Canon Pixma Pro-200 Review

If you’re looking for a phenomenal A3 photo printer, you’ve landed in the right place. Without further ado, here comes the Canon Pixma Pro 200 review. The rhyme thing is purely intentional, alright?

Seriously speaking, the Canon Pixma Pro 200 is one of the best photo printers under $1000, and by that, we mean way less than $1000. Basically, at current prices, the Pro 200 is the deal of the century, as it takes photo printing to the next level and can produce professional-quality photo prints for both amateurs and professionals alike.

And that’s due to its 4,800 x 2,400dpi maximum resolution, which is excellent for an A3 printer. However, the way it works and how the prints are produced will simply knock your socks off, and we’re not mincing words here.

Provided you own a desk large enough to accommodate this beast of a printer, because yeah, this is a big boy, like most high-quality inkjet printers, you will not be disappointed. So, let’s get to it, shall we?

Specs

• Inks/type: 8x dye
• Printer head width: 13in
• Max print size: A3+/13x39in
• Max print resolution: 4800x2400dpi
• Input trays: 1x upright rear, 1x manual feeder
• Scanner: None
• Display screen: 3-inch color LCD
• Interfaces: Hi-speed USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi
• Dimensions (WxDxH): 639x379x200mm
• Weight: 14.1kg

What do you get

To begin with, the Canon Pixma Pro 200 is huge in terms of real-estate, and we really mean a behemoth of a printer. Due to its sheer size, this beast is perfectly capable of printing borderless photos at sizes up to A3+, as it makes for the logical (and better) successor of the Pixma Pro 100.

However, despite its gargantuan size, the Pro 200 is not very heavy, standing at 14 kilos or 30 pounds. However, it’s the printers’ dimensions that will make it stand out from the crowd: 639 x 379 x 200mm (WDH), which expand at 639 x 837 x 416mm with the paper tray open.

Again, if you’re serious about buying it, factor in the price of a desk large enough to accommodate it. The rear paper feed can hold up to one hundred sheets once it’s opened, so there you have it. This is an industrial-strength photo printer by any metrics.

Why is the Pro 200 larger than life, you asked? Well, there are not so many printers capable of printing on A3+ paper, that’s why. On top of that, this beast uses 8 cartridges at a time: the industry standard 4 CMYK colors, plus grey, light grey, photo magenta and photo cyan (dye based inks).

Build Quality

The printer looks great and feels really robust, with extremely good build quality. Everything feels solid and well made, so everything’s on the up and up in this regard, no surprises here.

Connectivity

In this regard, the Pro 200 really shines, as it offers all the connections you’ll ever need. And before you ask, this is to be expected for a professional printer, which most probably will be shared with other folks in a studio setting or office. The printer can be connected to a PC/laptop/smartphone via USB and Wi-Fi, and obviously comes with an old school Ethernet port, to attach it to your LAN thing.

If you’re a photo geek, you might abhor the fact that you won’t get a built-in scanner, and that may be strange considering its size. There’s also no automatic duplex. But, if you come to think about it, the Canon Pixma Pro 200 is built for one mission, and one mission only: to deliver glorious photos prints, as in this is not an office toy for corporatist types.

If you’re shopping for a multifunctional printer, this is not the droid you are looking for, move along.

Ease of use

Connecting and setting up the Canon Pixma Pro 200 is incredibly easy, even if this is your firsts time operating a photo printer. This is actually one of the main characteristics of Canon printers, ease of use respectively, and the best way to do it is via the setup website.

You’ll have to choose your exact model from a list, and then you’ll be guided through the process with as little (or as much) hand holding as you require. The printer also comes with a CD included in the retail box, but hey, nobody is reading the freaking instruction manual these days, right? Not to mention that modern laptops no longer have CD-ROM drives.

The printer comes with a tiny 3 inches wide color display, and a control pad, a joypad kind of thing, with an OK button in the middle. Some may expect a touchscreen at this price, but hey, the physical buttons are pretty cool if you ask me. Also, since there are no copier/scanner functions to control, and no memory card slots to print from, all you have to do is to keep an eye on the screen to check out on the screen cartridges, that’s all it actually does.

Print quality

To make it real easy for our readers, the Pro 200 is everything about print quality, and every photo printed on this baby will come out perfect. There’s no other word to describe it, really. It is that good. Dark colors/blacks look rich and deep, skin tones look natural, and colors are bright. Fine details are great too, and that stands true whether you’re printing on cheap 6x4in photo paper, or on Canon’s own A3+ paper.

Everything is printed exceptionally well, ranging from misty landscapes requiring subtle color transitions to bright colorful prints. Basically, if you’re looking for a photo printer that can deliver stellar quality photos at any size, look no further, you’ve just found your soul-mate so to speak.

Speed and running costs

In terms of performance and “bang for the buck”, the Pro 200 can be best described as “luxury doesn’t come cheap”. As in, the printer is not cheap to buy in the first place, and also relatively pricey to run as well.

If you’re obsessed with math and the like, an A3+ print will cost you in approximately $3, if you buy the inks from Canon. Yeah, this is kind of pricey, but high quality is never cheap. By the way, this number is based on the cost of each cartridge, $25.40 respectively, purchased directly from Canon.

We must also mention that the printer is kind of slow, even for an ink jet, outputting mono A4 pages at 2.5ppm, while mixed color documents are printed at 1.6 ppm. This is nothing to write home about, but then again, photo quality is outstanding. And photo printing is relatively fast, i.e. the printer can squirt out six 6×4 photos in under 9 minutes, which is not bad. An A3 photo takes 3 minutes, and 2 8×10 images take almost 5 minutes.

Final word

So far, so good, so what? Should I buy it? The answer is yes, if you’re looking for phenomenal photo prints, both small and large. If photo quality is important for your business, or for you personally, the Pro 200 will not disappoint. If you want something more versatile and cheaper to buy/run, there are other photo printers out there.