I couldn't agree with you more.
If Canon ( or HP in the past ) had ditched that blue channel for a light light gray then you would have the 100% state of the art killer oem printer/inkset that could do anything anytime on any media at the drop of a hat and fast. I guess it is the pre-press match people they are trying to please, as always.
I just don't understand them. Yes, with True Black and White the monochrome is totally neutral with No color inks used ( a tri tone) exceptionally permanent with 0 metamerism failure, but it is still a tri-tone. I'm doing a lot of it and it is impressive thanks to BowHaus. With one more gray ( this is damn 12 ink system by the way) you have it all in one printer, with linearization in TBW with an Eye One. the final nail in the coffin of the analogue darkroom. Good enough is nice but good enough is not excellence. I'm really sad they didn't do that. I just don't have the stomach to do it myself by diluting their light gray.
The new 60" er is a welcome addition though. Good for you Canon. It must take 10 men to move that sucker.
John
Personally, I think the Lucia EX inkset is the best one on the market and clearly an improvement over Epson's HDR inkset. I think they could improve it even further if they ditch the bronzy blue for a gloss optimizer and maybe the red for another gray. But it's the hardware platform that's getting long in the tooth. I'd like to see a whole new iPF line of printers resigned from the ground up that resembles something modern like the Pro-1 ... or an Epson 9900, iPad, Mini Cooper, Porsche or something along those lines! A printer with super fast paper loading and unloading, a touch sensitive color screen, careful paper handling and less noise. It takes a few years for big change like that to happen at Canon.
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