Customer Reviews

Canon S9000 Photo Inkjet Printer

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I hesitated to buy this printer because of the price, but now that I have it, I don't regret my decision at all. I read reviews for almost every printer and printer/fax/copier combo out there. Taking everything into consideration, this looked like the best printer. So far, it has been far superior to the HPs and Epsons I've used in the past.

I love the individual ink tank idea, although I haven't had it long enough to change any tanks yet. Some people complain that the tanks are small. Yes, they are a bit smaller than many others, but there are six of them, so the total amount of ink appears to be much more than the printers with one or two tanks.

There is indeed a Print Preview option in the Properties window on the "Main" tab. I have used it and it works great.

The print quality is awesome, especially on photo paper. I had to do some color tweaking on some of the pictures, but that was due to poor lighting in the digital photo. It prints black and white or sepia photos beautifully with no adjustments. I've seen some complaints that the black and white text on regular paper is fuzzy, but I printed my tax returns, and it looked better than my Epson ever printed anything.

Setup was easy and the software is so far the best part. There are three programs altogether, but the Canon ZoomBrowser EX is my favorite so far. It allows me to see a thumbnail of all of my digital photos, and organize them into folders. I can also print index prints or scrapbook pages or just arrange one or several photos onto one sheet. Before, I only had Adobe PhotoDeluxe, which forces you to open your photos one at a time--there are no thumbnails, so if you're file names aren't descriptive, you don't know what you are opening. The ZoomBrowser EX opens Adobe PhotoDeluxe for me so I can edit the photos directly from that program--so I can see all my photos, and choose which ones to edit or enhance.

Another bonus: the printing is very fast. The Epson I used to have (it now sits in the garage) warmed up or cleaned the print heads every time I used it after sitting idle (taking often 2-5 minutes). This drastically cut the print time, since I didn't use the printer that often. This Canon prints without having to warm up, even after sitting idle. It's a wonderful thing.

The other reviews here say it well. I switched to the S9000 after tiring of wasting half of every color ink cartridge on cleaning cycles on my Epson. The S9000's been 100% reliable, without a single clog. Photo quality is on par with Epson's -- that is, superb. And the printer driver's been updated since the spotlight review was written -- this version does include a Print Preview feature. The 13x19 prints are absolutely stunning! And this thing is amazingly fast.

Just two downsides. First, you need to be sure to use the right paper. With Canon Photo Paper Pro or Epson's papers, prints look fantastic. With Kodak and some other brands, the ink pools and you get a "spotty" appearance. Second, the printer won't do borderless prints at 13x19. The borderless 8x10 and 4x6 prints look great, though.

This was the first photo printer I have ever purchased, and got it because of the large-format printing ability. I had it narrowed down to the Epson 1280 and the Canon S9000, and after reading an excellent review discussing these very 2 printers (such luck!), I chose the Canon for "slightly superior photo quality". Epson is well-known for its printers, but Canon apparently has become quite the competitor, just from what I've read and researched. (I recommend checking out Steve's Digicams wesite for some in-depth reviews if you are interested.)

I ordered this printer on a Friday evening with ground shipping. It arrived Tuesday afternoon. Kudos to Amazon and UPS for making the delivery quicker than I imagined possible.

Ok, so I opened the box and everything was there, so far so good. Set-up was easy, a la Canon (I also have a G2 camera), BUT be warned, there is no USB cable included to attach the printer to your computer! I knew this to be the case and had an extra one so it was no big deal, but Canon, what's the deal with that?!? You couldn't supply a simple little cable with your printer? Go figure.

I went ahead and printed a "test shot" that I found on PhotoDisc.coms' website. They have a few excellent test photos available for this purpose - download is free. This particualar photo had every color imaginable, flesh tones, black and white, every day objects (fruit, flowers, stamps, colored pencils, you get the idea). Every object was printed with incredible color accuracy and detail. So far so good.

I went on to print some headshots I had taken of me w/ my G2 that I had photoshopped. Again, excellent detail, color representation, etc etc etc! I printed about 10 8x11 shots, and all are vibrant, beautiful, crisp - everything I would expect from a photo lab (who, btw, printed one of my headshots last week **too dark** - and they wonder why we customers are getting all savvy with our OWN digital darkrooms!)

I have only used Canon Photo Pro paper and Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy. I will be trying out the large-format papers as soon as I'm sure I know what I am doing (so I don't waste paper, which yes, is expensive, but well worth it in my opinion).

I did experience some banding on one shot, but realized that I had not set the paper settings correctly in the dialog box before sending the print to the printer. I re-set them for the correct paper, re-printed, and voila! A perfect print. My fault, not Canon's. :)

I will update this if I experience problems, as of now however this printer is going to be an incredible investment and I am SO pleased to have made this purchase!

I was a skeptic, I didn't believe that digital camera and printers technologies were ready to replace film, I was wrong. In looking at the printed results on the Canon S9000 from my Minolta DImage 7I, I was amazed at how far the technology has come.
The borderless 4x6 prints that this printer produces are better than most prints I have seen from film processing centers. Everyone I showed the printed photos to was amazed that this came from a printer.
I have owned HP printers for years, most recently the DJ970Cse, there is no comparison in quality or speed. HP does a nice job on text, and in fact I have kept the 970 connected to handle text and duplex printing, but all color work and photos will be handed off to the Canon. This is not a knock on the Canons text quality, which is quite good. I just don't see any advantage to using it for standard text and draft prints.
The printer should cost less to run than the HP due to the 6 seperate ink cartridges, but I haven't had the printer long enough to verify this. Theres no comparison to film though, the local photo store here wanted to charge [money] for a 13x19 print. I have estimated the costs using the Canon s9000 to be approximately [less money] dollars for ink and paper.
Given the S900 and S9000 share the same print engine, the only real question is whether you have a real need for 11x17 or 13x19 prints. If you do, the S9000 is the only real choice, I compared the S9000 to the Epson 1280, the S9000 print quality was equal or better, and the speed difference is significant, up to 3 minutes for 8x10 borderless prints, and even for for larger sizes.
Overall, I can't imagine being happier with a purchase, the inital cost was steep, but I figure the ROI will be approximately 9 months to a year based on the number of prints I paid for with traditional film cameras last year.

The quality of output from this printer is amazing. I had no idea that inkjet technology had come this far. I was truely shocked with how beautiful the photos came out in 4x6 and 8.5 x 11 paper size - borderless! Of course, the quality of the data makes all the difference in the world. If you take a picture with a cheap digital camera, you will not get great results. Also, you must use quality glossy photo paper designed for inkjet printers. In my case, I used the Canon G4 and the Canon Photo Pro paper. The 8.5 x 11 image I printed was as good or better than what I would expect from a film camera. I have yet to try the 13 x 20 size - I need to get a better camera for that. I cannot imagine anyone being dissappointed with this printer.

After unpacking the printer and setting everything up I was ready to print my first photos. I own two digital cameras both Canons and I was sold on the Canon name. After printing out a few photos I noticed a shift in certain colors. Red became pink and there seemed to be a bluish cast on some of my pictures. The results were unacceptable. I played with the settings and different paper types but the results didn't improve. Finally, I ended up updating the printer driver and that seemed to solve the problem. I got one of the first printers so I suspect they just shipped a faulty printer driver. I can say now that the printer is working very well and the prints are sharp and quick. I recommend the printer and would give it a 5 star except for the problem I had with the software.

I've used HP printers in the past, and have a HP1200c and HP970cse that are still in use. When I decided to do some larger format printing(beyond 8X10), didn't see anything from HP that would print this size. In addition, I wanted a printer that did not have all the color inks in one cartridge. Based on reviews from this site and Steve's digicam website, took a shot on this printer. I could not be happier. I have an Olympus e-10 digital camera, and have been able to produce some outstanding 13X19 inch output. Have also done quite a bit of 4X6 borderless printing, and these have worked as advertised. If you have the money to spend, and want to feel like you have your own photoprocessing lab at home, this is a great printer.

Right out of the box the Canon S9000 is everything they claim.....fast, quiet, and most importantly Great Photos ! I've had my eye on the Epson 1280 for a while but when the S9000 came out I'm glad I waited. My first printer (other than a dot matrix) was a Canon BJC-610 and it was a great reliable printer and I tend to stick with brand names when I've had good luck with them. As stated in the company literature set-up is straightforward and simple, I run XP-pro and had the printer hooked up, ink installed and printing in about 15 minutes. The print alignment page came out very well and no adjustments were necessary. The first print out was on plain paper and had excellent detail. Next was a picture I took of my son and his girlfriend at a nightclub, it was approx 1.2mb and was taken with a flash on a Kodak dc4800 camera. I printed on a generic brand glossy photo paper, 8 1/2" X 11" the result was outstanding, great resolution, fantastic color, black background was perfect. Next was a print I downloaded from the internet, a 5.4mb aerial view of the World Trade center. I printed on Kodak 11" X 17" glossy photo paper. Wow! the resolution was out of this world. crisp details I took it to a friend who is a professional photographer and he was very impressed.

Now for the bad news, the only reason I didn't give it five stars. The software leaves quite a bit to be desired, no print preview! When I'm printing on paper that costs more than a dollar a sheet I'd like to see my layout before I print. I know with time I'll get used to the software but most likely I'll end up getting a third party software such as photoshop.

Overall I give this printer two thumbs up. Good looks, quiet, fast, and most importantly Great pictures !

I purchased this printer from Amazon.com, and it arrived in two days. I had it up and running in ten minutes, read no instructions for printing, played with the provided ZoomBrowser software, bumbled through the on screen menus, and got sparkling 8 by 10 prints on some Epson paper I had purchased a few months ago. For comparison sake I ran off photos I had run off earlier on my HP 952C. The improvement in brightness and color range is astonishing.

Furthermore, the printer is fast, very fast, and it pulls the glossy photo paper through without even hinting at a paper jam. This printer works the way you always hoped a printer would work.

I had planned to use my HP for printing text documents, but the Canon prints text so fast I will use it for all my printing in the future.

The s9000 is an incredible printer that really blows my old hp 9xx series printer away. The shadow detail is incredible, and it can truly print amazing photos that look professional.

Btw, the previous reviewer is mistaken, there is a print preview screen but it has to be selected in the driver, which that reviewer obviously did not delve into.

The printer is easy to use right out of the box but can also be finetuned for those who like to make an absolutely perfect print.