The all New Canon Maxify

[The Hat]

These are the latest machines in the Canon arsenal to enter the small to medium office arena.

It’s supposed to replace the current range of pigment office printers and to compete with the laser big boys.

This printer will be of no value to the photographer or someone wanting to do quality brochures and newsletters at a reasonable cost, the laser will still have the edge in that area.

I had a look at the cartridges in this thing and I was impressed with their all new technology, the carts are a bit smaller than the Pro 1 carts (Same type) and hold about 20 to 24 ml.

The carts have gone back to the diaphragm, spring and bag arrangement that is used in the PGI-9/ 72 carts but without the paddles and the funniest thing I noticed about the cart, it will leak when not in use. (Once opened)

They even provide you a plastic bag to dispose of the empty carts to prevent ink spillage where it’s not wanted, but I reckon there is still a sting in the tail with these carts.

The carts are very easy to refill but I haven’t figured out the prism system in them yet, so when they are refilled the cart will still show empty, there not meant to be refilled guys, Ouch.

The pigment inks are pretty much the bog standard type all ready in use in their other models, and I don’t know if there will be a problem with the “Yello Gello” yet. (I think not)

The chip is going to be a bit of a bitch also, so I reckon it’s pretty much resetter proof going forwards and the only hope we can wish for is a onetime chip from our Chinese friends.

I will dig deeper into these cart and see if I can find a way round the prism set-up, if I cut this thing up I may have scuttled my chances of discovering it’s hidden secrets, maybe the best answer is to just use a compatible cart.

I add a few photos later..

 

[CakeHole]

Ill say it as nobody else has had the nerve but "Maxify" sounds like some feminine hygiene product or even a male *cough* performance enhancing product.

 

[3dogs]

Ill say it as nobody else has had the nerve but "Maxify" sounds like some feminine hygiene product or even a male *cough* performance enhancing product.

The latter I fear!!!

 

[turbguy]

So who here needs a new printer?? What's actually improved in the last decade??

My i960's are still workin'!

 

[The Hat]

So who here needs a new printer?? What's actually improved in the last decade??

My i960's are still workin'!

That’s just it @turbguy, this new range of printers are nothing to write home about and your i960 would outperform it in every way except for longevity, duplex prints, Wi-Fi and iPhone compatibility.

While your i960 is more user’s friendly has a good pedigree it’s well built easy to refill and maintain and about all extremely well cater for with good quality inexpensive 3rd party inks, not to mention no pesky chips to worry about. (Better quality Photos)

I use a 10 years old i865 as my workhorse and I wouldn’t trade it in for one of these new things, it’s not exactly a hygiene performance enhancer either, and doesn't have a load of new Wi-Fi gismos.

I am still trying to figure out just where the Maxify fits in; it seems to be a bit of an oddball... (Negative vibes)

 

[palombian]

I bought a MX7600 pigment all-in-one 6 years ago and agree with Canon's statement that inkjets can compete favorably with colour lasers (even with OEM ink).
It took some time to find the rights inks to refill, but it prints every day, and I have a spare just in case.

 

[PeterBJ]

I had a look at the cartridges in this thing and I was impressed with their all new technology, the carts are a bit smaller than the Pro 1 carts (Same type) and hold about 20 to 24 ml.

The carts have gone back to the diaphragm, spring and bag arrangement that is used in the PGI-9/ 72 carts but without the paddles and the funniest thing I noticed about the cart, it will leak when not in use. (Once opened)

They even provide you a plastic bag to dispose of the empty carts to prevent ink spillage where it’s not wanted, but I reckon there is still a sting in the tail with these carts.

The carts are very easy to refill but I haven’t figured out the prism system in them yet, so when they are refilled the cart will still show empty, there not meant to be refilled guys, Ouch.

I found a druckerchannel article with info about the new printer and cartridges.

To me the the cartridges look similar to the HP 933 and similar cartridges, with one important difference. The HP cartridges use spring loaded plastic ball check valves in the ink outlets to prevent dripping, the Canon cartridges have the ink outlet sealed by a plastic membrane that is punctured when the cartridge is inserted in the printer. With no check valve the cartridges are not very refill friendly, and there is also no resetter available. With no check valve a Canon Maxify cartridge should not be removed before it is empty, so no topping up a set of cartridges when one cartridge is empty. This is also refill unfriendly.

Here is a scan of the inner works of an HP 951 cartridge, the "Ink inlet valve" should be named "Ink outlet valve":

Here is a photo of the Canon Maxify cartridge from the druckerchannel.de article linked to, note the plastic seal on the ink outlet and notice that it is wet with ink on the inside:

 

[CakeHole]

Maxify.... It even has a pouch to collect embarrassing fluids eeekk

 

[stratman]

Overactive bladder or stress incontinence?

I don't see this leaky cartridge catching on with the masses. This is a dodo bird printer -- a wingless, flightless bird of a printer soon to be extinct. Whoever came up with this cartridge design deserves to be fired.

 

[The Hat]

be Here is the all new 2500 cart for the Maxify beside a CLI-8 and PGI 29 cart, it can take anywhere between 18 to 24 ml. depending on which you use.

This shows the new large chip, the next hole is just for centring the cart when fitting, the raised hole is used for detecting the ink levels (Sort of Prism) and the last one is the ink outlet itself. (Very cheaply constructed)

Here is one side of the cart which is a semi opaque while the other shows the crazy new ink system for detecting low or out of ink in the cart.

Here I have the cover off the cart to show the inner plastic bag and also marked the ink channel that replaces the old prism that was on the CLI-8’s.

This one shows the plastic bag cut away and the spring for keeping the bag inflated at all times, please note the small metal mesh with strange groves leading up to it, this is where the ink enters/exits the detection system for indicating low ink.

These carts are very easy to fill, in fact to easy but whether the cart will work again in the printer is anybody’s guess because the anti-refill system (Prism) is sealed and once the ink level drops below this then air enters and cannot be removed later.

This cartridge is not very well made, I reckon no money was spent on its construction; it’s cheap and cheerful, all very light plastic and designed to fail later.

The only money spent from what I can see was on the new ink detection system, and as to how it works well that has me baffled for the time being because light has to get into the cart somewhere, hence one side of the cart is not opaque.

I reckon if you wanted to refill these carts then you’d have to do it before the low ink warning but as to how long this will fool the EPROM chip is anybody’s guess, the better and cheaper option will be aftermarket carts with one time chips.

Most of what I have written here is pure guess work and is not exactly factual as yet and can be contradicted by anyone who gets more information when it becomes available later..