. Color printing, on the other hand, is very fast. 8" X 11" prints take only about 1 minute to print on the highest detail setting. 4" X 6" take about 30 seconds. This printer was built to do one thing very well: Printing high quality color photos. Ink consumption and price is very reasonable. Ink cartrages may be replaced seperatatly for a very reasonable price, $10 to $12 for Canon cartrages or you can get generic for about $5.50 each. This printer is perfect for people who like to take a lots of digital pictures, print them, and give them away to friends and faimly. They will not be able to tell that you printed them yourself.
64 Kudos from a photo restorationist
I restore mostly black & white/sepia photos and this is the first Canon photo printer that prints perfect grayscale and beautiful color photos, especially when using Canon Matte Photo Paper. The two earlier Canon models I bought always had a slight cyan cast. I am thrilled with this photo printer!
65 Now that I've had it a while :(
Now that I've had it awhile, I am truly sorry I bought it, and that I bought it from Amazon.com (makes returning it harder and costly). It was very easy to put together, and it does give me great photos, BUT something in the PRINTER sends messages to my computer saying it is "offline" even though it is not. This happens sporadically and causes TREMENDOUS ANNOYANCE.
The other BIG problem I am having is that the paper tray for smaller items stays stuck in the up position (thereby not descending to the poisition where it feeds the paper), requiring me to feed the paper in by hand (that is once I manage to remove the tray from the printer). Another problem with hand-feeding is I cannot always determine if the photo will be printed in the right place on the photo paper--lots of EXPENSIVE paper and ink WASTED. Since the tray (and entire printer) is made of PLASTIC, I cannot twist, pull, or push (even using the proper release levers) too hard for fear it will break.
Needless to say, I have learned my lesson. Next time I need something besides books, I will buy locally, and I will try the product out AT THE STORE, where I can return it for a FULL REFUND if necessary.
I do not find the HELP tool on the toolbar very helpful either. It is far too unhelpful--I am not a computer nerd, but I am an intelligent person, and I can figure out more than what the help options tell me. Oops--just lost another star...
On the PLUS side, the photos are GREAT, it does perform SELF-MAINTENANCE, and it is FAST--once it gets started. And the PRICE at Amazon.com was good, too, considering they delivered free to my home. Ok, I'll give it back a star.
66 Where can I find best deal for replacement inks?
I purchased Canon i960 (first time Canon buyer) last December 2003 and I am happy with it so far.
My question is where can we find best deal on replacement inks?
I saw cheap price at http://www.abcink.com -- they charge only $4.00 per cartrdige.
Is it good deal or what?
gwlj
67 Excellent photo printer
I bought this printer about a month ago for two main purposes.
1) To do some small color school projects with our daughter.
2) To see how well it prints photos.
For school projects the i960 does all I expected - a solid inkjet performance. But it's the photos where it just completely surprised me. Originally, I had my eyes set on a thermal printer from Sony, but no more. After printing the first photo on i960 I was stunned with its photo quality. Nearly picture perfect and I venture to say better than what I get from OFoto.
If you need to print photos from your digital camera for normal use, i960 will do the job nicely. It's fast. It's quiet. The photo quality is gorgeous (3Mpixel pictures blown up to a letter size look great). I recommend Cannon Photo Paper Plus. The more expensive Photo Paper Pro didn't deliver noticeable difference (in fact, the Paper Plus prints seemed to look better). Borderless printing is fabulous.
Not sure about the cost per photo, but that's not a major issue. The convenience of printing at home is more important to me.
The prints can scratch, so treat them carefully. After printing they also 'stink' a little (ink), but don't worry the smell almost totally disappears after a while.
Overall, this is one great printer. Highly recommended. I took some pictures of my friends at a birthday party and had the prints ready five minutes later - they couldn't believe it!
68 Highest quality, good cost per print with great ink system
I have owned several "photo" or mixed-use ink jet printers (including a HP 2200 series I got last year), and this produces the best output by far - true photo-quality when printed on Canon's "Photo Paper Plus - Glossy". Like most printers, the output is much better when using the manufacture's own paper (as opposed to the cheaper generic paper), but there is no need to buy the most expensive "Pro" paper as neither I nor my wife could discern ANY difference between the two. There may be a benifit to the "Pro" paper that cannot be seen (lasts longer?) but at almost twice the cost it is not worth it.
The part I like the best about he printer is the ink tank system - it uses 6 individual tanks made of CLEAR plastic so you can confirm with your own eye they are empty when the printer tells you they are (there will be a little unusable amount in the "sponge" portion of the tank, but NONE in the main tank section). Because the tanks are just ink (no print head like in most HP and others) the price of new tanks is quite cheap (no need to risk the printer or the quality with refills or generic ink); and because there are 6 individual colors you only need to buy the color you ran out of, rather than buying a new "color" or "photo" tank like I have to do with my HP whenever one color goes out. You DO go through some colors a lot more than others - while it will vary depending on what you are printing, after printing out several hundred 8x10s I have gone through 3 "photocyan" tanks, 3 "photomagenta" tanks, 2 "cyan", one "magenta", one "yellow" and am still on my first tank of the other 2 colors. In ink savings alone, I have paid for this printer, and you feel MUCH better when you can pull out that little tank and confirm you really did go through the ink (I have often had my doubts).
If you print a lot of 4x6 snapshots, there is a seperate feeder for them that you can even leave in place while printing 8x10 sheets (or you can just lift it out if you want to load more 8x10 paper, as it cuts down the amount that can fit). I can't say how it would work with printing text documents, as I use it exclusively for photos.
And if you work on a Mac, it works Great with OSX.
69 Amazon Selling Defective Printers
The printer prints excellant pictures. But don't buy it from Amazon.com. They advertize "Easy Returns!" That is a lie. I bought this printer from Amazon and it is defective. It tears up most 4x6 prints, as well as completely scratching and defacing the paper. This was my first purchase with Amazon so I thought their "Returns Are Easy!" was for real. In the return process they e-mailed me saying they needed additional information about the defect, and to refer to the owner's manual, contact the manufacter about the problem, or go to amazon's link for repairing a product yourself. They said that this is their return policy at this time. They refuse to honor their return policy. Be very cautious when buying from amazon.com.
Update: I just recieved an e-mail from Amazon apoligizing for the problem and said they are sending me a new printer. Hopefully the new one will be problem free as I really like this printer. Mabey I just delt with someone in customer support who was in a bad mood or improperly trained. But they are trying to rectify the situation.
70 Excellent Choice
I chose a cannon printer because I was replacing a vintage b&w canon that was still working great. Right out of the box it produced photo lab quality 4x6 on canon pro paper. With all of the different printers out there I was nervous about my decision while awaiting shipment. No worries now.
71 An Outstanding Printer at an affordable price
If you've been looking for an excellent photo printer, your search is over. The Canon i960 is amazing. I bought this printer because I wanted to produce my own photos from my new digital camera. The results are equal or better than anything you'll get from your local drugstore. And the colors are a dead on match with the Photoshop CS version on my screen.
72 Exellent Purchase!
I really spent a lot of time doing research before I bought a photo printer. After reading all the reviews I decided to buy the i960. I am very satisfied with my purchase. I really like to be in control when it comes to printing photos and with this purchase, I have it! I do photography as a side job and my clients have not seen the diference in the quality of prints. I have a Nikon D100 and this printer is a great addition to my digital dark room.
73 Truly professional looking results
This is an incredible photo printer for home use. Decided to buy this model after doing a fair amount of checking on photomagazine and online reviews of inkjet photo printers. It is sturdy, easy to set up, ink wells are changed easily, has USB 2 data transfer with Windows XP and handles all paper sizes up to letter size. I have used it with a variety of papers, but the best results are obtained with Canon Photo Paper Pro and Ilford Pearl series (classic and smooth), with Kodak upper end paper third. It is amazing when I show friends my 8.5 x 11 high quality prints of landscapes, people, or sports events. They simply can't believe that these weren't produced by a professional lab. This is one purchase where I am totally satisfied and eager to share enthusiasm with others.
74 Fantastic printer!
If your primary concern is printing great photos really fast then this is the printer for you.
I work at a lab that specializes in printing large format prints using traditional R4A technology. It's a $150,000 dollar machine and both me and my co-workers agree that this little Canon rivals it (maybe beats it) for color fidelity and detail. The i960 has a very wide gamut. I simply don't think that there are traditional chemical printers or dye-sub printers that have a broader color range. The colors simply pop of the page and even the most minute detail shows.
Another great thing about it is how little fuss there is to get great prints out it. If you have a digital camera that shoots in sRGB all you have to do is sharpen the photo a little and hit print. No tweaking of colors is really necessary to get great results. Knowing this, I still got my i960 profiled and the results have been even better.
I am taking one star off because they purposefully crippled the US model. In Europe, consumers are able to get the i965 which is the i960 with DVD/CD printing! Come on Canon! Why can't Americans get this great feature?
75 Excellent Photo Printer
I recently purchased the Canon i960 Photo Printer and it is excellent. The print quality is absolutely amazing and the pictures look exactly like photos being developed at Wolf Camera. The resolution is amazing and the software that comes with the printer is very easy to use. I highly recommend purchasing this printer as well as the Canon photo glossy paper. It works great if you have a Canon digital camera!!
76 Great photo quality!
When I first tried this printer I used some 8-1/2 x 11 Canon Matte Photo Paper that I had on hand. I was disappointed with the results because the prints were washed out even when I turned up the contrast in Photoshop. I switched to Canon Photo Paper Pro and what a difference! The prints are truly photo quality. It's remarkable to get a fast quiet printer of this quality for less than $200.
I used to spend hours in my darkroom with an Omega D5XL color enlarger and Jobo Processor. Now I can make color prints without mixing chemicals, pouring solutions, washing prints, fumbling in the dark, or cleaning up afterwards. This printer and my photo negative scanner are the greatest things to come along!
77 Compare with Shutterfly
The picture quality of this printer is spectacular! Using Canon's Photo Paper Pro, these pictures print out as nice as Shutterfly and other major print shops. I have used a couple different types of paper, and I would advise, if you want expert looking pics, to use only Canon's Photo Paper Pro. Other brands didn't compare (at least not in my eye).
Another great reason why this printer is great is because the ink replacement cartridges are only $12 each. Yes, the printer does come with five, but after printing out 100 pictures, the ink level has barely moved! Reading all the reviews, the printer was praised for it's use of ink!
Super printer...you need to get one!
78 Magnificent, Magnificent, Magnificent
If you have a high mega-pixel camera(4-5mp), this printer will print photos that are absolutely indistinguishable from a photo-lab. I never used home photo printers because they never had the quality of Shutterfly or the economic benefits. Those days are now over, completely and absolutely. The colors, contrast, the 6-ink system, this is the first printer that I have encountered that actually prints REAL PHOTO-QUALITY prints without buying a $1000 Dye-Sublimation Printer. This printer is going to spell problems for all the Digital Photo Processing Kiosks and Labs. I would recommend this printer without any reservations.
79 Only one word, WOW!!!
Bought this printer after reading all the reviews on it. Now got the chance to see it myself. I can only say one word, WOW! Cannot believe the print out is from a printer, not from professional photo lab! Extremely quiet while printing and it is fast. Only took 20 minutes to set it up, including the alignment. Manual is extremely easy to follow.
80 Great Printer
Going from the reviews I've seen here I went and purchased this printer as an upgrade from my HP1215 Photo Printer. This thing is amazing! It really does print fast and the quality is perfect.
A reviewer mentions that it doesn't even include slots for camera memory. Who cares? Its a 200 dollar printer with some excellent features for that money -speed and quality prints. In fact, that same reviewer mentions it doesn't even contain a USB cable among his 5 seperate negative posts. Show me a printer that does include the cable to connect to your PC.
I may be breaking the rules by comenting on anothers reviews but when the same person has commented 5 seperate times in an attempt to drive the negative numbers up something should be done about it.
81 Capable of better & cheaper results than commercial labs
After shopping around for a month or so, my wife and I ended up getting the Canon i960 photo printer, and so far we're very happy with it. I bought her some prints from our digital cameras from Ritz Camera as a Christmas present, but now that we've got the photo printer, we've made fresh copies of some of the same images and the results from the Canon seem to be at least as good as the commercial prints, if not better. Plus, we have more control over how images are scaled & cropped when printing at home rather than having someone like Ritz or CVS do them for us.
One of the features that convinced us to buy this printer was the fact that the inks are sold separately. My hunch is that this should make the printer cheaper to operate in the long run than a printer with multi-color ink cartridges, but only time will tell if that's actually true. From some "back of the envelope" math, it seems like it's going to be roughly as expensive to print at home than to get them made commercially (we're estimating about $.30 per print either way), but the convenience & flexibility of having our own setup should make it worthwhile.
So far, we've tried running the printer with the sample Canon paper it came with, some Kodak glossy photo paper, and some mid-grade Epson photo paper. The prints with the Canon paper seem to look best so far, but the paper also seems to be one of the more expensive options available. The Epson paper looks almost as good, and it looks like we can find it much cheaper than the high end Canon stuff. The Kodak paper, on the other hand, has produced pretty disappointing results so far -- we haven't been able to get printouts that look as good as the Epson or Canon paper. Moreover, the geometry of the Kodak paper isn't as advertised: it's 6.5 x 4 sold as 6 x 4 paper; the printer is using about half of that extra length, but it's leaving a blank margin on one side of each print, and so far the supplied Canon photo software doesn't seem to be able to compensate for this.
So, I would recommend this printer, but not because it's a better deal than your local CVS/Ritz/Wal-Mart/etc's photo lab. At best, you're likely to break even with commercial printing. On the other hand, you can expect to get excellent image quality that's at least on par with the commercial labs, if not better -- but try running different kinds of paper through to figure out the results you'll be happiest with: the supposedly high end Kodak paper seems to be disappointing with this printer, but the Epson paper is more than satisfactory, and it currently seems to be cheaper than the Canon paper.
82 Canon i960 -excellent printer
I received the Canon i960 as a gift. It produces excellent pictures. Quiet and fast. I have had good luck buying from Amazon. Also, the sample pack of Canon 4x6 glossy photo pro paper produced superb pictures. I would highly recommend this printer.
83 The best printer I ever owned!
I bought this printer last december, I have been using it to print all my christmas pictures. I have been using the photo paper "Ilford Printasia - Premium photo glossy paper" and the results are just amazing! The quality is better than you can hope for. I am very glad about my purchase.
84 Great Product
For the price, I would definitely recommend this printer. It prints a borderless 4X6 in about 30 seconds and its quality is unparalleled. As for ink consumption, I know the ink is expensive, but I've printed about 30 borderless 4X6's and the ink level hasn't budged from full. Also, the ink tanks are separate and clear so that you can purchase them one at a time as you need them and you will be able to see for yourself whether or not there is any ink left (as opposed to inferior software based ink level systems in which software counts the number of drops that have been printed and then estimates how much is left). Not only that, the ink dries almost instantly-once the paper ejects I can touch the print and not smudge it. Wonderful! One caveat, use canon photo paper (any type) unless you go with a more expensive professional type paper. Inferior paper will produce an inferior result and the sample of canon paper included with this printer will convince you of its quality. The special 4X6 tray is a time-saver and Canon should be commended on the quality of this product.
85 Best Value and Quality Available
I've mainly used Epson and HP Printers at work and at home; however, after reading the reviews of this Canon printer I decided to give Canon a shot. I have never been as blown away by a product before as I was with this one!
I printed over 100 photos at 4x6 without using all of the ink that came with the printer. The photos look like actual photos from a film camera. A friend at work wanted to know where I got my digital pictures developed.
The software which comes with this printer is amazing. You can instantly make a complete package of photos, including wallets, 5x7, and 8x10.
One amazing feature of this printer that I've never seen on the other brands is the ability to print full bleed on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. I tried this and it worked perfectly.
I use a Sony F707 5 megapixel digital camera and have really been impressed with the results the "little Canon that could" have given me. If you use Canon's paper, the photos look perfect. Cheaper paper will still look better than HP/Epson photos, but not as perfect as the Canon paper photos.
Another reason to buy this printer: Check out the prices of Canon's replacement inks vs. HP's or Epson's. That alone is worth buying this printer...not to mention the fact that the 2 picoliter drops result in higher quality prints than HP or Epson can offer.
86 Must have printer
Purchased this printer for photo printing only. Main reason was that it has two USB ports. Utilized the high speed port to connect an iMac flat panel and the full speed port to a Windows XP computer. Installation was a breeze and had both computers up and printing in 25 minutes. I have only printed out with the borderless 4x6 pro paper that came with the printer so my review is with limited use. I have a Nikon 885 3 mega-pixel camera taking pictures on the highest quality setting. The pictures are amazing with vibrant colors. Speed to print from the XP computer is immediate while the iMac typically takes an extra 10-20 seconds to send print information. Although, I believe this is the Mac OS X problem and not the printer since it takes this long to send information to the HP all-in-one also connected. The quality of the prints and the price of the printer make this an excellent buy. Compared the same photo from this printer to one done at a decent photo lab and was hard pressed to notice differences.
87 Most Excellent Printer
Don't listen to the whining and moaning of the disaffected few. This is an excellent printer, and out performed the Hewlet Packard even when the Hewlet Packard representative was demonstrating her machine. Color is gorgeous, and the software installed easily.
88 Excellent printer!
I have owned several Canon printers in the past and have never had ANY problems with any of them (I have owned an HP Deskjet that gave me nothing but problems). This is my forth printer from Canon, WHO, by the way, owns more patents on inkjet technology than any other manufacturer. If you're using an inkjet printer, you're probably using Canon's technology. I have printed many photographs on my printer and am still amazed at the quality of the print. I cannot tell it from a traditional film based picture*. I have looked at Epson and HP and seen prints from the equivalently price models. The Canon prints are remarkably more superb than either HP or Epson**. There is a PictBridge/DirectPrint connector on the front for cameras that support PictBridge/DirectPrint and uses the USB cable that comes with your camera, the only extra cable you need is the one to connect the printer to the PC. The printer does only offer USB connection, however. If you need camera card convenience, I suggest you look at the I900D, which also has PictBridge/DirectPrint convenience and an LCD preview screen. If you need large prints (larger than 8.5x11) look at the I9100, which supports upto 13x19. Setup of the printer is a breeze. Just remove the packing tape, plug in the power cord, drop in the printhead (it's foolproof; if it's not in correctly, you can't put the inktanks in or close the printhead latch), install the accompanied driver/software bundle and your ready to print amazing photo studio quality pictures! OR you can print great pictures directly, without using your PC, by utilizing the PictBridge/DirectPrint feature of your camera***.
*Actual picture quality is affected by the quality of camera being used. Obviously, the printer cannot make up for poor quality cameras. A good picture starts with a good camera.
**Canon recommends using ONLY Canon branded ink and papers for optimum quality. I fully support that view. Canon has tested thousands of varying paper types and has developed their own unique paper and specially formulated ink which garantees excellent performance.
***Direct PC-less printing requires use of a PictBridge/DirectPrint supported camera. Check your camera secification or contact your camera manufacturer to find out if it is PictBridge/DirectPrint compatable.
89 Small wonder the i960 earned 'Printer of the Year' award!
PC Magazine named Canon's i960 photo printer "Printer of the Year (2003)" for its unusual capability and versatility. As they noted, the i960 is one of the very few low-priced high-quality inkjet printers that can handle both photo's and correspondence with reasonable speed, modest cost, and top-shelf quality. Although some manufacturers pull the jaded razor trick by virtually giving away the product, then making the (big) profit on inks and paper, Canon made a genuine - and tellingly successful - effort at keeping ink costs down by using the more costly method of mounting separate ink tanks for each of the six colors. For instance, 'photo cyan' and 'photo magenta' each are consumed about twice as fast as regular cyan and magenta. Rather than tossing out a muticolor inktank [as used by HP], you can replace the unique photo-ink tanks individually for under twelve bucks each. Top quality photo paper isn't cheap, but in range with that of other manufacturers; although I haven't tested, it might be prudent to stick with Canon's inks to prevent printhead clogging; and Canon papers probably are formulated optimally for their inks and printers. Other reviewers have commented that the cheap genereric office supply store's papers look just like that, and probably will fade faster than the real thing.
The printer, with Canon 'Plus' or 'Pro' paper, produces incredibly beautiful photographs. And it can do borderless printing which looks most professional - dire warnings of possible smudging near the edges notwithstanding. The unique dispenser for 4X6" paper, inserted in front of the main paper input slot, allows for using the unit as both a photo printer and a letter printer, with a mere twist of a knob to place the 4X6 unit ON or OFF stream. I can't compare with an Epson printer, but this Canon surpasses my HP in photo mode in both appearance and in cost of ink supplies. The enclosed software is top-notch, allowing for numerous adjustments in printing quality, image enhancement, paper grade and size, and feedback to keep an eye on ink levels. Some users have commented on streaking; under the printer driver's maintenance tab is a checkbox to correct for streaking.
Not the least, the printer and driver are optimized for USB 2.0 to give very fast performance. A separate port is provided for older operating systems supporting only USB 1.1 [make sure you match USB version with the proper port!]. Now, if only Canon [and every other printer manufacturer] would include a USB cable, this would be the perfect right-out-of-the-box package; but, if you don't read the fine print, you'll get a printer that's useless until you run out and purchase a cable. On the other hand, this is one of the quietest (and fastest) color printers around - and you can further quieten the machine [with slower printing the tradeoff] under software control.
Although the i960 supports printing direct from 'PictBridge' equipped digital cameras (such as the Canon G-series) with the camera's USB connector (USB 1), it has neither memory card slots nor LCD viewer -- for good reason. Any halfway serious amateur using a printer of this quality (and price) would massage the original digital image with the provided software or, better yet, with an Editor such as Photoshop, PS Elements, PaintShop or Photo Impact. IOW, you don't need (nor would you want) printing direct from the memory card.
At the Amazon price, and the reasonable cost of consumables, this unit is unbeatable, and comes highly recommended by this reviewer as well as by non-troglodyte others. Not a spot of trouble after having printed hundreds of photo's to date.
90 glad I waited this long to buy a photo printer
I'm not an 'early adopter'. Didn't buy a digital camera until I was convinced the photos would rival my good old OM-1! Same with the photo printer.
Anyway: The i960 looked so good in the store that it became a family Christmas present. We were all very pleased from the very first print.
We don't print anything without a quick check of framing/cropping on the computer's nice, big screen. So, who cares that the printer doesn't have a memory card slot or a 2-inch LCD for editing/previewing?
The supplied Easy Photo Print software is pretty easy to use and hasn't confused or disappointed us. We may never graduate to anything more sophisticated!
Prints made on the cheapest Canon 'Glossy Photo Paper' have impressed everyone. On the 'Pro' paper they have even more snap. We don't seem to have used up much ink yet either... so I really won't mind buying Genuine Canon cartridges when the time comes!
Yeah, the i960 resides toward the more-expensive end of the printer spectrum and it is optimized as a photo (vs. general purpose) printer. But if, like us, your goal is glorious photos you can't help but be pleased with its output. And the entertainment value of watching this 'magic' happen again and again is undeniable. Buy one!
91 Canon convert
My experience with my two Epson printers had made me cynical about color printers. I don't print often so I had to clean, clean and clean the print heads and often just replaced ink cartridges which were still half full. To be fair, I've only had the Canon one day so maybe I'll still be throwing things across the room over printing problems....
But set-up on the Canon was a snap. The much-feared manual alignment amounted to a mouse click. The photos produced are, to my eye at least, stunning. I wasted a lot of years fighting with Epson printers, but I think I finally got a divorce.
92 Reply to Negative comments
None of the Photo Printers come with a USB cable. Why? Because most are USB and Parallel compliant, so Canon, HP, Lexmark and Epson leave the choice to the consumer which cable to choose. Maybe you need 3' of USB or 10' of parallel. No sense in putting a cable you don't need in the box.
The Pict-bridge cable is the cable that comes with your digital camera. The Pict-bridge port on the front of the i960 is a standard USB port (like the one on the back of most computers, type A). If your camera is Pict-bridge capable just plug it into the port with the same cable you use to download pictures to your computer. COULDN'T BE EASIER! To find out if your camera is Pict-Bridge capable do a google search for "Pict-Bridge", you will find a site that lists all the cameras with this feature(Sony, Canon, Nikon, Samsung, Olympus, Fuji to name a few).
The i960 is a great printer in my opinion. The best thing about it is that the inks are only $11 and Canon prints how many milliliters are in each container, 13ml's. How many ml's are in each of the Epson print tanks? No one knows, they don't print it on the box! Amazon should block company reps from posting here. The guy that posted the 4 negative reviews below is obviously an Epson rep and biased. I own a Canon camera and this printer and my wife and I couldn't be happier.
93 WOW
Pictures are amazing. I upgrading from a Epson c80 (ink eating pig) to the canon. I have printed dozen of pictures and the ink levels haven't even moved. The photo editor is really easy to use. This is a great printer. I was thinking of buyiing the 860 but since I only want to print pics this is the one to buy.
94 Lab Quality Results!
Excellent printer, lab quality results... be sure to have plenty of Canon Photo Paper Pro in the sizes you want and a USB cord for it. You'll WANT to print lots just to believe the quality it outputs.. very fast and quiet. I have researched this purchase very carefully and I am happy with the results. The negative reviews are unfounded.
95 Photo Printing - The Next Generation
Every once in a while we cycle our digital technology at home in a hand-me-down way. Every time we do this, there is an order-of-magnitude improvement in speed and/or quality, and this purchase was no exception.
We logged a departure from HP with this purchase, moving from a DJ 712 to the Canon i960.
I am an anti-banding freak. I select my printer by walking through Best Buy (or whatever store) and examining print samples for banding. IMHO HP used to distinguish itself by not having any. But I've grown tired of visible dots as well.
I have never seen an Epson printer of any kind pass this banding test in the stores I visit. Epson sales reps - take note.
Wanted to go to the 6-tank variety because I was just irritated by the $30 cost when ANY color ran out. This should be more efficient.
I already have a Canon PowerShot S50 and the little CP-300 dye-sub portable. Love 'em.
Was pleasantly surprised to see the i960 print one of my digital photos off the computer on 4x6 Photo Pro paper, and it looked as good as the dye-sub (except, of course, for the lack of protective layer). No visible dots, no banding. Looks like lab quality to me.
I have no technical or ergonomic issues with the i960, love the speed and quality of the output. Had a great OOBE, and am looking forward to years of continued successful and professional results.
It was a good purchase for me.
Cheers,
-- Mike
96 Now now, you know I make sense
?`I feel for those who were made to believe this was a good printer.
Do I need to go over the details again?
- No supplied USB cable.
- Pictbridge? Another cable NOT supplied - and if you have a camera that's older, you can't use it. And like I explained, you're using more Power to keep the camera powered - which is actually not good for the camera anyways.
- No Card Slots, not even 1. With the Epson, you can either look at the screen on the R300, or print a nice little Index card on?`?` the RX500.
- The inability for the printer to print BORDERLESS photos from other files formats other than JPEGs.
- Lines on my Photos, even on their own 4x6 Pro paper with its own Ink.
- $200 for a Printer which is making people use OTHER software (WHY?) to print better, forcing you to get these other things you need - compared to Epson, which, for $179 you can get the R300 which has a Screen for reviewing pics and has the ability to print CDs, and if it's the RX500, for $250 (only?`?` another 50 bucks more!!!!) you get a SCANNER as well. USB cables supplied, mind you.
- Canon makes you do a lot of work to just to get it unwraped out of the box, onto your desk, and THEN, YOU have to insert the Print Head thingy - I know some of you are having problems because of the crooked way the print head went in.
- Canon's is a shoddy build, cheap plastic, and takes up more room on your desk as it sticks out front and back, because the USB cable stick out with the power cord, and in?`?` the front, the tray pulls out TWICE taking up that much more space. Epson RX500 has the USB cable input BUILT inside the machine, and the tray is underneath so there is no jutting out to the table (which makes no difference to me, like I explained, I print mostly panoramas on 8x23 paper).
- - which is another thing about the Canon - they give you Photostitch software, but then the printer won't accept any other paper other than the ones already programmed, even if you try to customize the?`?` sizes. I even tried with the 8x10 size on an 8.5x11 paper, CENTERED - compared the ability of the Canon to the Epson - Epson's is smarter because it measures from the LEFT and TOP margins, so I can go ahead and print on an 8.5x11 and then cut it on a board down to size without even thinking. With Canon, I had to work out where it would be in the center doing the old "left-right-up-down" margin settings before I even printed, so that it would land SOMEWHERE on the paper - then I had to go?`?` and cut 4 sides instead of 2, which is what I do now with the Epson.
Please do not ATTACK me for my reviews - I am being very technical, and, if you read the "Review Guidelines" it says you shouldn't comment on other people's comments. I DID BUY IT, and TESTED IT - then returned it for a better printer within the alotted refund time period.
Oh yeah I just checked - the Epson store is SOLD out of the RX500. But I am sure you can get it from somewhere else.
Hey if you're happy,?`?` you're happy. But no need to attack me for my technical help from the field. I am doing it for everyone's benefit - you should be glad I put in this much time into explaining things that people will eventually come across anyways. And being out here in Hollywood, I had better know what the heck I am talking about, ya know??`
97 The best printer in the world
I am Very happy with the canon i960 because of the great pictures it prints out and the speed that it prints out. The ink for is also cheaper than Epson ink and the canon ink tanks are see through and the Epson ink Tanks are not so they may tell you that you are out of ink when you have 2or3 prints left so over all I think the Canon i960 is good buy and a very high quilty picture and it is the real best buy see ya later.
98 Dear Troglodytes's Reviews
This is to all the people that have read these reviews. If you notice that all of the 4 Neg reviews have been by one man "Troglodytes's Reviews" This printer is way better thatn the Epson printer. You need to try a diffrent printing software. If anything you should only diss on Canons software not the printer.
Thanks
99 NO CARD SLOTS and don't worry about INKS (explanation below)
?`The Epson RX500 has card slots as well!!!!!!
Besides - using Pictbridge means you have to get that CABLE, again! And what if you own a Camera that does not have that function? On the Epson, I can insert a card, print out an INDEX real quick, choose which one I want to print from the thumbnails, and go ahead and print - for the INDEX I would use a regular paper, of course! Then, on top of that, on the Canon, you have to keep your camera POWERED the whole time you're browsing! WASTE of energy,?`?` I should think, and sapping your battery if you do it that way.
I would not worry about the INK lasting you up to 100 years and all that for OUR private pictures and such - if one was to pay thousands of dollars for a nice photo by a famous photographer, then, I would want it to last as long as possible!
But:
Faded photos have a cool artistic quality of their own, wouldn't you say?
And:
So if my photos I give as gifts, or sell them to people for less than $100 (combined with the?`?` costs of the frames and setting that I do myself) last around 30 years - I'd say the enjoyment of the photos has gone well past the costs behind them, so the worth factor should be beyond your wildest dreams! Then, if the Photographer can provide you with no more of the same picture - well, you can always try to restore the one you've got 30 years from now with the technologies of that time (which should be ABSOLUTELY mind-boggling), if you're still alive or care a lot about the picture - or?`?` throw the picture away, but use the frame for your own or give the frame to someone!!! Or hand the picture and have it restored by someone else!!!!
And did I mention moisture? Depending on WHERE you live, the inks have varying degrees of stability, obviously. It's like Stamps - I have a lot of stamps I've collected over the years - living in Southern California has been a blessing - because there is NEVER a huge fluctuation in HUMIDITY - so the prints do not have to go through a change in?`?` the chemical compositions year to year - you should see some of the stamps I have from 25 years ago, and some American ones from 150 years ago - absolutely perfect, as if they were printed today. You have to think about this moisture factor too, when you read people's reviews and from where they are writing.
And just in a quick reply to you about using OTHER software, Sir, or Madam - this is a Canon printer, and you're already talking about using some OTHER software to print better? WHY??`?` Makes no sense to me, what you suggest. It should not have such problems with its own stuff. And what stuff do they give ya, really? No cable, taking off all those orange tapes, insert the print head yourself (worrying whether it went in properly or not), no card slots, and making YOU use your camera's powers and tiny little LCD to go through your pictures one-by-one, instead of being able to power down, take out the card and into the slot, insert, print Index, choose quickly from the list, and?`?` print.
$200 is a TOTAL ripoff! If you've had it for less than the alotted refund time from your establishment where you purchased it - return it - then get the Epson.
I only wish I could give this thing a ZERO star. Canon should GIVE these away with their cameras.
It's really embarassing, when you think about it.
And remember - I do not work for Epson nor am I sponsored by them - I actually bought the Canon 5 days ago, ya know - did tests all night, and returned the awful machine.
?`?`
And did I mention I can SCAN with the RX500 too? I shaved off $150 bucks from the separate printer-and-scanner situaiton I was contemplating: and as far as resolution goes - scanning from the Negative is never a GREAT thing, but there are wonderful scanners out there (for THOUSANDS of dollars, for PRO applications!!!!) but for my own thing? I can scan the Neg, and if the resolution of this scanner seems low - well I can print a 4x6 or even a 8x11 and RE-SCAN that!!!!! So I can get a BIGGER?`?` File out of it - but then I can't print those on this Prnter anyways - I would take those LARGE files and have the LAB print it, you see?
Boy now let me tell you all the things I have figured out in the last year...... hahaha?`
100 I forgot about the "lack of cable"
?`Why does one have to BUY a USB cable for this thing?
Not only that, you actually have to INSERT the print head thingy, and tear off ALL of those ORANGE tapes! Easy set-up? Nah - I was nerve racked! I thought I would break the thing if I touched it wrong! I am still in fear of it..... how did it survive the shipping, I wonder!
I got the Epson RX500 instead. Took it our of the box, unwrapped the plastic, plonked it on my desk, attached the PROVIDED USB cable to the Mac, then the power cord,?`?` inserted ink, CD, and voila! I think I shaved off around 15 minutes compared to the Canon's way.
All those tapes - also shows you that the Canon is NOT built very well. The Epson had not such tapes! It even has a locking mechanism for the scanner!!!!
The Print head being separate, and making YOU install it may seem like a smart idea - cos if they think it's the Print head, you just send that part in - but you still can't print, can ya? So what if it ends up being something else? You?`?` send the whole thing in anways - so you're making 2 trips.
I don't get it. Making you do all the work - that's supposed to save them production money at the factory - and save you money as well - but then all that time wasted with the orange tape - and it still costs $200? The RX500 costs only $250! And it's got a scanner! And prints better without any lines at all, with better inks!!!!?`
