Canon Inc. led off this year’s Photo Marketing Association (PMA) trade show in Las Vegas with a slew of announcements, including three new printers: the i9900 photo printer, with the ability to print 13 x 19 size images; the i80 mobile printer, which features an optional Bluetooth unit for wireless printing; and the imagePROGRAF W6200, with the capacity to print images up to 24-inches wide and 60-feet long.
The i9900 photo printer features Canon’s ChromaPLUS 8-colour ink system, which adds new red and green ink cartridges to the traditional cyan, magenta, yellow, black, photo cyan, and photo magenta cartridges. It can print photos up to 13 x 19 inches in size, with 4800 x 2400 dpi maximum resolution, and it offers both USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces.
Canon notes that the i9900 can produce 4 x 6-inch, 5 x 7-inch, 8.5 x 11-inch, and 13 x 19-inch borderless photos in approximately 38, 47, 84, and 180 seconds. When printing other documents, the printer offers speeds up to 16 pages per minute (ppm) in black and up 29 12 ppm in colour.
The i9900 can also print photos directly from PictBridge-compatible digital cameras and camcorders, and the bundled software package includes Easy PhotoPrint 2.1, which features a wide variety of printing options, Easy PhotoPrint Plus for reducing red-eye and other common issues, Easy WebPrint for automatic formatting and printing of Web pages, ImageBrowser for photo organizing and management, and PhotoStitch, which creates composite panoramas out of separate photos.
You can expect to see the i9900 in May for US$499.99.
If you’re looking for a printer now and need something that you can take with you, the new i80 mobile printer will be available in mid-February for US$249.99. It can handle edge-to-edge borderless printing in 4 x 6-inch, 5 x 7-inch, and 8.5 x 11-inch sizes, with resolution up to 4800 x 1200 dpi.
The i80’s new print head features 1,088 nozzles and can attain speeds up to 14 ppm in black and 10 ppm in colour. A US$79.99 user-installable BU-10 Bluetooth module allows wireless printing, although initial reports from Canon suggest that this device is Windows XP-compatible only, despite Apple’s release last week of an updated Bluetooth driver that supports printing on HCRP-compliant devices.
The US$89.99 PU-100U Automobile Power Unit plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter so that you can literally print while on the road. Other optional extras include a Lithium Ion battery, plus a holder for charging while connected to the printer, for US$99.99, extra Lithium Ion batteries for US$89.99, and a cradle kit that features a Lithium Ion battery, the holder, and a charging cradle for US$139.99.
The included software bundle features Easy PhotoPrint, Easy WebPrint, ImageBrowser, and PhotoStitch.
Canon’s final new printer announcement at PMA was the imagePROGRAF W6200, a pro-level printer with the capacity to produce A1-sized prints (24 x 36 inches) at 600 x 1200 dpi in less than five minutes, or as few as one-and-a-half minutes at 300 x 1200 dpi (draft mode) and seven minutes at 1200 x 1200 dpi. Its print head features 1,280 nozzles per colour, or 7,680 total, with six ink cartridges.
The imagePROGRAF W6200 also offers a new paper path design that feeds roll media from the back and cut sheets from the front, with a pull-out media exit guide that supports rigid papers. It can accept heavy coated paper, photo semi-gloss paper, photo glossy paper, and even flame-resistant cloth. It ships with a USB 2.0 interface, but an optional FireWire board is available.
The Canon Graphic Raster Image Processor (RIP) bundle included with the imagePROGRAF features hot folder printing workflow, print server capability, ICC-based colour management, colour curve editing, and press simulation. You can expect to see the printer in mid-February, with a price tag of US$3,495.
