My previous was a Canon S9000 dye 6 color type. Even without profiles, it produces spot-on color with little tweaking. The 9500 is pigmented and I am still learning what media works with it. I paid for a custom profile for Pictorico Photo Gallery High Gloss film. The profile works fine, but I am wondering if the media is compatible with pigments. There is considerable metamerism with this media, which is micro ceramic over polyester base.
Even using the built-in profiles for Canon media, the 9500 wants to just pour ink. I find that I have to back off the intensity slider a miminum of 10 points with glossy Canon media and 15 to 20 with Canon Fine Art rag. The Print with Preview is essential to avoid wasting ink and media. I rarely used it with the S9000.
Yes, the tanks are small, and unlike the series the S9000 uses, not transparent, so you can't see how much is left. It remains to be seen if the 9500 will let you squeeze out a few more prints by hitting resume/form feed like the S9000 did.
The level of detail is pretty astounding. The greens of foilage really pop.
The 9500 has a quirk that has irritated a number of uesers. It insists on a 35 mm top and bottom border on any Fine Art media. I have not tried a full-size (13 x 19) print yet, but I am thinking that maybe I could spoof the printer by specify matte photo and then backing off the intensity to prevent over saturation, and still get a maximum size print.
The 9500 is pretty slow once it starts printing, which is quite a bit longer than other 13 x 19 printers I've used. The paper grab noise will wake you up if you've dozed off after hitting Print. While printing, the printer is very quiet.
