Canon i9900
Manufacturer: Canon Part number: 8580A001
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- As long as its limited paper options don't matter to you, the Canon i9900 is a very good medium-format photo printer.
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CNET editors' review
Canon i9900 price range: $12.98
- Reviewed by: Lori Grunin
- Edited by: Rebecca Viksnins
- Reviewed on: 07/09/2004
- Released on: 05/15/2004
The good: Extremely impressive color and black-and-white prints; fast; supports paper sizes up to 13x19; can clean nozzles for subset of colors.
The bad: Canon doesn't offer a broad array of fine-arts papers; no straight-through paper path; can reliably feed only a single sheet of 13x19 Photo Paper Pro.
The bottom line: As long as its limited paper options don't matter to you, the Canon i9900 is a very good medium-format photo printer.
Since the i9900 already claims so much surface area, Canon throws minimalism to the wind and puts two really big buttons on the front--Power and Continue--as well as a status light that you can see across the room and an upstream USB port for direct printing from a digital camera. Two USB ports, a FireWire port, and an AC connection sit within a recessed alcove on the back panel.
Operationally, the i9900 has a fairly average, unimaginative design. The top segments of the articulated paper support sit at a bit too steep of an angle, which causes 13x19-inch sheets to bend back; conversely, if you don't fold the support for printing on letter-size paper, the paper bows inward. Canon warns you to feed the large Photo Paper Pro in single sheets and for good reason; the printer typically mangles the edge of the second sheet and jams if you try to automatically feed a stack. It also lacks a straight-through paper path, which is useful if you like to experiment with heavier or specialty paper. Further, you can't print panoramas with this model. Canon doesn't make such paper, and third-party solutions come in rolls rather than sheets--but the i9900 doesn't have a roll feeder. Spec junkies should note that the Canon i9900 offers a maximum resolution of 4,800x2,400dpi with a minimum droplet size of 2 picoliters (pl). It uses eight dye-based color primaries--cyan, magenta, yellow, photo cyan, photo magenta, black, red, and green--which Canon dubs its ChromaPlus ink system. As per usual with Canon printers, each color has an individual ink tank, which slips into a shared printhead and carrier mechanism.
Oddly, the i9900 has two USB ports. According to the documentation, one port is for USB 2.0 connections and the other is for USB 2.0 Hi-Speed; however, USB 2.0 supports both in a single port, obviating the need for a second (though one is actually a USB 1.1-compatible mode). Furthermore, data transfer from the PC to the printer doesn't require the bandwidth of USB 2.0 Hi-Speed. The FireWire 400 port provides Mac compatibility for OS 8.6 to 9.x and OS X 10.2.1 to 10.3.x, and a USB port on the front delivers a PictBridge connection for direct printing from compatible cameras.
A full-featured driver provides all the essentials for general-purpose printing and automatic adjustments and effects, as well as control over most of the important photo-printing parameters. My favorite feature is the ability to clean the cyan, magenta, and yellow nozzles in the printhead separately from the rest of the colors. Unfortunately, that just makes me long for the option to choose individual colors for cleaning; that would be a great ink saver.
You can manually adjust the color balance for each of the CMYK primaries and the global color intensity; have the software automatically optimize for a photo or graphics; adjust global brightness (which, based on the feature description, is actually a contrast control); or instruct the i9900 to use Windows ICM. The printer ships with a few basic ICC profiles for its photo papers, which have unnecessarily cryptic names such as MP1 and PR2.
Print-quality options depend upon paper type, but the best automatic setting is High. As with many photo printer drivers, you have to use custom settings to get to the best print-quality choice--Fine--and there's no way to determine the differences between High and Fine. For borderless printing, you can use a slider to specify how far to enlarge the image to cover the page borders. However, it lacks an interactive preview, so you won't be able to see where the new image borders will lie.
On the driver CD, Canon includes some particularly irritating, poorly documented software apps. PhotoRecord is for creating printed albums, while Easy PhotoPrint Plus offers a few automatic adjustments and not-so-easy photo printing. Since potential users of the i9900 are unlikely to use these bundled apps, however, we won't come down too hard on Canon. But it would have been nice if the company had included more-relevant programs instead, such as printer-profiling software.
You can use an array of paper sizes with the i9900, from as small as 3.5x4.7 to 13x23, as well as envelopes. Compared with Epson, Canon offers a relatively limited selection of papers designed for photo printing: Photo Paper Pro, Photo Paper Plus Glossy, Matte Photo Paper, and Glossy Photo Paper. For non-Canon papers, the printer supports between 17- and 28-pound stock, which excludes many custom third-party fine-arts papers. That never stopped anyone from trying, however. For many users, the combination of speedy performance, first-rate print quality, and a low consumables cost will more than compensate for the Canon i9900's otherwise average report card.
Speed and operation
As usual, you should take Canon's rated speeds with a grain of salt, but the i9900 is nevertheless the fastest inkjet photo printer we've seen. It feels like a sprinter compared to its main competitor, the Epson Stylus Photo 2200. During typical usage, 4x6-inch borderless photos emerged in about 1.3 minutes and 8x10-inch prints at about twice that. In CNET Labs tests, it performed even faster, producing an 8x10 in only 1.2 minutes. Given that the i9900 has 10 times as many nozzles as the Stylus Photo 2200, its speed advantage didn't surprise us.
The printer has a Quiet mode, which runs the printhead at a slower speed, but its normal operation is suitably hushed--not so for the nozzle priming/cleaning cycle, which is almost as loud as an old GE dishwasher. The ink is also unbelievably cheap; based on Canon's capacity ratings, we estimate that the ink cost of an 8x10 photo is only 14 cents. Even if you assume that Canon inflates its page-per-cartridge claims--as many vendors do--by 500 percent, the inks are a bargain compared to those of the rest of the enthusiast photo printers we've tested. Canon makes up the cost difference in paper, however; the company's best-quality photo paper (Photo Paper Pro) costs a minimum of 87 cents per sheet. In the end, printing an 8x10 photo on a letter-size sheet of best-quality photo paper with the i9900 costs only about 8 percent less as with the Epson Stylus Photo R800.
Image quality
Unless you're trying to print impossible colors, you'll find few faults with the Canon i9900's output quality. Both color and black-and-white images display excellent detail rendering and dynamic range, as well as notably accurate color reproduction. Thanks to the dedicated red cartridge, the i9900 can produce some extremely bright, saturated reds. Skin tones came out a bit warm but not overly so. Because of the Stylus Photo 2200's older print engine and ink formulation, the i9900 currently has no consumer competition for printing large black-and-white photos. (You can buy excellent third-party monochrome ink sets for the 2200, however.) The i9900's composite gray displays a minimal cyan cast, which places it at a slight disadvantage to the Stylus Photo R800. But the grays look much more neutral than the HP Photosmart 7960's output and exhibit less obvious metamerism across different light sources.
For graphics, the i9900's larger droplet size relative to the R800--2pl vs. the R800's 1.5pl--results in somewhat poorer print quality. Black curves show distinct roughness, though the same circular objects printed with the photo primaries looked extremely smooth. On the other hand, the Canon renders graphics better than most of its other competitors. And even with graphics, where resolution is more important than for photos, we couldn't spot any differences between the two highest-quality modes. Canon recently updated its Web site, making it much easier to navigate and to find answers. Buying extra ink and paper direct from Canon is especially easy--no surprise there. Unfortunately, Canon has some of the worst user manuals in the biz; not only is the supposedly deep content frustratingly shallow, but it's available only electronically.
The one-year standard warranty is typical, and the company offers a three-year Canon CarePak Extended Service Plan for $135, which adds toll-free tech support and instant exchange.
User reviews
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Lots-o-fun. Photos look like 25 asa Kodak ultra color film.
by idno0000-review on August 7, 2005
Pros: Small footprint. Incredible seamless gradations.
Cons: Loud. Feels a little like a toy printer.
Summary: What I wanted to know before I bought the printer – that I didn’t see reported here – was this: How does it print on 24 lb text stock? Can I ...
Summary: What I wanted to know before I bought the printer – that I didn’t see reported here – was this: How does it print on 24 lb text stock? Can I use use this as a traditional printer as well as for photos?
The answer is this. As for paper handling, it’s about as good as most good low-cost, ink-jets on the market. And we had no complaints about the speed. But the print quality gets lost on a paper with some absorption. We tried printing on various mediums and compared the output to other ink-jets in our office. Although the final output was better on the i9900, the difference was not compelling. Most folks won’t see much difference on text paper. Not so for photo paper.
We needed the large format and output quality for press proofs. On photo paper, the output quality was breathtaking. I’ve never really bothered to print a photo on an office printer because we work with professional photo processors in New York, or mail to Kodak. This printer changed everything. If you’ve spent time in the dark room burning and dodging then this printer will still not be up to snuff. However if you are happy to send your photos off to Kodak (not Wal-Mart where they melt them to speed up the development so all latitude is destroyed and so that shots end up looking polarized) you can toss out your Kodak mailers now. Try a duotone. The gradation will blow you away.
Enjoy.18 out of 18 users found this user opinion helpful.
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BIG Disappointment!
Pros: FAST! Large prints.
Cons: I have had a lot of problems with yellowing of color and B&W prints when I print on anything other that Canon Paper a few days after printing. If I had known that when I purchased it, I would have NEVER had bought it or even considered it. Canon onl
24 out of 35 users found this user opinion helpful.
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9 out of 10, use only canon paper
by PSSaini on August 9, 2005
Pros: Fantastic quality (on photo paper pro, photo paper plus glossy), incredible print speed, usb2.0 and firewire capable.
Cons: enormous footprintpaper tray only accepts one size at a time (the best pixma supports two types of paper at once)
Summary: ***To get the best pictures out of this machine, I recommend getting at least a 6 megapixel digital camera. If you used anything lower, just save your money and buy ...
Summary: ***To get the best pictures out of this machine, I recommend getting at least a 6 megapixel digital camera. If you used anything lower, just save your money and buy a canon pixma.
This printer prints 4x6, 5x7, 8.5x11 (NOT 8x10), and 13/19. All the sizes print at speeds as canon declares them to be. Canon also advised to only used canon photo paper. Thier photo paper pro is as close to the photo lab as you can get. I DO NOT RECOMMEND thier matte paper...you might as well use regular copy paper. I paired this printer with the Epson 4990 PHOTO scanner and was blown away by the enlarged pictures I made from old prints of my parents (which were taken in the 1950s and 60s). If you plan to use this to enlarge some of your older pics, it is imperative that you pair this machine with a good scanner. Otherwise your printouts will not do justice to the price you pay for the printer. As far as the space it takes up, be prepared to give up a fair amount of space on your desk. Also I should note that canon's color cartridges do not have to replaced often. After 100 or so 4x6 prints, 50 or so 5x7 prints, 50 or so 8.5x11 prints and 20 13x19 prints, i only had to replace the cyan and magenta cartridge. If you look hard enough you can find this color cartridges for about $7 shipped.15 out of 15 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great edge to edge printing at 13 by 19
by Pictureman on March 15, 2005
Pros: Fantastic color gamut and density
Cons: Not very reliable
Summary: After 300 prints (both color and b&w) the printing carriage shifted causing the print head to touch the paper. This is a problem that Canon is aware of; ...
Summary: After 300 prints (both color and b&w) the printing carriage shifted causing the print head to touch the paper. This is a problem that Canon is aware of; the Canon people told the local service center to look for the problem! I am pleased with the quality when the printer is working...but the service center said the printer may fail again. From here on out, its going to be stress-city worrying about failure at a critical time in producing cusotmer's prints.
5 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
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The Only At Home Printing Answer!!!
by adriennedevita on August 5, 2005
Pros: Professional Quality, Quick Printing, Envious Friends!
Cons: Given the Quality and other alternatives out, there are NO CONS!
Summary: I just purchased the Canon i9900 because CNET reviewers raved about the picture quality. Well...drum roll please...they weren't lying!!! I have spent about $2,000 on printers ...
Summary: I just purchased the Canon i9900 because CNET reviewers raved about the picture quality. Well...drum roll please...they weren't lying!!! I have spent about $2,000 on printers over the years, and I have 4 broken ones sitting in a closet accumulating dust. Their quality, including my black and white laser printer, can't even TOUCH the professional photo lab quality of the Canon i9900! And you might think the 13 x 19 prints wouldn't be as clear as the 4 x 6...think again! With my Canon EOS 20D camera and over 8 megapixels, the printing quality on the 13 x 19 Photo Paper Pro is UNREAL!!! Regardless of your camera, if your picture is good, the Canon i9900 will be fantastic! Get the right paper, and you don't have to waste time going to a photo place or pay shipping charges getting pics made online when you need them now, and you need them flawless! P.S. - Abes of Maine currently has a killer deal on the printer and you can also get another set of ink cartridges and paper for the same price you'd pay just for the printer on other web sites!
4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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i9900 vs Epson printers
by dwbrowning on August 29, 2005
Pros: Great color w/o a lot of tweaking
Cons: None yet - maybe color ink usage too unbalanced
Summary: Regarding paper - try Ilford Galerie Professional Inkjet Photo Range Classic Pearl Paper (GREAT), or Galerie Smooth Gloss or Smooth Pearl (I have them with good recommendations, but no experience). ...
Summary: Regarding paper - try Ilford Galerie Professional Inkjet Photo Range Classic Pearl Paper (GREAT), or Galerie Smooth Gloss or Smooth Pearl (I have them with good recommendations, but no experience). Download the zip file that provides the i9900 profile (with Canon ink) from Ilford.com. The combo is great out of the box with no tweaking - my calibrated monitor shows WYSIWYG on the printed photo.
I've used a couple of Epsons, including the 1280, and always seem to be tweaking things to get the photos to print correctly. Ilford's been around a long time and has high quality products.3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Disappointing dynamic range, high ink consumption
by wburychka on March 16, 2007
Pros: Fast and quiet
Cons: Milky or "filmy" prints even on expensive Canon paper
Summary: I bought this last October--needed a large format printer immediately, so I couldn't wait for the new models--with the $100 rebate (still waiting for that, BTW).
The printer is ...Summary: I bought this last October--needed a large format printer immediately, so I couldn't wait for the new models--with the $100 rebate (still waiting for that, BTW).
The printer is great for bright colors and bright pictures generally. If you have a wide range with midtones and shadow areas, though, it is absolutely awful. It's like everything has a film over it. Highlights and bright areas are OK, but black and dark areas just cannot be rendered properly.
On Ilford smooth gloss, dark areas suffer from severe banding--only avoided with Canon Photo Paper Pro. Even then, though, it as though there is no black ink--only dark gray. I think I have probably wasted as much ink and paper trying to get proper prints, as I paid for the printer. I've about decided it would be cheaper to just move near a photolab where I can walk over for prints!
I know some people rave about this printer. Either my standards are too high, or this printer is a dud. It did have a loose part inside that I had to have repaired within the first month.2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great photos, but...
by angsmith on November 27, 2006
Pros: Great print quality
Cons: Gigantic machine, eats ink, unreliable
Summary: I've had this printer for a little over 2 years. It's great for printing photos - they look as good as any photo shop. However, I've spent ...
Summary: I've had this printer for a little over 2 years. It's great for printing photos - they look as good as any photo shop. However, I've spent hundreds of dollars on ink cartridges (they seem to need replacing every couple of months, even with light use) and I've had to have the logic board replaced twice. Not to mention that the printer is huge and takes up more than half of my desk space. I wouldn't buy it again, but do think the print quality will be hard to beat.
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Faulty Paper Handing - Faulty Installation disks
Pros: None. I think Epson and HP make more reliable products. This is the second Canon printer I have returned.
Cons: I have been a computer professional for 10+ years and understand how to install equipment and software. After unpacking the printer I read through the documentation and followed the step by step instructions. During driver installation twice the cdrom fai
3 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great printer -- not great reliability
by RHartzell on May 24, 2007
Pros: Nice output
Cons: Didn't last 3 years
Summary: This was my first photo inkjet -- bought it in July 2004.
Overall I've been very satisfied with the quality of my output, though I'm not a camera ...Summary: This was my first photo inkjet -- bought it in July 2004.
Overall I've been very satisfied with the quality of my output, though I'm not a camera geek and I never print B&W stuff.
However, just last week my i9900 refused to turn on. I took it to a Canon authorized service facility, paid my $25 nonrefundable deposit to have it evaluated, and a couple of days later the service agent called to tell me that the problem wasn't with the power supply and that the only alternative was to replace the print head and the main circuit board -- total cost, $200 including labor (with a 6-month warranty thrown in).
Ultimately I decided not to pay to have it repaired, and right now I don't have a warm and fuzzy feeling about Canon reliability. I paid $400 for this thing and the fact that it didn't last 3 years ... well, I'm less than thrilled.2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Canon
- Part number: 8580A001
- Description: The i9900 Photo Printer is a high-end large format machine whose remarkable output can rival that of a professional processing lab. It's capable of producing edge-to-edge true borderless prints, from 4" x 6" up to a breathtaking 13" x 19" size, with the look and feel of a traditional photograph. Think of it: you can take a digital picture, set your printing parameters and be holding an amazing 13" x 19" poster-size borderless print in under 3 minutes. For true printing freedom you can even connect a Bubble Jet Direct or PictBridge-compatible digital camera or DV camcorder to the i9900 printer's conveniently located Direct Print Port and print photos - without a computer. The i9900 Photo Printer features advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology, which combines revolutionary techniques in ink droplet size and quality with accurate ink application and composition, for spectacular photo results. Its newly developed, high-density print head contains an unmatched 6, 144 precisely machined nozzles, delivering approximately 11 million droplets per square inch. Providing the exceptional quality demanded by serious photographers, the i9900 Photo Printer achieves a resolution of up to 4800 x 2400 dpi and delivers ultra-fine 2 picoliter droplets that reveal precise details in photographs that many other large-format printers just can't duplicate. The quality of your photos will truly impress family and friends, while the speed at which they print will truly impress you. Edge-to-edge borderless 4" x 6" photos can be produced in about 38 seconds or print your 8.5" x 11" photo enlargements in about 50 seconds. The i9900's performance is further advanced with the addition of both a FireWire and USB 2.0 Hi-Speed interface for the fastest photo transfers possible. The i9900 Photo Printer features the 8 color ChromaPLUS ink system designed to extend your color reproduction range significantly and reproduce colors that before now could only be printed professionally. The addition of red and green ink tanks will make it possible to print richer images with improved brilliancy and more true-to-life colors. The Canon Think Tank System featuring individual ink tanks combined with an intelligent ink management system lets you replace only the color that runs out, rather than an entire multi-ink cartridge containing unused ink, reducing printing costs. A unique low-ink sensor alerts you when ink levels are low, so you can drop in a new tank and avoid running out of ink unexpectedly.
General
- Printer Type Photo printer - Ink-jet - Color
Printer
- Print Speed up to 1.6 ppm - Photo - 4 in x 6 in,
up to 1.2 ppm - Photo - 8 in x 10 in - Connectivity Technology Wired
- Interface USB,
IEEE1394 FireWire - Max Resolution ( B&W ) 4800 dpi x 1200 dpi
- Max Resolution ( Color ) 4800 dpi x 2400 dpi
- Image Enhancement Technology Advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology
- Direct Printing Specifications Canon Bubble Jet Direct,
PictBridge - Printer Features Borderless printing
RAM
- RAM Installed ( Max ) 80 KB
Media Handling
- Media Type Glossy photo paper ,
Transparencies ,
Envelopes ,
Plain paper ,
High resolution paper ,
Photo paper ,
Matte photo paper - Max Media Size (Custom) 13 in x 19 in
- Media Sizes Ledger B Size (11 in x 17 in),
Legal (8.5 in x 14 in),
Letter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in),
4 in x 6 in,
Super B (13 in x 19 in),
5 in x 7 in - Envelope Sizes US No 10 (4.1 in x 9.5 in)
- Total Media Capacity 100 sheets
- Media Feeder(s) 1 x Autoload - 100 sheets - Super B (13 in x 19 in)
Telecom
- Modem None
Networking
- Networking None
Scanner
- Type None
Copier
- Copier Type None
Expansion / Connectivity
- Expansion Bays None
- Connections 1 x Hi-Speed USB,
1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire),
1 x Direct print port Power
- Power Device Power supply - Internal
- Voltage Required AC 120 V
- Frequency Required 60 Hz
Software / System Requirements
- Software Included Canon Easy-PhotoPrint 2.0,
Canon ImageBrowser,
Canon ZoomBrowser EX,
Canon PhotoStitch,
Canon Easy-PhotoPrint Plus,
Canon Easy-WebPrint,
Drivers & Utilities,
Canon PhotoRecord - OS Required Apple MacOS X 10.3 or later,
Apple MacOS 8.6 - 9.x,
Apple MacOS X 10.2.1,
Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP Environmental Parameters
- Sound Emission (Operating) 37 dBA
Manufacturer Warranty
- Service & Support 1 year warranty
- Service & Support Details Limited warranty - 1 year
Accessories
- Canon Photo Paper Plus Semi-gloss SG-201 - semi-gloss photo paper - 50 sheet(s) (35130037)34.99 - 47.31
- Canon Photo Paper Plus Semi-gloss SG-201 - semi-gloss photo paper - 50 sheet(s) (35130034)79.00 - 127.94
- Canon BCI 6 Six Pack - ink tank (32768212)45.45 - 82.99
- Silex Pricom C-6700WG - print server (33722386)99.04 - 130.33
- Canon Photo Album Kit PAK-101 - two-sided semi-gloss photo paper - 10 sheet(s) (31315041)5.99
Manufacturer info
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Canon products on Shopper.com
-
- Manufacturer:Canon
- Address:
One Canon Plaza, Lake Success, NY 11042 - Phone: 516-328-5000
- Email: mediacontact@cusa.canon.com
