Customer Reviews

Canon PIXMA iP6600D Photo Printer

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Just bought this printer tonight as a replacement for my Canon I950 which died on me recently. I am resigned to the fact that every couple of years you have to upgrade your printer either due to failure or new introduced features. I had compared this printer with the HP8250 and feel quite comfortable with my choice of the Canon.

Setup: Flawlessly, exactly as described in quick setup guide. The LEDs on the print cartridges are cool although of course you cannot see them unless the cover is open. Here's hoping it will be a long time before they start blinking!

Photo Printing: I have printed a variety of photos using 4x6 paper. The quality is very good but still not up to the level of a print from photo processing at Costco. The sharpness is pretty good but the richness and saturation, "fullness" if I may call it still isn't quite there. From various reviews I have read, it really seems you need more then six color printers to really rival processed prints. Having said that, I'm convinced that anybody in the office hallway that you hand a 6600D print to is going to say it's very good. It is noticeably better then the HP8250 that I had done comparison tests. I printed pics using both the Canon photo plus and photo pro paper. It is very hard to tell the difference between the two but yes the Pro is just a tad sharper and also when you rub your finger across it a bit more smooth then the plus. Still does not approach the smoothness of a processed print. That is another reason why I still prefer processed prints. You can rub your finger across them and you don't get that tacky, sticky feeling you get from doing the same with a ink jet photo. Overall I would not say the photo quality is not that much enhanced over the I950. I am really hoping the inks prove themselves in longevity though.

Text printing: Here I was pleasantly surprised. I cannot find a good example from my I950 but is the text blacker? It still isn't a match for my $150 laser but I think would suffice fine for a person that mainly wants a photo printer but wants to occasionally print text.

Printing speed: Overall very fast. My I950 blew away any previous inkjet I had owned and this is a notch faster still.

Other things: I see there is still a quirk with the Canon driver also present on the I950. That is when selecting a photo paper and choosing custom setting rather then high, the slider notch between fast and fine is not all the way towards fine. I wonder if selection high, the notch is set the furthest towards high or is it a setting below like in custom. I have not tried the bottom loading cassette yet. If it works fine then that will be a nice option as I can load it with photo paper. I played with the LCD and direct photo printing at the store but haven't yet at home. It seems to work ok and is bigger then a lot at 3.5"

All and all I would highly recommend this printer except to say if you wanted absolutely top notch photo printing, you'll still have to move up the ladder. My how far things have progressed since buying my $500 HP560 back in 1993.

First of all, these consumer reviews are the best and twice now have helped me to either rectify a bad purchase decision or make the right decision first time. So thanks to all who take the time to contribute.

This printer is EXCELLENT in almost every respect. The quality of the printed images is unbelievable - even on 'standard' output. It far exceeds the quality of the Epson RX500 we were using previously. Its FAST. We print in 'batches'; sometimes as many as sixty 8.5"x11"s at a time. This printer is an absolute dream. To have superior quality photos run off at speed is very very valuable to us as a small business. So far, ink usage appears better than the Epson, but only time will tell and we have only had the printer a week.

The reason I gave this printer 4 stars and not 5 is because we operate a small network of computers with mostly PCs, and one Mac. The printer is hooked up to one of the PCs via USB as a 'shared' printer. Although the Mac can see it, it can't print to it through the network (unlike all the other printers we have owned, including the Epson). My suspicion is that this is due to a driver issue since the printer model isn't available through the Print & Fax function when the remote printer is being selected. It IS available when the Mac is hooked up directly to the printer, without going via the network.

Knowing this, would I make a different choice of printer or take this one back? Absolutely no way. The advantages of this printer are so far superior to anything else we could find on the market at a reasonable price-point, I consider it worth the inconvenience to the Mac user (who is me!). Great printer, and fingers crossed a 'fix' will be available soon to rectify the network issue.

I bought this printer a few months back as a replacement for my Canon i860 that has been a workhorse. I was attracted by the direct printing from memory cards, as well as the additional photo color cartridges for better prints. I had been eyeballing this printer from the time it was released to retailers.

I have rather mixed feelings about this printer, but I think the easiest way to describe it is by listing the positives and negatives.

Positive:

1. Outstanding photo printing. I thought my i860 printed great photos (it does-even with generic inks), but the iP6600D is a step better. I too have used processors to print some photos before, and when using Canon Photo Paper Pro Glossy paper, this printer is every bit as good as those processed prints. In fact, I have had people ask both if the photos were film and professionally printed.

2. Two paper loading options - the back primary for standard paper, the drawer for photo paper. This can be set up in the driver to auto-select based on the type of printing job (*but...seee negatives). It is convenient to not have to manually swap paper or turn a switch to change paper.

3. Quiet - this printer is somewhat quieter than my i860

4. Nice LCD screen for direct editing/printing of photos on photo memory cards.*

5. Seperate ink tanks - economy of replacing only those inks that are needed - not an entier combo tank.*

6. Lots of features not found in many other printers in the same price class.

7. Fast printing.

Negatives:

1. Inks are relatively expensive for individual colors (compared to my i860). For Canon inks, they run around $17 each (with 6 tanks....ouch). Thus far, there are no 3rd party ink cartridges that are compatible with this printer. My i860 printed photos very close to the same quality using cheap inks as the Canon inks.

2. The Memory Card reader - the box advertises that it is xD compatible - but in reality, the printer requires an adaptor for xD to function in this printer - and Canon doesn't even market or sell such an adaptor (have found elsewhere - for $30+). Wording on marketing material should be clarified in this regard. Borders on false advertising.

3. Large footprint - this printer takes up a lot of room - several square inches more than my i860.

4. Driver can be a bit tempermental in regards to the paper source. It is suppose to (when properly set up) automatically select the appropriate paper source - photo paper in tray or standard paper in regular paper feed. The driver often does not make the right selection - pulling regular 8.5X11 paper when printing 4X6 photos. Thus wasting ink and causing an inconvenience. I am hoping future releases of the driver will fix this bug.

5. Text printing - the text printing of this printer is not quite as clean and sharp as my Canon i860 (or many other printers for that matter). I guess this to be because of the use of only one black cartrige for both photos and text. The i860 has two black cartridges - one specifically for text, the other for photos -

Overall, thsi printer has potential to be a great printer - particularly for photos. It's text printing ability and relative high cost of inks are the traits that have encouraged me to keep my Canon i860 going. IF Canon can get the driver working correctly and inks come down a bit in price, I will use this printer a lot more.

If you're looking for a low-cost printer that prints REAL photo-quality prints on high-quality paper, this IS the one! I have printed photos on Epson, HP, and Lexmark, but none approach the quality of prints coming off this machine. It is remarkable. For the price -- heck, even for a higher price -- this printer outperforms everything I've seen. I don't know how one could do better.

4X6 prints come out in about 10 seconds. Quality is indiscernible from lab prints. On heavy (9 mil or greater) glossy paper, it produces photos that are beautiful, unmarred, and perfect in every respect. No skewing, no weird lines, nothing but pure fidelity to the original image. It's as close to perfect as I could imagine.

However, if you intend to do anything other than photo printing, be ready for third-rate text rendering. I printed documents with color and black text, and compared with an HP DeskJet, the Canon is weak at best. I was surprised that a printer that could do such a stunning job with photos did such a low-quality job printing text.

I'll keep my HP DeskJet 1220c for text. My Canon 6600d for photos. Both are the top inkjets at what they do best.

Did not buy this printer from Amazon.com because I found a better deal at Office Depot's post Thanksgiving Day sale for 125.00 after rebates but I will give my opinions here for the IP6600D. For this price I can live the shortcommings of the lower tray paper problem expressed by others but what's wrong with using the upper tray because you can only load one 4x6 at a time anyway and it is much easier to load the upper than the lower it has worked fine for me and just use the lower tray for 8.5x11 sized plain paper. As for printing quality for this price I don't think it gets any better for out of the box with minimal adjustments on settings, I am not an avid picture printer but this is just so easy to do with this printer. As for ink cost I think these tanks are larger than most and should provide longer life, I went to Canon's web site and found some interesting facts about amounts of pages per ink color and was very impressed although these were color sample test and not real life picture prints still the numbers of pages per tank were quite impressive. As for Canon printers this is my first and I am a happy camper.

Before I bought this printer I was ify about Canon. Canon printers seem to take forever to start up after turning them on and took awhile to start printing, which made them a bit nosiy. Well, when I went to a store and printed photo and text documents to test this printer...I found it to be wonderful! Unlike the previous models before it, this printer does not take forever to turn on or print, but is fast all around.

Photo: I think the photo quality of this printer is perfecto! It's fast and the pictures come out as good as the photos processed from an 1-hour photo place. Some think differently, but I disagree. Besides, you can't pick the type of photo paper you want at a photo place...so it's all good.

Text: The text is rich and deep. I love it because text and graphic documents come out looking sharp!

Overall: Quiet, fast, user friendly, colorful photos, rich text...it's b-e-a-utiful!

Overall, and so far, this is a great printer. Pictures are fast, clear, and have good color. Documents are great. I am not a photography aficionado, so I cannot speak to the finer points about hues and what happens when you alter the exposure, etc., etc. I am a "casual" printer user. I use this printer to print digital photos of my kids and for occasional text documents. 4x6's come out in less than a minute...unreal. And they look great - better than the "professional" photo lab we've been using. I honestly cannot believe the features on this thing...it has more options than I know what to do with. I really don't use the PictBridge options, as I tend to edit all photos on the computer first - so I can't give much opinion on this. All in all, I will never, ever, ever buy another Epson or HP (have had rotten experiences with both).

I did a good amount of research before buying this printer. After seeing that it got a top rating from cnet.com and itp.net, I splurged and bought the iP6600D. I just got the printer today, and set it up in about 10 minutes. Print graphics on plain paper is quite good, and the photo printing is outstanding. I just printed a 4x6 (on photo paper) from my camera and it looks the same as the photo lab, not a pixel in sight. In the photo, someone is wearing a shirt with a very long quote on it, and you can read every word even though the letters are small.

Nice Features:
1) Large LCD screen for photo previews
2)The user's guide provides step by step instructions on how to remove each type of paper jam, which is very handy, and has solutions to almost every error message that can pop up.
3)The printer also performs duplex (two sided) printing, a very nice feature for conserving paper.
4) The ink cartridges light up when inserted, so you know that you installed them correctly.
5) Very easy, step by step install.
6) Options for casset tray printing, so you don't have to use the open paper tray.
7) All trays tuck away neatly, so no worries about breaking small parts when moving or dust settling in the printer.

Once you decide on the quality of printer you like, one of the first things to do is check on the ink cartridges. Replacement cartridges can run into big bucks, especially if the printer only takes 2 tanks and you have to replace the entire color one even if only one of the colors run out. This printer uses multiple tanks, which is good, BUT I could find no generic/compatible cartridges available for it yet. Try looking on the web for the CLI-8 cartridges and see how much they cost. The other Canon Pixma's like the 6000 have compatible cartridges that are available very cheap, so watch your wallet when considering this product.

I bought this printer to print 8*10 photograph in a temporary photo booth set up at a recent local festival. I used with a 4 MP camera and a notebook. I must have printed more than 110 photos over a two day period.

The photograps were stunning, to say the least. Every time someone looked at the printer in operation, they would give it an approving nod. The facial detail, and the texture of the clothes the subjects were wearing came out clearly. The color saturation and tone was great. The photographs were true to life. The Photo Magenta and Photo Cyan inks provided superb subtelties to the photograph.

Replacing individual ink tanks was easy. The indicators tell you how much ink is left in each cartridge.

The typical printer functions have been mentioned by other reviewers and I am happy with everything the printer has to offer.