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When Canon initially launched their new Chromalife 100 long life inkset it paid to read their printer specs very carefully, as many of their Pixma inkjet photo printers actually still used the old Canon BCI-6 inks. Only a few, including the Pixma iP4200 and iP5200 used the new CLI-8 inks. Canon’s Chromalife inks aim to address the main weakness of their printers based on the older inks, while retaining the speed and glossy photo abilities that were their greatest assets.
Chromalife 100 inks are claimed to be lightfast for up to 100 years with Canon’s own photo papers. Canon claim a 100 year life for prints stored in photo albums, 30 years for framed behind glass and 10 years for “unprotected” prints. Interestingly Canon claims that most fading is due to gases in the air rather than exposure to light.
http://www.canon-europe.com/chromalife100/
Although I’m a professional photographer and this isn’t really a professional printer, I’ve made a lot of photo prints with the Canon Pixma iP5200. Even though it only uses 5 inks and 2 of them are blacks, this is one of the best photo printers I’ve ever used. OK the tonal range may be slightly less smooth than an 8 ink Epson or Canon but the difference is small enough to be almost irrelevant in real world terms. Considering the price and it’s far lower running costs compared to a 6 or 8 ink photo printer, this is a bargain. Even disregarding costs
This is a great printer.
Like all Canon’s it’s fast and produces great glossy photos. It’s weaknesses are in colour management - the driver allows very little real control, only allowing you to use Windows own ICM or some sliders that don’t include a lighten/darken, saturation or contrast control. Instead you have “intensity” and “black” controls. Considering the printer’s other weakness is oversaturated colours - even with “Vivid” turned off - these are major omissions. Fortunately most of the time the slightly more colourful than reality look is exactly what is wanted, so it’s only when colours really are bright that it becomes a problem. Many of my pictures are seascapes and if the sea really is that ideal bright blue, prints from the Canon are way too intense and resist all tweaks on the controls, or the image saturation to fix it.
Still a printer at this price that gives you exactly what you want 99% of the time while set to Glossy Photo Paper and Auto with my favourite Ilford Smooth Glossy or Fuji Premium Glossy papers is way better than most. If Canon’s driver included a saturation control I’d be hard pressed to criticise it at all. That, along with single ink tanks that really are empty when the driver tells you so make this a real bargain.
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