Six-color BJC-8200 prints excellent photos
Six-color BJC-8200 prints excellent photos
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): So finally you purchased a versatile digital
camera. And for a week now you've been taking and deleting
pictures over and over again, and you've connected the new camera
to your TV set to preview on the screen all the images that
you've decided to keep? Now it's time to check the truth about
that expensive camera. Did it really capture those wonderful
moments from the recent family reunion? Or did it simply turn
human faces into gray stones?
A decent color printer may not be up to the challenge when it
comes to reproducing natural colors. To get the proof, you'll
need a photo printer. The good news is that all the big names in
the printer industry -- Canon, Epson and Hewlett-Packard -- have
been touting their serious photo printers for some time.
An ordinary color printer usually uses four different ink
colors: Black, cyan, magenta and yellow. These four colors are
mixed to produce enough colors for great invitation cards,
newsletters, leaflets and brochures. They are also adequate for
producing hard copies of the Web pages that you download from the
Internet. To produce great photos, however, you'll usually need
two additional ink colors: Light cyan and light magenta.
BJC-8200
Courtesy of PT Datascrip, Canon's distributor for Indonesia, I
was able to test one of Canon's premier photo printers, the BJC-
8200. Unfortunately, I didn't do a thorough test, though, as I
didn't get the chance to buy and use any of its expensive special
photo paper.
The Rp 3.25 million printer does have several unique and
sophisticated features. Unlike most other inkjet printers that
I've seen, this one has a separate print head and ink tanks. The
print head can be replaced when it wears out. It's time to get a
new print head when the print quality drops and calibration does
not help.
The printer comes with a set of sophisticated software tools,
including the head cleaning and deep cleaning utilities. If you
suspect that the ink nozzle is clogged, for example, you should
clean it using the utility that Canon has included in the
software. At no time are you allowed to touch the print head with
your fingers or any other object because of its sensitivity.
The tanks for the six colors -- yellow, magenta, cyan, black,
photocyan and photomagenta -- are transparent. When the ink in
any of these tanks becomes depleted, the printer informs the user
by flashing an alert on its Status Monitor in a Windows PC or
Print Monitor in a Mac. If any two tanks are inadvertently
installed in incorrect positions, the printer will produce images
with strange colors.
Each ink tank costs about Rp 90,000 and will cover a space of
about 120 x 10 inch with color, making lower printing costs
compared to other photo printers. Other reviewers have already
applauded the feature called Think Tank, which allows replacement
of only one ink tank when it gets empty. It is more economical
than having to replace the entire cartridge because one of the
inks has run dry.
The technology used is also pretty advanced. Canon's Advanced
MicroFine Droplet technology puts a very tiny drop -- four
picoliter -- of ink on the paper using a lot of star-shaped
nozzles. The result is a stunning 1200x1200 DPI image resolution.
The printer is also capable of printing 33 levels of gradation,
making the photos look realistic.
The body of the printer itself is nicely sculptured, and
operation is controlled by only two buttons -- one for power, and
the other for resuming the printing process. You can buy an
optional scanner head that will turn this printer into a scanner.
However, with the prices of scanners so low nowadays, I don't
really believe you should seriously consider this option. It
would be too much of a hassle to replace the print head with the
scanner head and calibrate the printer again and again. Unless,
of course, you really don't have any more space for a scanner in
your cubicle.
The software driver is versatile and offers numerous print
quality levels -- a standard text document, a document containing
text and color graphics, an enhanced image, or a photo taken with
a digital camera. There is also a draft mode to run sample
prints. If you want, you can also specify your own settings and
save them for later use.
The user also can increase the printing speed -- and sacrifice
print quality slightly, of course. Conversely, fine quality
prints will take longer. The intensity of individual colors can
be set manually and there are special effects that can be applied
before the image is printed.
In addition to paper, BJC-8200 can also print on
transparencies. If you want to place your own photo on your T-
shirt, you can use the printer to print on the TR-201 T-shirt
transfer sheet. BJC-8200 also accommodates envelopes.
Quality paper
For quality photos, you will definitely need quality paper.
That's the key requirement of any serious photo printer. Canon
offers a few different types of paper to get the most from this
printer. You can use Photo Paper Pro, which is a thick paper with
a glossy coating. Or you can use the Glossy Photo Paper, Glossy
Photo Cards (if you don't want the white margins), or High
Resolution Paper. The Users Guide provides printout samples that
demonstrate the stark difference between using plain paper and
High Resolution Paper, and the more expensive (about US$ 1 each)
Glossy Photo Paper should yield an even better result.
Indeed, the test I conducted using plain print paper did not
really reveal the strength of this printer. The colors were
rather pale and skin tone lacking. If all you need is a printer
to print ordinary color documents on plain paper, this high-end
printer is not for you because it is not designed for that
purpose. However, if you want a printer to print a lot of great
photos, this one should certainly be on top of your list. In
fact, the comments I've read on the Internet for this printer are
very positive. One thing to remember, though: Because it prints
1200x1200 dots per inch, this printer cannot be rushed.
(zatni@cbn.net.id)