I have had the Pixma Pro 1 in my studio for a couple of months. I haven't had much of a chance to use it since I have been spending more time testing the P600 as of late. The Pro 1 has a premium quality build (like a tank) that some users with limited desktop space and limited physical stength (it's very heavy for a 13 inch printer) will probably complain about. IMHO, it's a good thing, and the Pro-1 can make some impressive color and B&W prints, but that said, the Pro 1 is a very odd duck with lots of quirks.
Canon admirably has gone out of its way to promote the printer's ability to work with third party media. And it would seem like the dream printer for this because it has no PK-MK ink switching issue like the Epson printers. But what were Canon engineers thinking? There are some big big gotchas to the Pro-1 when using any media other than RC paper media. First, you have to choose a Fine art media setting in order to access the MK ink, but those FA media settings enforce a 30mm minimum margin on both the leading and trailing edges of the print. While this wide margin is grudgingly perhaps OK for the largest size prints, it's absurd for letter size paper. But wait, there's more! I tried to do an end run around the Fine art paper margin limit by creating a custom page size. No go, the FA media settings are also hard wired to three standard page sizes only, ie., letter-size, tabloid, and Super B. When you try to make a custom page size, you aren't allowed to select the FA media settings, so you can't invoke the MK ink with any custom page size. The only other MK ink setting that doesn't enforce the 30 mm margin is the "plain paper" setting, but that color table is totally whacked for any media other than plain paper, so one could not use it to build a custom color profile and skirt around the FA settings" margin limits. I may yet find a work around to this wide margin/MK ink issue, but I haven't yet.
Second, the Pro-1 is very prone to head strikes especially at the trailing edge of the sheet... the media must be super flat, flat, flat. There is an obscure setting in the menu that will widen the platten gap a lttle (Canon doesn't use that terminology, so at the moment it escapes me what that menu setting is called), and choosing this increased platten gap option helps, but even with that setting permanently invoked, I find myself always laying each sheet down on the table and if any edge curls up more than a millimeter or so, I take time to curl the sheet backwards enough so that it is now dead flat on the table before I feed it into the Pro-1. RC media tend to have slight backwards curl and are of course thinner than most fine art papers, so they tend to work fine with no fussing about de-curling each sheet first, but otherwise, one needs to pay very close attention to media flatness when using the Pro-1.
Third, The gloss optimizer menu settings are very funky, but I was able to tame the beast when it comes to using the Gloss optimizing the way I want it. There are four basic setting choices, 1) no GO, 2) GO overall (but for GO overall remember to use borderless paper setting as well if you truly want edge to edge GO covering both image and print margins), or 3) GO on image only, and 4) a quirky but useful custom feature which creates a user defined mask to place the Go only where you want it on the paper. The GO on image only turned out to be disappointing, because Canon views it as an economy mode, so it feathers out the GO completely when it reaches any full white areas in the image. This reduces the bronzing, but leaves the gloss differential issue sadly in the place the viewer sees it most, ie. highlights feathering to paper white areas in the image. The work around is to use the GO overall mode, or the custom masking feature. Once you figure this custom GO mode out, you can then place the GO completely over the image area only, or the full sheet, or anywhere else you do and don't want it. But the Custom mode is a bit tricky and slow to implement since it's a two step process in order to make the necessary image mask the printer driver needs in order to figure out where you want the Go placed on the paper. Phew, that was mouthful
All in all, I can only recommend the Pro-1 printer to folks who print entirely on RC or glossy/luster type fine art media like Canson Baryta Photographique or Hahemuhle Photo Rag Baryta where the Pro-1's gloss optimizer and four level gray channels are both very welcome. However, If you are thinking about this printer as a nice way to move seamlessly between matt and glossy media without the tyranny of Epson ink PK-MK switching you are likely going to be in for a huge disappointment with its bizarre margin limits for fine art matt papers and the extra finicky paper flatness/head strike sensitivity.
My 2 cents
best,
Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com
