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Canon PIXMA iP5000 Printer Review Review by Ron Risman - June 2005 1. Introduction 2. Design & Layout 3. Image & Speed Tests 4. Black & White Printing 5. Conclusion 6. Specifications 7. Find Lowest Price 1. Introduction 2. Design & Layout 3. Image & Speed Tests 4. Black & White Printing 5. Conclusion 6. Specifications 7. Find Lowest Price

Image Quality
The Canon PIXMA iP5000 creates beautiful photo quality prints with vivid color saturation and fine detail. With care, the prints will also last as long as traditional prints. Professional photographers and hobbyists might want to tone down the slightly agressive color saturation of the printer, but the average user will love the extra "pop" that the vibrant color adds to your photos.

Fast Print Speeds Print speeds were also quite impressive. A full 8.5" x 11" color photograph printed in only 2 minutes, 37 seconds at the "standard" print quality setting. The same image took 4 minutes, 55 seconds when printed using the "high" print quality setting. You would assume that the prints made using the "high" print quality setting would look better, but I couldn't see a difference - even when scanned back into the computer at 150dpi resolution. (See photo on left). Click on the photo to view a larger version of this side-by-side comparison.

I did notice that the first few prints I made had some slight scratch marks that were caused by the paper path, however this problem disappeared after a few prints. The print driver does have an option called "prevent paper abrasion," however, as mentioned, only the first few prints had these minor scratch marks. I did test the "prevent paper abrasion" option and noticed that image saturation seemed a bit lower when it was selected. This option might be for those times when you're using thicker media. Using Canon's Photo Paper Pro glossy paper it wasn't needed.

Print	Size	Setting	Time (Min:Sec)
Full Color	4" x 6" Borderless	High	2:33
Full Color	8.5" x 11" w/Border	Standard	2:37
Full Color	8.5" x 11" w/Border	High	4:55
Full Color	4" x 6" Borderless	High	0:93 sec.
Full Color	4" x 6" Borderless	Standard	0:59 sec.

To the naked eye, the prints made by the Canon PIXMA iP5000 looked as good or better than any print I have made on a consumer printer. Even when put under a "microscope" or in this case a 300dpi scan print head, the print detail was still superb. In order to judge the sharpness of the iP5000, I printed an ISO 12233 "equivalent" test chart that I found online (available in .pdf format here) to four different printer models. I scanned each of the printed images back into the computer at 300dpi, then created a side-by-side comparison of an "actual size" crop from each scan. This is by no means a scientific method of testing, but does help to demonstrate differences between printers and in this case, the similarity in print resolution between the Canon PIXMA iP5000 and the PIXMA MP760 (Reviewed Here). The other two printers in this test were an older Epson Stylus Photo 1270 and the HP Photosmart 8150 that I reviewed a few months ago.