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Photography Question 

Virginia Sustarsic
 

canon 9000 vs 9500 vs i960 printer


After having a canon i960 printer for photographs for several years and being pretty happy with it I purchased a 9500 pro (pigment). Was told by the woman I talked with at canon that the images would be more detailed and the color would be the same in appearance. I have been very frustrated. Not getting good clarity and definition, compared to my original printer images look mushy. Also the color is colder and not realistic. With i960 image color always looked beautiful, usually with no adjustment, with 9500 caucasian faces look either pale and have no warmth or garishly pink or orange, depending on the settings I use. I shoot raw, use photoshop elements 3, and with my original printer didn't do much adjustment, usually just a little sharpening. I am probably returning my new printer. I did hear that canon had stopped shipping out the 9500 for now. Was looking for the archivability, but if I don't reach some satisfaction will return the printer. Wondering whether there is much difference in appearance of images in the 9000pro dye printer, not as archival maybe but still claiming 100 years I think in album and pretty long also under glass. Noticed droplet size is 3 picoliters in 9500 and 2 in 9000, had been told originally by canon this would not show any noticable difference, and more recently, that it could by why the images lack the fine detail I am looking for. Has anyone seen prints of the two side by side? Or had any similar or different experience? Maybe there's something wrong with mine or maybe I'm missing something...Virginia


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June 13, 2007

 

RC T. Tulio
  Hi Virginia,
The Canon 9500 should work great. Are you doing color management? Meaning do you do the following:
1. Calibrate your Monitor using gadgets such as Spyder2?
2. Have you profiled the paper you are using? Are you using an original Canon Paper?
You may need to ask someone with regards to color management on this one.
RC


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June 13, 2007

 

Virginia Sustarsic
  RC, I got good color without calibrating with my i960 so I originally tried the 9500 without calibration. I did get a spyder and printfix pro with the printer so ran the spyder. When I got to printfix pro the new printer was not among the choices listed so I wasn't sure what to do so did not go on with the printfix pro, didn't know whether to pick another canon printer which would be dye rather than pigment based or an epson that would be pigment based or what. So I don't know whether using the spyder had any effect without that next step, but I saw no difference. This does not, however, account for the loss of detail in the images does it?


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June 14, 2007

 

RC T. Tulio
  Hi Virginia!
Great that you have a Spyder2. I am assuming you have calibrated your monitor "correctly" with the Spyder2 you are using the calibrated monitor now in the same lighting condition you calibrated it in and the same monitor brightness. Meaning, if you move your monitor or open the curtains - you have to calibrate again.

As for the printer and paper, have you already ran the printfix pro on the paper you are going to use with the color swatch printed from the 9500? That is basically how it works. Different kinds of paper (glossy, matte, even canvas, fine art paper) needs different icc profiles calibrated using your printer and the paper.
Then for your prints, you have to softproof them using these profiles. Hope that helps. I highly recommend the website below and you can even email our color management expert Jo Avila (he also has a website). He has a 9000 and is already an expert on it.

http://www.digitalphotographer.com.ph/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=53


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June 14, 2007

 

Virginia Sustarsic
  RC, thanks for the suggestions. As I said in previous post, I ran the spyder thing on my screen, but when I was doing the printfix, the canon pro printers were not listed so I did not know which printer name to choose and quit. I do not have the version with a little scanner, mine works some other way. Also, this does not account for the lack of fine detail in the image, noticably less detail than with the i960 which is a few years old now and was a fairly inexpensive printer by comparison. Virginia


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June 15, 2007

 
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