As a serious photography enthusiast, Danny Santos II always believes that having the ability to print your photos is a necessity. He tells us why
By Danny Santos II
Seeing your photographs in hard copy is just so much better than looking at it in the monitor.
It also enables you to edit and analyse your images more easily, especially when you’re working on sequencing a group of photographs, or even just archiving your best work.
Sure, high-definition printers can cost an arm and a leg but nowadays there are more practical and, in fact, more efficient ways. Enter the Canon Pixma MG7170.
I’m sort of a gadget geek, so I easily get excited with new gadgets in the market, especially when features that I haven’t seen or tried before are introduced.
Recently, I got my hands on the Canon Pixma MG7170 and, reading through its features, I couldn’t wait to try it out. But when I took it out of the box and placed it in the corner of my room, the first thing I noticed was its modern design. I thought to myself, that’s a thing of beauty.
First Impressions
The first things I appreciated were the little things, like when the out tray automatically opens up by itself when it’s printing. That was pretty slick.
Another smart feature that Canon put here is the Intelligent Touch System which selectively shows you the buttons for the options you need for a particular task. I worked as a User Interface Designer for more than a decade and I can definitely say that this is best practice in the industry.
Wireless Printing through Wi-Fi
Usually, whenever I get a new printer, I have to rearrange my furniture in the room to make sure that the printer is located near the computer, particularly because the USB cable from the printer needs to reach the computer.
Now, with wireless printing, I can put the printer anywhere I want. I can even put it in the kitchen if I wanted to. This sort of convenience is gold in my book. And, setting it up with Wi-Fi was surprisingly a breeze.
More wireless options
A new Access Point Mode has been introduced in these printers, and it is designed to answer the increasing demand for ad-hoc wireless printing between wireless digital capture devices and printers, without the need to connect them via a signal broadcast by a wireless router.
This means that a visiting friend will be able to make use of your printer without you having to disclose the security pass phrase for your home wireless network.
For users with wireless digital cameras that support the DPS over IP protocol, or Wireless PictBridge as it is more commonly known, they will also be able to send their photos wirelessly to the Canon Pixma MG7170 wirelessly, over a local wireless network, without the need to connect the devices with data transfer cables.
Printing Online Photos
One of the features that piqued my interest was the ability to print photos from your online sites like Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and Picasa. Ever since I started photography five years ago, I uploaded all of my good photos in Flickr.
So, I have a huge archive of photos online, and it’s now instantly available for print with the Canon Pixma MG7170. Now, if I need a certain image printed, I don’t have to dig into my computer archives; I can just access Flickr through my printer.
Though, I noticed that it takes a wee bit of time for the photos to be processed and printed… but after seeing the photos, the wait was worth it.
Printing through Mobile Devices
This one seems like something out of a futuristic movie. Just whip out your iPhone and start printing photos from there.
Of course, you’ll need to install the free app in your smart device, the Pixma Printing Solutions. Although I don’t find myself using this feature much, since I prefer to print properly-processed photos, the convenience to print personal or family pictures is priceless.
It is almost like a modern day polaroid: just shoot and print. If I were to have a party at my house, I can see myself taking a few photos, printing it in real-time, and giving it out for novelty’s sake.
Printing through E-mail
I’ve seen this in the Canon Pixma MG7170 commercial, and I can see myself doing the same thing: you’re travelling somewhere and you see something you like and want to share it with your loved one. Take a quick photo, and then send it to your printer in your room by E-mail.
Better yet, take a selfie with the words “Missing You”.
Print Quality
Now, we come to the most important feature of the printer for me: its print quality for photos. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much since this is basically an all-in-one print/scan/copy device.
If I want a high-definition fine art print, I would go to the professionals. But, I have to say, I was surprised by how good the photos came out.
I love how it shows even the smallest of details in the photos. It’s good enough that it will do your best photos justice. Good enough for your portfolio, for trading prints, and definitely for just appreciating your works of art.
This is all thanks to the six-colour individual ink tank system with 1pl ink droplet and 9,600dpi resolution. It also boasts the Chromalife 100+ Photo System for better reproduction of colour as well as long-lasting photos which could be preserved, up to 300 years guaranteed.
You can be sure that your prints won’t turn yellowish after a few months.
Other Features
The features I listed above are my favourite features of this new gadget. In addition to this, it still has a host of other functionalities, like the multi-card slot for photo direct print (JPEG) and direct scan of PDF/JPEG files to memory card, direct print to CD, and the auto photo fix function – handy for personal or family photos.
The Verdict
The Canon Pixma MG7170 is definitely a great addition to my workflow. The convenience of having to print wirelessly from my computer, from my mobile device, and from online sites like Flickr makes it easy for us photographers so that we can focus more on taking good images. Printing is no longer a chore.
For print quality, I’ve always believed that photographers should print out their photos to better gauge the quality of their image. This printer will definitely serve that purpose as it does your artwork justice.
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