Few weeks ago we received one of the newest printer of Canon PIXMA, the MG6270. The MG6270 is a dual-function printer that scan and print. Essentially the A4 printer has the newest technology of PIXMA, including the Intelligent Touch System, Cloud Link services and hybrid ink system.
The basics; read my iX6570 review to get some printer cum color management sorta primer. The built of the MG6270 is the same as the current models of PIXMA which has an elegant black glossy plastic finish or piano black as some may describe it. I’ll repeat it again, I’m not a big fan of this glossy plastic finish because it attracts scratch and dusts.
This printer has both gravity and bottom paper feeders, which is nifty for printing both photographs and text documents while minimizing the hassle of removing different types of media into another.
The PIXMA MG6270 is equipped with 3.0” TFT LCD on top. It can be positioned to a 90º or you can just rest it flat. When not in use, the Intelligent Touch System makes the top panel a clean sight, a minimalist wonder. After powering it up the panel will just show you the illuminated buttons of task-specific buttons to be used on a particular mode. I’m sure that you’ll miss the tactile feedback buttons because all the buttons are touch sensitive but its high time to revolutionize these buttons and Canon made a very nice user experience.
Usage
Just like any other modern printer today, these peripherals are plug and play. Unluckily since its relatively new, I needed to download the newest driver for the Mac OS X Lion.
Its fun printing photographs, there is always some kind of thrill in the process. Since the MG6270 has a direct USB and memory card slots, I opted to use these ports first. As expected, it prints faithful rendition of the actual digital files both from my Canon 5D MKII and Fuji X10. Sadly, printing thru software requires some extra steps in order to nail the brightness, contrast and color.
This time I uses the color calibration of the Spyder4EXpress and the “Managed by Printer” settings in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.1. Honestly, I had to print around 8 pieces of 4R photos just to get the correct brightness and contrast.
I’m positive to report you that this printer can work without the aid of a computer. Direct memory card printing, scanning, copying and even doing some maintenance can be done without powering up the connected PC. The LCD has all the basic functions you need in order to freely scan, copy and print.
My real-world test says that this printer can print a borderless color photo in just about 1:32 minutes, that is after clicking print from the printer. You add about 3 to 5 seconds more if you are printing from a computer. The MG6270 is a discreet printing machine, it spools the paper with very minimal noise. There are two options of where you can feed the paper, its either from the back or the cassette at the bottom.
Printing Photos
The MG6270 has a 9600 (horizontal) X 2400 (vertical) maximum DPI resolution, it has 6,144 nozzles with 1pl (picoliter) droplet size. Maximum print size width is 8.5 inches. I know its kinda hard to understand these numbers, but it simply means its a high-resolution printer so read more of my findings and see the sample at the gallery attached below.
I printed on both Canon Glossy Photo Paper (Everyday Paper) and the Photo Paper Glossy II papers. As usual, I didn’t have problems with these papers. Moreover, printing with Standard and High settings reveals no difference to the naked eye. Colors, brightness and contrast are near perfect via printing directly from a USB stick and memory card however; I had some mismatched color printing via Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
I think serious printing can be a science and requires some learning curve and experimentation. After changing some needed settings and some wasted 4R papers, I finally hit the right brightness and contrast which could be useful for you +45 Brightness and +80 Contrast with “Managed by Printer” settings.
Scanner and Copier
As you may know now, this printer has a flatbed CIS scanner on top. It has an optical resolution of 4800dpi X 4800dpi. This resolution is more than enough for everyday use and can duplicate high-resolution hard copies of anything. For text documents, the MG6270 can directly scan and save to USB including directly saving the scanned file to PDF format. The scanner cover can be raised to about an inch height for some fat book scanning. I didn’t bother on testing its speed but for occasional use the performance is above par.
A mini-me PIXMA iX6560
Printed with MG6270 upper right photo
The MG6270 can be a called as a small brother of the Canon’s famous budget A3+ color printer the iX6560. Both of them uses the same set of hybrid inks, mixing the pigment photo black and dye-based color with a total of 6 inks. The main difference is that, Canon added a Grey ink to make this A4 printer a better black and white printer. I was able to compare it from the black and white print from my iX6560 review and I can fairly say here that the additional ink indeed made a difference.
Consumption
A 6 ink printer can be deceived as a drunken-master of printers. Ink consumption is like the same as the IX6560. It won’t beat print lab prices for sure, but it can practically be as cheap if you consider all the accompanying expenses you’ll have to spend.
Connectivity
The printer can be connected via USB, ethernet and wireless (wi-fi). I chose to primarily use wi-fi, speed difference versus USB is negligible. The wireless capability makes this printer a multi-PC office wonder. I even have printed some iPhone shots via Canon EPP App and results was surprisingly very acceptable for a phone cam.
Additional Features
CD-Label printing is one of the “additional” features of this printer, I had this feature on the iP4300 and Pro 9500 years back and it is very useful for a Professional Photographer. Customized printing your own company logo on the discs presents a better professional image of your deliverables. Unfortunately, in this age of cloud storage like dropbox and FTP we moderately use it now. But still this would be very useful for wedding and event photographers including videographers who still regularly deliver their output in disc media.
The quality of printing on the disc will highly depend on the quality of the printable disc you’ll be using, I tested it on my Imation brand and generic ones but didn’t had very good results with the generic one.
Canon is now offering Cloud link services; you can create albums online, print with Google Cloud Print and other online services. Sadly, I haven’t had the time to try it out.
Along with these new online features mentioned above, you can apply some fun filters and print captured stills from videos as a regular features we’ve seen on some recent models PIXMA printers.
Conclusion
The dual-function MG6270 is one of the best A4 printer I’ve used, I can’t find any other shortcomings aside from its glossy finish build, which is of course doesn’t affect performance. It can operate without the help of a computer, and that alone can boost productivity. The quality of output is really just fantastic, the photos looked lively, crisp and faithful. If you compare it from the online catalog of Canon there is a MG5370 model which has a toned-down features. The main advantage of the MG6270 is that, it now has an Intelligent Touch System, better optical scanning resolution and additional Grey ink, which simply mean that this printer is geared towards a more serious type of image-maker, input and output wise.
PIXMA seemed to have perfected the spooling noise problems that many printers struggle to solve. Slow printing is an issue of the past; this printer can deliver an A4 print in just about 1 1/2 minute. Another wonderful thing to praise is the new Intelligent Touch System. The ITS in conjunction with the 3.0” LCD, makes this printer is a no-brainer to use out of the box.
The MG6270 is now available and being sold for P13,495. The PGI-725 (pigment) ink is P580 and the color CLI-726 inks are P550 each. For the full specs of this printer kindly visit Canon Philippines website.
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Complete Canon PIXMA MG6270 review photos below
