Epson 2200 vs. HP 7960 vs. Canon i900D

[todd_boyer]

Hi all,

 

I am looking to get a high quality injet printer. I am looking for

one that can do excellent B&W and high quality color. I know that

the HP 7960 does excellent B&W, but how is the color printing? Is it

comparable to the Epson 2200? Is the Epson 2200 the best color

reasonably priced printer out there? How does the Canon i900D

compare? Has anyone tried and compared all three against each

other?

[beauh44]

Hi Todd, You might want to check <a href="http://www.steves-digicams.com/printers.html">this</a> link at Steve's Digicams. He reviews all three. I own the 2200 and am very happy with it, but I've never compared it to the others. Best wishes . . .

[qld]

Go with the HP 7960. I have the HP 7550 and happy with it. My brother has the i900D and he complainted about the print head. He said you can't use re-fill ink or after market ink. The print head does not like it. I use my re-fill and fill the ink for the 7550 and it works fine. I used to have the epson photo 700 and was not happy with it. It won't last at HP. You can go to photographyreview.com and read other review about these printers.

[kevin_hicks]

I have been using the 2200 for some time now. It can produce very good, long lasting color prints. I can't claim to have seen output from the other printers you mention, but it is difficult to imaging that they could do any better with color.

 

B&W printing with the 2200 can be troublesome. The problem is metamerism where the print changes color depending on the light in which it is displayed. There are ways around this problem. One good solution is to use Imageprint. This is a rather expensive printing program that can produce very good B&W with the 2200. I have not used Imageprint, but I have several B&W prints that were produced by Imageprint on a 2200 and they are perfectly lovely.

 

Do a few searches on photo.net and you will find many discussions of the 2200 and B&W printing.

[david_nevin1]

Hi Todd,

 

I recently purchased the i900D and I like it a lot. The cheap replacement ink tanks combined with the ability to replace the print head seperately was a big selling point for me (not to mention the print quality, which has been outstanding.)

 

That said, the Epson 2200 offers more paper size options, which might be a factor for you. Of course, you'll pay for that.

 

HTH,

 

Dave

[bobatkins]

I've reviewed both the HP7960 and the Canon i900D right here on photo.net. Go to the home page and check the "What's New" box.

 

If I just wanted a color printer, I'd pick the i900D. If I was heavily into B&W I'd probably go for the HP7960 - though if I was REALLY heavily into B&W I might go with an Epson 1160 and quadtone inks since it will print 13" wide and you can get a continuous inkflow system for it.

 

The Epson 2200 is in a different price league and I haven't used one.

[stevierose]

I own both the Epson 2200 and the HP 7960. The 2200 makes excellent color and BW

prints however I am using it with ImagePrint RIP which adds $500 to the price.

Without a RIP I find making neutral BW prints to be difficult. Also, the 2200 prints best

on Matte or semi-gloss paper. It does not print well on glossy paper.

 

The 7960 makes excellent glossy BW prints, the best that I have seen out of an inkjet

printer. The color prints do not look as good to me as the 2200, but that is likely

because I have not yet made a custom colorsync profile for it. I suspect the color will

be fine once it is "dialed in". I have not tried the card reader auto-printing features of

the 7960 which the 2200 does not have. The main limitation of the printer is that the

paper size can be no larger than 8.5 x 11 inches which realistically limits you to 8x10

or smaller. Also, the color management features of the 7960 are poorly documented,

and HP doesn't seem very attuned to these features, whereas there is a huge

experience with Epson in this regard. I have not used the Canon printer.