Canon pixma 4200

[novello76]

I just bought the canon pixma 4200 at Sitex, and after 2 days of printing..i must say its quite superb..having printed more than 20 4r photos..i cannot distinguish it from lab prints.and the colour is very accurate too and within my control. highly recommend this printer if you are looking a reasonably printer

[Neo]

Originally Posted by novello76 I just bought the canon pixma 4200 at Sitex, and after 2 days of printing..i must say its quite superb..having printed more than 20 4r photos..i cannot distinguish it from lab prints.and the colour is very accurate too and within my control. highly recommend this printer if you are looking a reasonably printer

Hi Novello,

Glad to hear you're enjoying your new Canon printer. If this is your first Canon Think Tanks printer, you'd be surprised when you first change your ink tanks. Take out the other cartridges and see how much ink is left, when the printer tells you that one colour is out. You'd be surprised at how much ink ink is left in the other ink tanks... that is how much you'd be throwing away if you weren't using the Think Tanks system. Enjoy your new purchase!

[novello76]

Hi Neo, thanks for the head up. Its my first Canon after a few years. Does this ink issue occur for the new pixma printers using the chroma 100 inks as well?

[Neo]

Originally Posted by novello76 Hi Neo, thanks for the head up. Its my first Canon after a few years. Does this ink issue occur for the new pixma printers using the chroma 100 inks as well?

Huh? Ink issue? Uh... no leh... I'm saying the ink system saves you a lot of ink... not waste ink... apologies if I wasn't clear...

Basically the ink system remains the same for the new PIXMA... transparent ink tanks with optical detection system, so very accurate in ensuring that you use every ink cartridge efficiently before discarding it. The transparent ink tank means you can see the emptiness of the discarded cartridge yourself... Hope this helps!

[novello76]

i see.. thanks for clarifying..would you have any suggestions on how to properly calibrate the printer wrt to the monitor? straight prints w/o calibration looks good, although not 100% accurate, so can still be further improved.

[Neo]

Originally Posted by novello76 i see.. thanks for clarifying..would you have any suggestions on how to properly calibrate the printer wrt to the monitor? straight prints w/o calibration looks good, although not 100% accurate, so can still be further improved.

Hi Novello76,

If you're looking for a cheap and good alternative, try the ColorVision Spyder from Cathay Photo. Not too expensive, and can get you reasonably good results. Of course, there're more pricey alternatives like the MacBeth EyeOne which will get you a few percentage points closer, but the value-proposition may be too expensive for most users.

One thing to note... a lot of people rush out to buy colour calibration kits, but few people realize that not all monitors can be calibrated. A fair percentage of monitors cannot be calibrated because they are not able to achieve the dynamic range or gamut range required by the spectrometer, or they drift too much for any consistency to be implemented. I'm using a Mitsuibushi Diamondtron tube monitor that allows me to fine tune the individual colour (RGB) for accuracy, but many monitors bundled with the PCs cannot achieve the necessary contrast or brightness for the calibrator to work properly.

Hope this info helps...

[kex]

Or you can pay for the callibration service a fellow CS member is offering at the consumer corner.