Customer Reviews

Canon S400 Color Bubble Jet Printer

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

 

 

I bought this printer after my old Epson 400 died, and am very satisfied! Driver software offers a lot of control over the printer and even allow for an option to turn the printer on and off automatically as needed. (pretty cool because my printer is out of the way!) Color ink can be replaced one color at a time or all together. Ink is pretty cheap too. Black print speed is great and color is sharp. I recommend it if you want a low-cost alternative to high priced HPs and low quality Epsons.

Got this as a replacement for my dad's dead printer, a compaq that had already been replaced under warrantee twice within 3 months.

The Canon S400 is so easy to use, so easy to set up, my dad doesn't have to work with kludgy software to do something as simple as change print cartridges. He loves the fact that this printer automatically cleans its own heads periodically without him doing anything.

He prints daily reports of up to 40 pages per day, and used to get real frustrated when other printers' skipped or ran too quickly out of ink. The Canon S400 is consistently clear!

After having 2 strokes, my dad needs things kept as simple as possible. The Canon S400 makes things great, simple and very easy to use.

Best of all, my dad's only had to call me once to help him out (his personal tech support, you know). Fixing the problem was a snap.

A great printer at a wonderful price and the cartridge refills won't empty your wallet!

This machine delivers ALL that it advertises and more. Excellent copies in color and black & white. Very easy to use and the ink- tank system is the only way to go. Fairly low cost of ink and uses an average amount of ink. You can't buy a less expensive machine with as many dependable features as this one. For in home, average use, it can't be beat!

I have had this printer for a little over a year now. I got it ...last fall and hoped to use it for color printing mainly, but also to print small black and white documents (I have access to a laser printer for most black and white). I bought it because of the low priced ink tanks.
What I have found out is that the S400 does not print when I want it to. At first, I was using the parallel port connection (don't even think about doing this). The connection isn't fast enough for the printer and every page you try to print will be illegible. Using the USB connection has helped, but I still throw out about 1 out of every 3 pages that I print because they don't come out correctly.
In short, the S400 isn't reliable. I find myself walking across the building to print a single page instead of trying for 20 or 30 minutes on my S400. Don't buy this printer. It will be a waste of your time and money.

It took nearly three months for me to print one page with this printer. Why? The printer I bought came with a faulty ink cartridge. I mailed it in and over a month later received another printer, with another faulty ink cartridge. A month later I actually received a working cartridge from the fine folks at Canon- at least they were nice- and finally I am able to use my printer. Sort of.

Now instead of the six orange flashing lights, I'm getting four and three and sometimes they're green, and all the while this thing grunts and grinds and shakes back and forth like some wild-eyed shivering hog.

It prints sideways, it grabs ten sheets at once, it won't grab the paper at all, and heaven forbid the black ink actually come out black instead red and green and blue.

This printer has made me reexamine my faith. No benevolent being could unleash this beast upon the world. For your own well-being, please steer clear of this monstrosity.

This printer is a fairly good value, especially because of the nice way the color cartridges are set up. I routinely use 2 blue ink trays for 1 of red and yellow, so it works out great for me. However, a problem I've noticed with this printer is that it often prints crooked, even though I routinely re-align the print head. However, for the price, it's held up for me really well - even through more research papers than I'd like to count.

then it started showing those "orange" lights indicating a paper jam. There isn't any!!! I have done everything possible to get it working correctly, including re-installing the drivers. Nothing works - all I get is the green and orange flashing lights. I'm ready to toss it. I was pleased with it at first because it was very economical and easy to use. I can't figure out what happened to it!!!!

I have gones through at least 8 printers in the last 16 months. some of the problems are Lexmark just doesn't like heavy print jobs and uses way to much ink; HP is a good printer but if you do any software work on your system you are continually reloading drivers (yuk). Xerox and Epson the ink runs like water. But with my canon I have no problems, the only reason I now have the S400 is because I gave one of friends my BJC 2000, they had a hp. The printing speed is great and the cost of ink is sooooo much lower, plus the canon system doesn't use a ton of ink when print so I don't have to wait for the paper to dry. So if you want a dependable work-horse I suggest Canon printers.
Remember, though, printers are like cars--- once you find one that works for you, you stick with it.

I've had my Canon S400 for four years and I'd rate it as one of the best budget printers on the market. It's fast, reliable and cheap to operate thanks to individual ink tank cartridges that can be bought separately when one color runs out. The text it prints out is clear and crisp and the quality of graphics on just plain paper is excellent.

Installation was a snap. Just use the CD Rom that comes in the box and you're a few clicks away from printing out your first document!

Lastly, if you do get blinking lights as some other customers have complained about just find a Canon forum by doing a search on the Internet. The blinking lights are coded to tell you what the problem is and past customers will tell you what the remedy is.

I bought this printer over a year ago. I use it mostly for work, which means 95% of my printing is just black text, and it had done a decent job for that intended purpose. I have tried printing some photos on glossy photo quality paper, and the results are not impressive. My biggest complaint, however, is the lousy job of feeding paper. It will often times grab several sheets at once and pull them all through a the same time! This can be extremely annoying, paticularly when it grabs another sheet of paper half way though a page, which completely screws up any multiple page print jobs. I did buy this because it was cheaply priced (got what I paid for), and I do like the 4 seperate ink cartridges, but I think you can do better. Do youself a favor and spend an extra [$$$]or so and buy a better quality printer, especially if you plan on printing the occasional color glossy picture.