Though it's an excellent printer, there's really nothing new on the Canon Pro9500 Mark II from the previous model.

While testing out Canon's "new" 13-inch PIXMA Pro9500 Mark II pigment printer recently I couldn't help but feel I was living through the movie "Groundhog Day." Hadn't I done all this before?

In a way, I had. Exactly two years ago in the July 2007 issue of PDN, I reviewed Canon's first generation 13-inch pigment printer, the PIXMA Pro9500, which prior to its release, had faced extensive delays. Though I had griped, in my review, about how long it had taken for Canon to bring the Pro9500 to market, I genuinely liked that 10-ink printer for its superb color and black-and-white printing capabilities, and its compatibility with a slew of art papers. (At the time, both pigment inks and being able to play nice with art papers had been new things for Canon's PIXMA line.)

Flash forward to 2009 and we now have the Mark II version of the Pro9500. How much has changed? As in Bill Murray's recurring day in Punxsutawney, PA, hardly anything at all.

For one, both printers look almost exactly the same. The only thing that would tell you they're different models is the "Mark II" designation on the name plate and a gold badge on the top of the printer with the PIXMA logo. This is not really a complaint though since I like the stylish, grey and black look of the Pro9500 original and Mark II versions. I also like how unobtrusive the printer is, with the assorted flaps and trays folding up nicely when you're done printing, creating the perfect, flat spot to inspect your 13 x 19-inch photo after its done printing.

I also like the two small wheels on the back of the printer which help you easily move it around, especially when you're adjusting it to use the front feed paper path for art substrates such as the heavier Premium Matte and Museum Etching papers.

On the downside, there are some annoying design issues that haven't changed since the original version. For one, there's still no Firewire or Ethernet ports on the printer so your connection options are pretty limited. Also, the front feed path system, which requires a combination of button presses and adjustments to the front and rear panels of the printer, is still a bit of pain to use, which is something I complained about on the original version. After two years, you'd think Canon could have come up with a simpler system.

Also, although this may be wishful thinking on my part, I would have preferred that Canon bring some of the nicer PIXMA design elements on the Pro9500 and its dye-based sister printer, the Pro9000, to a 17-inch printer than just give us a rehash of what's already been out there for two years.

While Canon's 17-inch imagePROGRAF iPF5100 is a fine model, it's kind of on the boring, clunky side. Also, it's really too big and bulky to be a true desktop printer. And just the same, while 13-inch printers seemed impressive a couple years ago and were fine for restocking your print portfolio (when photographers still used those), most pros print at 17 inches and above for gallery shows. So why not a 17-inch PIXMA printer?


SAME OLD, SAME OLD

The one area I had expected to see a significant difference between the original and the Mark II version of the Pro9500 was in print speed. This was something Canon trumpeted in its press announcement for the printer, claiming one-and-a-half times faster color print speeds on a 13 x 19-inch bordered print. According to Canon, the Mark II takes approximately 8 minutes for a 13 x 19-inch color print, compared to 12 minutes with the original version.

Also, during the PMA trade show in Las Vegas earlier this year when the new printers were announced in the U.S., I was told by Canon that black-and-white prints would be twice as fast with the Mark II. All of which was strange since the new printer seems to use the same 7,680-nozzle print head as the original model. Must be something special in Canon's "secret sauce," right?

Well, after testing both the Mark II's color and black-and-white printing speed on a variety of papers, I found the print speeds of the two versions to be almost exactly the same. During my testing of the Pro9500 back in 2007, I averaged print speeds for both color and black and white at about 11 minutes. With the Mark II, 13 x 19-inch, bordered, color prints came out in 10 1/2 minutes; while bordered black-and-white prints averaged 10 minutes and 45 seconds, in my testing. Big difference, right?