Rangefinder Magazine
January 2006

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First Exposure Ron Eggers
Cannon Pixma IP6600D:
A Good Choice for an All-around Printer

CANON’S NEW PIXMA IP6600D inkjet printer is part of the newest generation of consumer printers that, under the right circumstances and for the right applications, could serve professionals very well. It has excellent print quality, is acceptably fast, and offers a broad range of functionality. It can serve as a computer-connected photo-realistic printer, a memory-card printer and a camera-direct printer. Its large 3.5-inch built-in LCD makes it easy to review, select and optimize specific images without having to transfer them to a computer.

With a printing resolution of 9600x2400 dpi, it’s one of the highest resolution consumer inkjet printers on the market. The six-ink system adds photo cyan and photo magenta to the conventional four-ink set for more photo-realistic images, softer skin tones and smoother transitions. That makes it a good choice for serious output requirements. The printer uses what Canon calls FINE (Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering) technology, the next generation printing system. Each print color has 512 nozzles, for a print head with a total of 3072 nozzles. Each nozzle ejects precise, consistent droplets as small as one picoliter, resulting in smaller droplets, smoother gradients and virtually grain-free images.

Generally, even though they may be a little more expensive, it’s a good idea to stay with the inks and papers that a manufacturer recommends for its inkjet printers. That’s the case with this new Canon. For best results, use the Canon inks and papers optimized for output on these units. The printer has specially formulated inks with smart individual ink tanks. To ensure uninterrupted printing, individual LED lamps flash when ink levels are running low. The pace of the flashes increases as ink levels decrease, making it easy to tell how much ink is left. Since they are individual ink tanks, each color can be switched out separately, without having to waste other ink colors.

Another advanced feature usually only found on printers targeted at professionals is dual paper handling. The dual paper path makes it possible to keep two different types of papers loaded. The only major drawback for pro applications is the limitation on the size of the output, which is legal size (8.5x14 inches) paper.

The photograph of the Mexican masks took about two minutes to generate. The image quality was very good and the colors were vibrant, but, using the Canon drivers, it was difficult to center the image for output.

Setup of the stylish gray and black unit was easy. The Quick-start Guide walks you through the entire process. Installing the software took a little more time. For some reason, I was not able to install the drivers on the first computer system, the one I use for online activity. Installation instructions say to turn off all anti-virus programs, which I did. But because of repeated online system problems, multiple levels of security were installed. Apparently there was a process running in the background that blocked the installation procedures. On another system, which also has anti-virus software installed that I turned off, installation was an easy process with no hang-ups.

Images can be printed directly from digital camera removable media, including CompactFlash and SecureData cards. And, with digital cameras that support PictBridge, it’s possible to print directly from the camera. Cameras that support USB transfer can be tied directly to the unit by cable.

Mobile phone users will appreciate the ability to print directly from infrared-enabled mobile phones. It’s a simple matter of taking the picture, positioning the device in the vicinity of the printer and printing away. It supports infrared IrDA version 1.2 for image transfer. Infrared printing only supports JPEG images and requires a direct line-of-site beam for images to transfer. With the optional Bluetooth adapter, the unit supports Bluetooth image transfer from Bluetoothequipped cell phones, PDAs, laptops and other devices. Since Bluetooth is a radio frequency (RF) technology, it’s possible to print from another room or a nearby location, where line-of- site transmission isn’t possible.

The image of the old gas station was printed from the CompactFlash card as it was captured, without optimization or cropping. Without optimization, the print was a little washed out, even though it looked good when transferred to the computer.

All the controls are grouped on top of the printer, around the flip-up LCD screen. When printing directly, the printer can automatically correct for red-eye, increase sharpness and optimize brightness. Images can be fine-tuned from the LCD control panel. It’s also possible to crop shots through the printer’s “trimming” command. Just as when printing from a computer, it’s possible to select different paper types and sizes, print layouts and quality levels. The menu selections are made on the screen. Those are features that professionals might not think they’d use, but they do come in handy.

The quality of the LCD is amazing—it would be good enough to watch TV or DVDs on. The printer can also be used as an impromptu presentation device; all the images on a memory card can be displayed as an automatic slide show.

The 6600D is relatively fast. It has 42KB of internal memory for its own internal processing requirements. Such a small amount of memory doesn’t impact output speed, since there isn’t sufficient memory to buffer images as they’re being downloaded.

Its specs indicate the printer can print a photo lab-quality, 4x6 borderless print in just 46 seconds. An 8.5x11 should take only 1.8 minutes. In testing, the unit was able to generate 8.5x11 highest resolution photo-realistic images on high-gloss paper in a little over two minutes from the time the “print” option was clicked on until the paper was ejected. That’s good for a consumer printer. Printing individual photographs directly from removable media took roughly 31/2 minutes each.

Printing contact sheets and index prints is another matter. Because the printer has to rasterize each image on a memory card (35 in all per page), contact sheets and index prints take a very long time, particularly when generating thumbnails from high-resolution originals. Generating contact sheets from 8-megapixel JPEG images took 31 minutes each. A better approach would be to create the contact sheets or index prints on the computer and then send them out to the printer. In that situation, contact sheets and index prints take about as long as individual photographs.

Even though it’s relatively compact— 16.9(w) x 7.3(h) x 12.0(d) inches—at 15.9 pounds, it’s quite heavy. It’s a solid piece of equipment that should provide years of good service. The unit is compatible with Windows XP/Me/2000/98 systems, as well as Mac OS X v10.2.1 to 10.4.x. The estimated street price of the ip6600D is $199.99. While it may not be the primary printer for a professional photographer who needs to generate the highest quality, oversized, photo-realistic output, it’s a good choice as an all-around printer that can certainly be pressed into service when photo-realistic output is required.

For more information, visit www.canonusa.com.