Canon went public with the two new additions to the Pixma Pro line - the Pro9500 Mark II and the Pro9000 Mark II - at PMA yesterday.

The new printers - aimed squarely at the professional and semi-professional photography market - include Canon's Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering (FINE) technology and a new ambient light feature.   This feature allows users to change settings before printing based on where the finished print will hang - be it in a gallery, a home or school. 

The higher-end Pro9500 Mark II offers ten pigment-based individual color ink cartridges: black, matte black, gray, cyan, magenta, yellow, photo cyan, photo magenta, red, and green.  The wide range of colors - including three different "blacks" allows for richer black and white photos. 

The Pro9500 Mark II model uses a 7,680 nozzle FINE printhead that prints a 13x19 bordered print in one-and-a-half the time of the previous model.

The Pro9000 Mark II delivers eight different dye-based individual color ink cartridges: cyan, magenta, yellow, photo cyan, photo magenta, photo black, red, and green.  The FINE printhead on this model - comprised of 6,144 nozzles - delivers a 13x19 bordered photo print in 1 minute, 23 seconds.  That's three times faster than its predecessor.

Both the Pixma Pro9500 Mark II and the Pixma Pro9000 Mark II will be available in May for $849.99 and $499.99, respectively.

Visit PrinterComparison.com tomorrow for a hands-on look at these new printers.