Great review. I have a pretty general question on printing if some of the avid printers here will indulge me.
I've been thinking about getting a pro-200 but I don't think I'd print enough and run the risk of a clogged print head. How often do you need to print to maintain the printer, and if you're printing just to prevent clogs, how small a print will suffice (to prevent wasting too much ink)? Or am I thinking about this wrong?
I'd expect to print maybe 30 prints a year, but I really want the fine control that comes with owning a printer, and the freedom to make prints when I want to. The pro-200 looks to be a reasonable fit for me, depending on maintenance and upkeep.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
There are several ways of going about it. If you leave the printer powered on it will do occasional self maintenance that will use just enough ink etc to keep the printer in good order. Though some people say the ink usage in these maintenance cycles is too much.
Alternatively you can pull the power plug so it can't look after itself and instead you do some occasional printing, though it will run some self checking as soon as you switch it back on.
But dye based printers are not as prone to catastrophic clogging as pigment based ink sets are and Canon print head technology allows for redundant head nozzle capacity so minor clogging will not make your printer a paperweight.
Actual lengths of time for clogging really vary a lot and depend on things like humidity, temperature etc etc but in my experience Canon printers can self recover from almost any clogging issue and there are well known workarounds for those particularly stubborn times if needed. But the truth is most of these printers are very reliable and clogs, whilst not entirely unknown do not affect as many people as they once did.
If you spaced out the 30 prints a year and printed every couple of weeks I wouldn't hesitate to recommend going for one of these printers.