Canon i860 (vs. Epson R300M) and i860 QUESTIONS COMPARED W/HP

[Andy Novak]

Hello,

Noticed a newsgroup posting that praised the Canon i860. I was going
to buy that one initially, but opted to try out the Epson R300M. Bad
move (still have a few days left to return to CompUSA). Nice looking
pictures, but the 15 ppm spec is misleading. You only get 15 ppm if
you use their hideous "draft" mode which isn't really true draft. The
image/quality is so poor and faded, there is no way you could give it
to someone else. Then you have to step up to higher quality mode that
equates to about 6ppm. I have a few questions about the Canon if I
may:

1. Does the Canon i860 have TRUE DRAFT Mode like HP? That is, draft
that is very fast but still readable and close to "normal" quality?

2. Also, does the picbridge connector in the front also provide a
means to access card readers/cards in a non-picbridge camera via USB?

3. There was also a word about a "waste ink tank" from someone who
insisted that folks stay away from Canon for this reason. Any reason
not to purchase because of that?

4. HP printers typically include quite a bit of internal memory
which, I guess, speeds things up a bit. For example, the 7500 and
7600 series printers have 8MB-16MB internal RAM. I noticed the Canon
specs only mention about 42K (could be more). Does this have any
affect on the speed or how soon the computer "lets go" of the data
stream?

5. Also, any experience using a print server with the i860?


Regards,
Andy Novak

 

[Burtron]

Hello,

Noticed a newsgroup posting that praised the Canon i860. I was going
to buy that one initially, but opted to try out the Epson R300M. Bad
move (still have a few days left to return to CompUSA). Nice looking
pictures, but the 15 ppm spec is misleading. You only get 15 ppm if
you use their hideous "draft" mode which isn't really true draft. The
image/quality is so poor and faded, there is no way you could give it
to someone else. Then you have to step up to higher quality mode that
equates to about 6ppm. I have a few questions about the Canon if I
may:

1. Does the Canon i860 have TRUE DRAFT Mode like HP? That is, draft
that is very fast but still readable and close to "normal" quality?

2. Also, does the picbridge connector in the front also provide a
means to access card readers/cards in a non-picbridge camera via USB?

3. There was also a word about a "waste ink tank" from someone who
insisted that folks stay away from Canon for this reason. Any reason
not to purchase because of that?

4. HP printers typically include quite a bit of internal memory
which, I guess, speeds things up a bit. For example, the 7500 and
7600 series printers have 8MB-16MB internal RAM. I noticed the Canon
specs only mention about 42K (could be more). Does this have any
affect on the speed or how soon the computer "lets go" of the data
stream?

5. Also, any experience using a print server with the i860?


Regards,
Andy Novak

Andy-
I've had my i860 for about a week, and have been very pleased with it.
I just did some printouts in both in both grayscale/standard and
grayscale/draft(The i860 does have a "true draft" setting. I printed
out the very same article on both, and found that the standard text
was more of a black clor, and the draft was more gray, and less bold -
but very sharp and readable - A lot better than the best of my old HP
880c. I also found the same with printing these in color. The color in
draft was a little more faded, but very sharp. But now I realize that
you may have been more concerned with photos, so I'll do a photo
comparison and append to this.

 

[Burtron]

Hello,

Noticed a newsgroup posting that praised the Canon i860. I was going
to buy that one initially, but opted to try out the Epson R300M. Bad
move (still have a few days left to return to CompUSA). Nice looking
pictures, but the 15 ppm spec is misleading. You only get 15 ppm if
you use their hideous "draft" mode which isn't really true draft. The
image/quality is so poor and faded, there is no way you could give it
to someone else. Then you have to step up to higher quality mode that
equates to about 6ppm. I have a few questions about the Canon if I
may:

1. Does the Canon i860 have TRUE DRAFT Mode like HP? That is, draft
that is very fast but still readable and close to "normal" quality?

2. Also, does the picbridge connector in the front also provide a
means to access card readers/cards in a non-picbridge camera via USB?

3. There was also a word about a "waste ink tank" from someone who
insisted that folks stay away from Canon for this reason. Any reason
not to purchase because of that?

4. HP printers typically include quite a bit of internal memory
which, I guess, speeds things up a bit. For example, the 7500 and
7600 series printers have 8MB-16MB internal RAM. I noticed the Canon
specs only mention about 42K (could be more). Does this have any
affect on the speed or how soon the computer "lets go" of the data
stream?

5. Also, any experience using a print server with the i860?


Regards,
Andy Novak

Andy-
I just did a printout of the same color photo to compare. They're
about the same as the text one's, but maybe just a little less degree
of color saturation - But what I think that you would expect from a
draft. The biggest difference I see in the two are that the facial and
hair coloring in the person seem to be a little more diminished than
the surrounding furniture in the photo. But I think that it is
definitely not lacking - As far as a draft is concerned. And of
course, I did all this testing with just plain paper. I recently
returned an HP 7960 because of higher expense. I'm doing touch-ups and
reprints of old family photo. The one thing that the HP has over this
Canon is that the black & white photos have more of a variation of
black and gray tones -Especially in hair color - where a photo seems
more solid black on the person with using the Canon - while the HP
shows more different shades. However, the trade-off is not enough for
me to go back to the HP. Lastly, you won't find a faster all around
printer than this i860. Anyway, hope this helped.

 

[Gary Tait]

3. There was also a word about a "waste ink tank" from someone who
insisted that folks stay away from Canon for this reason. Any reason
not to purchase because of that?

No. ALL inkjet printers have a waste in collection facility. It just
happens that the Canons it is more often spoke of, just like Epson
clogs.

 

[Si]

No. ALL inkjet printers have a waste in collection facility. It just
happens that the Canons it is more often spoke of, just like Epson
clogs.

Nearly went out and purchased an i865 (UK model i860) this week after yet
another clogg from my Epson Stylus Photo 915....

Ran 10 cleaning cycles then gave up and went to bed...next morning damn
thing was fine....

It's just so good a photo printer when it works, that's the one thing
putting me off junking it.

Si.