First test
Canon imagePrograf Pro-300 PRICE: £699.99
CANON.CO.UK
Canon is the only brand that produces equipment for capture through to output, and here we get the chance to try its latest A3+ printer
SPECS › Price Canon imagePrograf Pro-300 £699.99, Ink cartridges £16.99 each, PermaJet Pro-300 art pack £62.55 › Maximumprint size Top tray: 12.7in. Borderless printing 329mm (13in) Manual feed (width): 323mm (12.7in) Borderless printing: 329mm (13in) Custom (length): 990.6mm (39in) › Maximumresolution 4800x2400dpi (hxv) › Ink system Lucia Pro › Colours Matte black, photo black, cyan, photo cyan, magenta, photo magenta, yellow, grey, red, chroma optimiser › Ink capacity 14.4ml › Nozzle configuration 7680 total 768 nozzles for each colour › Control panel 3in LCD screen › Paper handling Top tray: up to A3+ Manual feed: up to A3+ Custom size: width 203.2-330.2mm, length 254-990.6mm › Connectivity Wired LAN, wireless LAN, hi-speed USB B › Supported operating systems iOS, Android, Windows 10, 8.1, 7SP1, MacOS 10.12-10.15, OS 10.11.6 › Power consumption
CANON ANNOUNCED THE imagePrograf Pro-300 at the same time as its EOS R5 and R6 cameras, so perhaps it’s no surprise that it has slipped under the radar a little. But if you’re a photographer keen to make gallery quality prints at home, it’s well worth a serious look. It’s an A3+ capable printer with a reasonably small footprint, meaning it suits home office use, if space is limited. You just need to allow for a little space behind the printer to account for the paper support – about 20cm should do it. Set-up was painless, but I did hit a couple of hurdles that took a little of toing and froing to resolve. Locating the print head and the ten cartridges was
straightforward enough – I did manage to get some cyan ink on my hands during the process, though. There are ten individual Lucia Pro pigment inks, plus a chroma optimiser. The ink set includes matte black and photo black, and there’s no need for any switchover between the two ink types. After ink installation, the printer goes through a calibration process. You don’t have to do anything apart from load some paper.
16W during printing 1.0W standby mode › Dimensions
63.9x37.9x20cm (closed) 63.9x83.7x41.6cm (output tray extended) › Weight 14.4kg › Contact canon.co.uk, permajet.com
It took about 15 minutes to get to this point – so far, so good. Then, I tried to connect the printer to my Wi-Fi network. I chose the easy Wi-Fi set-up option, but that failed three times, and the manual password input option took two attempts before I was successful. The 3in LCDmenu is good, but it is not a touchscreen. Having grown used to using touchscreens, my first instinct on several occasions was to touch the thing. I had an issue with the QR set-up code too, but eventually, the IT stuff was sorted and I was connected up to my Mac. PermaJet supplied a pack of its Pro-300 A3 art paper. That included five sheets of FB gold silk 315, FB matt 285, portrait rag 285, photo art silk 290 and museum heritage 310, so a mix of finishes. With an X-Rite i1 Studio kit, I made ICC profiles for each, before starting the test and printing through Photoshop. The Pro-300 performed consistently well over the test period and I’m happy to report that I didn't experience any skewed prints, thanks to its auto-skew correction. There were also no misfeeds, paper jams, blocked nozzles or head strike, either. It was fast too, an A3+ print with an image area of 17x12in took just over four minutes once the printer received the data from the computer. The prints looked good, with an accurate colour rendition of primaries,
secondaries and everything else. There were no signs of bronzing on gloss or lustre finishes, so the chroma optimiser did its job. I was pleased with the black & white prints, too. The black prints looked lovely and deep and, where there was detail on the file, the Pro-300 managed to reproduce it well. Tonal transition, from highlights to midtones also looked very good, even with just one grey ink. I managed roughly 42 A3 prints before I had an ink cartridge run out – that was matte black. I had expected photo black to expire first given what I was printing
but this was still half-full when the matte black ran out. There’s no roll paper option, but with the ability to print 990.6mm-long panoramas, that should be more than enough for most photographers. WC
ABOVE A three-shot exposure bracket of Happisburgh Lighthouse in Norfolk, shot using a Canon EOS R5 and 15-35mm f/2.8 lens. The shots were merged in Lightroom
PROS Photo and matte blacks constantly available, colour and mono print quality, fast, no skewing or misfeeds, borderless printing, panorama prints up to 990.6mm-long possible CONS No touchscreen, the printer carriage generates quite a bit of movement Verdict The Canon imagePrograf Pro-300 is a fine A3+ printer, capable of superb output. It’s dependable and user-friendly. For £699, if you want to produce exhibition-quality prints at home, the Pro-300 is a solid option and well worth checking out.
ABOVE The Pro-300 did a great job with my test scene, printed above on PermaJet FB gold silk 315. Strong colours came out accurately and more subtle hues and blacks were deep, too
66 Photography News | Issue 83
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