Canon Prograf 300

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    Topic: Canon Prograf 300 Read 737 Times
  • Mark Crean
    Mark Crean
    Participant
    Posts: 27
    Canon Printers
    on: May 27, 2021 at 3:46 pm

    Hi folks

    I am thinking of getting a Canon Prograf 300. It would be my first ‘serious’ printer. I don’t need or have room for a really big printer and it sounds a better bet than Epson models if you don’t plan to print all that much (less clogging if left idle, or that’s what some articles have said). Anyone with any experience of this model, or comments? Much appreciated. A sticking point at the moment is that inks for it seem hard to obtain where I am but perhaps that will ease as supply chains come back up. If not then maybe an Epson P700 which seems of roughly similar specs.

    Simon Simpson
    Simon Simpson
    Participant
    Posts: 59
    Re: Canon Prograf 300
    Reply #1 on: May 28, 2021 at 8:54 am

    I can’t speak for Prograf 300 but I have owned a variety of Canon printers for a long time and always been very happy with them.

     

    Currently I have a PRO-1, a pigment printer, which despite intermittent use has never clogged.  The prints it produces are fabulous.

    Daniel Koretz
    Daniel Koretz
    Participant
    Posts: 87
    Re: Canon Prograf 300
    Reply #2 on: May 28, 2021 at 12:51 pm

    I don’t have a Prograf 300, but I do print with a Prograf 1000, which is it’s larger sibling. The 1000 also has a couple of additional inks, I think. I love the 1000. When I bought it, I compared it to the Epson P800, and the list of pros and cons then pointed me to the Canon. With the P900, the calculation has changed in one respect: with the P900, Epson has finally stopped requiring that you swap inks when you switch between matte and coated papers. The Canon printers have never required it, keeping all the blacks installed and just using what’s needed.

    However, at the risk of having a lot of people toss tomatoes my way, I do have another question given that this is your first serious printer. That is, do you actually need archival pigment inks? If not, Canon has a similar dye-ink printer, the Pixmal Pro 200. I have never used the 200, but I printed for years with the predecessor, the Pixma Pro 100, as well as the 9000 that came before it. The prints from the 100 are very, very sim9ilar to those from my Pro 1000. I’ve had a bunch of Canon dye printers (multifunction as well as photo) over the past 12 years or so, and I never experienced a single clog, although sometimes the printer would go through a self-cleaning cycle. And that’s with leaving the printer unused for months on end sometimes. The drawback is that the prints will fade more quickly. I’ve had some dye prints up for quite a number of years without fading, if they are out of direct sunlight or protected by UV-protective glass, but they will fade more quickly. I switched to pigment because I sell prints and because I wanted to go bigger than 13 x 19. Just something to think about.

    Mark Crean
    Mark Crean
    Participant
    Posts: 27
    Re: Canon Prograf 300
    Reply #3 on: May 28, 2021 at 4:08 pm

    I can’t speak for Prograf 300 but I have owned a variety of Canon printers for a long time and always been very happy with them.

     

    Currently I have a PRO-1, a pigment printer, which despite intermittent use has never clogged.  The prints it produces are fabulous.

    Thanks for replying. Glad to hear it works OK!

    Mark Crean
    Mark Crean
    Participant
    Posts: 27
    Re: Canon Prograf 300
    Reply #4 on: May 28, 2021 at 4:27 pm

    I don’t have a Prograf 300, but I do print with a Prograf 1000, which is it’s larger sibling. The 1000 also has a couple of additional inks, I think. I love the 1000. When I bought it, I compared it to the Epson P800, and the list of pros and cons then pointed me to the Canon. With the P900, the calculation has changed in one respect: with the P900, Epson has finally stopped requiring that you swap inks when you switch between matte and coated papers. The Canon printers have never required it, keeping all the blacks installed and just using what’s needed.

    However, at the risk of having a lot of people toss tomatoes my way, I do have another question given that this is your first serious printer. That is, do you actually need archival pigment inks? If not, Canon has a similar dye-ink printer, the Pixmal Pro 200. I have never used the 200, but I printed for years with the predecessor, the Pixma Pro 100, as well as the 9000 that came before it. The prints from the 100 are very, very sim9ilar to those from my Pro 1000. I’ve had a bunch of Canon dye printers (multifunction as well as photo) over the past 12 years or so, and I never experienced a single clog, although sometimes the printer would go through a self-cleaning cycle. And that’s with leaving the printer unused for months on end sometimes. The drawback is that the prints will fade more quickly. I’ve had some dye prints up for quite a number of years without fading, if they are out of direct sunlight or protected by UV-protective glass, but they will fade more quickly. I switched to pigment because I sell prints and because I wanted to go bigger than 13 x 19. Just something to think about.

    Thanks for your reply, very helpful. I will look at the 200 series and hadn’t thought till you pointed this out. I was thinking of ‘Go high or go home’ in the sense that I don’t want something that doesn’t look up to the standard of the prints I get from a lab not least since I am thinking of a little expo over the next year and it might be satisfying to prep the prints for it. I have Olympus M4/3 kit at the mo, so up to about A3 size is ideal for the files (though one can go larger to taste). My own preference is either for jewel-like A5-ish up to A3 (with margins) or instead very large like A0 and over. For some reason I find that in-betweener sizes never appeal as much, neither big nor small, but that’s just personal. This is really all for learning and enjoyment.

    Michael Kopel
    Michael Kopel
    Participant
    Posts: 11
    Re: Canon Prograf 300
    Reply #5 on: May 31, 2021 at 8:18 am

    I have the ProGraf 300 and am very happy with the output and can recommend it. Keith Cooper at Northlight-Images (http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/) has done a comprehensive review of the Pro 200, 300 and the Epson printers. He’s very good and I recommend you read and listen to what he has to say. He makes some very good points about how to decide on the 200 vs 300.

    Mark Crean
    Mark Crean
    Participant
    Posts: 27
    Re: Canon Prograf 300
    Reply #6 on: May 31, 2021 at 3:30 pm

    I have the ProGraf 300 and am very happy with the output and can recommend it. Keith Cooper at Northlight-Images (http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/) has done a comprehensive review of the Pro 200, 300 and the Epson printers. He’s very good and I recommend you read and listen to what he has to say. He makes some very good points about how to decide on the 200 vs 300.

    Thanks for the heads up!

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