Full disclosure – your reviewer is not a printing expert. I have been a professional wedding and portrait photographer for the past 8 years, and associated to my wife’s photography business for the past 16, but personal printing has only become a passion in the past 3. My early experiences with printing my own work generally ended in frustration – the amount of effort required to achieve an exciting result simply outweighed the benefits of the investment involved.

That all changed when we experienced Canon’s excellent Pixma PRO-1 printer a few years ago. To my surprise (and delight) I was able to produce work that made my artistic heart sing with the push of a button. Plugged it in, selected the proper colour profile, and paper type and wait like a little kid on Christmas morning for my photograph to materialize – it was the closest thing to the magic of a darkroom I had experienced since our film days. We have since incorporated the Pixma PRO-1 into our offerings – crafting 13"x19" fine art prints that are loaded with personal artistic pride that our clients really respond to.

Naturally, when Canon announced that they were launching a new “Red-Line” printer, one that is "equally obsessed" I was intrigued. As great as our experience had been with the Pixma PRO-1 could the new imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 really be that much better? Beyond the larger 17"x22" print size it was capable of producing (certainly something to get excited about) would it deliver qualitatively better prints than our Pixma PRO-1?

In two words – OH YEAH!

When our imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 test unit arrived the first thing that struck both of us was the size and weight of the machine. To describe its construction as robust would be an understatement – weighing in at 85lbs this machine was clearly designed to take care of some serious business and it took two of us to unpack and hoist the beast onto a table. To put it in camera terms, it was like handling the EF 85mm f/1.2 L lens for the first time – the "Red Line" that we Canon lovers hold so dear is definitely at home on this printer. But you certainly don’t invest in a printer to touch or look at, so could this thing deliver a print that equated to the powerful first impression?

Setting up the imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 was remarkably easy thanks to the printed quick set-up guide, and the awesome new 3" LCD screen. It is bright and clear, and it helpfully guides you through all sorts of tasks in a logical manner. Loading up the new 80ml ink tanks was a breeze though it did reveal the only thing I prefer about the PRO-1. Is it just me, or is it incredibly satisfying to hit that ink button and watch the doors slowly open? You simply flip down the panel on the imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 – no slow motion fun times –although I got over this very quickly!

The new print head which features a whopping 18,432 nozzles and can detect clogs, was also installed with ease. Connecting to the wireless network was also simple as it supports WPS – just pushed the button on our router and let the printer do its thing.

Canon has created a really solid online manual and set-up guide to make the set-up and installation of the necessary software as easy as possible. The only issue I experienced was associated with my Mac – it easily saw the new printer but defaulted to the Apple driver, something that took me a few minutes to sort out. After that it was smooth sailing.

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t always had the best experience with Canon's software over the years. Shouldn’t be surprising given the challenge of producing intuitive and effective software – many companies tackle this task full time and still swing and miss. Happily, I found the new Print Studio Pro V2.0 Plug-in to be the exception to the rule. I opted to run it through Photoshop and found it a pleasure to use. I was able to easily choose the paper, profile, and colour rendering options I desired and (with the soft proofing option enabled) able to see the expected outcome.

I loaded up our paper of choice (Canon’s Pro Matte) into the manual feeder in the rear of the machine (multiple sheets of Lustre and other paper types can be easily loaded into the rear tray) and the vacuum feeding system ensured that it was in proper alignment and position. The whole setup process had only taken about 45 mins and we were ready to see what this baby could do.

One of the first things that struck me was how quiet and fast the imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 is. After its initial warm up (which includes the mechanical noises you’d expect), it was remarkably quiet and its ability to produce a 17"x22" print between just over 4 and 6 mins (depending on paper type) was something to behold. The print was being produced quickly and quietly, but what was it going to look like?

The only word that comes to mind isn’t even really a word, but I think you’ll get what I mean when I say "RIDONCULOUS"! Simply put I had never seen my work look better! I had heard that the imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 featured new Photo Black, Blue, Red and Magenta inks. Word was that the new inks supported a wider colour gamut and resulted in better detail in the shadows and overall vividness of the prints, but I honestly didn’t think it would make a qualitative difference to my eye. Boy was I wrong, the larger and lovely C paper format really let those improvements show their stuff, and it was an incredibly satisfying experience to behold my newly created art piece. The colours came out exactly as I had hoped, and the detail, from all angles was outstanding.

I entered into this test unsure of whether JONETSU STUDIOS needed to upgrade our PRO-1, but my experience with the imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 left me with no doubts. Business reasons aside (and there are certainly plenty of good ones), any machine that can produce results that excite us as artists like the imagePROGRAF PRO-1000 does, needs to be in our lives and we cannot wait to secure one.

For more information visit www.canon.ca/pro1000, or click here to shop online.