Canon Pro 1000 or Epson's P800

Ellie Jones

Ellie Jones

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It's decision time....

Looking for an A2 printer and nailed to two choice, Canon pro1000 or the Epson P800,

I've done some research, but still can't decided which is the better...

The canon, has 12 inks and print quality is very good, but it's can a bit limited on panoramic photographs.. But saying that how often am I'm going to need to print a paoramic longer than 1200cm's long! Not that often must admit.. Another possible pro, is the air suction bed holding paper in place....

The P800, has 8 tanks, so can it render colours and transitions of colour as effectively has the Canon?
It can use Roll paper, downside you've got to buy the roll attachment which is another £300 on top, But could using a roll and trimming dow to size if required be out cheaper on paper, but the again, cutting down to size, might pose a problem with curling paper getting Jammed in the printer!

Not how you really cost inks as such, but quality of finished print, is more important than cost of a cartridge so to speak,

So which is the better out of the two printers, quality wise...

Or any pro's or con's I've missed
 
Quality wise I think you'd be pushed hard to see the difference without a magnifying glass. If you're planning on selling prints, your customers likely won't know the difference either.
My research of these two printers showed that quality wasn't an obvious differing factor. The pinch points for me were:

- Do I want to print big panos? If so: Epson
- Do I want to swap black inks? If not: Canon
- Do I want roll paper? If so: Epson

Sadly, I want big panos, roll paper and to freely mix PK and MK inks. I also want air suction because some of the curly papers I use still get head strikes even with a wide platen gap.

If you came to my house tomorrow and smashed up my SP4800 and told me I had to buy one or the other, I'd go Canon. I like swapping papers, and I can live without rolls and huge panos. However if you smashed down a bit of wall too to make my office a bit bigger, I'd save up and get a P 5000.
 
No experience of canon but have used Epson for nearly 20 years and scp800 is far and away the best by far, it has 9 inks (5 colours and 4 blacks ), no head blocks, ability to change inks mid print without problems and beautiful B&W via the ABW. Great longevity for artworks etc.
 
From no printer, I jumped in with the Canon Pro1000. I love it. I bought it from Fotospeed and their support is excellent and free. I would buy the same one again.
 
Thanks guys for the input..

I can live without large Pano's, happy to send any that might happen to a printer..
Swapping Black in tanks over.... Knowing me as it's something I don't need to do at present, I'm very likely to forget...
As to Roll paper, well honesty here I know Fotospeed has some reasonable size Pano paper, that would like to be the biggest I'd would print and will go through the Canon, so could live without a roll, and the possible curly issues it might present.

I've just taken a lot at the inks costs, The cost per mil, of my present ink against that of the Pro1000 and P800 and this is where I was very much surprised indeed. took me back a little I must say.

Pro100 came out at the most expensive almost,
P800 next
Pro1000 cheapest 9p cheaper per mil than the P800 and almost half the cost of the Pro100 inks...

Next consideration, is deciding how many times would you need to change the whole set of inks...

This is the hardest part to work out, as really dependent on what colour combinations are used to create a print, so could only assume that more tanks the longer an individual colour might last due to how the colours are combined to created colour/shade required, the less tanks the quicker the individual tanks will run out (if that makes sense). So the P800 would run out similar to my present Pro100s, Which isn't too bad and would give me enough time, to avoid having to purchase Full set of inks at one go, Similar with the Pro1000, I can spread to purchasing of individual tanks to avoid a big layout..

Only problem is, ensuring that I work out, which tanks are going to be used quicker than others, so I always have a spare in hand. That's going to be interesting indeed.

From what I'm gleaming at the moment, I'm must admit I'm edging towards the Canon Pro1000

Next decision is..

Do I what another fortnight to the Photography Show (Hopefully it won't be cancelled) to see if they have a show deals going, or do I just get on an order once I made my final decisions
 
Got a show deal last year on the Pro-1000, double cashback (£200), bought it from WEX who shipped it direct to home, didn't fancy lugging 40kg of packed printer to the car!

With regard to the inks, you only get 50% use out of first set, as the other 50% is in the pipes between cartridges and head, means that you'll get 100% out of second set of tanks though. Its a bit alarming when you first initialise the printer and see the tanks half empty!
 
Mr Perceptive said:
Got a show deal last year on the Pro-1000, double cashback (£200), bought it from WEX who shipped it direct to home, didn't fancy lugging 40kg of packed printer to the car!
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Shame, they don't give a good indicator on what if any deals might be available at the show, be gutted to wait only to find out, no reasonable deals to be had, I'm pretty lucky as I'm going to be parked 5 minutes walk away from the hall (have electric car) but even that distance I don't think either I would want to lug the box to the car nor would I convince hubby it's a good idea, but if I remember rightly last year, they did have some trollies available for larger/heavy items!

Mr Perceptive said:
With regard to the inks, you only get 50% use out of first set, as the other 50% is in the pipes between cartridges and head, means that you'll get 100% out of second set of tanks though. Its a bit alarming when you first initialise the printer and see the tanks half empty!
Click to expand...

I've seen mention for this on a couple of reviews, where they explain a full tanks are included, but due to priming the tubing and a second tank within the print head, the levels appear to drop considerably at set up, but all the ink is there. I experience similar when I set up my Pro100s for the first time, you had a feeling that you'd been short measured but in reality you hadn't, the ink sitting in lines lines ready to be used.

Out of interest is there any particular tanks, that appear to empty quicker than another, due to that particular colour is the main stay of most colour/shades produced?
 
Ellie Jones said:
Out of interest is there any particular tanks, that appear to empty quicker than another, due to that particular colour is the main stay of most colour/shades produced?
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I've just ordered a second set, my ink tanks are all pretty even (all being flagged as low, but some other users have reported that you should still get quite a few prints out) and I've done a mixture rough 50/50 monochrome and colour printing.
 
I went through a similar choice a couple of years ago but A3+ only so the Epson choice was the P600. I am convinced that there would be little to choose in print quality so other factors came in. I was a little put off by the limitation of big Panos with the Canon. Also as my previous printer had been the Epson R2800, the inks were essentially the same and I had been impressed with the R2800. I chose the P600 and have not regretted it though I have yet to do a large Pano. One issue to be aware of with the Epson is when swapping between Matte and Photo Black inks as there can be significant wastage (and not just black). I got a very useful tip from a Permajet speaker who suggested not changing. He recommended using the Photo black only; you can set it not to autochange. So you can print on Matte paper and he claimed that the differences are not visible. So far I have followed this advice and it seems good; the risk is that Black may not seem dark enough on some matte paper. Two thirds the way through a colour print, the yellow ran out (expected), the printer stopped and allowed me to replace the yellow. I was amazed that the printer then completed the job and I could not see any visible evidence of the changeover. I am sure whichever you choose, you will get excellent prints.
 
I know that I edge towards the Canon, as said, I rarely do any Pano photographs, The two I've actually printed out aren't massive and I wouldn't go much larger with them, I know that the Pro1000 would print out the max size I would want them, and if anybody wanted bigger then it's off to the printers with them..

Must admit when I brought the Pro100s, I just wanted a printer that could print very good quality for personal use, didn't dream that people would want to purchase my photographs, that came a bit of a shock. And yes the Pro100s even though a very good printer does have its limitations and kinda of out grown itself so to speak,

Still edging towards the Canon 1000 more so when I've worked out the basic costing, it's probably going to over the long run be cheaper than the P800, has I always use original inks now with my printers, as in the past I've lost 2 printers using 3rd party inks..
 
Ellie Jones said:
Out of interest is there any particular tanks, that appear to empty quicker than another, due to that particular colour is the main stay of most colour/shades produced?
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I find magenta to be the most used colour. and yellow the least used. The shaded blacks (light black and light light black on my printer) are nowhere near used as much as photo black (ie black black!) and the cyans are next to last. Magenta>Black>Cyan>Yellow would be my ordering based on 70/30 B&W/Colour

Ellie Jones said:
Pro1000 cheapest 9p cheaper per mil than the P800
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Interesting. My calculations came out about even in the price per print. That's another reason I was considering the P5000. With 200ml tanks, the price per ml is very low.

That said - another factor I forgot, was that Canon print head is user replaceable vs Epson not.
 
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Harlequin565 said:
I find magenta to be the most used colour. and yellow the least used. The shaded blacks (light black and light light black on my printer) are nowhere near used as much as photo black (ie black black!) and the cyans are next to last. Magenta>Black>Cyan>Yellow would be my ordering based on 70/30 B&W/Colour


Interesting. My calculations came out about even in the price per print. That's another reason I was considering the P5000. With 200ml tanks, the price per ml is very low.

That said - another factor I forgot, was that Canon print head is user replaceable vs Epson not.
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Thanks for the indicator to which ink might go first..

I did see the P5000 and did ponder how much cheaper the printing costs would be, but alas haven't got room in spare room, for such a large printer, shame real shame.

Yep saw you could replace the Canon Print head, tis not cheap though.
 
Ellie Jones said:
Do I what another fortnight to the Photography Show (Hopefully it won't be cancelled) to see if they have a show deals going, or do I just get on an order once I made my final decisions
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You probably just have to wait for it and the deals that will pop up on various on-line retailers. You might not even need to go in.

Personally, I'd go for Epson (roll compatible - want canvas or cheaper supplies??), and even more so I'd recommend a larger 24" option from either manufacturer, preferably the HP Z9+
 
@Dave Canon. Dave was there much of a difference in output from the 2880 to the P600? Despite my 2880 being what 12 years old now I am still very impressed with the output to the point of wondering if it can be improved.
 
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Brazo said:
@Dave Canon. Dave was there much of a difference in output from the 2880 to the P600? Despite my 2880 being what 12 years old now I am still very impressed with the output to the point of wondering if it can be improved.
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No real difference. It uses the same ink and has the same resolution, I am not sure how it could get much better. My R2880 was also 12 years old and there were signs of a few minor issues so I decided I had had good value to happy to buy a new printer. At that time the R2880 was still available new and I might have been tempted to buy another but a couple of club members had P600's and were very enthusiastic. My R2880 did have a blockage of the Yellow channel after only 18 months and I had to use "magic Bullet" to fix but it did clear and then gave no more problems. During high humidity in the UK (as has been the case for several weeks) I have no fear of a blockage and during periods of low humidity, I do a nozzle check once a week.

Dave
 
LongLensPhotography said:
You probably just have to wait for it and the deals that will pop up on various on-line retailers. You might not even need to go in.

Personally, I'd go for Epson (roll compatible - want canvas or cheaper supplies??), and even more so I'd recommend a larger 24" option from either manufacturer, preferably the HP Z9+
Click to expand...

Having a 44inch printer would be great, apart from having to knock down a wall, and vacate our bedroom to our caravan! Which how ever much hubby loves me, think it might be a step too far.

But even if room was available, consideration to what printing I'm doing, the likely hood of wanting a vary large print or long Pano'. needs to be factored into any possible savings in consumables such as, Inks & paper.. Would be nice to have a 24 inch, but again the savings here is very small with inks considering higher cost of the printer, and I would struggle fitting it into the room.

So my needs would be A2 printer is going to fit, if it happens I require larger print than this, it's reasonable to send it off to the printers to be printed, I could still save money if I decide on paper that I use regularly then obtain this on a roll and cut to sheets for the printer. So still possible savings to be had...
 
Dave Canon said:
No real difference. It uses the same ink and has the same resolution, I am not sure how it could get much better. My R2880 was also 12 years old and there were signs of a few minor issues so I decided I had had good value to happy to buy a new printer. At that time the R2880 was still available new and I might have been tempted to buy another but a couple of club members had P600's and were very enthusiastic. My R2880 did have a blockage of the Yellow channel after only 18 months and I had to use "magic Bullet" to fix but it did clear and then gave no more problems. During high humidity in the UK (as has been the case for several weeks) I have no fear of a blockage and during periods of low humidity, I do a nozzle check once a week.

Dave
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Many thanks Dave for me then no need to change. It is unusual that print quality has dare I use the word ‘stagnated’ when camera iq has gone up leaps and bounds over the last 12 years.
 
For printers, the basic image quality is as good as we can see; I always print at a least 300ppi. The gamut for the R2880 is similar to Adobe RGB. I guess they may produce wider gamut printers eventually but will we notice the difference.
 
Cant speak of the Epsom but I have owned the Canon PRO 1000 for ages and it has been faultless, the quality of the prints is exceptional.
Frankly I just cant praise it enough, be aware though a full set of ink will set you back around £500 and then theres the dreaded cleaning cycles which there doesnt seem to be a way around.
Printers are a big financial commitment but for me its worth it, just do your research first and make sure you are happy to pay the cost of owning one, the purchase price is the tip of the iceburg
 
Sounds very interesting though I will not be on the market for a printer for many years.

Dave
 
Daniel_Wretham said:
Frankly I just cant praise it enough, be aware though a full set of ink will set you back around £500 and then theres the dreaded cleaning cycles which there doesnt seem to be a way around.
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Well there is one. Print something at least every 2 days. There is little point buying in it if you are not going to constantly using it.
I wish it was more like office laserjet printers : good for years and no cleaning needed, but quality just seems to be well below
 
Decision made at last...

In the end I decided to go for the Canon Pro1000, after deciding on the impact of various con's such as no feed roll, I felt that it had more going for it, and really didn't want to wait until May, to see if Epson's new offering was going to be a game changer....

I ordered one yesterday, I also spoke with the shop and delivery would be Tuesday, as large item. Emails confirmed Tuesday for delivery, err. Fdex emailed me to say it be here on Monday, fingers crossed now as I'm in work that it arrives before hubby goes off for his afternoon shift, I didn't see the Fdex email until today, and I was too late with the link to changed delivery :(
 
Ellie Jones said:
Thanks for the indicator to which ink might go first..

I did see the P5000 and did ponder how much cheaper the printing costs would be, but alas haven't got room in spare room, for such a large printer, shame real shame.

Yep saw you could replace the Canon Print head, tis not cheap though.
Click to expand...

I have the Canon 10s and find that Grey is my most used cartridge.
 
smr said:
Whys the Epson better for Pano prints?
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Because the Canon one has a physical limit on length. Which is frankly ridiculous.
 
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