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Author Topic: What are your favorite papers on the Canon 9400/8400/6400 printers?  (Read 3015 times)

mg73

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I switched over from 'Epson land' and bought a canon 8400 for reasons I talked about in earlier threads.  I print landscapes and portraits mostly.  I'm using canvas a lot now for my landscapes and have settled on Epson Exhibition Canvas for my landscape work.  I had a custom profile done from colorHQ.com where I bought the printer (they give you 2 free custom profiles of your choice when you buy a printer from them) and have been happy with the canvas printing.

Now I'm thinking of what paper I can also use for my portraits and landscape.   On my epson printers (7600 and 4880) I had settled mostly on Hahnemule PhotRag, Epson Lustre, and occasionally Epson archival matte.  I also liked Epson Velvet.

With Epson printers, I was used to almost always using the canned icc profiles that came from epson  or the 3rd party paper manufactures.  However, with the canon 8400, there are, of course, no icc profiles for the epson papers.  However, I'm also noticing that there aren't a lot of profiles from the third party manufactures for the 8400 series.  There a lots of profiles for the other canon printers, but I keep coming up with a dearth of 8400 profiles.  I only have one more custom profile from colorHQ.  I'm wondering what papers you other canon users like and whether you use the canned profiles, or have invested in the means to create you own profiles.   
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Landscapes

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Re: What are your favorite papers on the Canon 9400/8400/6400 printers?
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2013, 01:27:31 pm »

I have a Canon iPF6100 and use Epson papers actually.  This has to do mostly with the fact that Epson papers are available locally.  I use the Epson Exhibition Canvas, which is quite lovely, after the Canon canvas was cracking too much.  I also use the Epson Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster.  For the canvas, I had a profile made after I sprayed it with BC Timeless and this seems to work well.  I also had a profile made for the Luster paper but find that using auto color will be almost good enough.  I hear that the RC papers are all pretty much similar so the profiles all tend to be quite the same. 
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bill t.

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Re: What are your favorite papers on the Canon 9400/8400/6400 printers?
« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2013, 03:11:25 pm »

Being of a practical mind, I would suggest whatever paper you select should have a paper base, which excludes the great generic genre of luster papers.  RC papers look great but are a total PITA in the handling and mounting department, and they outgas for a long time after printing.  I feel paper based prints are just easier to deal with and have no significant outgas problem.

That may narrow it down.  Epson Cold and Hot Press papers make exquisite matte prints, as does BC Elegance Velvet. Elegance can also be successfully coated with normal canvas acrylics and presented without glazing, unlike most other papers. Cold and Elegance have slight surface texture which really doesn't get in the way.  And BC Optica One makes positively dazzling smooth surface matte prints thanks to an abundance of OBA's.

Of course there are many others.  You won't get as much gamut from the matte papers as from the glossies, but then it's not really how much gamut you have, it's how you use it.  Sorta, depends on your subjects.  I'm not current on baryta papers, but I bet you could find a happy choice with one of those.  Lots of color gamut with those barytas, you can make full use of all those ink cartridges.

As for profiles, you just have to make them or have them made, end of story.  I regard my profiling system as basic equipment.  Have always seen improvements in the profiles that I make in house versus manufacturers profiles.  There's a difference between "in the ballpark" and "spot on" profiles, and "spot on" usually requires a profile made for a specific, single printer.  IMHO.  And that is true both for my present Canon and my many earlier Epsons.

And me too, I use a lot of Epson Exhibition Canvas Gloss and it looks awesome on the wall.  Same in-your-face impact as a glossy paper, no problem.  But as with all glossy surfaces, it requires mounting to solve reflection issues that come from subtle surface ripple seen in wrapped or hinge mounted prints

FWIW, my BC Crystalline and EECG profiles are almost interchangeable, extremely close.  Same is true for Epson Cold Pres / BC Elegance Velvet.
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mstevensphoto

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Re: What are your favorite papers on the Canon 9400/8400/6400 printers?
« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2013, 04:02:19 pm »

I like BC Optica One a bunch. not so much curl as to be a pain in the rear, lovely lovely output. don't care at all about the oba's
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Josh-H

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Re: What are your favorite papers on the Canon 9400/8400/6400 printers?
« Reply #4 on: April 25, 2013, 06:52:46 pm »

Personally I love Moab Somerset Museum Rag on the Canon machines.
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edknightphoto

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Re: What are your favorite papers on the Canon 9400/8400/6400 printers?
« Reply #5 on: April 26, 2013, 06:22:12 pm »

Think I've settled on Epson Hot Press Natural for the 6400.  Epson's Cold Press is just as good, but with a surface texture.  Great Dmax for a matte.  I'm using the Fine Art Heavyweight Media Type for these Epsons as it gave the best Dmax (1.7+) of those I tried & created my own profile based on this type.  Currently using Canon Satin 240g for a luster paper, but may give Red River Ultra Pro Satin a try as it did great with my old HP pigment printer.  I've had pizza wheel marks (Pin Pricks) on sheets of Red River Arctic Polar Luster, but that shouldn't be an issue if you are only feeding rolls.
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