Re: HP 7680 vs. Canon MP970
JackRazz wrote:
I’m looking for a multi-purpose inkjet printer with a scanner that will print word documents with graphics, and a few photos. I might end printing several hundred pages in a day on a few occasions. I really like the Canon MP970 and the HP L7580/L7680 printers. But, it’s essential that the printer I use work with a continuous ink system.
Before I comment further it's worth noting that I've never played with an MP970 but the unit is meant to be a high end multi-function photo printer and given that you're looking for something that occasionally does photos my first recommendation has to be to change your selection to the MP830 which is much more suited to general AND photo printing.
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What I’d like to know about the Canon is:
Text Quality – I printed a sample nozzle check pattern and the limited text on that page is fairly jagged with somewhat splattered edges. Is this a fair representation of the text quality in a normal print quality mode? Can it print text as crisply as the HP 7680?
There are a number of options on the Canons that allow you to change the Halftone pattern used. As a rule the Diffusion setting (under "Custom" is much better than the "Dither" pattern. "Custom" print settings also allow you to set the "Quality" although obviously this impacts on the print speed.
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Reliability - If I print an average of a hundred pages in a day, could it handle that without problems? I called Canon and they wouldn’t give me any duty cycle other than it’s not made for that. What kind of print volumes should I expect from this?
Right... Canon aim this sort of printer at regular but low usage (25 pages a day, 4 or 5 photos a week, 100 pages a week) people with money to burn. The printer engine is actually an iP4300/iP5200 unit which makes it a "photo printer" in Canons marketing world. The photocopier, scanner, etc... make it more useful for general. To put it all in context though I've used it as a photocopier, fax, scanner and my other half (a teacher) has given it a thrashing along with my iP4200/4300 and MP500's over the past year printing out worksheets, display material and the occassional photo so I'd say it should be able to cope with your sort of workload pretty well.
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CIS - Are there good continuous ink systems that will work with this? I've read that Canon's can be difficult. Is it doable?
There are some CIS's available for this type of printer. I don't know of any specifically designed for the MP970 but you can get chinese clone like kits with pressure balanced reservoirs on eBay or by doing a little googling. The one kit that stands out though is the one from Rihac in Australia. I've made more comments at the end of this long post.
In terms of troubleshooting issues though I now have a very comprehensive guide to problems you can experience and the possible solutions so in that sense things are solvable (just need to write it up!)
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The HP L7580/L7680 has really good crisp text.
Quality - The big downside is all the negative comments I see on Amazon. Most surround the awful software, noise, and overall reliability (long complex documents as an example). How reliable are they? Is it really this bad?
First off, forget the L7580, it's missing the duplexer and networking system and for the little extra those are worth having. In terms of the reviews you've seen unfortunately I can confirm that this printer has a slew of issues primarily relating to the diabolical driver support that HP have chosen to ignore in the main. Some of the issues I've experienced to date include:
- Double sided (quick select) option has the "mirror page" setting checked so you get double sided OHP/transparency prints (think this is resolved in driver 8.0.1 but HP haven't even admitted it was a problem
- It is noisy but when you consider that this printer is capable of spitting the pages out at easily double the speed of most Canons it's not surprising. I wouldn't want this printer in a small room or if I had small children. Oh and the printhead cleaning routine sounds like it's jamming or repeating. It isn't! but it takes some getting used to
- Paper feeding problems have long been known and ranted about for HP printers and this can cause all sorts of problems especially if you do manual duplexing. The solution is generally to experiment with different paper brands until you find one that the printer doesn't drop regularly. Often the issue is down to residue build up on the rollers from some types of paper so it's a trial and error thing. HP have known of this issue for years and still do nothing about it.
- One issue that Bex (my fiance) has complained bitterly about is that the printer can sometimes miss off the last page or last half a page, print only a few of the copies she wanted, etc... We've upgraded the driver to 8.0.1 and this seems to have stopped but I've not been paying close attention.
In a nutshell the HP7680 (and the other 7X80 printers) would be bloody marvellous if HP weren't being so beligerant about resolving the reported issues. Over the next few days I'll make a concerted effort to get Bex to do a lot of printing on the L7680 here and see if the problems are still in evidence and report back.
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CIS - Anyone else have a CIS on the 7680 that they would recommend? Are there working solutions for this printer? I saw Martin’s comments on an HP CIS, which is positive.
Definitely... At present Inkpouch.com have what I consider to be the best current option in terms of functionality although I've yet to do a proper review the technology and approach are a lot less likely to result in a knackered printhead.
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I would appreciate any comments on which one might be preferable. Also which CIS systems are recommended. My old HP Laserjet 4 is getting old and it would be really nice to print in color as cheaply as that old HP prints in black and white.
Whilst I've suggested the MP830 as a possible Canon the new MX850 is the next generation for this printer due to be released in the next week. The reason I'd go for that one is that the price is much the same and you get a printserver thrown in, which can be very useful.
Summary
Whilst, under normal circumstances, I'd have recommended the MP830 or MX850, the problem comes when you start thinking about installing a CIS. If you look around there's very few CIS sellers that have a dedicated kit for MP printers. Sorting out the tubing, and the like can be more than a little frustrating and I've learned the hard way that all Canons are sensitive to pressure issues amongst other things. If you were to go the Canon route I would strongly recommending contacting Sam at
Rihac first and ask whether he can supply his kit to your country. His support for Canon printers is impressive with a lot of positive feedback. To be fair he's probably watched my efforts and wanted to cry a few times
Of course being Australian based it could be difficult if you're European based but, again Sam may have a reseller more local.
Oh and just on noise issues, if quiet printing is a must then the Canon is definitely worth a look.. It has the option to turn on "quiet mode" at specific times which slows things down but does indeed reduce the noise level.
If, on the other hand you're a bit more forgiving of potential paper handling issues and if the driver issues on the L7680 have been resolved then I'd give that serious thought. In terms of speed it has absolutely no peer but noise is higher and the "best" quality print is definitely not the same as on most Canon printers. Paper capacity on the L7680 is also markedly higher but again you have the potential feed issues. The main plus with the L7680 is that installing a decent CIS is a 5 minute job and the pressure issues are simplified by the fact that the HP's require positive pressure and actually regulate pressure to the printhead themselves.
As with everything there's a trade off and you'll doubtless find yourself wondering which is more important but as I said, drop Sam at Rihac a line first about the Canon MP830/MX830 before you make any purchases.
Hope that helps.
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Printers: (Canon) MP500/830, MX700, iP4000/4200/4300/4500/5200, iX4000(A3) (Epson) C84/86, D88, CX6600, R285/800/1900 (HP) K550, K850, K5400, L7680
