Gobzy
Senior Member
Hi all,
As I didn’t find a lot of infos about the 4 inks Pixma G-Series Canon A4 printers on the Internet, I’ld like to share this quick and non-expert print review of my G2000 printer (SEA market).
These printers are all called Canon G-Series, but depending on your world wide location the marketing name of these printers may vary a bit. For example the G2000 (SEA market) may be a G2200, G2400, etc. Sometimes they are also called Mega-Tank (USA). As well for marketing purpose these Canon G-Series printers seems not to be available in some European countries...
Roughly, they come through 4 different models depending on features, but the print engine is the same for all:
G1X00: printer only,
G2X00: printer + scanner
G3X00: printer + scanner + Wi-Fi,
G4X00: printer with special feeder + scanner + Wi-Fi.
For more details, see your appropriate Canon website.
These printers are more expensive at time of purchase compared to “regular” cartridges ones, but the big advantage is their huge ink tanks. Black pigment ink: 135ml, MCY tanks: 70ml. I can tell you that’s a serious lot of prints! The 4 inks come in small bottles you have to pour by yourself in the appropriate in-board tanks. Though uncommon, it’s a very easy and safe task…
Overview
They are a bit bulky and just roughly designed to be an “office tool”. Nothing fancy or glittering, but the build quality seems to me to be correct and rather strong…
Left: Black pigment ink tank. Right the 3 CMY dye ink tanks. Center the engine with the tiny hoses coming from the tanks and feeding the print heads
The print engine drives two print-heads. One for the pigment black and one for the 3 CMY dye inks.
As far as I understand and through my own experience, the black pigment ink is only used for “office works” (letters, reports, etc). When printing pictures, being monochrome or color, the engine only used the CMY dye inks...
CMY tanks in working state
CMY tanks with the lid open as for a refill
Through “windows” cut in the body you can at any time check the inks level. Of course refill may be done one color at a time as needed.
Refill Cyan bottle and the level windows
I’ve read some say it’s a noisy and slow printer though I don’t think so. Noise is rather quiet while printing, just clunky sounds may be heard at starting times or once in a while during a long printing session (cleaning heads process I suppose). One 10x15 color print is out in 45 sec and an A4 (21x29,7) print in 90 sec. Not fast but not slow either I think: one has to keep in mind it’s a home printer not a professional one…
To my eyes print quality is great for a 3 CMY dye ink printer on different papers brands and finishes. B&W pics lacks of a deep black tone of course but are overall very correct, while colors pics are vivid with pleasant graded tones. From my experience, photo print results are much better than prints coming from an average photo-shop through digital files. Furthermore, at least I’m able to adjust printing profiles to my taste.
But it can’t be said those prints are of a pro or gallery quality. They are great for “everyday use” or for proofing...
About profiles, these G-Series printers come only with preset Canon papers profiles. For other brands and types, you have to adjust profiles by yourself through the dedicated box/window in the printer software: M, C, Y + contrast and intensity. It works good for me, but of course that’s time and paper consuming at first. I’ve to say preset profiles for Canon papers are not so right: I noticed a light Magenta cast all over the pics and a bit of too much contrast when printing on dedicated Canon papers, so I adjusted my profiles accordingly...
On the cons side:
- Price of the printer especially for Western countries*,
- Preset profiles for Canon papers are not so good (at least on my printer),
- Colors durability through the time? Though the two heads are “FINE’ (Full photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering) inks are not long-term lasting guaranteed (not rated Chromalife inks),
- There are very slight “pizza wheel” tracks on glossy papers but only visible when the glossy pics catches and reflects a strong light. Pics on matte, semi-glossy or velvet papers doesn’t show these marks. This “pizza wheel” effect is not visible in straight "normal" view nor once the pic is framed behind glass.
Personal thoughts:
I think this printer is really interesting if doing a lot of small or mid-size “average but correct” prints: personal albums, events or family gifts, and so on. You just have to know colors are not long-lasting rated...
For my part, coming from film (especially B&W), my computer screen seems not enough to me: I need, or at least I’m used, proofing my pics before going for a true nice print. So I really do a lot of small and middle sizes prints just to “better catch” my pics, and using a regular cartridges printer tends to be very expensive. Hence the purchase of this Canon G-Series printer…
* About the purchase price…
There are huge differences of price between countries. Here in South East Asia the sale price is near half the US retail price I’ve noticed on the Internet. As well for ink bottles. Different markets, different stances I suppose.
Hope this may help a bit, and thanks for your reading...
As I didn’t find a lot of infos about the 4 inks Pixma G-Series Canon A4 printers on the Internet, I’ld like to share this quick and non-expert print review of my G2000 printer (SEA market).
These printers are all called Canon G-Series, but depending on your world wide location the marketing name of these printers may vary a bit. For example the G2000 (SEA market) may be a G2200, G2400, etc. Sometimes they are also called Mega-Tank (USA). As well for marketing purpose these Canon G-Series printers seems not to be available in some European countries...
Roughly, they come through 4 different models depending on features, but the print engine is the same for all:
G1X00: printer only,
G2X00: printer + scanner
G3X00: printer + scanner + Wi-Fi,
G4X00: printer with special feeder + scanner + Wi-Fi.
For more details, see your appropriate Canon website.
These printers are more expensive at time of purchase compared to “regular” cartridges ones, but the big advantage is their huge ink tanks. Black pigment ink: 135ml, MCY tanks: 70ml. I can tell you that’s a serious lot of prints! The 4 inks come in small bottles you have to pour by yourself in the appropriate in-board tanks. Though uncommon, it’s a very easy and safe task…
Overview
They are a bit bulky and just roughly designed to be an “office tool”. Nothing fancy or glittering, but the build quality seems to me to be correct and rather strong…
Left: Black pigment ink tank. Right the 3 CMY dye ink tanks. Center the engine with the tiny hoses coming from the tanks and feeding the print heads
The print engine drives two print-heads. One for the pigment black and one for the 3 CMY dye inks.
As far as I understand and through my own experience, the black pigment ink is only used for “office works” (letters, reports, etc). When printing pictures, being monochrome or color, the engine only used the CMY dye inks...
CMY tanks in working state
CMY tanks with the lid open as for a refill
Through “windows” cut in the body you can at any time check the inks level. Of course refill may be done one color at a time as needed.
Refill Cyan bottle and the level windows
I’ve read some say it’s a noisy and slow printer though I don’t think so. Noise is rather quiet while printing, just clunky sounds may be heard at starting times or once in a while during a long printing session (cleaning heads process I suppose). One 10x15 color print is out in 45 sec and an A4 (21x29,7) print in 90 sec. Not fast but not slow either I think: one has to keep in mind it’s a home printer not a professional one…
To my eyes print quality is great for a 3 CMY dye ink printer on different papers brands and finishes. B&W pics lacks of a deep black tone of course but are overall very correct, while colors pics are vivid with pleasant graded tones. From my experience, photo print results are much better than prints coming from an average photo-shop through digital files. Furthermore, at least I’m able to adjust printing profiles to my taste.
But it can’t be said those prints are of a pro or gallery quality. They are great for “everyday use” or for proofing...
About profiles, these G-Series printers come only with preset Canon papers profiles. For other brands and types, you have to adjust profiles by yourself through the dedicated box/window in the printer software: M, C, Y + contrast and intensity. It works good for me, but of course that’s time and paper consuming at first. I’ve to say preset profiles for Canon papers are not so right: I noticed a light Magenta cast all over the pics and a bit of too much contrast when printing on dedicated Canon papers, so I adjusted my profiles accordingly...
On the cons side:
- Price of the printer especially for Western countries*,
- Preset profiles for Canon papers are not so good (at least on my printer),
- Colors durability through the time? Though the two heads are “FINE’ (Full photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering) inks are not long-term lasting guaranteed (not rated Chromalife inks),
- There are very slight “pizza wheel” tracks on glossy papers but only visible when the glossy pics catches and reflects a strong light. Pics on matte, semi-glossy or velvet papers doesn’t show these marks. This “pizza wheel” effect is not visible in straight "normal" view nor once the pic is framed behind glass.
Personal thoughts:
I think this printer is really interesting if doing a lot of small or mid-size “average but correct” prints: personal albums, events or family gifts, and so on. You just have to know colors are not long-lasting rated...
For my part, coming from film (especially B&W), my computer screen seems not enough to me: I need, or at least I’m used, proofing my pics before going for a true nice print. So I really do a lot of small and middle sizes prints just to “better catch” my pics, and using a regular cartridges printer tends to be very expensive. Hence the purchase of this Canon G-Series printer…
* About the purchase price…
There are huge differences of price between countries. Here in South East Asia the sale price is near half the US retail price I’ve noticed on the Internet. As well for ink bottles. Different markets, different stances I suppose.
Hope this may help a bit, and thanks for your reading...
