Customer Reviews

Canon PIXMA iP6700D Photo Printer (1441B002)

5 star:		(76)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I am a very loyal consumer and will generally stay with the specific brands I buy. This was true with Epson printers that I have purchased for many years. Common sense finally took hold after the last tank change and subsequent 6 head cleanings before a good print could be made, not to mention almost 1/4 of the tank depleted. (at least by their monitoring system) Tired of wasted ink and paper, nozzle cleans, tank changes for 1 low color, etc., I decieded to make the change to Canon and purchased the ip6700D. Setup on my Intel driven Imac was a breeze! Talk about instant gratification! My very first print came out flawless with better resolution and sharpness than any Epson I have owned. I even had to look to see if it was doing anything during printing, unlike the Epson that was only rivaled by the dishwasher for making noise! Individual print setup was also a snap. The quality, paper and other parameters were simple utilizing the supplied software. I found the "trimming" capabilities were better and easier than some of my high dollar graphic programs I have. I printed out a box (100) of 4" x 6" prints, one after the other and didn't lose 1 sheet from a malfunction of the printer. No head cleaning. no alignments, no getting ready to do a tank change! Nothing but high quality prints. At least the remaining Epson borderless premium glossy paper worked well.
I guess I will pass this along as getting wiser with age and not putting up with poor performance again with using an Epson. Why did I wait so long? You won't be dissapointed with the ip6700D.

My setup: Dell Dimension 9100, nVidia 6800, Dell 19" ultrasharp flat panel, Photoshop Elements 3, Nikon Coolpix 5700 camera. For the initial setup, I inserted the CompactFlash card from the Nikon into the printer and printed a picture on plain paper. This was to determine the printer worked properly out of the box. The results were fine. The 3.5" display is clear and easy to work with. The printer controls are, for the most part, understandable and easy to use. You could do a lot of printing with this machine without a computer and would need only a minimum of reference to the manual.

Next, I setup the software on the computer and connected the printer. The printer does not come with any sample paper, so I used Epson Ultra Premium Glossy paper for the first prints via the computer. The first print was a 4x6 done using software provided by Canon. The results were great and the print was done in about 45 seconds. The next print, on Epson paper, was 8 1/2 by 11 via Elements. The results were as good as the Epson Stylus 320. After this, I got Canon's Photo Paper Pro. Using the highest quality setting, the longest it took to print was 6 minutes for a borderless 8 1/2 by 11 print (compare with the Epson Stylus 320, which would have taken over 30 minutes for the same job). The print speed slows down in dense areas, so the denser (darker) the photo, the longer it will take to print. You almost need a lobe to see the dots, the printing is that fine. I would rate the results comparable to photo lab quality.

Text printing on plain paper is typical of photo inkjet printers. The results are acceptable, but if you really need quality text printing, use a laser printer - not a photo inkjet printer. Photos are what these printers are all about.

Paper feed in this printer is agressive and can be a bit disconcerting. I haven't noticed any scoring of the paper, even so, the Canon includes a setting to increase the gap between the rollers and the paper to stop scoring in the event it does occur. Once paper is initially fed into the machine, printing is very quiet.

I've heard reports of red cast on Canon's iP6600. This did not happen here. The color balance of the test prints matched the color balance seen on the monitor - and, I did not make any changes to the computer display or inside Photoshop Elements. For other printers, I've had to reprint after making adjustments to get acceptable results. I haven't had to with this printer. This means less waste (paper, ink), which translates to a lower cost of ownership. I would rate this printer 4 1/2 stars if I could, but instead rated it 4. This is because of a couple short comings.

1) There is a note in the manual about removing the power plug - "If the power plug is removed from the wall outlet with the power lamp lit, the printer cannot protect its print heads and may be unable to print." If you think about that statement, you can translate it to mean that if there is a power outage while the printer is printing, the printer may not recover from it. Thus, I've plugged this printer into the regulated/battery backed side of my power distribution box, instead of the surge-protection-only side that I would normally expect to use for a printer.

2) The software license agreement absolves Canon of any requirement to support the software on the CD. Canon probably does support it to some extend, but legally they are ensuring they don't have to. I can see doing this in regard to any print utility they provide, as it is freeware and you can always use something else, but I do think at least the driver software should be supported - after all, if the driver malfunctions, that would not be a satisfactory situation to a customer.

In summary, I am very pleased with this printer.

If you read the reviews on the Canon i950, you'll see the early reviews are generally positive, but the later reviews are generally negative as the printheads started failing a year or two later. I can vouch for that. My i950 was a great printer for about 2 ½ years, but then I was having to do the deep cleanings more and more often to keep the print quality at an acceptable level. Lots of wasted ink and wasted paper.

I finally decided to retire the old printer and get a new one. I did quite a bit of research on Canon, HP and Epson printers in the $150-$300 price range. I even looked at the "pro" printers from Canon and HP, but I just couldn't swallow the $500-$600 price tag.

What finally pushed me into the 6900d was two things. First, it got pretty good reviews across the board, and second, Staples had it on sale for $129 ($179 with a $50 rebate-sorry Amazon). A high quality, name brand photo printer for $129? I couldn't pass on that.

Set up was extremely easy. From opening the box to printing my first photo was less than 15 minutes, and that included a 4 minute printhead alignment that the printer runs as part of the set-up process. Instructions for setting up the printer itself were clear and accurate, and the software installed easily with no hassles.

Photo quality is very good. I printed out several 4 x 6's and a couple of 8 x 10's, and they look great. Color is accurate, and saturation seems about where it should be. This is with absolutely no adjustments, except for putting the print quality on high. Speed is fine. I knocked out the 4 x 6's in well under a minute, and the 8 x 10's in a little over a minute.

I won't comment on the LCD screen or the built in card reader, because I will never print any photo without cropping and editing in Photoshop. If you like to take your card right out of your camera and print your photos right away, then I guess you'll enjoy these features.

Obviously I can't comment on the longevity of the printer since I've only had it for a short while. I did consider whether to buy another Canon due to the printhead problems I had with my i950, but at the end of the day, if you read enough reviews, you realize that every printer brand seems to have its own problems and issues. The way I looked at it, for $129 this is like a disposable item. If I can get 2-3 good years out of it, then I'll be happy and ready to move on to the next printer.

A couple of words of advice....if you are a discriminating photo enthusiast, do use Canon inks and Canon paper. It really does make a difference. I've seen a few people comment that they used off brand paper or ink, and the results were "close enough". Well "close enough" is not good enough for me. I notice a significant difference in the print quality. The good news is that I tried the Canon Photo Pro paper (very expensive) and the Canon Photo Plus Glossy (pretty cheap considering you can buy 120 4 x 6's for around $15 here at Amazon), and the difference is virtually indistinguishable. In fact, I printed out 2 identical photos with each kind of paper on the 6700d, and I asked people if they could tell the difference. Most couldn't, and a few even said that they thought the cheaper paper had the better quality. Unless your experience is different than mine, load up on the cheaper paper.

The bottom line is that this is a very good photo inkjet printer, for a pretty reasonable price.

I bought this printer from Amazon after reading the mostly positive reviews. I was going back and forth between Canon and Epson. I had read that the comparably priced Epson models went through a lot of expensive ink so I went with the Canon. I've owned several Canon cameras in the past and have always been satisfied with the operation and quality. This printer however has been a lemon since day one. I followed the instructions for quick set up, loaded the software and hooked up the USB cord. I think I got one print out of it and then it showed an error- U071 more than one yellow ink cartridge installed. I went to the manual and it said to make sure the cartridges were installed in the proper order, so I removed and re-installed the cartridges. No luck, same error code. I turned off the printer and turned it back on. Same error code. Remove and re-install the cartridges, turn off and on. Finally ready to print. One print later and the error code appears again. After trying to use the printer like this on several occasions and having printed maybe a total of five pages I called Canon tech support. The representative had me removed the cartridges, take out the print head, blot the bottom on a piece of paper and re-install in printer. The error code cleared and he had me run a maintenance print on the cartridges which came out looking fine. I thought that maybe it was going to work now, however after printing out one more print it went back to it's old ways. I've had it for maybe a month now and I'm tempted to ask Amazon for a replacement. Of course I've long since thrown away the box. After the hassle of trying to get this simple printer to work properly I'd definitely be hesitant to ever buy another Canon printer. If I do get this one to work or end up getting a replacement that works I may amend my review. The prints do look good when it does print.

On a whim, I printed images in sizes from 4x6 to 11x14 at a professional lab. The images were amazing.

Next, I took the same images (JPG format) and printed them on the iP6700D in sizes from 4x6 to 8.5x11.

The images were very similar. I displayed the images and asked some people to comment on the images. I noticed very slight shade variations that were only noticeable in side by side comparisons in a few instances. For example, the light blue sky was very slightly darker from the professional lab. These slight color variations are expected since I did not use an ICC profile.

One person commented that "I feel silly, these are so close and they both look excellent". Most people (untrained) were not able to find any differences in the images unless they were pointed out.

Be warned, that the Canon ink for this printer uses dye, not pigments (Epson printers use pigments). You must use an appropriate paper. The expectation is that Canon paper will produce the best results, especially if you do not use an appropriate ICC that is created for the paper and printer. That said, I have used other paper with excellent results, and numerous professionals routinely use other papers with excellent results. On the other hand, before you complain that your images look horrible, try the Canon paper.

Also, do not use non-Canon ink and then complain about the colors. Again, many people are very pleased with the results, but many more are not. Non-Canon inks are also much more likely to have problems with fading.

I like the printer because I produce amazing images directly from my camera with zero post processing. I do not even need to connect the printer to a computer, I simply drop the memory card into the printer. Sure, with certain photos, it is not possible to obtain the correct color cast without post-processing, but no printer will without manual intervention (a picture taken in yellow light, turns the whites yellow).

The glossy color photos are outstanding. I usually get a very good match between what I see on the screen and what prints out in color. It's reasonably quick too, even at high quality settings. I'd rate it only average for text, but it is a "photo" printer, which is why I bought it.

My gripe is with the quality of black and white prints. There is a noticeable magenta cast to mid gray tones, even using Canon's Photo Pro glossy paper. (If a B&W print is going to have color pollution, I would not pick magenta.) Darker B&W prints tend to be muddy. Whites are not clean. What I see on the screen is not what I get in the print.

Printing directly from my cameras using Pictbridge or from the sim chip does not help, so this is definitely a printer problem. I have worked hard in Photoshop to counteract this, but can't come up with a neutral palette. I have the same problem with the Canon MP600 multi function printer I use in my home office, so I guess it's endemic to cheaper Canons. Don't buy this printer if you are really into Black and White printing. Now, I upload all my B&Ws to a nearby Walgreens and get great prints in an hour.

Speaking of which. When I first bought this printer I thought I would do all my photo printing on it. After blowing through more than $50.00 worth of ink in no time at all on a printer I paid $115.00 for, and then repeating that process way too soon, I realized that Canon could soon finance a new factory in China on the profits from my ink consumption alone. So now, after Photoshopping, I upload most of my vacation type 4X6s to Walgreens for $.19 ea & pick them up in an hour. I save the Canon for 5X7s or 8X10s which are more cost effective at home.

IMO, if Canon cut their ink cost in half, they'd sell more than twice as much paper and ink, not to mention eliminating a lot of ill will from customers who feel exploited every time they pop for another round of ink cartridges. Right now, their pricing is based on what they think they can get away with.

My setup is 2 home-built PC desktops on a wireless network. The Canon software was very easy to install and it was also easy to find the printer on my network -- there was little "bloatware" from the install & I found the directions to be very clear. My previous printer was an HP 970 -- I have always been a fan of HP printers but this printer started to leak ink and had to be replaced. I decided to try the Canon based on (1) oustanding reviews of photo print quality and (2) the ability to independently replace ink colors. Photo prints from this printer can be outstanding, but only if you use matched paper and ink. For example, HP glossy photo paper produced very unattractive images while Canon glossy plus photo paper gives superior results. The ink seems to spread & run together on the HP photo paper.

I believe I get better results on this system than using commercial services, especially when one enhances the images using Photoshop or an equivalent. Flesh tones are warm, resolution is superb, colors are saturated -- I find it to be a very pleasing result which very much captures the intent of my Photoshop images.

I agree that text printing is just slightly fuzzy, but I would submit the text output from this printer to any university course professor, in my experience, confident of a great outcome. I have noticed that the text sharpens up when one uses a harder finished paper. For example, I obtained better results from Staples Print quality paper (24 lb) than from HP "Bright White."

Paper handling has been flawless and I like the ability to load 2 different papers into the printer and select which to use at the time of printing. The duplex function works well -- I've printed a 25 pp document both sides with no issues.

This is an idea printer for a home office where there is also a need or desire to produce outstanding photo prints.

I did not have to buy an add-on feature to use the duplex or two-sided
printing as I would have if I had purchased for $80 more the competing
HP D7360 printer. Also the Pixma holds more ink in each cartridge and for
about $4.10 more per cartridge than the HP you get close to 50% more ink
in the Canon Pixma printer cartridge. At Staples the HP printer
cartridges were $9.99 and the Canon $14.09.

The HP does have a touch screen which has more features than the 6700D
such as ink levels, whereas with the 6700D one has to go into the
software on the system it is attached to get the ink levels. And HP's
touch screen does more printing functions from the printer than the
Canon's non-touch screen display such as red-eye removal right from the
HP's touch screen. Other wise the Canon has the edge on better resolution
HP=4800x1200 versus Canon's 9600x2400. One can print from most cameras'
memory sticks directly to either printer

I picked Canon over the HP because of higher resolution, higher inkjet
cartridge capacity, and Canon's built in duplex (two sided) printing. It
was important for me that I can use this printer for more than photos but
also for regular printing tasks. Also I plan on purchasing a Canon Camera
and my perception is that it would be more compatible with a Canon
printer.

The price for the HP with the two sided printer option would have been
about $249 versus the Canon at $169. Because I also signed on to get the
Amazon/Chase credit card I was able to purchase the Canon for a total of
$132. The list price on both printers is $199 and an additional $80 for
the HP two-sided option. Otherwise you can expect to pay around $169
street price for each but there is not much discount for the HP two sided
option at $80 part number Q5582A.

Make sure you go to a store such as Staples and take a hands on look at
whatever printer your looking to purchase. And especially look at the
cost of the ink. Canon in my opinion is the "Best Buy".

I purchased this printer after reading many of the positive reviews here. I won't bother restating whateverybody else has said and instead post what I've found that's new. Follow these simple steps and you'll get superior quality images and user experience.

1. The on board digital film reader works extremely well, though it doesn't support folders so only put a few photos on the card at a time. It can take up to 10 seconds to scroll to the next picture when dealing with large images. Also the printer can't open any file over 4 MB, nor can it open Canon RAW format.

2. On the mac, the colorsync software causes clearly inferior output to what the onboard image processor is capable of. I suggest downloading your photos to your computer, do all your edits, then copy the edited photos to the memory card, and insert that into the printer. I think the printer is HIGHLY optimized for printing directly from the camera and it does a fantastic job at this.

3. Only use genuine Canon paper. I get streaks on Office Depot photo paper on the high quality settings.

4. Setup was very simple, but the initial setup instructions are only printed on a large red banner in the box. It's not in the normal manual, and only has a footnote in the print quality guide. Don't throw away your banner until you finish setup (requires paper to perform initial calibration too)

5. Due to aspect ratio constraints of the paper, you may find it much easier to perform your Crop functions in the printer itself when doing borderless prints. The printer is very careful to maintain the proper aspect ratio at all times.

For the price, you can't find a better quality printer than this one. Easy to use, easy to load, easy to change settings, easy to be satisfied with your purchase. Highly recommended. I have had excellent results both for photograph printing (large size, excellent resolution) and regular page printing.