🚀 go-pugleaf

I followed your line of thinking (and spending) earlier this year. The
result was a S9000 I intended to print from and frame the output for sale.
Certainly the results are as good (often better) than many labs produce.

The only problem is the life of the prints can vary from a few weeks to a
few months and certainly not longer than 6 months before the you can see the
degradation of the photo. Most noticeable are prints on gloss paper.
Coincidently these are the ones which 'look' the best straight off the
printer. Canon have instructions on how to get the 25 year life they
promise. Basicly it's hide them away for the environment because it's the
papers that cause the degradation, not the inks.

I changed to using MIS inks from the USA and got noticeable improvement in
the life of the prints but I'm talking here in weeks, not years. I have a
print on my wall, printed on the first i320 Canon printer. This looked great
at first. You can still see the subjects if you look closely!

I will happily be amongst the first to own the newest Epson printer due into
Aus soon and won't hesitate to crank up the credit limit on my visa to pay
for it because since I changed over to Canon printers, I have not printed a
photograph that comes anywhere near lasting as long as one from my old Epson
640, unless I laminate them. Given the new photo epson's are pigment inks,
life measured in 10's of years rather than canon's weeks can be expected.
Keep in mind too that the Canon is limited to print length of 24" whereas
the Epson can print very, very wide panoramas from a roll of photo paper.

Do yourself a favour Mic, dig deep and go for Epson. Not many US
Photographers use Canon printers and the 1 litre ink tank conversions from
MIS ensures cheap prints that last a long time. I'll sell you a (new) Epson
1290 Photo printer for $950 if that's any help. RRP is well over $1000.
www.technoaussie.com for information on how to contact me.
Doug
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"M i c C u l l e n" <nospam@cross.com.au> wrote in message
news:i7uavv8c1l99999i4ca9f897bul3sfceb8@4ax.com...
> A supposed *friend* sent me a link earlier today, which showed the Canon
> S9000 being run out for just AU$593 including shipping. (REAL friends
> don't tempt you to spend money like this, do they? :-)
>
> Given that the Epson 2100 (2200 for the US) is about AU$1700 and the
> newer Canon i9100 is AU$1076.51, that price is pretty tempting. (A 2100
> went secondhand for $1300 a month or so ago here in Perth.)
>
> I simply cannot afford the 2100 (much as I'd like one, but I've spent
> too much on glass and flashes and ... well, you get the idea) and I
> can't see any benefit in the i9100 over the S9000. (Am I wrong?)
>
> I don't care about the speed particularly, although it's a nice thing,
> and I'm not chasing archival prints particularly. (A mate has the 2100,
> (we've both got calibrated screens), so if I NEED it, I've got the
> capability nearby, and I've got a Lexmark Optra R+ workgroup laser and a
> Canon S600 for general printing here, although the new printer would
> probably take over from the 600.)
>
> I'm shooting with a Canon 10D (6MP) with some nice lenses, and I'm
> printing for myself and friends - no clients to worry about.
>
> I guess the thing I'm worried about is buying 'old' technology, although
> I've read in a couple of places that the S900 and the i9100 share the
> same printhead anyway, so that's that worry taken care of.
>
> I have googled this to death (both web and newsgroups) and, not
> surprisingly, found nothing definitive :-)
>
> I did see a few people complaining that the S9000 was colour-shifting
> after just 2-3 months no matter what they did to prevent it, which
> didn't thrill me, although it didn't say what paper/ink combination was
> used. While I'm not too worried about photos lasting 70 years (nobody
> would care, I'm not AA) I'd like them to last a bit longer than 60 days.
>
> A lot of other people, however, are saying lots of good things about the
> S9000.
>
> I'm also planning on using third-party inks, although a CIS is probably
> going a bit far for my intended usage, so it'd just be a 'fill the
> cartridges' thing.
>
> Would be a lot easier if it was either completely brilliant or
> completely crappy :-)
>
> Your opinions please.
> --
>
> cheers, Mic     (Reply address works...)
>
> "Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to
reform."
>             -- Mark Twain
>