Which printer should you buy? The Canon Pro-300 or the Epson P700 - Paper for Fine Art & Photography

In this weeks video Tim has tackled a subject that he has be meaning talk about for a while. Which printer should you buy, the Canon Pro-300 or the Epson P700?
This review of both printers will cover pros and cons for both printers mechanically as well as look at test prints.
It's a fairly long video and is a really world option and test, on measuring of colours and compare LAB numbers etc.
Both printers are avalible to buy from Fotospeed.com
Canon Pro-300: fotospeed.com/canon-pro-300.html
Epson SC-P700: fotospeed.com/epson-surecolou...
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Fotospeed, inspired by image makers around the world, Fotospeed began life manufacturing quality darkroom chemistry and specialist fine art printmaking processes.
With 35 years of the photo trade dealing with printing paper and chemicals. The wide selection of papers available range from the everyday photo glossy to the Fine Art textured paper that can turn a photo into a painting. Lots of research and development have helped Fotospeed to create the perfect paper no matter what final result is needed and the ability of the paper to receive the photo inks has been fine tuned to perfection, giving even coverage whatever the subject matter.
With a respected reputation for quality and service, Fotospeed is now an established distribution company for worldwide market leading brands such as Hahnemuhle Fine Art Papers, Kaiser Photographic equipment, Herma Adhesives and Canson Infinity Papers.
Whatever your photographic requirements, let our passion for image making provide the solution.
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[@Totidev]

When I was researching these two printers, I came across an interesting detail - which may explain the sharpness issue. When you have a photo to print you should ensure it is set to 360 (or 720, 1440, 2880, 5760) DPI for Epson and 300 for Canon (or 600, 1200, 2400, 4800) - as these are the optimal sizes for the print head. If you don’t, the printer then tries it’s own calculation to compensate. For example, if your image DPI is 315 on the Epson it will try convert it to 360, which can result in loss of detail.

[@jaycee6996]

My Canon Pro 300 eats ink every time you turn it on. This actually is significant and I believe the Epson does not have as bad a start up cost. I have started to batch up my printing to minimise the number of times I have to turn it on. This is a big pain. I would probably have chosen the Epson if I had known how much ink the Canon would consume just initialising after you turn it on.

[@andyhoyle13]

Tim, your comment about black switching on the latest P700/P900 is misleading. They have ten channels so there is no black switching as there used to be on the P600/P800 and earlier Epson printers.

[@anthonygardham4573]

Tim I am devastated to learn that when the Canon Pro 300 ink waste pads fill up, it’s as cheap to buy a new printer, rather than being able to change the pads. It’s not lost on me that Canon make no mention of this fact in any of the promotional material.

[@dexon555]

I can get a full suite of PRO300 inks for $124.00. Individual ink tanks are about $12.00 each. For my moderate use (1-3 prints a week), the lower replacement cost is easier to manage financially. I believe the Epson P700 ink carts are about $40.00 each (if memory serves me). An entire set is very costly for my budget. Just my $0.02.

[@hansformat]

What about the gloss optimizer spray on the canon? Isn’t that a big advantage to eliminate gloss differential? Why didn’t you discuss this?

[@demiguel]

I have the 300 and the P900. Canon has VERY visible ink drop pattern... :(

[@mahdiali6732]

I’d love to see a comparison video between the Epson P900 and the Canon Pro 1000

[@chriscrowhurst]

it seems that the differentiation is in the detail. Everything else you describe seems to be fixable using a custom profile. Did you create profiles for both prior to your test? If so did you recheck to remove the magenta?

[@ramestica123]

Many thanks for comparing and providing insights of the results. At 18m12s you mention that perhaps profiling would take care of the minor magenta cast of the canon prints. But at least for epson printing b&w with the printer's b&w mode works without a profile. Did I get wrongly?

[@churchill378]

I’ve owned the Epson P900 since start of this year and couldn’t be happier with my choice.

[@tundrusphoto4312]

A very interesting comparison. Thank you, Tim.

[@photoventureselp]

Excellent review! Thank you for that! I wonder if there is a possibility that we have a comparison between Pro-200 and ET-8550. That would also be interesting.

[@johnvaleanbaily246]

Interesting discussion - thank you. I own a 300 which has served me well for 2+ years now. My one complaint on the 300 is the small cartridge size, I would prefer larger, purely for the logistical purposes. Picking the type of black required on the Epsom seems from my perspective is a significant drawback. The major niggle for me on the Canon at setup time was the system automatically defaults to WiFi. I don't use WiFi for printing I prefer wired ethernet. Setting up for wired ethernet was an unnecessary and complex process. Black mark.

[@kazdiller2114]

I seem to get better results with the Canon printer using the Canon print software rather than printing directly from Lightroom. Have you noticed any difference between the two printing methods? If so, could this explain the marginal difference in sharpness?