Customer Reviews

Canon PIXMA iP1700 Photo Inkjet Printer (Gray)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I just set this up last night to print some overheads and business cards, so there are a few things to note:

First, nothing beats a top-feeding tray for smoothness of paperflow through a printer. One of the reasons I got this was because the Brother multi-unit I have could not feed the business card stock without jamming every time.

Second, this printer allows adjustment for media thickness with a lever on the front. That really helped since I was printing both business card stock and overheads. The front location of the lever is also very convenient.

Third, a problem I found was that the color is anemic, to say the least. I had to set the quality to photo paper to get it to print with the quality needed for business cards. Using the default color left me with color that was much too faint, and the black ink looked gray. I tried cleaning the heads, but ended up with the same result. I don't know if they have the quality set too low, or if it is just my printer. Be aware that you may have to reset the quality to much higher levels than other printers.

Overall, at this point it seems to be a very good printer for the price.

*** After more use I have found a major problem with this product - it's hard to find ink cartridges, and they are very expensive. Unless you use ink refill kits, be prepared to shell out a lot of money ***

The printer was easy to set up and get operating. It is a lot quieter and faster than the Epson model 820 that it's replacing.
The only short coming that I have found to date is that will not accept envelope templates for odd sized envelopes that I had set up for the Epson.
Ink usage is better managed by the Canon than the Epson. Also, heads do not need to be cleaned as often.
I am waiting for Canon to provide an update to re-activate their "Easy-WebPrint" format. The new Explorer 7 will not accept it.

The simplicity and low price and small size are what attracted me to this printer. It has served well in a clinical application which requires mainly black ink. The color cartriage is wasted on this application. I do whish the printer had a larger black ink tank. 5cc gets used up in a hurry. But the cost is low for replacement cartridges.

This photo printer came included as part of a computer package I bought from Best Buy. There is no USB cable included (as stated on the box), and since I didn't have neither the space for a printer or an extra cable laying around, I hadn't hooked up my printer. Curiousity got the best of me, and I went out an bought some 4x6 glossy photo paper and a USB cable ($8.97) from Wal-Mart.

It took me literally 5 minutes to get the printer set up. After inserting the software, and getting it installed on my computer, I was ready to go another 5 minutes later. I took two quick pictures, and attempted printing them out. It took me a minute to figure out how to insert the paper, but one I figured it out, the pictures printed quick and brilliant. I *did* notice where there were large areas of brown it looked a tad washed out, but it was minor. The pictures were very clear and colorful.

I have yet to try to print a text document with this printer, but I don't really have too much of a need for that. What I wanted was a photo printer to quickly print out my 4x6s, and that's what I got! Even though this printer came with my computer, seeing what it does, I would easily shell out the $50 for it!

The only reason I docked a star was for the black/brown color quality. It wasn't that big of a deal to me, but it might mean a lot to some people. Then again, some people might not even notice!

Print quality is very good even at draft quality settings. At high quality, the print is perfect for resumes. Print speed is execellent for a home printer. Photo quality is also good. Resolution is clear and colors are pretty accurate. I do not plan on using this much as a photo printer given the high cost of consummables and the abundance of inexpensive online photo printshops.

The negatives are as mentioned before, the consummables are expensive: the color inkwell is a single tri-color instead of individual ink wells. Also, the inkwells do not last long and there is not much of a market for cheap suppliers. The printer is rather large and flimsy. There is no USB cable included which is a really poor marketing decision on Canon's part. There's no output tray. I have a narrow leadge for my printer on my computer hutch so I must stand there and catch my printouts.

The black-and-white printing is OK but the photo printing is terrible. This printer simply cannot print black in photo mode. I used the Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy, one of Canon's premium photo papers. The blacks look gray, the colors are dull. It reminds me of a newspaper photo. The review on CNET is misleading - it says that the colors were a bit washed out but they were impressed nevertheless. The only thing that can impress me is how much the colors are washed out.

I own quite a bit of Canon photo equipment and I cannot believe that Canon can make such a terrible product. The printer came free with a laptop that I bought and I did not have high expectations for it, of course. But I did not expect it to be that bad for photos. I have seen photos from $80 printers that are brilliant compared to this one. Canon should have advertised this as an office printer with color capabilities. The "photo lab quality" sign on the box is a big lie.

After a few tests, I put the printer back in the box and I will give it away.

This little printer is oddly the best printer I've ever had. Mainly because it's still working, it never fails to print. I've been using it steadily for three years and have yet to have a single issue with it. I'm no longer terrified about printing close to a deadline, or feeding the paper by hand, or jams. It just prints. And perfectly.

I've owned a number of higher end consumer and low-end pro inkjet printers over the years. While I was a little skeptical of the quality that could be produced with a 4-color inkjet in times when there are 5 & 6 color printers, I was pleasantly surprised.

Make no mistake, this is an inexpensive printer. It probably won't hold up to lots of use, but it's not intended (or priced) for that use. For the average person, I think it's a great choice for general color printing and photo printing.

It's quick and the color are good. It does surprisingly well on plain paper. Technologically, it's at the cheap end of Canon's new line of printers that use the FINE inks which are designed to give exceptionally long lifespans compared to the currently available inks. It sounds good at least, but I haven't had it long enough to know how it compares to anything else.

One caveat -- there appears to be a bug (or perhaps a feature I don't understand well) in the 1.95c driver that will cause the colors to become very subdued when the borderless printing feature is enabled on plain paper. The setting isn't recommended, but not for that reason. Make sure you turn OFF this setting if you're getting light or washed-out print.

The printer produces decent quality pictures, although far from being the advertised "lab quality." It also makes a nice document printer with good speed for this price range. The problem with this and many inkjet printers is that it uses ink very fast and a set of cartridges are as expensive as the printer itself. I was only able to print about 10 4x6 pictures set to "high" quality plus 120 pages of color documents set to "fast" quality before the printer started running low on ink. That results in the worst cost per page I have experienced yet. Inkjet printer manufacturers really have quite a racket going on - they price printers super low to sucker customers into their brand - then rip those same customers off with their short-lived, high-priced ink cartridges.

My Epson died after only 1 year. Love this Canon.
Pros: PRICE, PRICE, PRICE, ease of set-up and use, quite good print quality.
Cons: printouts fall onto floor (no tray), print quality a little washed out (compensate by setting intensity higher, then looks excellent).
I had no trouble locating inktanks, and they weren't any more expensive than the ones for my Epson.