CANON:7 NEW PRINTERS AND NEW INK CTGS

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canon announces seven new printers
it’s been a big week for canon printers with 3 new inkjet announcements and four new inkjet AIOs.
July 06,It’s been a big week for Canon printers: the company announced three new inkjet printers and four inkjet all-in-one (AIO) printers.The three printer-only inkjets range from $49 to $199. Like most recent new printers, they represent an evolutionary improvement over last year’s models, claiming better performance, and offering additional features for any given price. Canon says they will also print long-lasting photos, with a touted 100-year lifetime if kept in dark storage (such as a photo album), and a 30-year lifetime for photos framed behind glass.The most basic, and least expensive, printer in this group is the Pixma iP1700 Photo Printer, which measures 6.5 by 17.2 by 10.0 inches (HWD), and weighs just 6.6 pounds. The iP1700 uses two ink cartridges to print in four colors-cyan, yellow, magenta, and black, with a maximum resolution of 600 by 600 dots per inch (dpi) for black and 1200 by 4800 dpi for color.Canon says the iP1700 can print a 4-by-6 borderless print in about 55 seconds, and it rates the printer at 22 pages per minute (ppm) for black and 17 ppm for color. (Ink jet speed claims have very little to do with reality, but you can use them to compare the relative speeds of different printers, particularly with printers from the same manufacturer.Although Canon calls all three of these printers photo printers, the Pixma iP6310D and Pixma iP6700D are more clearly focused on photos than the iP1700.Offering 1200-by-4800-dpi maximum resolution for both black and color, the iP6310D adds more nozzles (2304 compared with 1472 in the iP1700). It takes either two color cartridges, with cyan, yellow, and magenta ink in each, or one color cartridge and one photo cartridge, using black, light cyan, and light magenta ink. Canon doesn’t even bother giving a page-per-minute rating for the printer, but folks at the company say the iP6310D can print a borderless 4-by-6 snapshot in 60 seconds, and an 8-by-10 photo in 1 minute 47 seconds.The iP6700D is the high-end choice here, with a maximum 2400-by-9600-dpi resolution for both black and color, 3072 nozzles. It also has a smaller minimum drop size-at 1 picoliter rather than the 2-picoliter minimum size for the iP1700 and iP6310D-providing more precise control over the dots on the page.Unlike the other two printers, the iP6700D holds six ink cartridges, with a separate cartridge for each color-black, cyan, yellow, magenta, light cyan, and light magenta. Here again, Canon doesn’t give a page-per-minute rating for standard printing, but the company says the iP6700D can print a 4-by-6 borderless print in 47 seconds and an 8-by-10 in 76 seconds. The iP6700D is also the only printer in this trio to offer duplex printing and two paper trays, with a 150-sheet capacity for each tray.Canon says the iP1700 is available now for $49 direct; the iP6700D will ship on July 24 for $199; and the iP6310D can be had on August 28 for $99. Continue reading for details on Canon’s new AIO printersAs we mentioned earlier, besides its new standard inkjet printers, Canon announced four inkjet all-in-ones (AIOs) this week: the Pixma MP160 Photo All-In-One, Pixma MP180 Photo All-In-One, Pixma MP460 Photo All-In-One, and the Pixma MP530 Office All-In-One.Despite the naming distinction between photo and office AIO, all four models seem to be good choices for scanning and printing photos, and are equipped with flatbed scanners and PictBridge support for direct printing from cameras. In addition, the machines produce photos with a claimed 100-year lifetime if kept in dark storage, as in an album, or a 30-year lifetime for photos framed behind glass. The four devices also can print, scan, and copy either photos or standard office documents. But only the MP530 includes a built-in fax modem and automatic document feeder (ADF).The MP160, MP180, and MP460 are all variations on a theme, built around the same print engine. Maximum resolution is 600 by 600 dots per inch (dpi) for black and 1200 by 4800 dpi for color; the smallest drop size is 2 picoliters, and the claimed speed is 22 pages per minute (ppm) for printing in black, 17 ppm for color, and 52 seconds for printing a 4-by-6 borderless photo. (The claimed print speeds, particularly for standard printing, don’t necessarily have any relationship to reality, but they indicate that Canon thinks these all print at the same speed.) All three are also four-color printers, using a black cartridge and a color cartridge, with cyan, yellow, and magenta inks.The differences show up on the scanner side of these AIOs and in features. The MP160 offers only a 600-pixel-per-inch (ppi) optical resolution. That’s easily enough for scanning a photo to print at the same size or a little larger, but will limit the ability to enlarge a photo and maintain good quality. The MP180 bumps the optical resolution up to 1200 ppi, and it adds the ability to print directly from an assortment of memory cards. With only a $10 price difference between the two models, it’s hard to any see a reason to choose the MP160 over the MP180.One shortcoming in the MP180 is that without an LCD to preview the photos on memory cards, you have to print a proof sheet first, and then pick which photos to print from the proof sheet. One nice touch is that you can print the page, then tell the AIO which photos to print by filling in a small circle next to each thumbnail photo and scanning the page. The MP460 offers the same 1200 ppi optical resolution as the MP180 for scanning and the same memory card support, but adds a 1.9-inch LCD for previewing photos before printing, and a Bluetooth option ($79.99 direct) for wireless printing.The MP530 is built around a notably different print engine than the other three AIOs, with the same maximum resolution of 600 by 600 dpi for black, but a higher resolution for color, at 2400 by 9600 dpi. In keeping with the higher resolution, it has a smaller minimum drop size, at 1 picoliter, for more precise control over the dots of ink on the page.The print engine also uses a different ink system, with a separate cartridge for each of the five ink colors: cyan, yellow, magenta, a dye-based black (for photos), and a pigment-based black (for text). And Canon claims a faster print speed for the MP530 than for the other three AIOs, at 29 ppm for black, 19 ppm for color, and 51 seconds for a 4-by-6 borderless photo.Aside from the differences in the print engine, the MP530 adds a second paper tray, so you can keep standard paper in one and photo paper in the other, and it can automatically duplex to print on both sides of the page. It also includes a built-in fax modem to let it work as a standalone fax machine as well as let you fax from your PC. And the 30-page ADF makes it easy to fax, copy, or scan multi-page documents. However, the MP530 doesn’t include memory card slots or a Bluetooth option, which eliminates two potential conveniences for printing photos. The scanner claims a 1200 ppi optical resolution.Prices for these AIOs are $89 direct for the MP160, $99 for the MP180, $129 for the MP460, and $199 for the MP530. Canon says all four will be available on July 24.

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July 13, 2006 at 11:30 AM