Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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140 of 147 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Value ... Extremely well thought out, August 30, 2004
Prints very quick- black and white or color. Quality of photo printing is fantastic. Almost as quiet as my Toyota Sienna. Equipment / Software easy to install. From box to up and completely running in about 20 minutes. Additional features are incredible. It has a casssette tray where I keep my standard 8.5 x 11 paper for everyday printing. At the same time, you can keep your 4x6 photo paper in the sheet feeder when you want to do photos. You can switch between paper source either programatically or using the panel switch (could be a bit more accessible). The onboard duplexer is a welcome addition.
Ink usage is surprisingly minimal.
This is my second Canon inkjet-- bought an I-950 about a year ago but made the fatal mistake of saving a few dollars on generic ink. Stay with all Canon supplies (price difference is actually minimal) to avoid printhead problems.
Downstream the only tweak I see would be adding CD printing capability.
Overall, a definite go for. I still keep my laser printer for the daily grind, but this machine is a great low priced option to have around for presentation quality color and digital camera fun stuff.
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53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good printer at an affordable price, January 2, 2005
I purchased this printer in exchange for another photo printer received as a gift. Given the chance I would make the same choice again.
When researching printers I decided on a choice between the iP4000 and the iP5000. The sales person at my local store tried to steer me towards the Lexmark printers but they were no match for the speed and quality of the Canon series. She actually told me that it was a good thing to have all three colors in the same tank like the Lexmark so when I run out of yellow, as I always do, I would have to throw away the half used cyan and magenta as well. It was then that I noticed her name badge read "Lexmark Specialist" and I inferred some hope for a commission was inducing her to make such ridiculous statements.
The sample photoraphic prints available in the store were typically of scenes that displayed the printer's color depth capabilities; in this case a mountain biker was rendered very realistically. However what convinced me to choose the iP4000 was that to the naked eye the gradient of the sky in the background was almost perfectly smooth, lacking the diffusion or cross hatching patterns that appear on most other printers. Most other sample pictures don't include areas of solid color for this reason. The iP5000 was even better but I couldn't justify it for an extra $70.
With a second black ink tank the iP4000 works well as a document printer with rich black text without sacrificing the black print quality in photos. This feature alone led me to choose the iP4000 over the less expensive iP3000. The print head in the iP4000 is replaceable when it needs replacing, unlike some other printers that make you purchase a new print head with each ink cartridge replacement (which while ensuring consistent quality, makes for expensive consumables). The printer also supports PictBridge that enables direct camera to printer connection for those who prefer to leave their computer out of it.
The printer ships with five sheets of 4x6 Photo Paper Pro, their top of the line photo paper. I purchased a pack of their Photo Paper Plus and found no difference in the quality of the print discernable to the naked eye. Using the less expensive paper means photos that cost on order of $.24 - $.29 each, on par with my local photo printing services. I've also purchased the store brand photo paper in hope of reducing the price per print to less than $.20 each assuming the quality is just as good.
I've combed over the printer for weaknesses but have found very few. I suspect the front output tray may become increasingly flimsy with repeated opening and closing but only time will tell if I am justifiably concerned. The dual paper paths allow me to store 4x6 photo paper away from dust and children's fingerprints, however expanding the bottom tray is awkward to change from 4x6 to 8x10 paper. After a few dozen 4x6 and 8x10 photo prints, the ink tanks still appear full and either the meter is inaccurate or this printer is very efficient with ink.
As someone with habitual buyer's regret, I'm having a hard time finding something to regret. Perhaps I should have purchased the PIXMA iP8500 for the 8-color printing or the iP5000 for the 9600x2400dpi resolution and 1pL droplet size but if my mother can't tell whether the picture of the kids is from film or digital then that's good enough for me. For the price this printer can't be beat though I'm not certain how Canon is making any money on these. They don't have a proprietary ink tank system or smart chips that lock you into their consumables. Perhaps they are betting their superior quality will keep you buying Canon.
While some complain of a lack of whizbang features I actually welcome a printer that does one thing and does it very well: printing. So far I have not been disappointed with this feature. If only I could find a cell phone that makes and receives calls as well...
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55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Printer! You won't be sorry..., October 30, 2004
My HP 4 Laserjet had died about a month ago, and I was debating just fixing it (for $200) or buying a new one. After reading a number of reviews, I bought the Canon IP4000, and I don't regret it at all. It's fast, quiet, and has given me excellent print quality for both text and photos.
For single-side printing, it's faster than the HP 4, and the quality is good, using "general purpose" print paper of 20# wt. and brightness of 90. Under magnification, there is some fuzziness due to the fact that liquid ink "bleeds" into the cheaper, porous paper, but it is definitely acceptable for most general printing needs. Switching to better paper -- Burlington's "Bright White" in this case, with 100 brightness level and 24# wt. -- the text and line quality is almost indistinguishable from laser print. Very impressive!
Duplex printing is a bit slower, but it handles the paper well without so much as a single wrinkle in the page when it's done. Also, printing photos embedded in a document slows it down considerably, but it was never enough to be a problem for me.
Printing photographs on 4 X 6" Canon's "Photo Paper Plus Gloss" turn out as good as reprints from a lab. Mine took about 45sec. to print after hitting the print button on my PC. I don't have a digital camera, but it does allow one to be hooked up directly to it.
In general, it's a very quiet printer, and has the convenience of two paper trays: One on top and a casette underneath. One word of note: If you're using the Casette to print photo paper, put the paper in face-down! I didn't do this the first time, and was rewarded with ink running all over it and onto my hand. Would have helped to read all the directions I suppose.
The only other point first-time users need to remember is that this printer takes about a 15 second delay before beginning a print job. So don't keep hitting the print button or you'll get a lot of copies! Once it kicks in, though, it's off and running. The only noise is that it's a little abrupt when it grabs that first sheet, but otherwise you barely hear it.
Setup is also easy; I used the parallel-port cable that had been hooked up to my HP 4. The software loaded without a glitch, and printing from the supplied "Easy-PhotoPrint" program was easy. I'm running Win2K, so it should work as well for XP users.
I highly recommend this printer to anyone in the market for a multi-purpose printer. As stated, the text quality is excellent with good paper, and photographs are flawless, in my opinion. It's inexpensive, and from other reviews, is very frugal with ink. Plus, with ink cartridges at $10 - $12, it's much less expensive to keep filled than other brands, and if you have to buy them all at once, it's still cheaper than a single toner cartridge was for my HP 4. I would caution what others have written, and stick with Canon's ink, to avoid any problems with the print head. Also, avoid using the really cheap paper (the kind with a lot of paper particles and dust in it) as with ANY printer, as it will gum it up over time.
If you're in the market for a printer, this is the one to get!
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