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Canon i950 Photo Printer (03/20/2003)

Canon i950 Photo Printer

Entered CNET Catalog: 03/20/2003

SKU: 0013803013719

Manufacturer: Canon USA, Inc.

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  1. Manufacturer's description
  2. Product summary
  3. Editors' review
  4. Users' opinions
  5. Blogs
  6. Keywords

Manufacturer description

The Canon i950 Photo Printer delivers both incredible speed and superbly detailed images. Its print head features 3, 072 precisely machined nozzles ejecting consistent prescribed-volume droplets in a microscopic 2-picoliter droplet size perfect for ultra-fine, ultra-fast printing. Canon advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology is remarkably accurate, and you'll see it in your photo results. The i950 Photo Printer achieves an outstanding resolution of up to 4800 x 1200 dpi with up to 49 gradation levels for breath-taking detail and color fidelity. Technological innovation and cutting-edge design make the i950 Photo Printer the "sophisticated" photo printer choice for the photographer in everyone. The i950 Photo Printer enables you to print true borderless photos, with the look and feel of a traditional photograph. Now you can produce 4" x 6", 5" x 7" or 8.5" x 11" borderless prints with stunning color accuracy and fine edge-to-edge detail. How fast? In just about 37 seconds you'll have a spectacular 4" x 6" borderless print. The i950 Photo Printer features the Canon Think Tank System with its six individual ink tanks coupled with an intelligent ink management system. Replace only the color that runs out rather than the entire cartridge - a real advantage when printing high-intensity color photos. The i950 Photo Printer supports the worldwide standard Exif 2.2 (Exchangeable Image Format File), so that when an Exif-compliant camera captures a photo, important camera settings and shooting conditions are saved in the JPEG image file. Canon exclusive Easy-PhotoPrint software (Windows only) analyzes the recorded data and then automatically adjusts printer driver settings for optimum image processing. The result is exceptional digital photos that can be virtually indistinguishable from traditional film-based photography.

Product summary

The goodThe good: Relatively fast; very sharp output; compact.

The badThe bad: Could use more advanced driver functions; skimpy documentation.

The bottom lineThe bottom line: The Canon i950 is a sure winner for amateur digital photographers on a budget.

Average user rating: from 35 users
3.5 stars

Editors' review

  • Editors' Choice: No
  • Reviewed on: 03/20/2003
As successor to the popular but discontinued Canon S900 photo printer, the Canon i950 doubles the S900's resolution and halves its dot size. The result: this photo printer is quick, compact, and attractively priced. Most importantly, however, it delivers high-quality pictures for photographers on a budget. The i950's design mimics that of its little brother, the i850, but in charcoal, putty, and silver plastic instead of silver and blue. At 16.5 by 10.8 by 6.3 inches (width, depth, and height, respectively), the i950 is nicely compact too, compared to competing photo printers such as the Epson Stylus Photo 925 (23.4 by 19.4 by 12.2 inches), with curved paper trays that tuck snugly into the body. When they're extended, though, those paper trays feel a bit flimsy for our comfort. The rest of the printer appears almost featureless: two buttons for power and paper feed and a green power light sit on the top, and a lone USB port and power connector occupy the back panel.



The control panel is simple.

A single USB port, no parallel port.
A clearly illustrated setup sheet makes it easy to get started with the i950. As with most printers, the entire process involves merely plugging in the printer, inserting six ink tanks, connecting to your system via a USB cable (sold separately, unfortunately), then letting your PC's OS and the i950's driver CD do the installation automatically. Windows XP should have the appropriate driver already, thus saving XP users the trouble of installing it themselves. The process also includes the option of copying the online manual and bundled software--a handful of Windows and Mac apps for printing and managing your images and creating panoramas. As a whole, the i950's feature set ranks about average. The printer outputs to envelopes and paper up to 8.5x30 inches and as small as 3.5x4.7 inches at a maximum thickness of 28 pounds, unless it's heavyweight, Canon-branded paper. It can even print borderless 8.5x11-inch photos, which is rare for its class, though the paper feed makes these sheets a bit crooked at times, leaving some white edges. Unfortunately, the i950 lacks a straight-through paper path and the option for a roll-paper feeder. Other printers, such as the Epson Stylus 960, have attachable roll-paper feeders. Its 5-foot, 10-inch power cord is on the short side, which means that the printer can't sit too far from an outlet.


Hobbyists will want more correction options than those offered by the i950.
The printer driver lets you select any of the standard layout options, including n-up (multiple images printed on a single page), poster, manual duplex, and scale-to-page printing. The i950 allows you to print using its automatic settings--High, Standard, and Draft print quality, with automatic color adjustment--or make your own combinations of resolution and half-toning preset choices from the Custom Print Quality menu. If you opt for custom color adjustment, you can alter the percentages of each individual CYMK color in the ink mix and increase or decrease a picture's overall color intensity and brightness. But you don't have any color controls to speak of, aside from disabling the automatic adjustments that the printer makes for specific document types or enabling Image Color Matching (ICM), the color-matching algorithms used by Windows. Advanced users should be aware that there's no way to pick the gamma (PDF file), adjust the contrast, or override the driver entirely. Even in this price range, photo printers should offer this level of control.

The driver does offer several settings that can automatically correct, enhance, or add effects to your pictures. Effects include simulating an illustration; creating duotones (reformatting the picture in various shades of a single color) in any of 120 colors, with presets for sepia and, oddly, pink, green, and blue; and pumping up the colors while maintaining natural skin tones. We find the sepia too yellow, though, and the slider for choosing among the duotone tints is too imprecise.


You can skip retouching entirely and have the driver fix basic image problems.
The i950's driver also gives you several ways to correct photos. Image Optimizer blurs low-resolution pictures to reduce aliasing (a pixelation effect). Photo Optimizer Pro fixes incorrect exposures and color casts. Noise Reduction decreases the visibility of typical digital-camera noise. You can set the driver to individually apply Photo Optimizer to separate images on a single page--a nice touch for producing thumbnail index sheets. These all work well but under only certain circumstances. For instance, you can spot the effect of Noise Reduction on large areas, such as skies or shadows. And the Image Optimizer works solely for really low-resolution images, such as Web graphics. Still, they're nice options to have around. Like many Canon models, the i950 zips through its print jobs. At almost two minutes per page for an 8x10 color print, it's not technically a speedster, but it's significantly faster than competing photo printers, such as the HP Photosmart 7550.

Inkjet color-photo speed test  (Shorter bars indicate better performance)
 Minutes per page  
Canon i950
1.9 
Canon S830D
2.3 
HP Photosmart 7550
5.3 
Epson Stylus Photo 925
7.1 


Inkjet printer text speed  (Longer bars indicate better performance)
 Pages per minute  
HP Photosmart 7550
3.8 
Canon i950
2.2 
Canon S830D
2.0 
Epson Stylus Photo 925
1.5 

However, you probably shouldn't try to force this right-brain printer to do left-brain work: it prints text at a poky 2 pages per minute (ppm). In the same vein, text and graphics prints look good but not great. Text displays visible aliasing, while diagonal lines and curves are somewhat jagged, making it a less-than-ideal choice for desktop publishing and detailed graphics work, such as CAD (computer-aided design) tasks.

Inkjet printer quality
•Poor   ••Fair   •••Good   ••••Excellent
 Printer Text Graphics Photo
Plain paper  Coated paper  Plain paper  Coated paper  Photo paper 
 Canon i950 •• ••• ••• ••• ••••
 Canon S830D •• ••• •• •• •••
 Epson Stylus Photo 925 •• •• •• •• •••
 HP Photosmart 7550 ••• ••• •••• ••• ••••

Its photos, on the other hand, come out exceptionally sharp and smooth, with no banding, thanks to the tiny 2-picoliter droplets. The colors are definitely pleasing, though the color matching requires some tweaking, either in your retouching software or the printer driver. Overall, the colors err slightly to the yellow. You'll get the best results with files that originate in the sRGB colorspace. It does a pretty good job of matching the colors across various paper types, however.


Ink cost for an 8x10 photo are on the inexpensive side for this class of printer.
Best of all, the i950's consumables won't drive its price into the stratosphere. Each color photo can run less than 30 cents. That's quite a steal for a photo inkjet these days, many of which have print costs of 40 cents or more.

Finally, the printer does a very good job of holding gray balance on matte paper, and it delivers extremely good composite black-and-white prints; at worst, if you stare really hard, you might start to see magenta in the midtones. On glossy paper, though, there is an overall cyan cast. Canon's driver-based help and its electronic manual are pretty skimpy, but they cover all of the basics nonetheless. Web-based resources, on the other hand, include e-mail support and no-fee, toll-free tech support for the duration of its industry-standard one-year warranty. Out of warranty, tech support will run you $9.99 per toll call.

On our test call, after a wait of about six minutes, we spoke with a tech-support rep who was extremely thorough and quite chatty. Rather than pay per call, you can also opt for the $95 Canon CarePAK Extended Service Plan, which, among other things, extends the warranty to three years and adds overnight exchange.


The printer's online manual is as skimpy as the help system integrated into the driver.

User opinions

Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
User Rating:
4.5 stars

out of 35 user reviews

After 2 years, and a New Print Head - Brand Newby ronman101 - December 8, 2005

Pros: Excellent Picture Quality, Workhorse

Cons: Ink not permanent

Review: I've had this printer for about 2 years and came back to fill in the blanks about the quality of this printer. There is both good and bad, but the good outweighs the bad.

The BAD: Print head stopped printing photo cyan last month, and was considering a new printer, but did not find anything cheap that printed as well as this $129.00 printer. So, I found a wed site (Precision) that sells print heads (not cheap) and bought one --- printer prints just like new now. I figured that it was worth it since HP sells a new print head with each ink cartridge they sell.

The Good: For the market value, I cannot find anything better on the market for the same price. All of seen and heard was not as good as this, not as good as that (Why did they get rid of those old printers). The print quality is Excellent! Only issue is that the ink is not permanent and can smear. I found a website (Pacific) that sells ink at a 2/3 the cost of local retail stores with free shipping. Best part, they send you email reminders to re-order ink.
For the price, the new print head ($124.00) was worth holding onto old technology for a little bit longer until (IF) something better comes along. If you have one or can find one, it is worth it.
User Rating:
4.5 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Great Performanceby kg4nck - November 9, 2005

Pros: Excellent printing quality, quiet performance, auto-on/off feature

Cons: doesn't automatically flip paper to print on other side

Review: I've had this this printer since 2002 and it's still going strong. It prints excellent quality pictures at a somewhat quick speed. It prints text crisp and clear too, making it a good all around printer. Never jammed or done anything out of the ordinary.
User Rating:
2.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Sure didn't last long...by swatson - May 30, 2005

Pros: Good quality pictures

Cons: Broke right after warranty ran out

Review: I researched a good photo printer carefully, and selected this one based on what I found. I found the picture quality to be terrific, and speed and noise levels quite good. Then it broke down on me right in the middle of printing a text document. Not happy that it broke down so quickly, which hurts my rating for this printer substantially.
User Rating:
1.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

I wouldn't buy another.by - January 26, 2005

Pros: Nice photo output when it works.

Cons: Small internal plastic parts broke after 19 months (out of warranty). Would cost $80/hr to repair.

Review:
User Rating:
3.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

The quality of the printer is good overall.by - January 12, 2005

Pros: The quality of the pictures is fantasic...

Cons: The only bad thing is that the paper has to be aligned just right in order for the paper to feed.

Review:
User Rating:
1.5 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Excellent until warranty endsby - December 22, 2004

Pros: Excellent picture quality, very silent and fast

Cons: After 18 months of very light use (MAX 300 prints), the yellow ink got contaminated (like if black ink was coming into the yellow cart). I only used Canon's original inks to make sure this type of problem does not occur. The problem is probably with the p

Review:
User Rating:
1.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Great printer until the warranty runs outby - December 12, 2004

Pros: The first year I had this printer it worked great. Both the text and photos looked excellent.

Cons: Now that the warranty is out all of the black ink has started draining into the yellow cartridge and color output looks terrible. Sometimes instead of black it prints yellow. I've always used genuine canon cartridges and always put them in the correct p

Review:
User Rating:
2.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Expensiveq to operateby - September 19, 2004

Pros: Great Photos, Fast Printer... etc but at what costs

Cons: extremely expensive consumables. incompatible with replacement ink vendors warranty voided if they are used. Print head fails after 1 year replacement cost around $100. Have to use expensive Canon paper or you will get awful printouts.

Review:
User Rating:
2.5 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Good Value but mediocre picturesby - June 29, 2004

Pros: I got a great deal on this model at Sam's Club but this printer does not produce as vibrant of pictures as my 4 year old HP 9320.

Cons: Mediocre picture quality. I think this is due to the "new" low ink technology.

Review:
User Rating:
4.5 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Fast, quiet printer with excellent qualityby - May 11, 2004

Pros: Produces great quality photos on any brand photo paper. It's quiet and fast, and bundled with great utilities.

Cons: Like all inkjets, it uses ink fairly fast so keep some spares handy.

Review:
User Rating:
4.5 stars

out of 35 user reviews

CORRECTING THOSE NON-BELIEVERSby - November 10, 2003

Pros: Hello everyone, I have been a Canon Store Representative for about 3 years now, and I love to come on here and see what people say and what they complain about. And I like to point out the things that are incorrect and that a lot of people don't realize.

Cons:

Review:
User Rating:
4.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Stunning Photo Qualityby - October 24, 2003

Pros: I was a color printer for 11 years. The optical quality of this printer rivals phographic paper in many respects.

Cons: The driver is not very feature rich. The paper feed is a little fussy.

Review:
User Rating:
5.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

WOW!!, In a word GREAT!!by - October 18, 2003

Pros: (1) Sharp, contrasty photos, what you see on your crt or lcd, is what you get.(2) Brilliant colors, with ink that seems to last and last.(3) individual ink wells saves mucho money, and (4) very quiet and fast!!!!

Cons: None really, except that canon Photo Paper Pro, while very good, is expensive and difficult to find. Please note I have been using Ilford's"Smooth Gloss" Paper, setting the yellow to -15 and the intensity to +5, the images will blow you away. This paper I

Review:
User Rating:
5.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

ITS UNREAL!!!by - October 10, 2003

Pros: I've been waiting months to write this review. After months of research I finally went for the canon i950 from Dell. One word: AWESOME! From out of the box to my first 4x6 borderless: 20 minutes. No hassles, no issues. The printed documentation provi

Cons: Absolutely freaking none.

Review:
User Rating:
5.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

ALL I CAN SAY IS WOW!!!by - October 3, 2003

Pros: I own a Canon s600 and a Epson 777. Now I also own a Canon I950. I am totally amazed by the amazing speed and quality of photo's the I950 produces. I use a Oly C2100 ultra zoom 2.1 megapixel camera and the pictures of all sizes print out beautiful on my n

Cons: NONE

Review:
User Rating:
5.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Best Photo Printer for the $$$by - September 30, 2003

Pros: The writer of this article must not like Canon printers. Go to Tomshardward.com and see an honest review. This is simple the best Photo Printer for the $$$.

Cons: Don't use after market ink!! Stick with OEM.

Review:
User Rating:
3.5 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Awesome, when you use proper paper!by - September 25, 2003

Pros: Best photo quality I have seen on the proper paper -- Canon Photo Pro.

Cons: Take this seriously -- you MUST use Canon Photo Pro paper for best results. This printer performs poorly on anything less, but beautifully with Canon's proprietary paper.

Review:
User Rating:
3.5 stars

out of 35 user reviews

The best printer I have ownedby - September 25, 2003

Pros: Hi resolution graphics print near perfect. Text is clear and sharp. The printer seems to use it's ink very sparenly. Seems quiet too. Software installed on my XP sp1 computer without any issues. I can say this about very few computer products! If you

Cons: Paper feeding is not quite square. No paper catch, if you print more than one page, they fall to the floor. Comes with a digital media reader, why? Should come with a nice supply of large photopaper. Documentation is poor, and is just good for printer

Review:
User Rating:
4.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

The King of Inkjets Does It Again!!!by - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: There's no stopping the Canon juggernaut, is there?!? This thing plain rocks; the 2-picoliter drops provide unmatched precision (except maybe by Canon's own i850, which is also 2-picoliter, but four-color). The quality on ANY media is wonderful. The printer is unbelievably quiet except for the initial paper grab, and speed is tremendous once you count the quality of the output. Best of all it won't murder you in the wallet, thanks to separate ink tanks!!! I can't recommend this printer any more. I also own a Canon S500 and this thing trounces even THAT model, which up until now has bene BY FAR the best printer I've owned.
User Rating:
1.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Too much maintenance, too much ink for Photo printingby - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I use this printer to print color photos, and it requires constant attention. It prints well 50% of the time. The other 50% you are either running out of ink, about to run out, replacing cartridges, performing head cleaning and alignment, trouble shooting printer poor print quality, and doing more maintenance! Even at it's best, the prints are somewhat washed out/ hazy.
User Rating:
4.5 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Great Printer - But Get To Know Itby - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I first left a very positive review of this printer back in March when I first got it. I have had no real problems atr all with it. However I did run into one small issue that one of the recent reviews pointed out. The print speed varies depending on what paper you tell the driver you are using. With Canon Photo Paper Pro, you do get 4 x 6 beatiful phtos is exactly 37 Seconds as stated. However if you use Photo Paper Plus, the speed slows to 65 seconds. this is certainly acceptable but I didn't know it and thought my printer was defective. I called Canon, they sent me a new (not refurbished as some have stated) printer overnight, and it did the same thing. It was only when I read the review in here, thjat I realized what it was. It's true, you will only get the fastest speeds with Photo Paper Pro. I wish Canon would have told me that, and saved me the aggravation.
User Rating:
5.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

BEST PRINTER IN THE MARKET !!by - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: i hAD THE CANON i950 NOW FOR ONE MONTH AND i DID MY HOME WORK BEFORE i BOUGHT IT, READ COMPARED DIFFERENT REVIEWS, ALTHOUGH IAM A BIG FAN OF HP I HAVE TO ADMITE THIS IS THE BEST MOST ECONMIC PRINTER I HAD EVER , TRUST ME DON'T LOOK ANY FURTHER THIS IS THE BEST OF THE BEST. PHOTOS PRINT OUT ARE UNBLEVEIBLE OUT OF HIS WORLD WOWWWW !!!!!!
User Rating:
4.5 stars

out of 35 user reviews

your first print will blow you awayby - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: i read a lot of these comments and was impressed about the honesty and expertise behind the insights. i took the reviews and user comments to heart and bought this one for my wife for mother's day, along with a canon g2. when she first printed out a picture she started giggling she was so excited. i was truly impressed but was very happy to see the functionality you can add with the borders and other artwork to add in with your pictures. i've only had it a few days so i can't make a judgement on how long the ink tanks last, but we've been print 4 megapixel 4x6 pictures left and right and the tanks are still going strong. i'd like to see an "estimated ink level" bar so i know when to stock up. i'd agree with the other users who say only use the canon paper; the canon paper plus glossy seems to be the best deal. To summon it up: by this printer if you have a 3+ megapixel camera and want complete control over your photo hobby.
User Rating:
4.5 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Buy for photos onlyby - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: It's a great printer for printing your pic's. When printing web pages or word doc's, text has a slight fuzzy look. I kept my old Okidata OL400 laser printer for text, it just can't be beat by an ink jet printer for text in my opinon. The pc I use is a Dell Inspiron 8200 with XP home, and my Palm Vx connected to it, so I can't see what M&M (other opinon) is talking about, wish I had a clue so I could sugguest a quick fix. But all in all I'm very pleased with this printer.
User Rating:
4.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

BUY IT!!!by - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I just bought an Olympus C-5050 digital camera and I needed a decent printer. This printer is FAR BEYOND decent. And I didn't break the bank.
User Rating:
5.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Better than the Labby - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: My 4x6 images are great! The 8x10s I've printed are great! I'm using the Canon paper - I would recommend that. My in-laws say that Office Depot's brand is just as good as Kodak, but I would stick to the Canon if you like the results. I use Photoshop to edit photos and adjust color before printing so the lack of a card reader slot isn't that big of a deal for me. I wouldn't print straight from the card usually. I haven't done much text with the printer, but it is above average. I don't think it will matter much once you see the photos this printer produces.
User Rating:
3.5 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Does the photo print job very wellby - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I bought this printer online for about $220. I use it with a Canon Powershot A60 digital camera. It came with 6 ink cartridges and a sample pack of Canon's best photo Glossy paper (4x6 size?). I had a few pictures to print, so I got started quickly, due to an easy setup. The process is pretty easy, especially if you browse the manual on the CD-ROM. The pictures are of very good quality, despite using different Canon photo paper. I wound up buying some of the Glossy Plus paper, or their 2nd best quality, according to the guide on the back of the photo paper packaging. I couldn't see too much of a difference in print quality. Everyone is absolutely blown away by the results. One thing that I've realized is that I have to use the most camera resolution, while picture taking, in order to get the most flexibility at the print stage. Attempting to make large prints that were originally shot at medium or small resolution don't have as much sharpness, and tend to be soft. Small picture prints look like those real finished photos on post cards. The results are very pleasing. I can't really think of anything displeasing about the printer. It prints very quickly for my needs, and it does envelopes and t-shirt prints as well. There are actually a lot of options to choose from. The overall looks of the printer itself are very pleasing to my eyes, and the level of noise is very, very low. Ink changeouts are very quick and easy as well as paper loading. Text prints were not really my main focus, because I was mainly looking for a photo printer. They look good to me, but I'm no graphics expert. The text that you can put on the photo prints is very nice, though. It doesn't have a viewing window or slot for memory cards, but I have computer to control all of that. Get this printer!!!! (especially if you have a Canon digital camera)
User Rating:
4.5 stars

out of 35 user reviews

excelent printerby - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: Who ever has negative coments about this printer hasn't taken a good look at it. I have printed out over 20 8x10's, 20 5x7's, 150 color invitations, plus numerouse other projects and the color quality, speed of printing and quietness of this printer can't be matched by any other in it's class. You would have to spend hundreds more to get any better quality out of a photo printer. I have been a faithfull epson buyer for 15 years and finaly got tired of clogged printing heads every time I wanted to use the printer. Also the ink costs and usage on the epsons were outrages. With everything that I have printed so far, I haven't even used up half of the ink available with the canon, where with the epson I would have gone through 3 color refills and one black by now. As for the quality of photos on any other photo paper but canon, I used the Kodak, Staples brand, and Epson photo paper, and the Epson paper works great. the other two were OK but not as crisp as the epson paper was. So you don't need to spend the extra money for thecanon paper as some other people have expressed. If you want the most bang for your buck, this is the printer for you.
User Rating:
4.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

GOODBYE EPSON!!!!!by - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: Just set up my i950...I am so pleased. Set up was a snap. Initial photos are great and would put them up against photo labs. Had an Epson 785, a horrible experience. Went thru more cartridges due to clogging. When it worked the photos were fine but you could watch grass grow faster. Will give serious consideration to buying the new i9100. Best of luck. By the way have printed on epson premium glossy, matte heavyweight and canon photo pro, all with similar results. Good luck.
User Rating:
4.5 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Superiority! Excellence! individuality!by - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I decided to buy Canon i950 about a week ago, it didn't frustrate me at all. Canon i950 is one the most powerful photo printers around today, printing the most spotless and excellently detailed photo I've ever seen before. I didn't overstate that photo produced by i950 is so grainless even viewing through the 2.5X magnifier, due to the incredibly microscopic 2-picoliters ink droplet size. I suggested you use the Canon glossy photo paper (PP101/PR101) or other high-quality photo paper for producing more exceptional photo. In its speed results, this printer is remarkably fast, it REALLY prints out great 4X6 borderless photo in just 37 secs (on Canon PR101) equal to its specs and 65 secs on Canon PP101. For text printing, it also produces the superbly-sharp text results identical to my HP laser printer (but laser print indicates more blacker text with no ink-soaking like ink jet printer). However, Canon surely grabs the victorious flag again with its masterpiece photo printer i950.
User Rating:
5.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Best Photo printer currentlyby - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I've owned several Canon printers and this is by far the best one yet. It's amazing how quiet it is.On 4800 dpi printing, it's truly photo qualtiy.
User Rating:
5.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

The Best Photo Printer Out Thereby - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: The i950 is incredible. Prints look like they came from a photo lab, and with the separate color cartridges, it sips ink. While it is slightly cheaper to print out your 4x6 photos at Wal-Mart, the convenience of printing at home and not having to deal with the crowds and rude employees is worth it. Also, printing 5x7's and 8x10's is more economical on the i950 than at the photo lab. The best deal I've found on Canon Photo Pro paper is from buy.com.
User Rating:
4.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Photographs are as good or better than photo lab work!by - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I've had my i950 for 2 weeks and have been astounded by the quality of photos it prints. I've printed some 150 photos in all sizes and on several different brands of high quality glossy paper. The images are sharp, and the color is bright and true to life. A huge plus is Canon's new 1-2-3 Easy Image software. It's primarily for printing and cropping, but it's better for printing than PictureIt!, Qimage, and several others. I wish it did red-eye correction and then I'd never have to use anything else. (Are you listening Canon?) One of the nice ameneties is how quiet it runs. Sitting next to it you hardly know it's there. One criticism... the documentation is rather skimpy, both in print and in their help files. The good news is that their telephone support is excellent - both knowlegible and helpful. Canon should also have included a USB cable. I opened the box at night and learned there was no cable to connect to my computer. I had to wait until the next day, then go buy a cable, before I could get started. Unboxing was easy - Canon provides a large and easy to follow poster with set up instructions. A monkey could follow it. Set up took about 45 minutes until I had my first print. Wow! Was I impressed. This little wonder is top notch. For anyone who wants good photo work, this is it! And, the text printing was also very good. I paid $249 plus tax at Staples online. They shipped it to their nearest store to my house and I picked it up a day later. I chose Staples because they have a very good return policy - no re-stocking fee! Anyway... don't walk - RUN to buy one of these babies. The best computer output photos I've ever seen!
User Rating:
3.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

Photo quality excellent.by - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: Pleased with quality and speed of photo printing. Also does well on transparecies and plain media. Driver option seem limited. Would like to see contrast, gamma and hue controls. Mainenance of componants straight forward regarding ink tanks and if neccesary print heads. Draft mode economical and very practical for plain paper text.
User Rating:
5.0 stars

out of 35 user reviews

"OH MY GOD!!"by - June 18, 2003

Pros:

Cons:

Review: I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw the brilliant graphics of my photos done with this printer. It really couldn't get any better! At first I was almost ready to return the printer back to the store. But because of the great reviews on many different websites, I wasn't ready to throw in the towel just yet. The software that came with the printer is garbage! Canon really flopped on that one. After using about 4 different editing software none had even come close to the photos that came out of a lab. But then I finally got it right on point with ArcSoft Photo Impression. It came with the HP315 camera. The prints came out true to life! Sharpness as if you were really there and not looking at a photo. I was truly amazed! I have so far used 52 5x7 Canon Photo Paper plus Glossy for borderless prints. And the ink is level is still going strong, not even half the ink is used. It cost $11.99 for one of the six ink tanks. You run out of one just buy only the color tank thats empty. Could it get any better than that. It's no where near empty. And the text is really very good. Maybe not like a laser printer but what do you want for a $199.00 color printer.(I caught it on sale). My friends have all went out and bought this printer after seeing my shots. And believe me I am using a basic low model camera by HP one of the lowest models. But with the right printer and the right software you really don't need to shop around, this is it! Trust me baby!

Keywords

altpurpose   |   fotoprinters   |   directconnect   |   portprinter   |  

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Canon i950 Photo Printer specifications

  • General
  • Printer Type Personal printer - Ink-jet - Color
  • Width 16.5 in
  • Depth 10.8 in
  • Height 6.3 in
  • Weight 10.6 lbs
  • Printer
  • Print Speed up to 1.0 ppm - Photo - 8 in x 10 in , up to 1.6 ppm - Photo - 4 in x 6 in
  • Connectivity Technology Wired
  • Interface USB
  • Max Resolution ( B&W ) 4800.0 dpi x 1200.0 dpi
  • Max Resolution ( Color ) 4800.0 dpi
  • Image Enhancement Technology MicroFine Droplet Technology
  • RAM
  • RAM Installed ( Max ) 80.0 KB
  • Media Handling
  • Media Type Matte photo paper , Photo paper , Envelopes , Iron-on transfers , Glossy photo cards , Plain paper , Transparencies , Glossy photo paper , High resolution paper
  • Max Media Size (Custom) 8.5 in x 14.0 in
  • Media Sizes Legal (8.5 in x 14 in) , Letter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in) , U.S. #10 envelopes
  • Envelope Sizes US No 10 (4.1 in x 9.5 in)
  • Total Media Capacity 150.0 sheets
  • Media Feeder(s) 1.0 x Autoload - 150.0 sheets - Legal (8.5 in x 14 in)
  • Telecom
  • Modem None
  • Networking
  • Networking None
  • Scanner
  • Type None
  • Copier
  • Copier Type None
  • Expansion / Connectivity
  • Expansion Bays None
  • Expansion Slot(s) None
  • Connections 1.0 x USB
  • Power
  • Power Device Power supply
  • Voltage Required AC 120 V
  • Frequency Required 60 Hz
  • Software / System Requirements
  • Software Included Canon Easy-WebPrint , Drivers & Utilities , Canon PhotoRecord , Canon PhotoStitch , Canon ImageBrowser , Canon Easy-PhotoPrint , Canon ZoomBrowser EX
  • OS Required Microsoft Windows 2000 Server , Microsoft Windows 98/ME , Microsoft Windows XP , Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional , Apple MacOS 8.6 or later , Apple MacOS X 10.1 or later , Apple MacOS 9.x
  • Min RAM Size 256.0 MB
  • Environmental Standards
  • ENERGY STAR Qualified Yes
  • Environmental Parameters
  • Sound Emission 37.0 dBA
  • Manufacturer Warranty
  • Service & Support 1 year warranty
  • Service & Support Details Limited warranty - 1 year
ie8 fix
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