Canon i9900. Green tint in dark gray tones.

[r_resnick]

Please see this example

http://www.pbase.com/polara/image/69777991

 

and 21 step wedge test file

http://www.pbase.com/polara/image/69777993

 

it was made from. The example image is a scan of 2 prints made of the 21 step

wedge test. The problem is easily seen in the top wedge. Anyone else ever have

this problem?

 

NOTES:

 

I use Canon Matte, Photo Paper Plus, and Arista Satin RC. This problem affects

all prints on all of these papers.

 

Problem IS NOT "color profile" related as it appears even when using PictBridge

to print directly from a camera.

 

Does not seem to be "head clog" related as Nozzle Check patches look solid for

each color.

 

I am using latest versions of printer firmware (1.05) and Windows print driver

(1.75a)

 

As seen in example, greenish cast goes away when grayscale printing is checked.

This is ok for B&W prints, but not for color prints.

 

Problem appears in varying degrees in all color prints containing dark gray tones.

 

Any help, suggestions appreciated. Thanks.

[les]

"Problem IS NOT "color profile" related as it appears even when using PictBridge to print directly from a camera."

 

And why is it so ? I do not get it (but then I never used PictBridge and do not intend to. Paper and ink is just a tad too expensive to waste it this way).

[mona_chrome]

These inks just suck! Sorry, even if you get a good print, they will "gas" out over time and

shift within a month or so. I wasted hundreds of dollars of inks and paper on portfolios with

this ink. The problems are substantial with B/W prints and less seen in color prints.

 

I changed over to Lyson inks for this printer and problem went away and no gassing over

time. But, you need to have a way to profile for your papers as the inks are substantially

different. And, the inks are about 1/10th the cost if you buy in bulk.

[brainbubba_motornapkins]

I had chronic green/cyan casts of neutral tones from using 3d-party inks (for about 20% of the OEM ink cost) with an i9900. I was able to solve it, by converting all images to sRGB before printing, and applying a pure red (255, 0, 0) solid color layer in "color" transfer mode @ 5 -- 10% opacity (determined by test prints).

 

I can't speak to Canon inks, since I only used the cartridges that came with the printer, and never looked back...

 

I've not had much luck attempting to adjust color through Canon's printer driver -- that only affects saturation, not color balance. As someone else pointed out, dye-based prints need to be stored in boxes, plastic sleeves, or framed under glass, to avoid 'rapid' color shifts caused primarily by exposure to ozone.

[tonybrown]

I also have an i9900 and found the blue/green tint when printing neutral grey, particularly in the mid/dark grays - just like your illustration. I found this to be paper dependent. The Canon Photo Paper Pro PR101 has the flattest colour spectrum and showed very little colouration with neutral gray over the entire intensity scale. The Canon Matte paper MP101 has a blue bias particularly in the mid-dark grey region. Incidently, so does Henry's satin paper. The EPSON Enhanced Matte paper was much better with a much more neutral grey spectrum over the entire intensity range. Incidently I used my EOS 5D and my EOS 20D cameras as colorimeters to measure the colour of my prints with a light temperature of 5500K (flash). Adobe Photoshop CS was used to measure the image colour balance for each test. Hope this helps. Tony

[r_resnick]

Tony -

 

Your comments are correct in my experience except that I hve not had any better results with EPSON Enhanced Matte. You are also correct that the best chance you have at neutral B&W with this printer is with glossy paper. Or you can choose to print in "grayscale mode" in the print driver. This can still produce some nice prints but with a slight brown/sepia tint and with contrast/dmax range somewhat reduced.

 

The i9900 is capable of producing some of the best, most vivid color prints on fine art matte paper of any printer I have seen. But I have pretty much given up on trying to print B&W on the i9900 and am looking at picking up a second-hand Epson and using Piezography inks. Or I may wait until the Canon Pro9500 comes out next year.

 

If anyone is interested, I am currently getting some great color prints on PICTURE RAG 250 COOL TONE from Inkpress paper. www.inkpresspaper.com