I wish something similar, likewise an Epson P450 Ecotank (which I would call it): 8 nozzle rows with minimum 1.5 pl droplet size. Red and Orange substituted by Violet and Gray and Magenta replaced by Vivid Magenta and not to be forgotten: a user replaceable waste ink tank. But that would compete with the newer Epson P700 printer.
First droplet size hardly matters anymore. Let's get over that please. Droplet size was used at a time when we did not know better. So let's know better now. Varying droplet size is used by Epson because Epson has a physical limitation as to the amount of nozzles they can use at a time. What is that limitation...printhead size as the Piezo elements cannot be made closer together. They already increased the density after the 2100/2200. Thereafter, their printhead lifetime warranty disappeared from print. The piezos are already stressed enough. Time will tell on the precisioncore. But their newer printheads need AMC for accuracy.
The Mfrs are stressed for bottom line results. They will only offer products that will result in profits. Not necessarily for refillers. With a shrinking market, they carefully assess what each market will likely produce for them and only offer so much. Giving away the store is not in their cards, Rather than a tank model, why did they continually change the firmware on the XP series and the Surecolor series?
According to Canon. "
With a Nozzle Recovery System, if a clog is detected in one nozzle, others will automatically compensate for it so you can keep printing. This prevents print waste due to banding and reduces frequency of head cleanings. Also enjoy accurate paper feeding with Skew Correction– built in sensors will automatically correct for paper skewing, ensuring your print will come out great each time.
Skew detection holy batman my iP4200 did that as well. How old is that? Even Epson has that as well and it is simply an opto sensor to make sure the paper is square to the bottom feed,
Nozzle recovery system. This is also a simple one as well.
IF a clog is detected. How would we detect clogs?...A nozzle check. ( How many users will know to use that unless they are refilling and even then, you'd be surprised) . Epson had clog detection as well as GLOP ( CO) detection. How? For Epson they used an opto sensor. They also used an interleaved checker pattern to detect CO. Now there is a built in densitometer on the Pro-300. This is to allow autocalibration to factory specs using a specified paper. ( There are specs for Canon papers, you must use a specified Canon paper to do this) Now this calibration is NOT profiling. This is simply to make sure that the printer can reproduce a known set of colors to the correct density. The actual color of print is not necessarily correct but if the OEM ink is used the printer will produce a pretty much exact print from one machine to another provided they are all calibrated. So Canon can use the densitometer to check some printed pattern and then inspect it automatically and then know which nozzle is not working. Now how do they recover? Do they have to have an extra redundant set of print nozzles? No. They can interleave. Now prior to this, the processing power within the printer was limited. I mentioned this before. The major disctinctions in newer printers is NOZZLE CONTROL. by gaining individual granularity they are able to use more nozzles in discrete units or smaller gangs. I already mentioned before that prior printers lied to us in that they were unable to control the nozzles that we thought they could. Now the processing power to do this is gargantuan....but there have been gargantuan leaps in processing power for little money. Just look at that phone you're packing. Look at the DIGIC processors camera are using. Look at the lens correction embedded into cameras that can correct for physical lens error and they do24+ megapixels at 10 frames per second!
I have always been telling people that the Pro-100 and Pro-10 heralded a major jump in processing capability in the printer over their predecessors. This might well be another jump. This more discrete nozzle control might in fact produce better IQ over the Pro-10 as well as more SPEED as Canon claims as well as less ink consumption. From an engineering perspective, we don't know what is under the hood. However, I am trained as one and by living with each successive generation, and closely looking at the characteristics, I've been able to see between the lines. Reviewers are not into this kind of independent detail. I could be wrong but I don't think so. Nozzle control will yield all the benefits that Canon claims. However, the big question is whether or not the intended audience will be able to discern the incremental improvements in IQ and my guess is unlikely but from a product management standpoint improvement is necessary.
BTW, this autocalibration. Epson users are unaware that Epson service centers are unable to recalibrate the printers that need this. Epson printheads need a two step process to calibrate. First they must adjust the firing circuit to determine the sensitivity of the piezo elements. That is a code that is written on the printhead. Tech will enter this code into the firmware of the printer so that the printer knows what the firing voltage is. This gets the printhead into a ballpark range of accuracy. The service centers end there. This step is largely avoided by Canon because they use a thermal printhead that is manufactured much more accurately because of the film process they use and the key fact it is electronically done.
The next step is the accuracy aspect for the photo crowd who takes color seriously. In the past, Epson openly advertised that each Pro printers are individually adjusted in the factory to within 3%. This is the step that the tech centers miss. First they must own the correct paper, have the requisite spectrophotometer and the software and be TRAINED to do so. Similar to ICCs, it is meticulous because even the dry time is speced. Sadly the service centers are not equipped but the service manual indicates it is necessary. Does it matter? YES, over ten years ago, I ran into two 2880s that printed distinctly differently. One was a refubished unit.....at the time, I did know of this.
On the Pro-10, Canon actually allows the user to perform this step.
On the Pro-300, this will be done automatically just like the Pro-1000. Pop in a new printhead, run the automatic self calibration with the specified paper and you're back to factory spec, able to reproduce prints like day one. Canon's dedication to exceptional color to the professional is exhibited here since the Pro-10. It's been a slow iteration for the discerning user and educated user. We have to thank the Canon engineers to provide this level of technical precision to the users. This calibration is necessary because papers will drift in production, so will ink, and the printhead characteristics change with wear.
Now there is another way to detect clogs. Temperature rise. If a nozzle temp rises enough, then it is clogged. Perhaps the printer detects this and then shifts the printing inisde the firmware programming to compensate on the fly and then after the print is finished it will automatically perform a self cleaning. Epson higher end printers is listening to their nozzles using their piezo elements as a microphone that can determine if a nozzle is firing or not. Maybe this is way. Whatever method they use, a lot of processing is going on while it is printing.
That's the kind of technical complexity higher end printers have reached. Even in that lowly combustion engine, the engine computers can listen to the engine and change how it is controlled depending on what it hears inside the combustion chamber!
