September 28, 2005 There’s clearly a price war brewing between the photo printing laboratories and the home market with the announcement of the new Canon MP950 Photo All-In-One which prints, copies and scans personal photos and documents with the speed and ease of a photo kiosk - yet is small enough to fit on a desktop and costs just US$450. That’s mighty cheap for a unit that features a 7-colour ink system producing 9600 x 2400 colour dots per inch, has the ability to scan up to 12 negatives or 8 slides, and also offers wireless printing. Makes you wonder where it will all end, heh?
Along with the convenience of being able to print their latest images, scan their favorite slides or output text with one home office device, users won't have to sacrifice quality with the new MP950 model which uses a seven-colour ink system offering up to 9600 x 2400 colour dpi for sharp detail and clarity.
Photographers and scrapbookers will also love this new All-In-One's 3.6-inch LCD TFT (thin film transistor) display which lets the user see the images they'll be printing without having to connect to a computer, along with its ability to scan up to 12 negatives and eight slides and directly print photos from select memory cards and PictBridge ready devices.
Wireless printing to the PIXMA MP950 model is also possible from select devices with an optional Bluetooth adapter. In addition, it offers support for IrDA wireless printing as a standard from devices such as mobile phones.
"With the ability to do so many imaging tasks well, this is truly the high-end all-in-one photo kiosk that photographers have been asking for," said Yukiaki Hashimoto, senior vice president and general manager of the Consumer Imaging Group at Canon U.S.A., Inc., a subsidiary of Canon Inc. "The high-quality multi-function features of the MP950 Photo All-In-One are also great for scrapbooking enthusiasts wanting to catalogue those special moments in life - past, present and future."
Amazing Resolution, Colour and Detail
To achieve up to 9600 x 2400 colour dpi, the MP950 model uses Canon FINE technology with a next-generation 3,584-nozzle print head that ejects precise, consistent droplets as small as one picoliter. The advanced seven-colour ink system includes six dye-based inks and a pigment-based black ink that produces truer, more life-like photos and laser-quality text. This PIXMA Photo All-In-One also offers great speed, with a photo-lab quality borderless photo taking approximately 46 seconds to print with the default setting in the printer driver.
A Great View with 3.6-Inch Colour LCD Display
To access the extra-large 3.6-inch LCD colour TFT (thin film transistor) display, all users need to do is insert a compatible memory card into one of the built-in card slots and then select the images on the screen. Images can then be automatically enhanced on the LCD Viewer for red eye, sharpness and brightness values or they can be fine tuned by using the control panel. Images can also be printed directly on the MP950 model from PictBridge ready devices.The ChromaLife100 & FINE Systems
The MP950 model takes advantage of such Canon breakthroughs as the new Canon ChromaLife100 System for long lasting photos and Canon's pioneering Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering (FINE) print head system for impressive speed and photo quality. The ChromaLife100 system produces prints on select genuine Canon photo papers that resist fading for up to 100 years when stored in an archival quality photo album. The FINE print head system uses a ground-breaking high-performance multi-nozzle print head that ejects consistent and microscopic ink droplets. The results are high-resolution photos with greater detail and clarity and better longevity in less time.
Copying & Scanning Features
The AE (Auto Exposure) Copy feature on the MP950 model automatically optimizes reproduction quality based on the type of original that's being duplicated. The convenient Photo/Film buttons lets the user make reprints of photos and 35mm film without using a computer. When scanning on this model, high performance CCD technology can produce spectacular 3200-dpi scans, with vibrant 48-bit colour depth. Even better for photographers and scrapbookers alike, the MP950 model allows for scanning of up to 12 frames of 35mm film (negatives or positives), or up to eight mounted slides. For convenience, two paper trays let the user keep photo paper stored in one tray and plain paper in the other so they're always ready to print either photos or documents. The MP950 model can also print two-sided documents automatically to help save on paper costs, and even create two-sided photos using Canon Photo Paper Plus Double Sided in 5 x 7 and 8.5 x 11 inch sizes.Pricing and Availability
The Canon PIXMA MP950 Photo All-In-One will be available in late October and will carry an estimated selling price of US$450.