Canon i950 vs i850 B&W printing

hiya.. okies i am in a dilemma.. these two wonderful printers finally arrived in Singapore and i was all for i950 after reading all the wonderful reviews on it.

So i went down to the Canon Showroom in town to take a better look at them.. From the test prints, i must say i cant really see the difference between the two of them.. but the i950 does look slightly better. So i thought what the heck, get the better one..

Then i thought, how about B&W prints? So i ask them to show me some samples.. They didn't have them, but they graciously agree to print some on the spot for me to see

Hehe.. nice ah.. unfortunately.. the final prints.. the i850 wins hand down in terms of coming closer to true B&W prints (No color cast at all).. the i950 have that slight hmm color cast.. But the i850 does seems to have some very very slight "lines" on it.. not really noticable unless i look very closely.

Both printers was printing from same computer, set to greyscale printing. I later found out that the i850 uses "Pigment Based" Black Ink while the i950 does not. After this test i really dunno which one to get??

Any help or advice please?

can the i950 use the "pigment" black ink? or something?
--
http://www.pbase.com/harrican

I am in the same boat my friend between S9000 and i9100.
anyone?

harrican said:

hiya.. okies i am in a dilemma.. these two wonderful printers
finally arrived in Singapore and i was all for i950 after reading
all the wonderful reviews on it.

So i went down to the Canon Showroom in town to take a better look
at them.. From the test prints, i must say i cant really see the
difference between the two of them.. but the i950 does look
slightly better. So i thought what the heck, get the better one..

Then i thought, how about B&W prints? So i ask them to show me some
samples.. They didn't have them, but they graciously agree to print
some on the spot for me to see

Hehe.. nice ah.. unfortunately.. the final prints.. the i850 wins
hand down in terms of coming closer to true B&W prints (No color
cast at all).. the i950 have that slight hmm color cast.. But the
i850 does seems to have some very very slight "lines" on it.. not
really noticable unless i look very closely.

Both printers was printing from same computer, set to greyscale
printing. I later found out that the i850 uses "Pigment Based"
Black Ink while the i950 does not. After this test i really dunno
which one to get??

Any help or advice please?

can the i950 use the "pigment" black ink? or something?
--
http://www.pbase.com/harrican

Click to expand...

eh? anyone??

harrican said:

hiya.. okies i am in a dilemma.. these two wonderful printers
finally arrived in Singapore and i was all for i950 after reading
all the wonderful reviews on it.

So i went down to the Canon Showroom in town to take a better look
at them.. From the test prints, i must say i cant really see the
difference between the two of them.. but the i950 does look
slightly better. So i thought what the heck, get the better one..

Then i thought, how about B&W prints? So i ask them to show me some
samples.. They didn't have them, but they graciously agree to print
some on the spot for me to see

Hehe.. nice ah.. unfortunately.. the final prints.. the i850 wins
hand down in terms of coming closer to true B&W prints (No color
cast at all).. the i950 have that slight hmm color cast.. But the
i850 does seems to have some very very slight "lines" on it.. not
really noticable unless i look very closely.

Both printers was printing from same computer, set to greyscale
printing. I later found out that the i850 uses "Pigment Based"
Black Ink while the i950 does not. After this test i really dunno
which one to get??

Any help or advice please?

can the i950 use the "pigment" black ink? or something?
--
http://www.pbase.com/harrican

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/harrican

No, the i950 cannot use pigment based ink.

Pigment based ink is much darker (usually used for printing text) but since the i950 is meant to be a dedicated color photo printer, it uses all dye based inks.

I have the i950, and have only printed color prints on it, however I have printed text, and the text isn't as crisp black as my i550. I'd think you should go with the i850, since it uses a "better" black, and since you're printing black and white prints, it only makes sense.

TM

harrican said:

harrican said:

hiya.. okies i am in a dilemma.. these two wonderful printers
finally arrived in Singapore and i was all for i950 after reading
all the wonderful reviews on it.

So i went down to the Canon Showroom in town to take a better look
at them.. From the test prints, i must say i cant really see the
difference between the two of them.. but the i950 does look
slightly better. So i thought what the heck, get the better one..

Then i thought, how about B&W prints? So i ask them to show me some
samples.. They didn't have them, but they graciously agree to print
some on the spot for me to see

Hehe.. nice ah.. unfortunately.. the final prints.. the i850 wins
hand down in terms of coming closer to true B&W prints (No color
cast at all).. the i950 have that slight hmm color cast.. But the
i850 does seems to have some very very slight "lines" on it.. not
really noticable unless i look very closely.

Both printers was printing from same computer, set to greyscale
printing. I later found out that the i850 uses "Pigment Based"
Black Ink while the i950 does not. After this test i really dunno
which one to get??

Any help or advice please?

can the i950 use the "pigment" black ink? or something?
--
http://www.pbase.com/harrican

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/harrican

Click to expand...

From what I have read is the black pigment ink in the i850 is only for text. In a B&W photo it mixes the other colors to produce the black & white photo. I don't know that for sure but have read that in this forum.

harrican said:

harrican said:

hiya.. okies i am in a dilemma.. these two wonderful printers
finally arrived in Singapore and i was all for i950 after reading
all the wonderful reviews on it.

So i went down to the Canon Showroom in town to take a better look
at them.. From the test prints, i must say i cant really see the
difference between the two of them.. but the i950 does look
slightly better. So i thought what the heck, get the better one..

Then i thought, how about B&W prints? So i ask them to show me some
samples.. They didn't have them, but they graciously agree to print
some on the spot for me to see

Hehe.. nice ah.. unfortunately.. the final prints.. the i850 wins
hand down in terms of coming closer to true B&W prints (No color
cast at all).. the i950 have that slight hmm color cast.. But the
i850 does seems to have some very very slight "lines" on it.. not
really noticable unless i look very closely.

Both printers was printing from same computer, set to greyscale
printing. I later found out that the i850 uses "Pigment Based"
Black Ink while the i950 does not. After this test i really dunno
which one to get??

Any help or advice please?

can the i950 use the "pigment" black ink? or something?
--
http://www.pbase.com/harrican

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/harrican

Click to expand...

Mike Begley said:

From what I have read is the black pigment ink in the i850 is only
for text. In a B&W photo it mixes the other colors to produce the
black & white photo. I don't know that for sure but have read that
in this forum.

Click to expand...

There are a few here that swear the canon i850 uses black for photographs, and a few that swear that is doesn't, so the debate goes on. I contacted canon online and one response said it uses all the colors? Another response after asking more questions said it did not use black. All I can tell you is that after going through my first set of color cartriges, and a few refills my black still had ink. A little further down the road and a refill or two latter the original black finally started getting low. If it does use black it must use a little to enhance black made from the colored inks, though in all honesty, I don't think it uses black.

Mike Begley said:

harrican said:

harrican said:

hiya.. okies i am in a dilemma.. these two wonderful printers
finally arrived in Singapore and i was all for i950 after reading
all the wonderful reviews on it.

So i went down to the Canon Showroom in town to take a better look
at them.. From the test prints, i must say i cant really see the
difference between the two of them.. but the i950 does look
slightly better. So i thought what the heck, get the better one..

Then i thought, how about B&W prints? So i ask them to show me some
samples.. They didn't have them, but they graciously agree to print
some on the spot for me to see

Hehe.. nice ah.. unfortunately.. the final prints.. the i850 wins
hand down in terms of coming closer to true B&W prints (No color
cast at all).. the i950 have that slight hmm color cast.. But the
i850 does seems to have some very very slight "lines" on it.. not
really noticable unless i look very closely.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I don't personally do black and white, but I had heard the i950 did beter in that respect. If I were you I would trust my own eyes rather than hearsay though.

I have heard the same thing about lines from the i950 printing color, It was Casandra I think (sorry, I know I misspelled that). Simple settings and more so, paper choice might be the solution to the lines. You might want to post and ask her if and how she solved it. I cannot coment on the color cast on the i950 as I have the i850 and The little bit from the i950 I have seen in person was in color. They are both great printers though.