Owen, I've had two Epsons and now a Canon, and I would not buy another Epson. My $500 Epson 1200 was a pain in the butt, running countless cleaning cycles even when installing a new cartridge.
After 1 year of very light use, it broke. The carriage started banging on the end of the shaft. Epson told me I was out of luck because I was just over the year. Someone on the web told be about a workaround, which was to clean the shaft with Alcohol. That got me another 6 months maybe, and then it stopped fixing the problem. The pads for the cleaning were also always drenched, because of the frequent cleaning cycles it needed.
To try out Canon, and because I needed a color printer quick, I bought a cheapo Canon S750, just 3 colors and black, for like $80. It's such a good printer, even for occasional photos, I've not yet cost justified replacing it! It never needs a cleaning cycle, same printing habits as my Epson. It sips ink, rather than drinking it. It's quiet, except for the initial paper feed, you wouldn't know it's running. And it's very very quick.
This has been my only experience with Canon printers, but if that's generalizable, they have a customer for life. The Epson print quality was fantastic, but wasn't worth it. And of course, the 9000 series Canon's are supposed to print every bit as good as the Epson 1200 and higher series.
By the way, I still have a ton of Epson paper, and I keep buying more. The Epson Matte paper is inexpensive and prints fantastic from my Canon. Don't let the people who say you can only print to Canon Pro paper scare you away.
Let me know how you make out.
Regards--Neil
Edit: I put the wrong Canon model number.
Message edited by author 2005-02-15 10:00:49. |
