Printer Profile Problem ? (Long)

Hello all,

This is a long post, I know.
But any help would be greatly appreciated.

I’m having an on-going problem getting acceptable
photo prints from my Canon inkjet printer:
My prints are either unacceptably UNDER or OVER SATURATED. I’m thinking that the problem has to do with the PRINTER PROFILES ?

I’ve googled and researched this everyday for about a month now. Nada. So here goes a long winded description of the problem. Maybe someone out there has had a similar problem.

Note: The following procedures are described for Photoshop CS on a Macintosh.

___________________________________________
Camera: Olympus C-7000
Computer: iMac G5, OS 10.4.3, PhotoShop CS
Printer: Canon ip4000
Paper: Canon Photo Paper Pro
Ink: Canon Factory Ink
___________________________________________

Printing From Photoshop CS (MACINTOSH):

1. The Photo file comes from the camera tagged with sRGB. On opening in PS, the profile is converted to working space = Adobe RGB.

2. In the "Print with Preview" Dialog Box, the following are selected: Color Management:
Source Space: Document: Adobe RGB.
Print Space: Profile: Printer Color Management.
Intent: Perceptual.
Click on Print

3. The Printer Driver "Print" Dialog box opens up. The following are selected:
Quality and Media: Photo Paper Pro, Print Top Quality Photo. Color Options: Color Correction: ColorSync.
Click on Print

4. The resulting print is VERY UNDER SATURATED.
The colors are pretty much accurate only very pale. Washed out. Especially skin tones.
___________________________________________
5. If in step 3 above I select:
Color Options: Color Correction: BJ Standard
(the recommended CC selection);
Print type: Photo; Brightness Normal.

Then the resulting print is a little better, close to acceptable saturation, but still TOO PALE.

___________________________________________
6. If in step 3 above I select:
Color Options: Color Correction: None

Then the resulting print is somewhat OVER SATURATED.
Almost Intense. Especially the blue sky on a landscape. (But if there is no blue sky in the photo, then this setting is often acceptable.)
___________________________________________

The ideal print is somewhere between the output from
5 and 6 above.
I just don’t know how to get there. !!

I’ve played with every conceivable variation in the PhotoShop "Print with Preview" options and all the results come out as very slight variations on one of the above results: 4, 5 or 6.

The overriding control seems to be the choice in the Printer Driver print dialog for Color Correction (step 3 above):
Color Correction: ColorSync or BJ Standard or None.

If I adjust the Intensity Control in the Printer Driver Print Dialog box the print just seems to get darker or lighter. The saturation or richness of the colors is not really affected.

What am I doing wrong ?
Is it the Printer. Am I really limited to the above described outputs. Do I need a custom Profile for this printer ?

Thanks for any help,
Mike