South Carolina Photography Guild

Canon announced the debut of four new Pixma “All-in-one” printers the other day. The new members of the Pixma family include a PixmA MP460 (retail price of $129.99), the Pixma MP180 ($99), the Pixma MP160 ($89), and the Pixma MP530 ($199.99). The press release covers brief bios for each model and can be found here:
Canon Press Release

While improvements in ink usage and lower cost per page are always welcome for photographers, none of these add the larger print functionality, with each maxing out at 8.5×11. This is somewhat disappointing as advances in other areas of technology (building computers, setting up home networks, music recording, video recording, web publishing, etc., etc., etc.) are allowing the consumer to venture into new areas, the area of large printing capabilities are still somewhat restrictive. Epson has made some strides with their Epson 1280, which can be found retail for $399 with rebates knocking it down under $300, but this is the exception rather than the norm. The comparable Canon is the i9900, retails for $499 and does not have the same recognition in the print world. Canon has always been known as a camera manufacturer and is what they’ve built their name on. While adding the printer field into their product line does make sense, it would be nice to see them make their product more affordable, especially when the leader (Epson) has comparables that sell for lower costs.

Additionally, for new prosumers who have already dropped a bundle on their camera gear, price becomes a very limiting factor in new gear unless one is independantly wealthy or can instantly begin generating revenue from their endeavors. Ultimately what this comes down to is a question of whether photographers wish to take control of their printing and dig deep to spring for the higher end printers, or…do we continue to outsource our printing solutions to local and online print labs? For the time being, it seems larger sized printing shall remain within the confines of dedicated print labs both of the online and brick-and-mortar venues for entry level prosumers.