Finally, a Pro 1000 Replacement - Pro 1100!!

[sunnyherman]

At LONG LAST! -

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/paint-it-black-canons-new-imageprograf-flagship-printer-boasts-better-blacks-and-a-slew-of-updates

[Ryan Mack]

> new Black & White print mode

Hmm, interesting. I wonder if the new mode works on older models too.

I had been thinking of buying a 2600 to pair with my 4000 but glad I didn't because having a sheet feeder again would be great. Plus the 1100 might replace my old Epson 3880 I've been running Piezography inks on which is more trouble to maintain and print with than it's worth to me.

[sunnyherman]

My primary concern with the Pro 1100 is based on the fact this printer is essentially an updated/upgraded Pro 1000 and the Pro 1000 was not repairable by Canon. So the question would be can the Pro 1100 be repaired or does it require a full replacement?

The first Pro 1000 I bought flamed out during initial setup. I don't recall exactly what the issue was but essentially the printer would not complete the ink installation procedure. I contacted Canon support and after going through some pretty lame "recovery" procedures (turning the printer off, then back on, then unplugging for some time and plugging it back in) tech support said they would have to send me a new printer. That printer worked for @ 4 & 1/2 years then one day refused to power on. A call to Canon support resulted in the exact same "recovery" procedure as the first printer and when that didn't resolve the issue the rep told me my only option was to buy a new printer as that one could not be repaired. TBH, I sincerely believe it could have been repaired as the Pro 1000 printers have an electronic "module" that "plugs" into the back of the printer - it's a large black plastic "container"  with an electrical connection on the back that's inserted into the back of the Pro 1000 with a ribbon cable connection. I decided to "explore" this piece of componentry and the attached is a photo of the innards.

[Lessbones]

That is an AC input DC output power supply.

[sunnyherman]

My assumption is this module was the source of the issue with the printer not powering on. It would have been nice if Canon would have shipped me a new power module to see if that addressed the issue of the printer not powering on.

I may take the power module out of my current Pro 1000 and put it into the "dead" Pro 1000 to see if the dead Pro 1000 will now power on.

[Lessbones]

Ah I didn't know what you meant by "flamed out", it sounded like a firmware issue or something.  But in my experience it's rarely a power supply like that-- those die under heavy load from, say, powering 8 hard drives spinning 24/7 for 5+ years or some such situation where they are under load constantly.  With most printers when I've seen a board go bad it's because of some tiny fuse blowing somewhere on the motherboard, but it COULD be that power supply.  Shouldn't hurt to swap them-- I can't see an easily visible fuse on the one you took a picture of, but I'd imagine there must be one on there somewhere which you could check for continuity

[JCD]

Or zapped by a lightening strike. Surge protectors need to be replaced frequently and still don’t protect against lightening unless it’s one of the whole house units.

Ah I didn't know what you meant by "flamed out", it sounded like a firmware issue or something.  But in my experience it's rarely a power supply like that-- those die under heavy load from, say, powering 8 hard drives spinning 24/7 for 5+ years or some such situation where they are under load constantly.  With most printers when I've seen a board go bad it's because of some tiny fuse blowing somewhere on the motherboard, but it COULD be that power supply.  Shouldn't hurt to swap them-- I can't see an easily visible fuse on the one you took a picture of, but I'd imagine there must be one on there somewhere which you could check for continuity

[inthesouthofireland]

I'm very interested in this printer. One question I have for folks with Canon printers: in your experience, for how many years does Canon provide printer drivers? My current printer is an Epson Stylus Pro 4800 and (to my surprise) Epson provides drivers for Mac OS Sonoma. That's 19 years later... Which is really nice, beats keeping an old computer around as a print server.

[Ryan Mack]

I was just looking at the pricing for consumables. Print head, set of inks, and a maintenance cartridge adds up to $1400. So the printer itself costs -$100. I guess that's why Canon doesn't make repair parts available. Just buy another printer, sell all the consumables for a profit, and swap the power supplies yourself.

If anyone has a Pro 1000 nearby, would you mind looking along the bottom and telling me how far apart the feet are? I need to make sure I have a printer stand that the feet will sit on and the one my 3880 is going to be coming off of is a bit on the narrower side.

[sunnyherman]

The Pro 1000 really doesn't have any feet, per se - other than some small rubber nubs. I just finished taking my "retired" Pro 1000 apart and it was kind of a pain. There are very few screws and it's mostly held together by plastic tabs, some of which broke when I tried prying them apart - not that I really care. However it does reinforce the fact that this printer (and the Pro 1100) likely CANNOT be repaired, which is why I just bought a new Pro 2600 (it arrived at the depot this morning and is sitting waiting to be delivered - the carrier only comes out this way on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the disadvantages of living in podunk).

I'm probably going to donate my current Pro 1000 to the local high school - assuming they could use it for their art or photography classes. The currently installed cartridges are just starting to peter out - just put a new CO and blue tank in and 9 of the other color cartridges are still pristine in their sealed "sacks" so there should be a fair amount of printing left in the tank, as it were.

As far as Canon support, I'm running High Sierra on my MacBook Pro and Canon shows drivers for the Pro 1000 going all the way back to OS 9! (I'm running High Sierra since it's the last Mac OS that supports the Adobe CS6 collection. I have no desire to pay Adobe a monthly stipend for the current versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc.) There's also nothing in the newer versions that I need.

When I get a chance I'll take a closer look at the Pro 1000 re: the feet . . .

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

I was just looking at the pricing for consumables. Print head, set of inks, and a maintenance cartridge adds up to $1400...

New printers typically don't come with full tanks of ink... just barely enough for a few initial prints.

[Ryan Mack]

New printers typically don't come with full tanks of ink... just barely enough for a few initial prints.

I don't believe that's the case for the 1100, 2600, etc. They come with various size tanks depending on model (80, 170, 300) but they're full up to spec. My initial tanks for my 4000 lasted 2 years and the replacement set passed expiry date before I ever installed one!

[Richard.Wills]

The 6600 comes with a set of dinky 330ml carts.
The new Epson 20500 comes with no ink, so first thing you need is a set of 1500ml ink packs, coming to around £5k!!!

(I know, I've jumped the size ip from the 1100...)

[sunnyherman]

Well, I bought a Pro 2600 as the Pro 1100, like the Pro 1000 is not serviceable (other than the print head).

I just set the 2600 up and tried installing the printer on my Mac, which is running High Sierra.

PLEASE BE AWARE, there is NO PRINTER DRIVER for a Mac running a version of OSX earlier than Catalina! I also checked for the Pro 1100 and the situation is the same - NO PRINTER DRIVER!!!

For ANY of these new Canon Printers YOU MUST BE RUNNING CATALINA, as a minimum or else your new printer is just a BIG, EXPENSIVE paper weight!!

I REFUSE to install Catalina as it eliminates the usage of all my CS 6 apps (I actually bought the "new" 2019 Mac Pro and subsequently found out Catalina would not run ANY of the CS 6 applications, so I ended up selling that Mac Pro.

I do have a Windows machine and will have to use it for any printing on this new Canon printer. (This is the main reason I trust MS above Apple - you don't get screwed by MS regarding older applications when they release an update to Windows like you do with Apple - that's my opinion.

[mcbroomf]

Can't you dual boot a Mac so that you can run a later version of the OS just for printing?

[sunnyherman]

Yes you can dual boot a Mac, however I'm on an Early 2009 Mac Pro and it cannot run Catalina. In any case, that won't solve the problem since the Pro 2600 requires Catalina to print and even if I could install Catalina, the CS 6 apps would only run under High Sierra. The Print Layout program could be used stand alone, but then you would have to run Photoshop in High Sierra, copy the files to an external drive and then reboot into Catalina in order to print them - way too much hassle.

I do have a mid 2012 MacBook Pro, which I specifically bought as it was the last MacBook Pro that can be upgraded. I don't know if it can run Catalina, but even if it could, that would require a substantial amount of space dedicated to the 2 versions of the OS.

I did just check and the Pro 2100 does have a printer driver for High Sierra and even supports Sierra!  I have no idea why Canon decided to eliminate drivers for these earlier OS's since I can't believe there would be that significant of a change from the 2100 to the 2600 . . . 

[sunnyherman]

One more issue I just found out about. The Professional Print & Layout plug-in DOES NOT work with Photoshop CS6 - even in Windows - MORONIC! So you can only use the standalone version of Professional Print & Layout to print to the Pro 2600! 

[Eric Brody]

I have no desire to enter a debate about the subscription model, which has been remarkably successful for both Adobe and its customers. While I also have no love for these huge companies, but is it really realistic to expect them to supply software for a 15 year old computer and 12 year old program. It would seem that the development costs to do this are not reasonable for the very few people using these older systems.

I'm sorry Apple, Epson, and Canon won't supply the software needed but any product, hardware or software, has a lifespan after which spare parts/software will be no longer reasonable to maintain.

I always wait about six months before doing major Mac OS updates but the Adobe products have been quite trouble free with their updates.

Have you looked at what one can do with the latest Lightroom Classic and Photoshop? If not, you might just be amazed.

Good luck sorting out your issues. I hope you can find a solution to your problems.

[Nora_nor]

I also have Ps 5 and 6 and an old MacBook Pro that only can be patched to Sierra, but have not had any need for the new photoshop features because I just need it to adjust some image files or do other basic things. And print.  I see here the problem is new printer

[sunnyherman]

I found a solution. I had tried Mirage 4 on my Pro 1000 before and liked the program so I decided to go to the Dinax website to see if Mirage 5, their most recent version supports the Pro 2600, and yes it does! Best of all, I just installed the demo version on my PC and Mirage installed a plug-in for Photoshop CS5.1 and Lightroom, which is what I have installed on my PC (they also provide a plugin for CS5 & 6 which is what I have on my Mac Pro running High Sierra). Mirage can also be used as a stand alone program.

According to a recent review of the program I read, Dinax works in coordination with both Canon and Epson to make sure the software supports their printers.

Yes it costs @ $500.00 for the Canon 8 & 12 color version but it's well worth it as far as I'm concerned. Mirage also doesn't have the limitations I found using PP&L on my PC with the Pro 2600.