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 Post subject: New printer
 Post Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2019 9:59 pm 
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I finally got my new printer today. Since I've had really good previous luck I stayed with Canon. I got a Canon Pixma TS8120.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product. ... -_-Product

It is a six cartridge unit with 2-blacks, magenta, cyan, yellow and something called 'PB'. I don't know what 'PB' actually is but will search it. I checked it on Newegg.com and they are charging $280.69. I got it on sale at Walmart for $89.00+tax. At ~$190.00 off I could not refuse even though I try to avoid Walmart. LOL! Not being in a hurry to buy is why I often get good deals. :mrgreen:

Setup was easy via USB. I may or not connect my second system and laptop wireless. I could also connect wireless with my Android tablet but doubt that I will do. Since my second desktop is networked to my main I really don't need to connect it directly to my printer. I suppose that I could re-arange things and connect the printer to my router through the connected USB hub but don't see the need. I really can't remember the last time I printed from anything but my main system.

Sigh, the only problem now is what to do with the dozen ink cartridges I still have for my old Pixma MG5320... :( I think I'll look up all the Canon models that use them and put up a notice in my apartments in case someone has one of the models.

Oh, one more thing. The flat bed scanner looks to be REALLY fast! When scanning the test print for print head alignment there was no 'warm-up' time involved. I put the printed page on the scanner and went to sit down. By the time I sat down it was done.

<edit>
Just as a note Tiger Direct offers the printer for $199.99 plus $9.99 shipping. LOL! $89.00+tax still sounds a lot better to me! :mrgreen:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=2709

Also the 'PB' cartridge is 'Photo Blue'. They claim that it reduces graininess. Here is a quote from the Tiger Direct site.
Tiger Direct wrote:
With the Photo Blue ink your photos never looked better, it reduces graininess and provides smooth color gradation.

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 Post subject: Re: New printer
 Post Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 12:15 am 
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Good luck with it Jay.

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 Post Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 12:21 am 
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Thanks Bill. :) So far everything looks fine and I'm pleased.

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 Post subject: Re: New printer
 Post Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 2:09 am 
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OK, there always has to be a fault and I have found one. If I called up a print job on my Pixma MG5320 the call would turn on the printer. With my new Pixma TS8120 that is not the case as I have to manually turn it on. I can live with this easily. I will say that, as long as it is turned on, a print job sent will automatically extend the output tray. When the printer is shut down it also offers to retract the output tray. I consider it a fair trade. ;)

<edit>
On the very much plus side I just scanned an image. Total time from selecting to scan the image to being in the editor with the scanned image loaded was about 15 seconds at the most. It DID show a message as to the scanner warming up but that onlt took about 2 seconds. I almost missed the message.

Initially I think that I'm very happy. :)

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 Post subject: Re: New printer
 Post Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 8:06 am 
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Pleased to hear you're happy with your new printer Jay, so far we're happy with our new one, we got the Epson EcoTank 2600 which doesn't use cartridges but tanks which are filled when needed.

The one we got is the lower of the family of EcoTank printers but it's one we could afford and so far so good, it's a lot faster as well.

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 Post subject: Re: New printer
 Post Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 2:48 pm 
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I looked at the Epson EcoTank printers but saw too many bad reviews as to photo printing on models within my price range. Since photo printing is important to me... :dunno:

I DO like the idea of the re-fill-able tanks. I was tempted to get a higher end model figuring that the savings in ink cost would make up for the initial cost eventually.

Hey, nothing is perfect. ;) Actually the Canon I got has a couple of odd quirks that are by design.
1) The front paper tray protrudes out the front of the printer about 2 inches. While it does make it very easy to access the paper tray it seems like a potential damage area.
2) The touch screen is on a front panel that has to be flipped up to allow the output tray to extend. Again I would think this to be a potential damage area although I DO like the touch screen as it is larger than most I've seen on a printer and the front panel flips automatically.

The possible damage areas would probably not be noticed if the printer were to be on a desk surface but it is on a bottom shelf of a corner desk unit and in easy reach of being kicked. ;)

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 Post subject: Re: New printer
 Post Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2019 7:06 pm 
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@ BillG: BTW, Thanks for mentioning Jarbo on Amazon. With my Pixma MG 5320 I dealt with http://suppliesoutlet.com and paid ~$4.75 per cartridge. Unfortunately their price for cartridges for my new printer is not much less than retail. Jarbo has full sets of all 6 XXL-cartridges for $43.99. Doesn't sound that cheap but, considering there are 6 cartridges, it breaks down to $7.33 per cartridge. I can easily deal with that considering that they are extra large capacity cartridges. ;) Through Supplies Outlet I'd have to pay $14.99 per cartridge buying individually as they show bundles as all out of stock... I don't get that as, if I can buy individual cartridges, why not a bundle?

I'm sure that the prices on both Supplies Outlet and Jarbo will drop over time. While my printer is not the newest model it also is not old. With these discount ink places the newer the printer the higher the price. This actually makes sense as they just don't have as ready of a supply of cartridges to re-do for a newer printer as what is available for an older model.

Here is what I found on Jarbo/Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Compatible-JARBO ... ts8120+ink

Actually I just ordered a full set. I like to always have a full set of backup cartridges. ;) Plus I figured I'd order while I still have 2-day free shipping. My Amazon Prime membership expires 3/20/19 and I'm not renewing... I just don't use it enough to justify the cost.

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 Post subject: Re: New printer
 Post Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 4:05 am 
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Sorry to keep going on about this printer but I'm somewhat amazed. I just tried the copy function. I selected to scan and copy to plain paper.

1) I put the source image on the scanner bed and turned on the printer. Probably didn't even take ten seconds for the printer to be up and functional.

2) Probably less than 20 seconds after I selected to do a standard color copy I had output in my hand. Actually it was probably closer to 15 seconds than 20.

This may be one of the best 'spur of the moment' purchases I've ever made as long as it proves to be durable. After the fact I looked up reviews and PC Magazine seems to rate it as the second best inkjet out there. They rate the Pixma 9120 as number one as it has Ethernet connection and an auto document feed where mine does not.
https://www.pcmag.com/review/358996/can ... all-in-one
I was surprised that PC Mag declared that the text output of this unit was better than many laser printers. When I did the test print after setup I must admit that I was stunned by the output. I loved my Pixma MG5320 but have to admit that, while the output on text was excellent, it did not match what this thing does. With a magnifying glass I can still find no flaw in curves in test on such letters as e,g,s. I guess these tend to be an issue with a lot of inkjets.

LOL! I guess this is turning into more of a review on the printer. If you are in the market for a printer look at this unit! I mean I've been putting it through its paces and it has responded beyond my expectations on all aspects. Just the scanner amazes me. My old Pixma MG5320 was a very good unit but it would take a good 30 seconds just for the scanner to warm up before I could start a copy. With this Pixma TS8120 I can have two pages of output in the same time frame.

So far ink usage seems reasonable for what I've printed especially since it is pretty much a known fact that the included cartridges are under loaded. I'm showing an average of about 90% full on color cartridges and close to 100% on both blacks after printing, I think, 6 8X10 photos and several color documents. As a note I selected plain paper on the photo prints as I'm out of photo paper and wouldn't waste the paper even if I had. The point on that is that selecting to print on photo paper will tend to use more ink that if printing to plain paper. Oh my goodness! I just checked under the front of my 'easy chair' where I stash stuff and found an un-opened 20 pack of glossy 8.5X11 photo paper.

It really was a 'spur of the moment' type purchase. I went outside for a smoke and decided what the heck and took off to Walmart to see what they had. The printer caught my eye and I bought. :rofl2: I'll probably be back with opinions.

<edit>
I just printed a photo on glossy photo paper that I already have on my wall. I'll be replacing the photo on the wall. I thought that the photo output on my Pixma MG5320 was excellent and it was. Still, the output from the Pixma TS 8120 looks much more vibrant than the same image on my wall. I have no idea as to why but the TS 8120 output just looks better. Possibly it is the addition of the 'photo blue' cartridge. Both prints were done from the same source image.

I may be over blown as to my praise on this printer but please consider how much hardware I buy and how seldom I go on and on about an item. This printer is a special unit for home/small business usage. Shoot, it even includes blue tooth along with Wi-Fi and USB along with a card reader.

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 Post subject: Re: New printer
 Post Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 11:41 am 
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Sounds like you got a really-nice printer, Jay.....congrats. And there is nothing wrong with buying at Walmart. In fact, in Arkansas it is a state law that every resident must purchase at least $75 of merchandise monthly at Walmart (store or online). :mrgreen:

BTW, Walmart offers 2-day shipping on most items these days, with no gimmicks attached except order must total at least $35.

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 Post subject: Re: New printer
 Post Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 3:21 pm 
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It certainly sounds as if you've got a good printer Jay. We don't do any photo printing so that aspect of it's features doesn't worry us with regards our Epson EcoTank printer, hubby's printing is mainly accounts and mine is more printing off knitting or crochet patterns to work from plus household accounts and the quality is fine for that.

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 Post subject: Re: New printer
 Post Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 12:08 am 
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JoanA wrote:
It certainly sounds as if you've got a good printer Jay. We don't do any photo printing so that aspect of it's features doesn't worry us with regards our Epson EcoTank printer, hubby's printing is mainly accounts and mine is more printing off knitting or crochet patterns to work from plus household accounts and the quality is fine for that.


Hey Joan, I was looking for something else but saw that Canon also offers the built in ink well system like your Epson. The ink wells are black, magenta, yellow and cyan. This is the same as what I saw on the Epson printers. I think that the lack of photo black may be a large factor in the photo print quality reported.

The thing is that a single black well will be pigment based which is perfect for plain paper but photo paper would rather have dye based black ink. I think that using pigment based black ink on photo paper MAY be the cause of the photo quality issue. I would expect that both, Epson and Canon, will add a dye based black well along with photo blue.

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 Post subject: Re: New printer
 Post Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 12:20 am 
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Since this sort of turned into a review of the Canon Pixma TS8120 printer I guess I'll add one more thing to finish...

I was a little disappointed by the fact that the printer did not automatically turn on if I sent a print job with it off. Once I took a tour through the settings it automatically power up but the function is turned off by default. I don't understand why it would be disabled by default but it is. I enabled and turned off the printer. Sent a print job and it powered up automatically flipping up the front panel and extending the output tray.

It also has a setting to automatically power down after a specified amount of idle time from 15 minutes to 4 hours. Unless I find another setting I will probably leave this function disabled as it does not retract the output tray when it powers off. It would just be too easy for me to go to the laptop desk and step on the extended tray. If the thing stays on I will see that the front panel is lit and know that the tray may be extended, just thinking safety and preventing potential damage. I DID find a setting directly through the touch screen on the printer to automatically retract the output tray but it does not work with the timed power down enabled. Since I have yet to check for a firmware update it may or may not be a fixed issue to where the output tray will automatically retract.

BTW, I mentioned that I like the front panel touch screen being on the large size. It is a 4.3 inch screen. On the Pixma TS9120 it is even larger at 5 inches. For being on a printer these strike me as very large touch screens which my old eyes appreciate. :mrgreen:

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 Post subject: Re: New printer
 Post Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 11:41 am 
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I know there is a setting in ours to set it for a certain time before it turns off, or goes into sleep mode, I can't remember which without going to have a look. Mine will go to 12 hours.

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