Canon PIXMA PRO-1 Wireless Color Photo Printer

I have owned and used this printer for 9 years now. It does everything I ever wanted it to - it produces the most incredible and deep prints from my photographs, both color and mono. It silently prints out masterpieces that I can hang on my wall or, maybe one day, I can sell.But boy does it drink ink. Like chugs it down. The ink lines from the ink tanks to the print head are probably the reason. This printer was developed at a time when many printers kept the ink supply close to the print head. For the number of cartridges and inks this printer uses (twelve) this would not be practical, so there are long ink lines from the well laid out cartridge storage compartments to the print head. When this printer is turned on (yes, turned on) it will purge those ink lines, with that lovely, wonderful, heavenly ink disappearing into the ink catcher underneath the printer.This does mean you always get consistently excellent prints from this printer but at a very high cost.This printer is not suitable for occasional home use for this reason alone. If you are printing from it most days for a small commercial photography business, then it is perfect other than the slow USB and wired network connections. For a home or amateur user this is not the printer for you.These days I would only recommend this printer for someone who finds it for a very low price including the genuine Canon ink. If you were offered this printer for a low price or even for free but without ink, I would politely decline… it really isn’t worth it.I have one more complete set of new Canon inks for my Pro 1. Once those are gone I will be retiring this printer for something more recent and with less of a thirst.

I bought this printer back in 2016 and it worked beautifully until this year, 2022. My photos always looks great with brilliant colors and deep blacks. The ink was very expensive because I always bought Canon's cartridges but the quality was exceptional so I thought it was worth it. Then I started getting the B200 error. It would print a page, then on the next page it would error out. I'd have to turn it off, unplug it, wait a day or two and it might work for maybe printing one more photo, then the error again. I've research for weeks for a fix but for this model, and other Pixma models subject to this error, you have to call Canon's tech support and pay for a solution, if one exists. I'm opting to replace it but I will never buy a Canon printer again. I've had many Epson photo printers and they never broke. When I replaced them, it was only because the technology improved and I wanted to upgrade. Beware of expensive Canon printers.

This machine suffered a catastrophic hardware failure at the 4.5 year mark. It was used frequently, but never for any significant volume. It was incredibly expensive to run, swallowing ink at an alarming rate. Sure, the photos it prints are exceptional, but the cost, plus failure after 4.5 years makes this a shocking waste of money. I regret this purchase.

I will write this review from my current learning perspective and will update it as I learn and get better. I am an engineer and like the challenge of figuring out new projects. I build computers as a hobby. I research online extensively and read professional as well as end user reviews.I ordered this printer after reading the other reviews. The professional reviews were probably the real sell.... I wanted lab type quality. I like the chroma optimizer feature and the large ink tank size. I also preferred the faster speed rating than the PRO-10. I also considered the PRO-100, but then decided on this. Amazon has a good comparison page between the 3. My motivation is that I have a 6 month old daughter and want to capture pictures of her as she grows up.Receiving the printer by UPS was exciting. The driver asked for help to carry it in and there are "2 man lift" stickers on the box!! The printer is very large and heavy, but I did not have any problem moving it around. I was unable to find a suitable table for it so I've decided to build my own table. This is not out of frustration, or necessary, I could have made it work fine. It is just another project. However, a standard printer table will not work for this printer.Setup is very simple by my standards, but a bit more complicated than just plugging in a USB cable. There are 12 ink tanks that need to be installed as well as the print head itself. None of this is too difficult. If you can replace ink in an inkjet, you can set up this printer. The ink tanks click in place and each has a red LED that turns on when correctly in place. Everything is clearly labeled so the correct ink tank goes in the correct slot. The printer goes through a priming cycle that consumes about 25% of the ink. Given the price of ink this is a bit alarming, but it is necessary since the ink is transferred to the print head by tubing instead of resting on the printhead itself. The benefit is that a larger ink tank is possible. I have not verified, but my estimate based on reading multiple reviews is that each 8.5x11 print consumes roughly $1 in ink. Best price online is currently just over $300 with free shipping for a complete set of ink tanks. (google shopping for the best price) However, you will likely never replace all ink tanks at any given time. This printer does not have wireless, unlike the lower two models. This was a bit surprising to me, but i just hard wired it to my router without any issue. I can't airprint to it, but don't really think i want to print to this printer from my iPad. My workflow is DSLR to Photoshop to print. The software detects the printer on your network automatically so a network installation adds zero complexity to thebsetup process. From unboxing to first print is slightly less than 2 hours.My first prints were fairly dark. This is because my monitor was set very bright and brings up a common challenge in digital photography. The monitor must match the prints. I was able to correct this by adjusting my video driver to tune down my monitor a bit and then I used a manual setting on the print driver to increase intensity and increase contrast. Intricate control over color is also possible but I have not done much of it yet.If you buy this printer you probably have a DSLR and several lenses. I highly recommend that you add a color spectrometer to your kit. After my typical amount of research I have ordered the x-rite ColorMunki and Color Passport. This is another review, but the goal is to match camera, monitor, and printer perfectly. Therefore, no wasted prints, better prints, and an overall more satisfying experience. I have produced some great images without this, but am looking forward to the spectrometer.So, that's all for now... Hopefully it was helpful.UPDATE - I have now calibrated my setup perfectly and everything prints out as expected, which is very nice. I think you can get good prints without this because the print driver has many customization options, but it will require a lot of test prints and never be truly optimized.Can't say more about the print quality. Images are excellent. The only drawback I can think of is the price of the ink. Wishing there was a good way to just refill the ink tanks.