Canon i860 Desktop Photo Printer
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Review
Date: Nov 27, 2003 |
The
Canon i860 Desktop Photo Printer is easy
to install, easy to use, and gives great results
at both 4x6 in. and 8.5x11 in. prints. It is both
a Photo Printer as well as an all-purpose text
printer, so you don't need to have two separate
printers for hobby and work. A convenient separate
tray for 4x6 in. prints is supplied to enable
you to print 4x6 in. photos without first removing
the letter size paper, 5x7 in. photo paper or
8.5x11 in. photo paper in the main tray. Photos
can be printed edge-to-edge borderless.
As
far as setup and software installation are concerned,
I followed the instructions on the QuickStart
Guide and found it very easy to do both.
One
of the main selling points of Canon printers has
always been its separate ink cartridges system.
In the Canon i860, there are five ink tanks: two
for Blacks, and one each for Yellow, Magenta and
Cyan. Why two Black ink tanks? One holds a dye-based
photo-grade black for improved image contrast
photo printing, and the other one holds a pigment-based
black ink for crisp, high-quality black text.
With the separate ink tanks, you only need to
replace the individual colours that have been
depleted. You get a pop-up alert when one of the
ink tanks has run low.
Of
course, Canon is an ardent supporter of the PictBridge
technology, the newly adopted industry standard
for cross-brand direct printing from a PictBridge
compatible digital camera. What this means is
that you can connect your PictBridge compatible
digital camera (such as the Canon
PowerShot A80) to the Canon i860 and print
directly to it without having to first go through
a computer.
I
printed a dozen or so of 4x6 in. and 8.5x11 in.
borderless prints using images that I previously
took with 3MP and 5MP digital cameras, and they
came out fabulous.
Here's
the workflow I use to print a photo using Photoshop
Elements 2 on the Canon i860 for this review:
-
Enhance. Apply levels adjustment and sharpening,
as required.
- Blur.
Sometimes, the background is a bit distracting,
so I apply some Gaussian Blur to it, and use
the Smudge Tool to smoothen out the outline.
- Crop.
Cut out unwanted elements.
- Select
the picture orientation: portrait or landscape.
- Resize.
For example, when printing 4x6 in. photos, I
do an Image - Resize - Image Size... Then under
Document Size, I specify a Width of 6 in. and
Height of 4 in. (or Width of 4 in. and Height
of 6 in., if portrait orientation selected),
and Resolution of 200 pixels/inch. Even though
the image on screen looks huge, it will print
properly. Don't save this resized image (if
you want to save it, don't use the original
image name, but use a different name)!
-
I usually prefer borderless prints, and so I
set the paper to Borderless.
- Print
quality. I set it to highest for the best quality
prints.
- I
also usually do a Preview to ensure everything
looks OK, then I print it.
A
4x6 in. pictures takes about 1 minute to print.
8.5x11 in. print time varies with the image and
can go from 2 to 3 min. It's incredibly quiet
and fast.
In
case you forget, printers do not usually come
with a printer cable (to connect to your computer),
so remember to order one with your printer. With
the Canon i860, I was able to reuse my current
printer USB cable.
I find that printing my own pictures beats just
giving them to the lab for printing. I get to
select the ones I really want to print, mostly
4x6 in. prints for my family album or to give
to family and friends, and larger 8.5x11 in. prints
suitable for framing. And the Canon i860 Desktop
Photo Printer makes it a snap.
Get
another opinion from : Steve's
Digicam
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Canon
i860 Photo Printer |
QuickFact™
Sheet
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 Specs |
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Print
Resolution |
| • |
Black: up to 600 x 600
dpi |
| • |
Colour: up to 4800 x 1200
dpi |
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Print Speed |
| • |
Black: up to 23 ppm (approximately
2.6 seconds per page) |
| • |
Colour: up to 16 ppm (approximately
3.8 seconds per page) |
| • |
4"x 6" Colour
Photo - Borderless: approximately 50
seconds |
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Print
Method |
Bubble
Jet ink on-demand |
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Number of Noozles |
| • |
Black: 320 |
| • |
Colour: 512 x 2 (C, M)
and 256 x 2 (Y, Bk) |
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Buffer/RAM |
42KB |
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Paper Sizes |
Letter, legal,
A4, A5, 4" x 6", 5" x 7",
U.S. #10 or European envelopes |
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Paper Handling |
Built-in sheet
feeder - 150 sheets @ paper weight 17 lb.
Envelopes – 10
Glossy Photo Paper (4" x 6") - 20
sheets
Glossy Photo Paper (8.5" x 11")
- 10 sheets
High Resolution Paper (8.5" x 11")
- 80 sheets
Matte Photo Paper (8.5" x 11") -
10 sheets
Photo Paper Plus Glossy For Borderless Printing
(4" x 6") - 20 sheets
Photo Paper Plus Glossy (5" x 7")
- 10 sheets
Photo Paper Plus Glossy (8.5" x 11")
- 10 sheets
Photo Paper Pro (4" x 6") - 20 sheets
Photo Paper Pro For Borderless Printing (4"
x 6") - 20 sheets
Photo Paper Pro (8.5" x 11") - 10
sheets
Transparencies (8.5" x 11") - 30
sheets |
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Noise
Level |
39
dB(A) in best quality mode |
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Ink Compatibility |
BCI-6Bk Black ink
tank, BCI-3eBk Black ink tank, BCI-6C Cyan
ink tank, BCI-6M Magenta ink tank, BCI-6Y
Yellow ink tank |
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Standard
Interfaces |
USB, IEEE 1284 Parallel Port and Direct Print
Port (cables not included) |
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Dimensions (W
x D x H) |
420 x 311 x 185
mm /
16.5 x 12.2 x 7.3 in. |
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Weight |
5.8 kg / 12.8 lbs |
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MSRP |
US$149.99
/ CAD$288 |
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Product technical specifications (including MSRP and Included Accessories)
are as represented by the manufacturer and subject to manufacturer's change
without any notice or obligation on the part of the manufacturer or of Photoxels.
Included Accessories may also differ by country or area. Please verify latest
specs from the appropriate manufacturer's site.
Before you buy, do your homework and verify a seller's reputation. One
source you may want to check with is Resellerratings.com.
And remember, if a price seems to good to be true, it probably is.
DISCLAIMER:
We strive for accuracy in reproducing these specs, but being human, we do occasionally make mistakes. Also, in the early stages of a product introduction, you can almost guarantee there will be some errors from the manufacturers themselves as they update their sites. If you see any mistakes, please contact us. We do appreciate your writing in with the corrections and thank you in advance!
Buy
The Canon i860 Desktop Photo Printer
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