Customer Reviews

Canon PIXMA iP5000 Photo Printer

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I originally bought the Epson R200 because it was cheaper, but that printer guzzled ink like an SUV. So, I exchanged it for this printer, whose photos are just as good as the Epson (on glossy paper), with about 1/5 the ink costs. In the one year I had this printer (resulting in thousands of prints) the cheaper ink costs paid for themselves many times over.

One downside to the Canon is a tendency towards yellow tints (but you can adjust this). Also, the head-cleaning mechanism failed after a year of heavy use. By then I'd made thousands of prints, so I wasn't too upset, and in fact replaced the printer with an identical model.

The Pixma 5000's prints look stunningly great on glossy photo paper. They actually look better than the photo labs I've used, in my opinion. Contrast and color are great. Most 4-ink printers (as opposed to the 6-ink or 8-ink printers) suffer from "dithering", i.e. they give you tiny little dots instead of smooth colors, but the Canon has almost no visible dithering. The Canon's colors tend to be slightly yellow, but this can be adjusted in the print settings.

In photo quality, the Pixma 5000 beat every other 4-color Canon or Epson printer at my local store. Epson's "Durabright" printers pale in comparison, as do Canon's various all-in-one copier/scanner/printers.

However, photos on plain paper do not look good, and lack contrast and crispness. This is actually a problem with most inkjet printers, though the Epson R200 seems to do a better job with plain paper than the Canon, mainly because its black inks are somewhat darker. Printing on matte paper is also tricky - midtones come out too dark, so photos look dull and muddy unless you lighten the midtones in Photoshop.

The Pixma's small 1 picoliter droplets really help with text, which is crisper and sharper than the Epson R200. Text pages also print quite fast.

Best of all, the Canon is unusually efficient with ink. I got an impressive number of photos (over 250 glossy 4x6's) with each color cartridge, and almost 300 photos with the black cartridge. The Epson only gave me 50-60 photos per cartridge set. Not only do the Canon cartridges last longer, they are cheaper, and there are only 4 instead of 6 to buy. By my estimate, Canon ink costs 5-7 times less per page than Epson. In the long run this is a HUGE difference, and more than makes up for the slightly higher cost of the printer itself.

I have only one major gripe: After about 6 months of use, the printer's self-cleaning mechanism failed. This caused black streaks on the edge of prints. Cleaning the print head would help temporarily, but the streaks would return soon. After one year of heavy use, I had to replace the printer. But I definitely got my money's worth, and then some. Overall, this is still one of the best inkjet printers I've ever seen, combining high quality, low maintenance costs, and versatility with text and graphics.

Photos printed on photo paper would be hard to distinguish between those that came from a lab. Text quality is better than the older s and i series printers, but not quite laser quality on plain paper.
Works best with Canon's photo paper, but have had pretty good results with other glossy paper like, sepom (not as glossy but waterproof!) and red river paper.

With all of the specifications to compare (e.g. pages per minute, dots per inch, number of different color cartridges), it is easy to forget cost of ownership. A year from now, that same stack of vacation and holiday pictures could cost you hundreds of dollars more with one brand compared to another.

Drop for drop, printer ink is probably the most expensive liquid you'll ever buy, and all printer companies want to lock you into buying their ink cartridges. Canon is no different in this regard, but by keeping cost of ink reasonable, customers who print a lot of pictures won't find they need a second mortgage to afford the ip5000.

Because printer companies "buy" market share by selling the printer at or below cost (This is basically how razor companies and video game console makers operate), they only profit from the consumables (ink cartridges, but also paper). This doesn't make them greedy any more than taking a loss on the front end made them altruistic. It does, however, make it important that you understand this: while many specs are pretty comparable, cost-per-picture varies very, very widely by manufacturer. Forewarned is forearmed.

Aside form the confidence of knowing that I could be spending a lot more for cartridges, my experience with the ip5000 has been nothing but positive.

The included CD and quick-start guide walk you through setup step-by-step. Consumer electronics companies are not always, ahem, known for clarity of user manuals or supporting material.

Text quality on plain paper is very good, though not quite up to the standard of either of the much more expensive laser printers I compared it to. In fairness, this is a photo printer first, but it will do a fine job on envelopes, presentations, and letters.

Photo quality, naturally, is highly dependent on paper. The only bad experience was accidentally using laser paper and having the ink smear. Use the right paper and whenever possible, use glossy paper stock for pictures.

The design is excellent. Not too many years ago, almost all printers were boxy, angular and downright homely. This shows how far printers have come. Its polished black finish is reflective (like a good auto paint job), offsetting the matte titanium-look trim around the edges. It manages to look smaller than it actually is and will not visually dominate a desk.

Overall, a very well executed printer. Recommended.

I'm repeating a post I made under the iP4000, the printer I bought, because these 2 printers are very similar. there may be something here that could impact your decision about the iP5000 (or be useful in your use of it) too.
---------------------------------------
I knew I was going with a Canon printer because of their reputation for having reasonably priced ink compared to all the other manufacturers (hp being the most expensive to use). I intended to buy one from their PIXMA series (said to be the fastest printers on the market; all offer Duplex/two-sided printing which I wanted). I really struggled between their high-end iP8500 and mid-range iP5000 & iP4000. I ultimately eliminated the 8500 and 5000 because neither had dual black ink cartridges (4000 has a 13 ml. for photos, and a bigger 27 ml. one for text). In the 8500 I didn't want to have to be replacing 8 individual ink cartridges (some say those extra tanks don't really make much difference, just cost more). While the 5000 had greater resolution than the 4000, my decision was also impacted by what I thought was a reputable review (PC magazine, I believe). The review said that the 5000 generated better text and graphics than the 4000, however at the expense of photos that weren't as good and that printed slower. Another factor in my decision was that I could purchase the 4000 for 1/3 the retail price, dirt cheap compared to any other potential printer purchase out there. (Best Buy price matched with Office Depot, I had Best Buy RewardsZone certificates, a Best Buy gift card, and there was manufacturer rebate.)

After a solid week of Internet research, I ultimately did purchase the 4000 and I am very pleased with it. Below I've summarized my observations from my first week of usage of my new printer. Maybe I can save somebody from some of the research effort that I put into this purchase.

DESIGN: It's beautiful, but it's black shiny parts are potentially a dust-magnet. There's no printer cable included. I had a spare on hand (it uses USB 2.0 cable with A/B connectors). Radio Shack was less than Best Buy, at $24.99 for a 6-foot. You could do better on the Internet via Amazon.com or eBay.com. Error messaging is cool; just count the amber blinks of the usually green power button, then check your manual for what it means. This thing is FAST! Text ink is pigment-based (longer lasting, less fading, rated 75-80 yrs., I think) and the colors are dye-based (rated 25-30 years, I think). Duplex capability is awesome.

POWER: Canon says they only recommend plugging the printer directly into a wall outlet. I have a Curtis Command Center power center, under my monitor. It conveniently locates power buttons for all of my computer components, as well as offering surge protection. I've used it for years with no difficulties. While I can turn my new printer off via the Curtis power buttons, I can't turn the printer back on with it. The actual button on the printer must be pressed to turn it back on. My printer is not located immediately next to the computer, so I now have to stand up to physically hit that actual printer button.

QUIET MODE: For me, this feature is worthless. Canon says that using it will slow the print speed of the printer. Upon installation, this mode is turned off by default. In regular mode, this printer is pretty noisy when it starts out (much more than the hp DeskJet 825c that I just passed on to Mom), but when it's printing sounds like most every other printer I've used. When it's first starting out, some of those noises are a little scary, like something might be broken ... but it's not.

AUTO-FEEDER (top): It doesn't hold the advertised 150 sheets for most of us. Canon bases that particular estimate on 17 lb. paper! (Who uses that?! Almost everybody uses 20 lb.!) My very first text prints were from the Auto Feeder (top). They all printed extremely crooked until I reduced the paper stack quite a bit.

Standing in front of the printer, with a stack of paper inserted, it appears that the right bottom corner is forced to bend outward slightly from the printer design. Despite a number of attempts to reload the paper (after turning the paper various ways), this outward bend remained. (It can be kind of pressed into place though.) When I reduced the paper in the Auto Feed tray by half (that I'd previously filled to the capacity line marker), I still had the outward bend, but the crooked print problem was resolved.

The manual offers this work-around for a continued problem: Use only 1 sheet of paper in the Auto Feeder, or place multiple pages there, but by one sheet at a time (vs. an entire stack all at once).

PRINT SPEED: My printer is blazingly fast. I'm not experiencing any of the 15-second first page print delay that so many reviewers complain about with this printer. There's maybe a 5-second delay at most! Perhaps that delay sometimes occurs on the first print after you've switched between the auto-feed or cassette trays, but I am pretty much not experiencing any problem with this.

INK DEPLETION OPTICAL SENSORS: They'll monitor the individual ink tanks. When a cartridge has less than 20% left, you'll be warned. Canon's printers will work with an empty cartridge, unlike the Epsons (they lock up until you replace).

INK USE: This printer doesn't suck it down. I've been using it heavily for a week now, generating all kinds of highest quality 8x10", 5x7" and 4x6" photo prints on Canon's best papers, and all my ink tanks still look full. I'm amazed and impressed! Opened ink is recommended to be used up within 6 mos.

BLACK INK: Canon's advised me that unless in Draft Quality mode (the only mode in which the black text ink cartridge is solely used), a small percentage of cyan and magenta ink will be used (for high-density/high-quality black text or photo-realistic quality images).

DRAFT QUALITY DUPLEX TEXT IS FAINT: I can print Draft quality non-Duplex text that is perfectly acceptable. Despite numerous attempts to improve this for Draft quality Duplex, including trying a higher quality paper, there was no improvement. In Draft quality Duplex mode, the prints are almost like those from an old dot-matrix printer! I've only been able to get anything close to satisfactory when selecting Standard quality for Duplex printing. This doesn't make sense to me ... why should there be a difference just from selecting Duplex and changing nothing else. There has to be something different about the way the printer handles a Duplex vs. non-Duplex page. I sent an inquiry to Canon, and they really didn't explain why this occurs in their reply. "As Draft quality indicates sacrificing some print quality in order to achieve faster print output, if faster print output and duplexing are required, there may be a noticeable decrease in quality."

PAPER MEDIA OPTIONS: Some of the Canon info materials are not current, but Canon confirmed for me that this printer will print any media listed in the driver's Properties selection, including Transparencies and T-Shirt transfers. (The driver does not list Credit Card or Stickers media.) Because Canon's bundled software is distributed with a number of their printer models, media choices that will not work with your particular printer model could appear in them. The 4000, cannot print to Credit Card media (the 5000 may be able to, but I've already mentioned why I didn't select that model). I don't believe it can print Stickers either. I inquired with Canon about why they state not to print to postcard media, but they didn't answer my question. Note that while Canon recommends you not use non-Canon media above 28 lbs. with this printer, you'll find numerous online reviews that state this is incorrect. Perhaps Canon just wants to drive sales of its own media.

CANON PHOTO PRO & PLUS MEDIA: I printed 4x6 glossy media samples of both, the two highest levels in their line. While the Pro paper had a bit heavier weight to it, it didn't have much print quality difference from the Plus paper. I don't feel the Pro paper is worth its exorbitant price; there's just not enough of a difference. The Plus paper is a bit lighter weight, but it's nice too; and it prices out to match my local Wal-marts digital photo prints. I even used an 8x photo loupe to really examine them closely. A loupe's an inexpensive and really worthwhile purchase from your local camera shop (Natl. Camera Exchange, etc.) if you really want to look at a photo (or anything else) really up close. Amazing just how much texture you'll see when looking at a plain piece of copy paper!

BLACK & WHITE PRINTS: Some complain about the quality of these photos on the Canon printers. I read a recommendation to use Canon Matte Photo Paper for the best results. I also read that matte prints will last 4x as long as a glossy print, and when stored behind glass or plastic could potentially last forever (from fading, deterioration).

CD/DVD LABELS: I talked with an Epson rep in an Office Depot store a few weeks ago. He said that Epson holds the U.S. patent for direct-printing on CD/DVDs and that this is why Canon can't offer the feature yet (he said that patent would be expiring soon). You'll see that the Canon printers are almost set up for it (cover blocks area and parts are missing, except in the UK version which does offer the feature). Canon says that they just "choose" to not offer this feature in the U.S. market, although they know that "Epson and at least 5 other printer manufacturers in the USA are releasing direct CD/DVD print features." As an alternative, I asked Canon for a recommendation of a standard adhesive label media that would work acceptably, but they didn't answer my question. This isn't a feature I figured that I'd be likely to use a lot, so it's not very important to me. My research showed there are lots of disadvantages to using it anyway (takes forever to dry, not waterproof, doesn't look as good as adhesive labels). For info on this, check out nealslade.com. He's got an entire section just on this topic.

CASSETTE TRAY IS CONFUSING: It took me a bit to figure out how to operate this and I don't like how the sliders don't move easily. Pretty cheaply made. Hope it will be redesigned better in a future model, but this isn't a big issue for me.

WHICH TRAY TO USE: Many reviewers say they keep photo paper in the cassette to keep it protected from dust etc. Reputable sources say it is not a good idea to keep photo paper in the cassette for any length of time because the paper will begin to age (yellow). They recommend inserting photo paper into the auto feeder instead (top vertical tray), only on an as-needed basis. This also keeps photo paper from having to go through a tighter turning print path. The cassette's U-path can lead to jams and cracked paper coatings. The J-path of the auto feeder is a more gentle turning print path. I keep plain paper in my cassette and use the auto feeder intermittently for photo paper and other needs.

BUNDLED SOFTWARE: This stuff is usually junk, but I do like all 3 programs Canon includes: Easy PhotoPrint (no-brainer photo printing), Photo Record (scrapbook generator) and Easy-Web Print (no more Internet prints with a cutoff right margin!). Easy-WebPrint doesn't seem to have a way that you can designate a print page range though, which is it's only negative (especially when you're Duplex printing and there's a 3rd page with just a single line of text; the printer has to print that single line as well as pulling it back in for Duplex to print a blank page!). It does offer printing just a selection from a web page though (so I forgive it a little for that!).

MAINTENANCE: I haven't had any issues with nozzles clogging (Epson sounds like its notorious for this), but my ownership is early yet. NeilSlade.com recommends running a color print once a day to help prevent this. He also recommends not running the CLEAN NOZZLES function very often, because it moves some ink into the printers waste tank. If the waste tank gets filled, you'll need to pay to have the printer serviced to empty it. He says it's better to do some photo prints instead to limit the possibility of this occurring.

CUSTOMER SERVICE: Canon's replies to my e-mails have been unusually fast, which has impressed me. I made numerous inquiries and their replies usually came the very same day, often within a few short hours. They seem personalized too ... not the canned replies from so many others (that often don't really answer the questions asked). Terrific job on that, even though they ignored a couple of things that I asked. They even have a dedicated toll-free number than you can use as much as you'd like for the first 30-days you have the printer.
EXCELLENT RESOURCES: During my research, I found these websites to be particularly useful: steves-digicams.com, tomshardware.com and neilslade.com. Neil's got some excellent info on alternate sources of paper and ink, where you can clearly save some money. It's clear to me that buying from your local store is NOT your best option! Use the Internet. If you don't have much time for investigating, as usual Amazon.com can beat any local store on prices and product availability. eBay can have some great deals too. Of course Internet purchases require a little planning.

SUMMARY: There are good and bad points to all printers available, but I am very satisfied with this purchase. I tried to just detail the info that I wish I had found all in one place. Hopefully it helps you!

My Epson C82's print heads got clogged so I went on the hunt for a new printer. After a couple hours of investigation I decided to go with the HP Business Inkjet 1200d. I was very excited until I got home and hooked it up. I was very dissatisfied with the install, resolution quality, color tone, and software.

I took the printer back a got the ip5000 by Canon. Install was a snap, print quality is excellent, software is user friendly and packed with features. I am very pleased with the ip5000 and Highly recommend!!!

I read all the reviews I could, the big reviews complained about speed and claimed the photo's didnt look as good as the existing printers from Cannon. I have to disagree, I can spit out a borderless 4x6 in about 40 seconds and use half the ink of other printers, and if it ever gets clogged, you can change out the print heads too, as long as they dont cost too much. Ink on a "major online auction site" can be found for 12.95 for all 5 tanks with free shipping. Cant beat that.
I will never again pay Lexmark for an overpriced quick to dry out ink refill. The color quality is spot on, and when held up to the prints from Wal-Marts digital developing look the same.
Prints from my Sony DSC 1.3MP camera dont look so great though, but from my Minolta Dimage 3.2MP they look awesome. Just dont plan on photo quality unless you have a good camera to start with.
I do wish they had enabled the CD/DVD print tray on the US, models, it looks like something that we could possibly make work by getting a driver and removing the blocking plate though. hmmm.
I love the duplex option, kind of rare in a home bound ink jet printer. The dual paper inputs is nice also, I keep regular paper in the bottom tray and feed all the photo, label and card stuff in the top tray. Its very quiet, you cant hear it in the next room. It doesnt shake at all like one reviewer said it did. All in all I love it.

I was looking for a printer that would allow us to casually print smaller prints, but also print larger, frame-worthy shots at larger sizes, for hanging around the house, gift-giving, etc. 9600 DPI was key. After a lot of reasearch, I bought this printer and COULD NOT BE HAPPIER! The print quality is outstanding, better that what we would expect from the photo lab. It's fast, quiet, and sets up easier. The software included with the printer is easy to use and works very well - options to print flexibly abound, particularly within the print driver itself (an under-rated feature that enables you to get exactly the print you need for a particular task). Downside: no printer cable! All told, I can't recommend this item more highly - and for the price, it's a real bargain.

I've gone through a lot of research on printers, and finally settled for the i5000 a few months ago. I wanted the moon... a great home office printer and a terrific photo printer. I was figuring on buying two units, but figured I'd give this one a try after seeing the design--pigment ink for text printing and 1 pl drops. (Understand that drops this tiny eliminate the need for light magenta and cyan. The printer has the ability to generate intermediate shades with the smaller drops.)

Anyway, out of the box I was thrilled. But I wanted to find cheaper consumables. After trying a few, I've found Staples house brand pro photo paper (and even their cheaper picture paper) to work wonderfully in this printer. And this paper often goes on 2 for 1 sales (at least here in Canada). As for ink, this supplier imports cartridges that have worked very well for me. The photos are just as stunning as Canon's ink, and the text quality is great, but I can't include the URL here. However, the company name is Ink Magic, so you can figure it out from there. You also get free shipping in the U.S. and Canada.

Now the disclaimer: I have no idea how long my Chinese ink with Staples paper combo will last before fading. But my attitude is I save pictures on optical media for historical purposes. If the ones I print out fade after twenty years, I'll simply reprint them again. (Yes, I know. I'll keep copying my optical media to new formats as they appear.)

Finally, the office. This thing automatically duplexes, and does a fine job of office documents. If you buy slightly better ink jet paper, you'll get superb text quality... but for 95% of my in-office use, any old plain paper does just fine. And... here's what really impresses me. I've run over a 1,000 sheets and evelopes and who knows what else through this thing and have not had ONE paper jam. My HP was horrible for jams (1120cxi). This Canon is incredilbe. On the odd occasion it misfeeds, it slowly backs the paper out and tries again until it gets it right. Wow! I can literally set it to print 200 copies duplexed, and walk away. An hour later, they're waiting for me (although a few fall on the floor!).

The bottom line: I'm printing lab quality prints (remember, those real lab prints are only good for around 15 years) for very little money, and this printer's office capabilities are excellent.

I just set up this printer yesterday, but the prints I've done so far are excellent!! The 4x6 photos look like they just came from the lab. I definitely recommend this printer to anyone looking for an all around black and white and photo printer.

The print heads went bad on my latest printer (a Canon S530D). I contemplated both replacing the print head (at a cost of about $85 bucks) and purchasing a new printer that printed better quality photos. So, I began to research.

My search took me from Consumer Reports to PCWorld to Epinions, and many other sites. I tend to value a large volume of consumer reviews to a greater extent than I do a single expert's review. I really like it when consumers and experts agree.

I went into my search open-minded. I have always owned Canon printers, but have used HP/Epson products at work and other places. It didn't take long to quickly narrow my selection down to two printers.

It came down to two Canon products, the Pixma 5000 & Pixma 8900. I almost selected the Canon Pixma 8900, which is priced in the ballpark of $300, over the Pixma 5000 for one reason - photo quality.

We take many pictures of our children. We also enjoy traveling, and I like taking pictures of landscapes, etc. I wanted a printer that could do justice to the pictures I take, and handle the fair share of word processing we do, as well.

While comparing the 8900 to the 5000, I became convinced that the 8900 was probably a better quality printer, but I could find no reason (based on comparing the two) to spend an extra $100 for the 8900. So I bought the Pixma 5000.

When UPS dropped it off, I had to combat my typical-male impulse to rip it out of the box and plug it in. I did something very atypical of a male and read the manual (granted, I did skip the whole set up part & went straight to the printing photos section). Hooking it up is not a problem if you can read and follow directions. I wanted to make sure my photos looked good.

Upon setting up the printer (a 10-15 minute process), I decided to try to print something. I gave it a test run using standard copy paper, just to make sure it worked. It did.

Now, for the real test. I have a 5x7 of my daughter on my desk that was printed at a Kodak photo lab. She is sitting in front of a cluster of pansies (flowers) that have a wide range in color (yellow, violet, orange, white, lavender, with green leaves/stems). I wanted to see how it picked up on her skin tones, as well.

So, I pop in the Canon Photo Pro 4x6 paper that came with my printer, and proceed to print a borderless 4x6 picture.
It probably takes close to a minute to print, but when it does print, I am pleased. I had to get nit-picky to find anything wrong. There are no pixels (the little squares) seen anywhere in the picture. The brightness/contrast of the picture is very good. The skin tones are good. The only thing that I could find that was different than the photo lab print was the violets. They are slightly more blue than purple, as they appear in the print from the photo lab.

I have run several other pictures (wedding, beaches, the kids) with very good results since the first test. I bought the 5000 with the intention of returning it in exchange for the 8900 if I didn't like the prints. I will not be returning it.

The only possible person who might not like this printer is the person looking for the perfect print (a professional). However, for the novice-to-advanced photographer, I feel like this is an excellent buy for the price.


A couple of side notes -

1) For those of you reading this who don't think the paper makes a difference - I am convinced. I thought it was a lie from the manufacturer to drum up more $$. I have a couple different brands of photo paper lying around. I bought some Canon Photo Pro, just to see. The Canon printer prints better with the Photo Pro paper than it does on any of the others.

2) Don't use generic ink. I destroyed the print head on my S530D using generic ink - it is much cheaper long-term to pay a little more for ink and not have to buy a printer/print head every couple of years.