Canon PIXMA PRO-1 Pro Reviews

Given its size and heft, and the fact that this is the top model in the Pixma Pro line, it’s surprising that Canon decided to limit the Pro-1’s media handling capabilities to 13 inches. But other than that, our only complaint is the weight. Even that isn’t much of a complaint, since pretty much all wide-format photo printers tend to be on the hefty side, so it’s somewhat unfair to ding it for that. We can say it’s expensive, but it was never designed to be a budget printer or for the casual user to begin with. At the end of the day, the printer is going to give you professional-quality results at home, without having to go to the print shop. If you’re a serious photographer who wants to see prints on paper, not just onscreen, you need a printer like the Pro-1. Just know that buying one, plus the paper and supplies, won’t be cheap.

It produces some of the best photos we’ve ever seen, but this printer is very expensive to buy and run

The Canon Pixma Pro-1 is quite possibly the best wide format photo printer made by any manufacturer to date. The easy-yet-accurate color management, the phenomenal retention of detail in highlights and shadows, the range of inks and ability to handle a wide variety of print sizes on a variety of media make the Pro-1 hard to beat. Yes, even with the new, larger ink tanks you'll start burning through ink after a couple of days of printing large images for multiple clients in a studio. Regardless, sometimes there's no better alternative than being able to make your own large prints right in your office. The lack of Wi-Fi makes the Pro-1 a little more cumbersome in a modern office/studio environment and I sincerely hope Canon adds a wireless connection option to the Pro-2 or whatever they decide to call the next-generation Pixma printer. The bottom line is that at the time of this writing there really isn't any reason, other than cost, to buy any A3+ printer other than the Canon PIXMA Pro-1. This might not be the cheapest wide format printer on the market but the print quality is second to none.

The Canon Pixma PRO-1 is large, slow, and expensive for an A3+ photo printer, but it delivers where it counts: in producing magnificent, gallery-quality prints.

There's lots to like here, from the confidence-inspiring build quality and performance to the commercially sound ink price and print longevity. Although it doesn't redefine our expectations of desktop printing - the Epson Stylus Pro R3000 and Canon Pixma Pro9500 Mark II are very capable machines that produce impressive A3 prints - the Canon Pixma Pro-1 sets the new benchmark. If you're in the market for a new A3+ printer, you can afford it and you've got the space to house it, then the Canon Pixma Pro-1 represents an excellent investment.

The Pixma Pro-1 is a very impressive performer and a stylish looking printer to boot. This 12-ink pigment-based inkjet model is capable of producing rich, detailed and color-accurate prints that are among the finest we've seen from a desktop printer. Black and white output is equally impressive, with the printer utilizing 5 shades of black ink when printing on glossy media. Indeed, the print quality advances introduced with the Pro-1 meet and in some areas exceed output from Canon's large format ImagePROGRAF models. While we suspect out of the box performance will satisfy most home printing enthusiasts, getting the best out of the Pro-1 will probably require the use of custom profiles. Put simply, the more your individual printer differs from the one which Canon used to build the canned profiles, the less accurate your results will be. To this end Canon should be commended for making high quality profiling software available free of charge.