I was in the market for a i950 once the price drops, but then the HP
7960 and Canon i960 came out. I am torn between which printer to get
as both have advantages and disadvantages. The HP has 8 inks and more
advanced convenience features and less tendency to clog due to the
print head being right in the cartridge. The Canon is a lot cheaper
and the color prints are rated better, the inks are cheaper.

Perhaps I am wrong in some assumptions?

I intend to just print color photos, 8 1/2 x 11 borderless and photos
from digital cameras, so can you advise? Or are there better printers?

Don

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>I was in the market for a i950 once the price drops, but then the HP
>7960 and Canon i960 came out. I am torn between which printer to get
>as both have advantages and disadvantages. The HP has 8 inks and more
>advanced convenience features and less tendency to clog due to the
>print head being right in the cartridge.

I have a Canon i850 and it has never clogged in the 8 months I've owned
it, not even after sitting unused for well over a week while on
holidays. A friend has the i550 and it has never clogged on her either.
I've read the i950 is the same.

The Canon also works well with refills and bulk ink using Formulabs ink.
I get mine from AtlanticInkjet here in Canada and it's identical to
Canon ink. Refilling the Canon ink tanks is easier and quicker than the
HP cartridges too.

>I intend to just print color photos, 8 1/2 x 11 borderless and photos
>from digital cameras, so can you advise? Or are there better printers?

From what I can gather, the only print advantage to the HP is the
ability to make very nice black and white photos. Since you don't have a
need for that, the Canon seems like the best choice unless you want the
convenience features you like for the HP.

I'm a refilling HP5550 owner, so it's the same sort of issues I faced about 5
months ago.
Generally speaking, the HP's just about never clog, the Canons are not as good
in this respect but are usually OK for most users.
The Canon is faster than the HP for photos. The HP will be better for text on
plain cheap paper if this matters.
If using OEM cartridges, the HP's are dearer to run, but there again you'll
never be stung by having to buy a new head which will eventually happen with the
Canon, and you won't waste ink on cleaning cycles with the HP. Output quality
must drop over a period of time with a Canon as heads wear but of course no one
knows how long a period yet for the newer models.
Refilling is a doddle on both printers but I've not seen grey HP inks available
yet but they'll surely come.
Canons work best with nanoporous papers which give very nice results but are
very prone to gas fading, you could be seeing fade in a matter of weeks if
you're unlucky. Canons are too fast for resin paper and gives a mottled and
pooled appearance as the ink can't dry quickly enough. It's best to always keep
photos covered when using nanoporous papers. HP's generally work well with
resin coated and nanoporous. Resin coated papers don't fade as bad when exposed
to the air but some makes are rather prone to sticking to album plastic sleeves
and losing the gloss finish where it stuck. I find that Ilford Printasia glossy
(resin type) works well with HP's, no fading issues and no sticking problems in
sleeves/behind glass.
I wouldn't know which printer to pick, there's a lot of variables, but it comes
down to your priorities and the importance of speed (Canon wins), longevity
(HP), hassle-free operation (HP), widest choice of papers(HP), costs (Canon with
OEM inks, same with refills), quality of photos (close call, and depends on lots
of things).


<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I was in the market for a i950 once the price drops, but then the HP
> 7960 and Canon i960 came out. I am torn between which printer to get
> as both have advantages and disadvantages. The HP has 8 inks and more
> advanced convenience features and less tendency to clog due to the
> print head being right in the cartridge. The Canon is a lot cheaper
> and the color prints are rated better, the inks are cheaper.
>
> Perhaps I am wrong in some assumptions?
>
> I intend to just print color photos, 8 1/2 x 11 borderless and photos
> from digital cameras, so can you advise? Or are there better printers?
>
> Don

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> I was in the market for a i950 once the price drops, but then the HP
> 7960 and Canon i960 came out. I am torn between which printer to get
> as both have advantages and disadvantages. The HP has 8 inks and more
> advanced convenience features and less tendency to clog due to the
> print head being right in the cartridge. The Canon is a lot cheaper
> and the color prints are rated better, the inks are cheaper.
>
> Perhaps I am wrong in some assumptions?
>
> I intend to just print color photos, 8 1/2 x 11 borderless and photos
> from digital cameras, so can you advise? Or are there better printers?
>
> Don

As my understanding HP has printer head built-in ink cartridge so you
won't have to worry about clogging, but the ink cartridges are way too
expensive so after 3-4 newer sets of cartridge it would cost more than
the printer itself.

I have been a long time Epson user and myself I have the printers
running for 3-4 years without any clogging problem, but both time I
allowed my kids to use my Epson printers then both times they burned the
printer. They kept on printing 30-40+ pages without ink, and I believe
they fried the heat resistant or whatever.

I just replaced with the newer Epson Stylus Photo 900 to print CD/DVD
directly to the disc itself, and got the HP Photosmart 7350. I just ran
out of ink of the HP for the first time, and I would about to toss the
few months old HP Photosmart 7350 to corner of the room cuz the refill
problem. Luckily, I found the information how to trick the cartridge to
reset the Ink Status, else I wouldn't want to spend $$$ for the ink
cartridges.

Epson, you can buy the Continuous Ink System (hardware) for around
$80, around $30 more for the refill ink. Hookup the Continuous Ink
System, pour the ink to the bottles and you will never have to replace
ink cartridge, don't have to worry about clogging (still need to run
once or twice a month to keep the printer head clean).

Even if thr printer clog after a year or so using it's still much
cheaper to toss to trash can and buy a newer model than spending $$$$ on
ink cartridges.