Canon PIXMA iP4200 Photo Printer

by Canon

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 20 x 15 x 14 inches ; 16 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 19 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000A2BJC6
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (145 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 3, 2005

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Why bother waiting for the photo lab when you can print images that are just as good--or maybe better--at home? The Canon PIXMA iP4200 combines five-color printing with a 1,856-nozzle print head capable of delivering superfine 1-picoliter ink droplets. The result is gorgeously clean, sharp prints delivered into your hands just minutes after you snapped the shot.

Color resolution is as high as 9,600 x 2,400 dpi, with black resolution up to 600 x 600 dpi. Print speeds range up to 29 ppm for monochrome and 19 ppm in color; a borderless 4-by-6-inch photo takes as little as 51 seconds. With the iP4200's automatic two-sided printing, you can easily produce glossy brochures and invitations right from your desktop. Improved ink technology supplies rich black text that offers exceptional resistance to smudges--it even holds up to highlighter pens. (All reported speeds are maximums. Actual speeds will vary.)

With its straightforward USB port, connecting the printer with your computer is a snap; the iP4200 is compatible with both Windows and Macintosh operating systems and includes software tools like Easy-PhotoPrint (Windows/Mac), Easy WebPrint (Windows), and PhotoRecord (Windows). A direct print port allows you to print directly from a PictBridge-compatible digital camera or DV camcorder, with or without your computer. The printer is backed with a one-year limited warranty covering parts and labor.

What's in the Box
iP4200 photo printer, PGI-5BK black ink tank, CLI-8Bk photo black ink tank, CLI-8C cyan ink tank, CLI-8M magenta ink tank, CLI-8Y yellow ink tank, power cord, setup instructions, CD-ROM, Canon photo paper plus 4" x 6" glossy sample pack, quick start guide, registration and warranty card; printer cable not included

Product Description

The 9600* x 2400dpi print resolution ensures detailed and vibrant photo lab quality output. Superior quality is achieved by Canon's FINE technology with minute 1pl ink droplets. ContrastPLUS technology with an additional dye based black ink brings extra depth and contrast to photos.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

182 of 186 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic printer, August 20, 2005

By 

Eric C. Keith (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Canon PIXMA iP4200 Photo Printer (Office Product)

I was a loyal Epson customer for years until my most recent purchase from them let me down.

I researched what my next purchase would be, and was leaning towards the highly rated ip4000. I found that the ip4200 was out, but could not find any reviews whatsoever until I read the first review posted on this site. (As I learned via Epson, newer is not always better). I decided to take the chance, and I bought the ip4200.

It is a fantastic printer. The quality of print for both documents and photographs is beyond belief. I love the design, the ease of installation, and the user-friendly functions. It is also a very quiet printer. The documentation is very thorough. As far as not coming with a USB cable, it was no big deal. I just used the one from the old printer. If this is your first USB 2.0, then I can see that lack of a cable as being annoying.

One small thing I also found impressive is that Canon does not push their own papers on you. There are no statements implying that other papers would somehow harm the printer like some other manufacturers do with their printers. The manual even mentions that using general copy paper is fine. This is a very small thing, but it does stand out. (They do, of course, give a list of all their own papers, but they do need to make a profit too! lol)

Overall, I think that this is the best home printer that I have had as of now, and would recommend it to anyone.

157 of 162 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exelent all-round printer with duplex printing, September 20, 2005

By 

D. Balentina - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Canon PIXMA iP4200 Photo Printer (Office Product)

What I was looking for.
I was looking for a printer to print documents, photo's and websites. The most important feature was duplex printing (printing both sides without reinserting the paper.)I looked at hp, but all the printers that i liked had duplex as an extra option. The epson printer didn't even offer this. I looked at canon and noticed that they have this feature standard. I also read review saying that these are one the fastest printers around. My only hesitation was that it looked ugly on the pictures on the sites, because eventhough it's a printer it should look good. But I decided to buy it anyway....and I'm really surprised, this i by far the best printer.

Printer & Feauters
Getting it out of the box, the first thing I notice is that the printer looks nicer than I thought it looked like on the Canon site. On the site, on the pictures it looked like it had a light grey with black color. In reality it's more a a dark grey with black parts, should look nice in a room with black or silver pc components. It's really fast and very quiet. When I printed a test photo on a 4x6 I thought the printer wasn't working. I turned away for a few seconds and saw the photo. Completely quiet for photo's and for documents it makes a bit more sound, but still the quietest printer I have heard. The duplex feature works flawless. You can choose to print only one or both sides. Enabling duplex it prints first on one side, then automatically the paper is pulled back in the printer and the other side is printed. This is by far the best feature of this printer. It was really a hassle to reinsert the paper on my old hp to print on the other isde. The dual paper path is nice, you can keep one type of paper in the cassete and another type in the top loader. I only put a4 paper in the cassete loader. This way the top loader is always closed giving it a nice cubic look. In the cassette the papers are sealed inside protecting them from dust.It also has pictbridge connection to connect directly a camera. The prints are really nice and is 95% close to the quality of a printshop.

Advanced features
This printer also has a lot of customization in the software. You can do 2 types of print head cleaning and 2 types of print head alignment. You can also set it to do "auto power on/off" and it has "quiet mode", but without this mode on it's already quiet. It has some nice effects to add to prints like monochrome, noise remover and image optomizer.

Things you should know
One thing about the speed. The default driver settings lets the printer wait for ink to dry before it continuoes printing when doing duplex or ink-heavy prints....this does slow-down printing...although it's still faster than all other printers out there. This waiting for ink is only used when the printer thinks the ink is wet. Setting the driver to "no waiting for ink to dry" gives you the most performance possible.
I also noticed that ip4200 and ip5200 in the us version don't have printing to cd. While other regions do have this feature built-in. Why would canon remove this feature for only the us version? The printer does not come with a USB 2 cable. I know these are cheap, they should have included it. They do include 5 sheets of 4x6 but no cable?

Conclusion
This is really the best all-round printer.....i don't see the point in buying the more expensive ip5200. This is also the best bargain in printer right now. The prints are really nice. Th best features of this printer are the duplex printing and it's really quiet. It also looks nice. The only thing missing is cd-printing, it actually has this, but was removed for the US version and the missing usb cable. This is really the best midrange printer with some high-end features.

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Value Cant Be Beat for the price!!!, November 1, 2005

By 

JJ "Baby dad" (Mass) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canon PIXMA iP4200 Photo Printer (Office Product)

I have been using this printer now for a little over 6 weeks and I really can't find any fault with it for what I use it for, printing fantastic quality photos. It prints super high resolution photos, does double sided printing, has inks that will last over 100 years in optimum conditions and its virtually effortless to install.
I have been using it with my canon digital elf camera, and at first I thought the printer was lacking in quality output (the blues as well as the blacks were slightly off).
It turns out that after a long process of printing and testing different photos that i took with different cameras (I own an Olympus camera also) that the printer was right on target. Some of the photos that were taken were either in poor light or the camera settings were slightly off enough to make the print come out less than perfect.
The best test you can do is to try and print out a good quality digital benchmark photo or picture. One that you know whose colors are well balanced. I found a website that has a lot of great quality artistic high res photos to print out for comparison http://forums.cgsociety.org/.
So if you have poor results printing out your own photos and think that this printer is lacking, print out some of the photos on the CGsociety website and youll be astonished at how spectacular this printer produces breathtaking prints at an affordable price (It virtually sips ink... My cartridges are still going even after well over 100 4x6 and 5 full 8 1/2 x 11 prints!).