Event Coverage

Canon Announces 10 New Pixma and Imageclass Printers

By Ng Chong Seng - 5 Oct 2012

Canon Pixma Pro-10 & Pro-100

 

Canon Announces 10 New Pixma and Imageclass Printers

At a press event held earlier today, Canon Singapore has announced a total of 10 new printers. They include two Pixma Pro professional photo printers, three Pixma color inkjet all-in-one photo printers, and five Imageclass monochrome laser multifunction printers. We went up close and personal with some of them, and here are the highlights.

 

Canon Pixma Pro-10 & Pro-100 A3+ Photo Printers

From top: The Canon Pixma Pro-10 and Pro-100 A3+ photo printers.

Earlier this year, Canon announced the Canon Pixma Pro-1, a 12-color, pigment ink-based A3+ photo printer that targets enthusiasts and professionals alike. However at the time, the maker of EOS cameras didn’t update Pixma Pro9500 Mark II and the Pro9000 Mark II, two models that sit directly below it.

Well, fast-forward a year, and Canon has just introduced the successors to the now 3.5-year old Pro9500 Mark II and Pro9000 Mark II, and they come in the forms of the Pixma Pro-10 and Pro-100.

The Pixma Pro-10 uses a 10-color pigment-based Lucia ink system (with individual cartridge for each color) to deliver gallery-quality A3+ photos. The 10 colors are: Photo Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Photo Cyan, Photo Magenta, Red, Gray, Matte Black, and the Chroma Optimizer that we saw on the flagship Pro-1. With three types of black ink (Photo Black, Matte Black, Gray), users should see outstanding black-and-white photos in matte and gloss. According to Canon, a bordered A3+ color or black-and-white photo can be churned out in about 3 minutes and 35 seconds.

The Pixma Pro-10 uses a 10-ink pigment-based system (pictured here), while the Pro-100 uses an 8-ink dye-based system. All the cartridges have their own slots, so there's no need to swap inks if you want to switch from a glossy to a matte media (or vice versa).

The Pixma Pro-100 on the other hand uses the Canon ChromaLife100+ ink system. It features eight dye-based inks, and it too has three mono inks (Photo Black, Gray, Light Gray) for improving color and grayscale reproductions. The Pro-100 is a speedy printer as well: a bordered A3+ color photo can be had in about 90 seconds.

Both the Pro-10 and Pro-100 are capable of print resolutions of up to 4,800 x 2,400 dpi, with a minimum ink droplet size of 4 and 3 picoliters respectively. To achieve the best printout, an Optimum Image Generating System analyzes each area of the print, and chooses the best ink mixture.

Both Pixma Pro printers also come with a manual rear paper feed path for feeding fine art media up to 14 inches wide, Wi-Fi (Apple AirPrint wireless printing is supported) and Ethernet connectivity, and are compatible with a wide range of ICC profiles for use with Canon and other manufacturers' papers. For advanced users who like to tweak, and possess an X-Rite calibrating device, such as the Eye-One Pro and Color Munki, you can use the Color Management Tool Pro software to create custom ICC profiles. There's even a new Pro color mode designed for the sRGB color space to increase screen-to-print color matching accuracy.

To make the device footprint smaller, the manual feed tray for thicker media is now at the rear, just behind the usual loading tray (inset).

Also new is the Print Studio Pro plug-in to help improve workflow with photo-editing apps like Canon Digital Photo Professional, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, and Adobe Photoshop Elements. It brings print settings into a single location, lets you save frequently used print settings as a profile, and allows you to add custom text on a photo, among many other features. Direct printing of RAW files in EOS DSLRs without the need to convert them to TIFF or JPEG format can also be done.

The Canon Pixma Pro-10 and Pro-100 are priced at S$999 and S$799 respectively, and they'd be in stores from end October, 2012.

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