Canon Pixma iP4000 InkJet Photo Printer
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- Black Print Speed: 25 ppm
- Color Print Speed: 17 ppm
- Output Type: Color Printer
- Technology (Detailed): Thermal Inkjet
- Printer Type: Digital Photo Printer
- Max Resolution (BW): 600 x 600 dpi
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This printer exceeds expectations!
Pros
excellent print quality, good paper handling, two paper trays, light on ink, quiet
Cons
large, heavy, front panel opens and drops too easily
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
I would recommend this printer for both text and photos. Quality is great, versatile paper handling, inexpensive to keep up. Exceeds all expectations.
Based on the stellar reviews this printer has received, it's almost pointless to add another one, but I maybe I can comment on some aspects that have not yet been covered.
The bottom line first: this printer is absolutely amazing value for the money (including running costs) and has exceeded essentially all my expectations. I've had it for almost two months already, so I'm confident that I'm basing my opinions on sufficient experience.
The purchase:
I bought this for $130 CAD from Staples. It came with all cartridges included (two black and one each of the three colour cartridges) as well as a sample pack of 5 photo papers. No USB cable, but who really needs an extra one nowadays? I decided on this over the iP3000 because of the extra black cartidge (there's "text black" and "photo black") which supposedly improves colour in photos. I figured if it's a photo printer, it might as well be a good one, or else I won't use the capability at all. I really just needed it for a LOT of text printing (I expected to print a lot double-sided and multiple pages per sheet, both text and graphics). I bought it to replace my completely crappy Epson Stylus C40UX, which I had for just a few years, but hated virtually everything about it. (I could go on about this ridiculous printer forever, but thank goodness it's long discontinued.)
When I got it home:
This printer is large! And heavy! Good thing these are two of very few complaints I have about it (the only other one is that the front panel which opens down is very sensitive and tends to open and slam down even when I'm just dusting it - you must be soooo gentle with it!) This is a consideration for me because I move often, but I would rather have a large good printer than a small crappy one, and I speak from experience!
Now on to the good stuff. Software set-up was a breeze, drivers work, no problems. Printhead and cartridge installment went quick and smooth. The bottom paper tray installation went ok, but I was a little disappointed to see that the bottom tray, when holding 8.5x11 paper, peeks out from under the printer by about 3.5", further increasing its footprint. However, you can just keep the photo paper in this tray if the footprint is an issue. I usually keep the top tray closed, and load photo paper into it whenever I need it, while the bottom cassette always holds letter size paper. The two trays are extremely convenient, and very easy to switch between (either in the print set-up or by the switch button on the printer panel). At first I didn't like the boxy look of it, but it's nice to be able to store papers and things on top of it. In fact, I usually leave about 4-5 photos to dry right on top of the printer.
Text printing:
It's very fast and the quality is great. The ink smudges just a little when highlighted, but this may also depend on the type of paper. Print speed is fast in part because the mechanism picks up the next sheet of paper while the previous page is printing, so there's no lag period between pages. How innovative! However, speed is reduced considerably when using the duplex mode, since the sheet has to be rolled back in and then there's a few second of drying time (or so the printer status tells me). A word of caution - when I print pdf's in draft mode, the text tends to be pixelated. Draft mode on regular documents is fine though.
I like all the printing options, such as duplex, multiple pages per sheet, print preview and the option to save profiles. I need to print ppt lecture notes on a regular basis, so I have a profile that selects draft, b&w, 4 pages per sheet, landscape, reverse order. This way I don't need to individually select all the options every time. The print preview is handy as well, to make sure things go in the proper place when printing multiple pages per sheet or duplex. I just wish the preview had an option to delete specific pages before printing (the Epson actually did, and it's the one thing I miss). As an aside, the preview option is not available when the printer is used from another computer on the network, which ironically results in a lot of wasted paper when my housemate tries to save paper by duplex and page layout printing.
Photo printing:
I was so amazed when I printed my first photo! It was absolutely photo quality, and the colours were gorgeous! It's just unbelievable, way above expectations for the price of the printer. And it's fast - a borderless 4x6 in well under a minute. I have a Sony DSC-P73 4.1 megapixel camera which I'm very happy with, so maybe the good picture quality has something to do with good printed quality. I really think that the limitation on the quality of the photo is only the quality of the picture file itself. I know I'll never send anything in to FuturePhoto again! This is so convenient and really excellent quality. Everyone who has seen my photos was amazed, you just can't tell it's digital.
I should say a word about the software here. It comes with Easy Photo Print, and while I don't usually use bundled software, this works great. It's not that good for retouching or colour enhancement, but it works for quick and easy fool-proof printing.
I should also add a note here that I use genuine Canon paper (Photo Paper Plus Glossy). From what I've read, the quality goes down when using other brand paper. It's also good because the printer driver gives all the types of Canon papers as options when printing, so I always know I'm printing the way Canon intended, and I get the best possible results.
Ink and paper costs:
The photo paper I use (Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy) is about $17 CAD for 50 sheets, and cheaper for larger packs. This works out to about 40 cents per photo, which is more expensive than sending it in to FutureShop, but it's more convenient and I have more control. I'm not even counting the cost of the cartridges here because they're decently priced, and, what's more, this printer barely uses ink. I've gone through 50 sheets of photo paper and about 200 sheets of regular paper, and the ink levels have barely dropped (and by barely, I mean less than 10%). Totally amazing!
Well, that about wraps it up. I love this printer with all my heart, it is truly excellent value, and Canon deserves all the praise for this. Thanks Canon!
Update 1/27/06
Ok, I found a flaw. The ink monitor isn't continuous, it shows full until one day it says that you're running low, and the bar plumments to the bottom. I still had a few weeks before it actually asked me to put in a new cartridge, which was plenty of notice. It's a little weird to see the bar full one day and empty the next, but you can always looks at the actual cartridge if you need to know - the cartridges are see-through (at least I know it's telling me the truth when it's empty, unlike my old Epson which used to force me to put in a new one whenever it felt like it, and I couldn't tell for myself).
The bottom line first: this printer is absolutely amazing value for the money (including running costs) and has exceeded essentially all my expectations. I've had it for almost two months already, so I'm confident that I'm basing my opinions on sufficient experience.
The purchase:
I bought this for $130 CAD from Staples. It came with all cartridges included (two black and one each of the three colour cartridges) as well as a sample pack of 5 photo papers. No USB cable, but who really needs an extra one nowadays? I decided on this over the iP3000 because of the extra black cartidge (there's "text black" and "photo black") which supposedly improves colour in photos. I figured if it's a photo printer, it might as well be a good one, or else I won't use the capability at all. I really just needed it for a LOT of text printing (I expected to print a lot double-sided and multiple pages per sheet, both text and graphics). I bought it to replace my completely crappy Epson Stylus C40UX, which I had for just a few years, but hated virtually everything about it. (I could go on about this ridiculous printer forever, but thank goodness it's long discontinued.)
When I got it home:
This printer is large! And heavy! Good thing these are two of very few complaints I have about it (the only other one is that the front panel which opens down is very sensitive and tends to open and slam down even when I'm just dusting it - you must be soooo gentle with it!) This is a consideration for me because I move often, but I would rather have a large good printer than a small crappy one, and I speak from experience!
Now on to the good stuff. Software set-up was a breeze, drivers work, no problems. Printhead and cartridge installment went quick and smooth. The bottom paper tray installation went ok, but I was a little disappointed to see that the bottom tray, when holding 8.5x11 paper, peeks out from under the printer by about 3.5", further increasing its footprint. However, you can just keep the photo paper in this tray if the footprint is an issue. I usually keep the top tray closed, and load photo paper into it whenever I need it, while the bottom cassette always holds letter size paper. The two trays are extremely convenient, and very easy to switch between (either in the print set-up or by the switch button on the printer panel). At first I didn't like the boxy look of it, but it's nice to be able to store papers and things on top of it. In fact, I usually leave about 4-5 photos to dry right on top of the printer.
Text printing:
It's very fast and the quality is great. The ink smudges just a little when highlighted, but this may also depend on the type of paper. Print speed is fast in part because the mechanism picks up the next sheet of paper while the previous page is printing, so there's no lag period between pages. How innovative! However, speed is reduced considerably when using the duplex mode, since the sheet has to be rolled back in and then there's a few second of drying time (or so the printer status tells me). A word of caution - when I print pdf's in draft mode, the text tends to be pixelated. Draft mode on regular documents is fine though.
I like all the printing options, such as duplex, multiple pages per sheet, print preview and the option to save profiles. I need to print ppt lecture notes on a regular basis, so I have a profile that selects draft, b&w, 4 pages per sheet, landscape, reverse order. This way I don't need to individually select all the options every time. The print preview is handy as well, to make sure things go in the proper place when printing multiple pages per sheet or duplex. I just wish the preview had an option to delete specific pages before printing (the Epson actually did, and it's the one thing I miss). As an aside, the preview option is not available when the printer is used from another computer on the network, which ironically results in a lot of wasted paper when my housemate tries to save paper by duplex and page layout printing.
Photo printing:
I was so amazed when I printed my first photo! It was absolutely photo quality, and the colours were gorgeous! It's just unbelievable, way above expectations for the price of the printer. And it's fast - a borderless 4x6 in well under a minute. I have a Sony DSC-P73 4.1 megapixel camera which I'm very happy with, so maybe the good picture quality has something to do with good printed quality. I really think that the limitation on the quality of the photo is only the quality of the picture file itself. I know I'll never send anything in to FuturePhoto again! This is so convenient and really excellent quality. Everyone who has seen my photos was amazed, you just can't tell it's digital.
I should say a word about the software here. It comes with Easy Photo Print, and while I don't usually use bundled software, this works great. It's not that good for retouching or colour enhancement, but it works for quick and easy fool-proof printing.
I should also add a note here that I use genuine Canon paper (Photo Paper Plus Glossy). From what I've read, the quality goes down when using other brand paper. It's also good because the printer driver gives all the types of Canon papers as options when printing, so I always know I'm printing the way Canon intended, and I get the best possible results.
Ink and paper costs:
The photo paper I use (Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy) is about $17 CAD for 50 sheets, and cheaper for larger packs. This works out to about 40 cents per photo, which is more expensive than sending it in to FutureShop, but it's more convenient and I have more control. I'm not even counting the cost of the cartridges here because they're decently priced, and, what's more, this printer barely uses ink. I've gone through 50 sheets of photo paper and about 200 sheets of regular paper, and the ink levels have barely dropped (and by barely, I mean less than 10%). Totally amazing!
Well, that about wraps it up. I love this printer with all my heart, it is truly excellent value, and Canon deserves all the praise for this. Thanks Canon!
Update 1/27/06
Ok, I found a flaw. The ink monitor isn't continuous, it shows full until one day it says that you're running low, and the bar plumments to the bottom. I still had a few weeks before it actually asked me to put in a new cartridge, which was plenty of notice. It's a little weird to see the bar full one day and empty the next, but you can always looks at the actual cartridge if you need to know - the cartridges are see-through (at least I know it's telling me the truth when it's empty, unlike my old Epson which used to force me to put in a new one whenever it felt like it, and I couldn't tell for myself).
