Staples In-store - Canon i960 Color Printer for only $139

[Kenji4861]

Staples in-store has the Canon i960 color printer for only $169.99. Use their printable $30 off coupon to get it for only $139.99. Check out the reviews from CNET and Steve's Digicam.

Pricegrabber Price : $178~369 Shipped
My Price : $139.99

1. Go to a local Staples.
2. Print a $30 coupon
3. Pick up an Canon i960 ( Price : $199.99 - $30 savings )
4. Use the coupon ( Price : -$30.00 )
Final Price : $139.99

 

[dabuddha]

Is this printer much better than the i850?

 

[kki000]

dats so wierd.. i got this last yr to replace my i850.
we were planning on printing out our wedding pics and sending them out to everyone.

The 850 is an awesome printer, was super fast. The only problem was with only 4 tanks, on photos with large blocks of contious tones, like the sky, you can see the gradations in color sometimes. Wasnt an issue in 85 percent of pictures, but sometimes you can see the steep tone grade changes.

The 960 is an incredible photo printer. WIth six ink tanks, every photo looks exactly like a photo shop printed them.
On photos its actually faster than the 850. I think for 4x6 its the fastest printer around.

Only problem is that its substantially slower than the 850 on non photo prints.

Then again we were spoiled by the 850's speed, so the 960 is prob no slower than any other photo printer.

I personally like the canons, indiv replceable inks, replaceable print heads. cant go wrong.
K

 

[usernamemax20charact]

Originally posted by: dabuddha
Is this printer much better than the i850?

I have the i850 right now, and I've seen the prints the i960 can do and they blow the i850 away. Prints from a i960 are super sharp and super clear. It's mostly due to the i960's 6 ink tanks vs. the i850's 4 tanks. The two extra colors (light cyan and light magenta) really help with photo prints too. If I didn't already have my i850, I'd be all over this printer.

I still love my i850 though. When I got this last year, I was very impressed with what it can do. And it still does a good job.

 

[DuffEnuff]

How about comparing this to HP printers?

After years of HP love, I recently purchased the Epson (the waterproof ink thing excited me)

Man was I disappointed. The only thing it is quick on is going through ink. And this was the Photo 900 (~$150)

So I'm in the market again. Canon lovers, can you give me some comparison?

 

[usernamemax20charact]

Originally posted by: DuffEnuff
How about comparing this to HP printers?

After years of HP love, I recently purchased the Epson (the waterproof ink thing excited me)

Man was I disappointed. The only thing it is quick on is going through ink. And this was the Photo 900 (~$150)

So I'm in the market again. Canon lovers, can you give me some comparison?

IMO, I think HP's are better in build quality. They seem to last and last and last. So if you do a lot of printing and this will be your only printer, go with HP.

As for print quality, I think black and white text prints are about the same as Canon.

As for color prints, it really depends on which HP model you're looking at. If you're looking at the high end HP Photosmart 7760/7960, then I think they're probably one of the best ones out there. If you also want good black and white/gray-scale photos, then the 7960 can't be beat. Canon's black and white/gray prints have a blue/silverish look to them.

As for Canon, the i960 and the i900D are both awesome. Then again, they're essentially the same printer except that the i900D has the card readers and is also slower because the i960 has a bigger print head (more nossles = faster print speeds).

If I was looking at an HP, I'd probably get the Photosmart 7760. If I was looking at a Canon, I'd go with the i960.

If you do a lot of color printing and ink cost is an issue, go with the Canon. I like that they have individual tanks (vs. the HPs tri-color cartridges) and you can actually see through the clear tanks to make sure they're empty. Everyone elses are opaque which sucks because you have no idea if there's still ink in them or not.

One drawback to Canon and Epson printers is that they every so often (when they're turned on and off) need to automatically clean their print heads by shooting ink through the nossles. That's a waste of ink. HP printers don't need to do this since you change the print head whenever you change the cartridge. I remember reading somewhere (not sure if it's true or not though) that if you turn a Canon or Epson printer on and off for about 100 times or something like that without doing a single print, it'll run out of ink just from the head cleaning. That's what my Canon i850 does all the time.

Hope this info helps. There are +'s and -'s for each manufacturer. What it really comes down to is how you'll be using it. My i850 is only my photo printer (got a laser for black and white prints), that's why I went with Canon.

 

[Flexicon]

I disagree. HP's build quality is a thing of the past. You're better off if you have an older model HP because their new printers are a joke. Not only are you getting reamed on the overinflated ink prices, but their inkjets are problem-prone and not up to snuff when compared to the Canon i960 or the Epson 2200. If you have a chance, go into a CompUSA and print some test photos on each one and you'll see what I mean.

The i960 is the best photo printer on the market right now, imho, and kicks @ss on text documents, fabric printing, and anything else you care to throw at it. I don't have brand loyalty to any of them. I go through on average 2 or 3 printers a year because I like to have the latest and the greatest. Canon has been top dog in inkjets for the last two years, I'd say, with Epson running a close second. HP's new line with the grey ink is a step in the right direction, but the very noticeable dithering produced when you print color photos is a dealbreaker as far as I'm concerned. Epson printers-- even the top of the line 2200-- are prone to clogging and need to be tweaked to reproduce a great skin tone; Canon printers have very saturated and true colors right out of the box. All of the Canon's I've purchased have been problem free in terms of clogging, no matter what kind of cheap 3rd party ink I put in them. Canon printers also blow away the competition in terms of speed; you can print an 8x10 color photo on a Canon in the time it takes an Epson to just load the darn paper. If you can get the Canon i960 for less than 150.00, that's a hell of a deal and you should run, not walk, to your nearest Staples before that coupon expires.

 

[Caveman]

What about paper? What photopaper seems to work the best with this printer?

 

[Diabolus]

I worked for Epson and they sent me HPs, and Canons to compare and contrast on my own.

DO NOT BE FOOLED BY DPI, it's so damn misleading. The Epson output DPI wise, is the highest... but its picture quality is only middle-of-the-pack. HP is, and continues to be, far behind the rest of the pack. Their photo quality is horrendous, their ink cost is astronomical, and the only thing they offer are gimmicks like a pop-up LCD to view pictures and insert CF cards into.

The Canon printers, by FAR, are the best quality printers on the market. I had a hard time selling Epson printers (thank god I wasn't comission based) because I honestly knew the Canons, dollar for dollar and even NOT, were much better printers.

Replaceable heads, individual ink tanks (which Epson adopted also), cheap ink cost, and the most gorgeous prints you'll ever see.

A thing to note... if you buy a Canon printer, buy the Canon paper. It makes a HUGE difference. You can't go buy generic photo quality paper and expect it to do the same job -- it won't. Not by a long shot. Additionally, same goes for Epson -- Buy Epson paper, HP well... just don't buy.

I would recommend a Canon printer over ANY printer in each price bracket. If you want a cheap one, buy a Canon. If you want an expensive one, buy a Canon.

This is my experience, after having sold Epson printers for a year. Trust me, you won't be sorry. HP is total crap but people buy the name, so it's sad really. Their quality of yesteryear is now laughable. Just print the same picture on two printers and you will know, time and time again, that the Canon is the best printer.

 

[Caveman]

This would be a great deal if I could find the Coupon... Googled all around but no dice...

 

[Caveman]

Thanks for everyone's help : ) I found the coupon.

 

[Reikon]

Time to stop by Staples tomorrow.

 

[Souka]

Just a FYI

Costco stores in the Seattle area are carrying the Canon i560s (includes USB Cable) for about $80

Great little printer capable of Edge-to-edge printing.......


My $.02

 

[Flexicon]

You're right, Souka. I have an i560 hooked up to my spare computer and it prints like a champ-- I use it mainly for reports but it does a pretty good job on photos, too. It's ideal for students and people on a budget.

Caveman, Diabolus is right when he says you should try to use the same brand paper that your printer recommends, but there are exceptions. Epson papers work quite well with Canon printers and vice-versa. I read somewhere that they have a similar chemical composition to their inks and therefore the papers respond well to both brands. HP papers do not give good results on Epson or Canon printers though, so they should be avoided. I've heard that Kodak's glossy papers are terrible for Canons, too, but I get very good results with Kodak's bright white inkjet paper (110 brightness) and use this for my everyday printing. For photos, I like the Canon papers, of course, but Epson's Glossy Photo paper (with an ISO Brightness of 89) does an amazing job for much less money. You can get a 120 count pack of Epson's Glossy Photo Paper at Costco for $19.99. I've done some experimenting with Hahnemuhle and Hammermill papers too, but don't really care for them so far. I'm a fanatic about quality prints, so I use Monaco EZ color and Silverfast 6 to softproof my workflow, but my husband who is lazy and couldn't care less, uses his Canon printers right out of the box with no tweaking and gets great results, too. The pictures we print rival anything we can get out of a photolab.

 

[tommigsr]

got one thanks

 

[Wuzup101]

Canon S230 + Canon i950 + Canon CanoScan LiDE30 + Quality Canon Paper = mmmm mmmm good

No but seriously I've owned quite a few printers over the years. Still have 2 HP printers and 1 Epson in the house (might actually have 3 HPs). I bought this Canon i950 for my dorm this year (I'm a frosh) and build quality is amazing. I have had bad luck with older Canon printers. But I have to say the newer ones can't be beat. I love having the seperate ink tanks... and it's nice that ink doesn't cost you an arm and a leg. I'm only on my second black ink tank since summer and I just changed it a few weeks after christmas/winter break. All and all I'm very satisfied with the print quality of this printer. Photos look like they were done at the lab. Text is clear and sharp even when printing notes 9 to a page .

Wish I had the money to add a Canon 10D and some nice lendses to my collection... but that will have to wait until I get a decent job.

 

[Caveman]

What's up with the 80 KB memory? This seems like a spec from 10 years ago. I'd assumed at least 8MB, maybe 16MB for this printer. What gives? Is this not a problem? I assume you can beef up the memory?

 

[sharkAttakk]

Hi:
Could someone PM me how to get the $30 coupon?
Thanks.

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: Caveman
What's up with the 80 KB memory? This seems like a spec from 10 years ago. I'd assumed at least 8MB, maybe 16MB for this printer. What gives? Is this not a problem? I assume you can beef up the memory?

It's not like printers actually need memory. The only time a printer needs a real processor and memory is when you're running a page description language like PostScript.

 

[gwynethgh]

Scored one! I have been waiting for a good price on this printer for a long time. Found the c_up_n at F_t W_llet. ("o" and "a" folks).

 

[JohhnyQueefer]

I bought this for $199 a few months ago. It is an awesome printer. I've printed about 80 4x6s plus some text with it and have not run out of one cartridge of ink. The photos are excellent. It's a steal at $139.

 

[Asparagus]

Bought one a few days ago. Very impressed with the build quality and end product. Great looking print results -- best I've ever seen.

 

[CryHavoc]

What about paper? What photopaper seems to work the best with this printer?

I picked up a canon i960 last week and have printed a ton of 4x6 and 5x7's using canon's Photo Pro paper. There is no way you can tell the difference between lab processed film prints and a decent camera's digital print using this printer and the pro paper. And talk about FAST.

A 4x6 prints in about 36 seconds. You can hardly hear the printer at all as well.

the i960 is one damn fine printer. I am glad that I had returned the Epson R300 printer and replaced it with the canon. At $169 currently, plus the $30 off coupon, you can't beat this deal.

Ink is cheap as well and its nice to be able to replace only the color thats out.

 

[Skipster10]

Where is this $30 coupon?

-- Skipster10

 

[lhotdeals]

is this deal still alive? does the 30 instant rebate still work in store? thanks