Do you really expect a $99 printer to compete with one that cost 4X as much. Are you being real, your comparing apples and oranges, the Canon is a dye ink printer the R1800 is a pigment ink printer.

Sorry, but the problem isn't the printer I am afraid, but is your expectations. You are not going to get more than you pay for in a market as competitive as desktop printers.

David,
Sounds like I asked a stupid question. Thanks for the feedback, I must have misunderstood your suggestion that I look at this smaller-format printer as a suitable replacement for my dead R1800 for small prints. I do care about the quality of the small prints -- they just happen to be small. Apparently I should have gone for the larger printer after all.

If I get a larger, more expensive pigment printer like the Epson R1900 or the Canon Pixma 9500, how can I avoid the problem of the print heads getting permanently clogged? This seems to happen with every inkjet I've owned after about three years. Based on something I read, with my R1800 I set up a reminder to myself and printed a full-color test image once a week to keep the unit active. But that still didn't solve the problem. Is there any way to prevent this problem for a printer that is not used every day?

And, based on your earlier post, it sounds like you'd pick the Canon 9500 over the Epson R1900? Even though it's nearly twice the street price?

I would probably put the R1900 and Canon Pixam 9500 Pro pretty close on color print quality, but the Canon like the Epson R2880 has full support for B&W, while R1900 does not. It may be too that another paper might produce a print quality you would find more satisfactory - every paper/ink/printer combination yields different print results.

I may just be lucky but sometimes I go for weeks due to work schedules and other distractions, from printing and in recent years have not had a head clogging problem that a few cleaning cycle would not clear. I think the inks today are much improved, more than any changes in the printers. The Canon p500 Pro is self diagnosing and cleaning like their larger printers.

Sorry I misled you, but without seeing or really knowing what a user is doing it gets dicey trying to provide advise.

Thanks again, I do appreciate your advice and completely understand how difficult it is to advise with such limited information. One last question: I see numerous complaints on-line about ink cartridge problems with Epson printers, including the R1900 and other models. These are quite recent, at least through December 2008. Have you heard any rumblings about whether this is a continuing, widespread problem? It give me pause when I consider the R1900, but it's difficult to know whether it's a problem that Epson has resolved and I'm safe purchasing something from current stock.

All I can report is what I know of course, and I print a lot but have had no problems with Epson cartridges for either an R2400 or the R800/R1800. I have a R1900 but its still in its box, I haven't installed it yet - other more important fish to fry.

Perceptul print expectations vary tremendously between individuals. What is really good print quality is hard to pin down objectively, although I think my valuation and perception has been refined by the many years I have had in the position I am in being a part of the photo press. But personally I have no use for anything printed on plastic, RC papers - in part maybe because I know more about them than most after researching the subject as thoroughly as possible over many years.

You may be intereted in this for your iP4600 -- from the mouth of Canon. lol

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/contro...p;modelid=17105