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Author Topic: Canon IPF8000 anyone?  (Read 15986 times)

Osequis

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Canon IPF8000 anyone?
« on: November 22, 2006, 10:27:28 pm »

Hi, does anyone have some experience with the IPF8000, (owner, demo show, etc...)?
I'm very interested in the printer but haven't found any review yet...
Is like the IPF5000, but in big?
Same issues?
Thanks
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Chris_Brown

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Canon IPF8000 anyone?
« Reply #1 on: December 26, 2006, 10:07:21 pm »

Quote
Hi, does anyone have some experience with the IPF8000, (owner, demo show, etc...)?
I'm very interested in the printer but haven't found any review yet...
Is like the IPF5000, but in big?
Same issues?
Thanks
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=86652\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I just received a Canon iPF8000 and can say that this printer is much more massive than the equivalent Epson. I had an Epson 9600 since 2001 and it was easy for just myself and a female assistant to unpack and carry the main pieces into the printer room for assembly. The Canon, on the other hand, required four men to heft the printer head from the loading dock into the printer room. The shipping manifest gave the pallet a gross weight of 556 lbs. It was a huge box that required the use of a pallet jack to move from the dock to a better location for unpacking. The weight of the printer & stand, without any paper is spec'd at 313 lbs.

Last month I sold my Epson 9600 to a young artist and she came with just her boyfriend to pick it up. He & I easily placed the print head into their van for transport. If I ever sell this Canon, moving it will not be as easy.

The printer assembly is done but I have not fired it up yet. I want to give myself plenty of time to get my head around the hardware/software workflow. I'll post as soon as I feel I can make a knowledgeable post.
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laarree

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Canon IPF8000 anyone?
« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2006, 08:47:27 am »

Quote
Hi, does anyone have some experience with the IPF8000, (owner, demo show, etc...)?
I'm very interested in the printer but haven't found any review yet...
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=86652\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

We got one of these at work recently.  It apparently can use bottles of ink c. 700 ml
in size compared to the maximum 220 ml cartridges used by the current Epson wide
format printers.

I've only done a couple of prints with it, but from what little I've seen I've been impressed
--very nice, smooth gradients, and the Photoshop soft-proof and prints matched to my
satisfaction.
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Osequis

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Canon IPF8000 anyone?
« Reply #3 on: December 27, 2006, 09:00:14 pm »

Thanks for the info, the size/weight is a factor to consider since I have my studio in the second floor.  

I have a few questions if both of you're so kind to anwser:

- Are you using PC or Mac to print?
- Is any RIP included?
- The IPF8000 comes with a Photoshop plugin ala IPF5000? if so, do you use it?
- Color out of the box is ok?
- Using non Canon paper has good results?
- how fast is it?
- This printer behaves like the IPF5000 using double check on software and printer control panel to setup the paper?
- Any issues so far?

Seems like the mayority of the users are just starting to experience this printer... I hope some of you post any issues.

Thanks
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Chris_Brown

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Canon IPF8000 anyone?
« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2006, 02:20:06 pm »

Quote
Thanks for the info, the size/weight is a factor to consider since I have my studio in the second floor.
Yah, this printer head is much bulkier and heavier than the Epson 9600. Caveat Emptor!  

I have run into issues which I hope to address in this forum.

Quote
- Are you using PC or Mac to print?
- Is any RIP included?
- The IPF8000 comes with a Photoshop plugin ala IPF5000? if so, do you use it?
- Color out of the box is ok?
- Using non Canon paper has good results?
- how fast is it?
- This printer behaves like the IPF5000 using double check on software and printer control panel to setup the paper?
- Any issues so far?

I've set it up as follows:
• Power Mac computers (non-Intel) on LAN in studio all print to the printer
• Printer connected via ethernet to ethernet switch. Printer given static IP address.
• Using the included Canon GARO print driver. Printing from Photoshop and Acrobat.

Once assembled and turned on, it fills the ink supply lines. Once paper is loaded for
the first time, it performs an auto head alignment. As with my 9600 I used the supplied cheap matte paper to print info from the panel and utility software. This helps me get acquainted with the equipment.

I loaded a 42" wide roll of "Canon Premium Bright Photo Satin Paper (230gm)" and it was not as easy as loading paper into a 9600. The roll goes under the printhead area and must be pushed/slid up into the paper spooling area. This requires the use of cotton gloves or else palm grease will get on the paper. The spooler takes up the paper easily and once its been fed throught the platen it must be straightened by manually pulling on the paper and aligning it to guides on the printer. Once that's done, the printer prompts the user for the paper type.

Because this printer prints on most substrates known to man, there is a special program that is used to make custom paper setups with. Criteria such as thickness, dry time, advance adjustment, cutting method are entered. This is an excellent feature for the studio that prints on many different substrates.

However, the ICC profiles that come with the printer are minimal. There was no profile specifically for "Bright Photo Satin" or any satin at all for that matter. There are only five paper profiles for the iPF8000, each with three quality settings: Normal, High & Highest. I was disappointed in Canon for this - I assumed if I bought a Canon branded paper there would be profiles available for it (Epson has profiles for their premium papers). The issue of "Are they good enough" is moot at this point. There are none for the specific Canon papers I bought.

So I ran some tests using the ICC profiles for Photo Glossy just to get going. The printer is much faster than the 9600 in any print mode (unidirectional, finest output, draft, etc.). Under a magnifying loupe I can see the ink dither is slightly coarser than the 9600, but at normal viewing distance (hand held) the image is continuous tone. As expected, the colors are richer, more vibrant and with better black than the 9600.

I also output a few monochrome images using the Monochrome setting in the print driver. I was very pleased with the color of the tone. In "Neutral" it was very slightly warmer than the grays on the MacBeth color chart. This warm tone was identical thoughout every image. My 9600 exhibited strange shifts in color/tone on my B&W prints unless I used ImagePrint (this was a well known issue with that printer/inkset).

One of the downsides to this equipment is the very poor User's Manual (the HTTP version is a near-duplicate of the printed version). The setup manual, used to assemble the printer is extremely detailed and my high hopes were dashed when I opened the manual to find things like this:

"If you cannot adjust the printhead as desired using special media, select Advanced Adjust." (pg. 41)

Then there is nothing about "Advanced Adjust" anywhere in the printed or online manual!

An unbelievable issue with the on-line manual is the fact that several of the the links are completely non-functional. Click it and get a "404 Not Found" error.

Besides this egregious manual the printer is functioning perfectly. Only time will tell about its durability and overall performance.

Another nit is the printer driver. In most cases, when you set output parameters and click "Print", the parameters are saved. Not so with the Canon driver. I must select the paper type each time I print. It's already selected in the hardware panel on the printer, but I must also select paper type each time I print.

What I need now is to know how to work the Canon "AutoLayout" feature. This allows multiple images from multiple programs to be printed at the same time, much like a RIP feature. I hope to get that going next.
« Last Edit: December 30, 2006, 10:09:30 am by Chris_Brown »
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vjbelle

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Canon IPF8000 anyone?
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2007, 10:40:42 am »

Quote
Hi, does anyone have some experience with the IPF8000, (owner, demo show, etc...)?
I'm very interested in the printer but haven't found any review yet...
Is like the IPF5000, but in big?
Same issues?
Thanks
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=86652\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I've just ordered my IPF8000 - I just couldn't pass up the deals that are around for this printer.  I expect the quality to be the same as the 5000 just a lot bigger.  I know that the documentation is going to be poor but I know I can work around that.  Canon has a dedicated support center for the wide format printers, who I have already spoken with, and they seem knowledgeable.  I also spoke with Image Print, and they had very high praise for this printer.  The next version of Imageprint (IP7) will be out in a couple of weeks - at least that is what I was told- and it will support all of the current Canon printers.  I also have the capabilities of generating my own icc profiles but would prefer to run them through IP7 rather than through the dedicated printer driver.

Canon said that the unit was easily handled by 2 men but I'm going to hire at least three guys to help me with the installation.    

Victor
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Chris_Brown

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Canon IPF8000 anyone?
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2007, 11:20:01 am »

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Canon said that the unit was easily handled by 2 men but I'm going to hire at least three guys to help me with the installation.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=94100\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Yeah, two large, burly men whose knuckles drag on the ground!  

Quote
I've just ordered my IPF8000 - I just couldn't pass up the deals that are around for this printer. I expect the quality to be the same as the 5000 just a lot bigger. I know that the documentation is going to be poor but I know I can work around that.  Canon has a dedicated support center for the wide format printers, who I have already spoken with, and they seem knowledgeable. I also spoke with Image Print, and they had very high praise for this printer.  The next version of Imageprint (IP7) will be out in a couple of weeks - at least that is what I was told- and it will support all of the current Canon printers.  I also have the capabilities of generating my own icc profiles but would prefer to run them through IP7 rather than through the dedicated printer driver.

I felt the same way about the deals and the documentation, but I was still surprised at the pathetic User's Manual. You'll find that the assembly manual is excellent, but within the on-line version of the User's Manual are several dead links (i.e., 404 Error).

When I bought my Epson 9600 years ago, IP had just been released. At the time it was "learn as you go". Now they've got pretty good documentation. On the down side, their Annual Maintanence Agreement is expensive for a LF printer ($500).

I finally got "AutoLayout" to work. It requires the IP address as the printer's name. I had renamed the printer in the Mac driver setup. It was a feature I was really looking forward to because I constantly print more than one image at a time on rolls. The major issue with AutoLayout is its inability to recognize embedded ICC profiles. Although I haven't attempted every method of using this feature, it's a shame it's so poorly implemented.
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John Hollenberg

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Canon IPF8000 anyone?
« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2007, 11:28:22 am »

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The next version of Imageprint (IP7) will be out in a couple of weeks - at least that is what I was told- and it will support all of the current Canon printers. 

Colorbyte has a consistent track record in this regard.  2 weeks = 2 months to 12 months.  I wouldn't make any plans based on the projected release date of Imageprint 7.

--John
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Chris_Brown

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Canon IPF8000 anyone?
« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2007, 11:48:17 am »

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Colorbyte has a consistent track record in this regard.  2 weeks = 2 months to 12 months.  I wouldn't make any plans based on the projected release date of Imageprint 7.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=94120\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I agree 100% with this.
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vjbelle

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Canon IPF8000 anyone?
« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2007, 12:23:11 pm »

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I agree 100% with this.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=94125\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Aw come on.... John sounded so sincere.
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