print resolution: 600 x 600 dpi black; 4800 x 1200 dpi color * direct photo printing with PictBridge-compliant cameras * two-sided printing * ContrastPLUS 5-color ink system * print sizes: letter (8-1/2" x 11"), legal, 4" x 6", 5" x 7", envelope *
High speed, sharp resolution, and economical ink refills: Could you ask for more in a home printer? The Canon PIXMA ip4000 is designed with over 1,800 nozzles that produce tiny 2-picoliter droplets, resulting in finely detailed images that are worthy to save in your family album. Pigment-based inks insure colors will stay true, and the prints are resistant to water, fading, and smudges.
This printer can connect directly to select digital cameras. Learn more about PictBridge. |
With resolutions up to 600 x 600 dpi black and 4,800 x 1,200 dpi color, your office documents or school reports will look as beautiful as your photos. Built-in two-sided printing reduces your paper costs and allows you truly professional design options. Top speeds of 25 ppm black and 17 ppm color (draft mode) will have your pages in hand in just a few seconds; a borderless 4-by-6-inch photo can take as little as 36 seconds--as fast as those old instant cameras, but with better quality. Thanks to the PictBridge-compatible direct print port, you can connect your digital camera and churn out photos while bypassing your computer system.
The ip4000 is compatible with Mac and Windows operating systems, and requires either a USB or parallel cable to get it up and running (cables not included). Canon provides a one-year warranty covering parts and service.
What's in the Box
PIXMA iP4000 photo printer, iP4000 print head, BCI-3eBk black ink tank, BCI-6Bk black ink tank, BCI-6C cyan ink tank, BCI-6M magenta ink tank, BCI-6Y yellow ink tank, Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy 4x6 sample pack, power cord, documentation kit, setup software and user's guide on CD-ROM; printer cable not included
This printer supports a variety of useful technologies:
1 Good buy!
Delivery came in less time than estimated. Setup was simple, out of the box and printing in less than 15 minutes. This is not a simple printer however! It took longer to read the manual and begin to take advantage of it's features. None of it has been difficult, but we're still learning some of the functions we've had little use for until now. We fumbled a bit when loading printing material in both the top of the machine and in the slide tray. Learning how to set up the printer properties has occupied the longest learning curve. And the product! We were simply amazed by the quality of print and photos it is producing! I'm sure somebody would be able to tell the difference between the Pixma iP4000 and a better photo lab's work, but I sure can't! It seems miserly with the ink too. We churned out about 200 photo prints on 8.5x11 glossy before running low on yellow ink. Replacements are inexpensive and readily available (much less expensive than the 200 sheets of glossy paper). All in all, we're very happy with the Canon printer.
2 Canon rules over Epson
This is my third photo printer in as many years. My prior printers were Epsons, which developed head problems just out of warranty. Of course, you don't discover there's a problem until you've cleaned the heads 10 times and used up their expensive ink.
So with a $20 rebate and the prior good reviews, I purchased this Canon. What a great deal! The print quality is every bit as good as Epson's 1270 and the Canon is so much faster. Plus it offers dual paper sources and separate ink cartridges. It is a real miser when it comes to ink. I just printed 100 pages of photo quality note cards and the ink tanks are still nearly full. Incredible.
But what I really liked about this was that two days after registering it, I received an e-mail from Canon welcoming me and offering a 3-year warranty for just $45. That's less than I wasted on ink trying to get the Epson to work.
My experience with this excellent printer and Canon's customer service have me seriously thinking about selling off my Nikon gear and going to Canon. I've spent about $20,000 on Nikon gear and never once got a e-mail from them thanking me for my purchase.
I have one bit of advice if you're considering this printer: Buy it!
3 A Winner!
I love this printer! This is the third Canon printer I've owned in almost ten years of computing. They just get better. The last model I had was the BJC 3000 which, like this one, used individual ink tanks. This model, however, seems to use less of it. In more than two weeks of some pretty moderate color printing, the tanks are just now starting to produce little bubbles on the top of the tank, meaning they are just starting to show signs of using ink. My favorite feature is the cassette feed. My computer stand does not allow enough room for sheet feeding so the cassette feeder from below works wonderfully for me. Keeping the sheet feeder closed also has the side benefit of keeping dust out of the printer. I also bought a digital camera and tried printing a borderless photo of my doggie that I took. It looks professional, and this was the first time I ever did something like this. A few of the previous reviewers have said that this is not the easiest printer to use. This is not my experience. This printer I find very user friendly, (but I'm not exactly a novice to working with print drivers). The price is also very reasonable, especially from Amazon. I think, just to play it safe, I might actually stick to the name-brand Canon ink tanks this time, to ensure top results and keep the printer in good shape.
4 Works Great With My Mac Mini
I bought a Mac Mini and needed a new USB or Firewire printer. After much research on the internet I settled on the iP4000. I would like to thank all the people who have taken the time to write reviews on this printer as I based my purchasing decision solely on the "word of web" so to speak. And you all were right!! This is a great printer. Relatively cheap ink, fast, fairly quiet, and great looking prints. Having graduated from a 9 Pin dot matrix printer (Atari computer) to an Epson 600 inkjet with my last Mac (PM 6500), I am amazed at how much the quality of printing has improved and how much more bang you get for the buck. BTW, I have the iP4000 plugged into a dome shaped Kensington USB 2.0 hub and absolutely no problems. Count me as another satisfied customer.
5 Awesome printer for the price
I'm not a diehard techie, but this printer is awesome. I replaced a Canon S520 due to me screwing it up trying to clean it. My bad, Read the Directions!. Anyhoo, my father in law just replaced his old HP with one of these Canon IP4000's and I was uber impressed with the photo print quality. It wasn't a hard investigation into a new printer choice.
(I tried the "off brand" ink refills with my 520, and if you are just printing text, it wasn't that bad. For pics, I will never buy off brand ink or paper again.)
I like the Canon printers because of the individual ink tanks. You can replace them as they run out, not as one unit, leaving valuable ink still inside the bad cartridge.
In addition, a past Consumer Reports listed the Canon as having (don't quote me) the second cheapest cost per print (ink/paper) when using their namebrand products. That's what sold me on the S520. The printer is much quieter than the S520, prints faster, (in my opinion) and I love the dual paper feeds. It also has a nicer appearance on my desk. My only complaint is when it is picking up paper from the lower enclosed tray, it makes a loud machine noise. I'll live with it.
I paid $99 after rebates, and it will probably be the best money spent in a long time.
If you are in the market for a printer, and you are reading these reviews, than you have been leaning in the right direction for an inexpensive, quality printer. You won't be disappointed.
6 A printer, that is perfect for the cat owner.
Really good printer, replaced my old Epson Stylus, that emptied very expensive ink carts, just by turning it on.
The Epson usualy emptied my colour cart, only by the automatic and often occuring headcleaning on startup & printing.
Perfect for my cat too, I just use the lower paper compartment, keeping the top lid closed, with a piece of cloth on top.
My old Epson was really making strange grating noises from the gravel and dirt, that came from my outdoor type of cat, when he slept on the printer.
The best feature on this printer for me, is that there is a separate, large black ink cart, as I usually only print text.
Was thinking of buying a colour laser, but then I understood, from a review on druckerchannel.de, that this inkjet is as cheap, or cheaper than a laser on b/w text output.
And much better quality, when printing pictures.
7 WOW...such wonderful photos for such a low price!!!!
I did my homework before buying the Canon ip4000, and I am glad I did, or else I might never have found this gem of a printer. I looked at Epsons, HP's, and Lexmark's, but none of them seemed to get the rave reviews or offer the options that the Canon ip4000 did. It really is a wonderful printer.
The photos (which I was hoping would be as wonderful as I had heard) actually are as wonderful if not more so than I had heard. It is hard to describe just how great they are until you see them yourself. Using the Canon Photo Pro paper, the photos turn out stunning and sturdier/thicker than those you would get from a developer, and they even have the old smell of photos taken back when we all used to use real film. The colors in the photos pop off the page with lifelike vividness, and the detail gotten from the 5 ink cartridges rivals if not exceeds any printer having more than 5. I even really like the black and white photos I have printed so far...they are awesome!Canon truly has won the race when it comes to printing gorgeous photos, with this printer. It is fabulous!
Aside from the photos being spectacular, the printer itself is sleek and modern looking. It goes well with the black PC's so popular today. It is also super quiet, and very fast, producing borderless 4X6 prints in about 35 seconds. Text prints off even faster and is top notch as well. This is one of the things that made me choose this one over the ip6000...it's ability to print great text, even better text than the 6000. Because I am using this for equal amounts of text and photo printing, having good quality in both areas was very important to me and greatly influenced my decision to buy the ip4000.
Although I have read that people had trouble getting this printer set-up, it isn't difficult. Read the color and picture coded directions that come with the printer and it's a snap. I had mine up and running within 20 minutes, using Windows XP and a computer less than 4 months old.
The only thing I will say that I don't like about this printer is that it doesn't come with a USB cord, and I thought this is something that should have been included. So, this means you will have to buy a USB on your own, which will run you about $15-$25 (depending on how long you want the cord to be and where you buy it). It also only comes with 4 sheets of the 4X6 paper, so you might want to pick up some of this too when you purchase the printer. Other than that I have no complaints at all. It really is a wonderful piece of machinery, and when you see your first photo from this little gem, you too will say the same thing...so what are waiting for? Get out there and buy this printer. You WILL love it!!!!
8 Great on Apple Macintosh OS X
I use this thing on my 10.3 OS X G4 and it works like a charm. I bought it about 4 months ago and it has put a smile on my face every time I print something. Setup install followed Apple's philosophy of how software should just run. I did have to install it on all my computers for the network printing to work right.
On the cheap-o multi-purpose paper I use, I get black and white text that looks better than my laser printers at work--I think my multi-purpose paper is a little nicer than their 'copy paper.'
9 Awesome, Awesome, Awesome
This printer is great! The price is way too low for such an awesome printer. Everyone says to me all the time, "Did you print these at home?" They are very shocked when I say yes. :)
10 Very Pleased
I've had this printer for approximately five months. It produces excellent text and photos - and is quick as well. I use the printer infrequently, and unlike my previous Epson photo printer, I was very pleased to see that the print nozzles do not clog from lack of use. When first turned on there is a waiting period while the printer goes through an automatic cleaning cycle, but this does not appear to be too wastefull, and apparently avoids the clogging problem. I recommend this all purpose printer highly.
11 WOW! So impressed for such a low price-exceeded expectation!
I needed to replace an older printer and dreaded it due to all the different printers out there! I did extensive research on amazon, epinions, pc world, etc. etc. and after reading many reviews, finally settled on the Canon Pixma iP4000. I ordered and received this in February and had a nice rebate on it to make it even more affordable! We have been more than impressed - easy to set up (OS - XP professional)....prints out fast and clear and the pictures - WOW!
Having recently spent over $180 in getting a years worth of digital pictures printed at the local camera shop- the quality of these is just as good! I used the sample Canon Papaer Pro paper and really clear, fabulous prints.. I have since printed out about 75 photots and all look great... I higly recommend this printer and so pleased with my purchase!
12 Could not be more pleased.
My husband chose this printer and we could not be more pleased with it. I, who has no techie expertise, set it up and installed it myself. It was a breeze. I then figured out how to print photos in about 15 minutes, and decided to test it out using the paper that came along with the printer. Wow! The photos we printed look just like they came from a good photo lab. We were amazed. Later, I tried printing photos on Kodak paper and did not get nearly as high quality a print, so I guess it is important to use Canon paper. But, wow! What a great printer. Have I mentioned we could not be more pleased?
13 Very satisfied!
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!
14 The real scoop on "offers"
Don't get fooled by the "get it free" offers in the "reviews" posted here. Spammers are just harvesting email addresses!
How can somebody afford to give away expensive printers just for signing up for some trial offers? Answer: they can't!
The San Francisco Chronicle has verified these programs definitely are not what they claim to be. Search on Google or sfgate.com for "David Lazarus Free iPod not really" and you'll see what the scammers running these programs are really doing.
15 Beware of fake offers!
Don't get sucked in by the "get it free" scams in the fake reviews posted here. Spammers are just harvesting email addresses for their ridiculous products.
Think about it for a moment. How can somebody afford to give away expensive gadgets just for signing up for some trial offers? Answer: they can't!
The San Francisco Chronicle confirms says these offers are bogus. Search sfgate.com or Google for "David Lazarus Free iPod not really" and you'll see what the jokers running these programs are really doing.
16 Best use of dual paper option
I agree with most of these reviews -- this printer is an awesome value -- after years of suffering through HP's tricolor cartridge scalping, the separate ink tank solution is a godsend. One important tip -- some reviewers will recommend that you place photo paper in the sliding paper tray (horizontal, beneath the printer) and plain paper in the vertical (top) tray. This approach will send the coated paper through a tight print path that can lead to paper jams and cracked coatings. Best to use plain paper in the bottom tray and only load photo paper in the vertical tray as needed.
17 very useful printer
This really hits the spot for everything I wanted in a printer - good photo quality, but also useful for everyday b&w documents (that's why it has two black ink tanks - couldn't agree more with that feature). You do have to be careful to visit the driver when setting up for photo printing. Very good Windows printer. I'm using it with a Fuji Finepix S5100 camera, on a Windows 2000 platform. I'm old school so I'm connecting through the parallel port rather than USB, but it's good that it has ports for both types of connections. (Bought it from Amazon - quick delivery!)
My main complaint is that I can't print to it from my Linux box, even over the network via CUPS, but I think that will get sorted out in time.
18 Prints well right out of the box
After reading some reviews, I hesitated but went with the majority that were positive. It seems they were right. This printer is a dandy. It is my first encounter with a Cannon Printer. I especially like being able to replace only the color that runs out. The brand I used for the last two printers did not have this feature and lots of color ink were wasted.
The printing of photos with a 5MP Cannon Powershot S500 are incredible - I speak as one new to the digital camera market. Hope this helps.
19 Beware -- not really Mac compatible
This is a nice little Windows printer. For my Windows output, I like it. If I had only a Windows box, I might give it 4 or 5 stars.
But while the PIXMAs are marketed as Mac compatible, this is misleading. The drivers from Canon are basically non-standard and don't work with CUPS. This means that the printer cannot be used by a Mac over a network, something which is mentioned nowhere in the documentation. I spent hours trying to get the thing to work before looking at the Discussions forum at the Apple website, where I saw about a million postings of people with the same problem. On the Canon site and in the documentation, nothing.
So be careful! This printer is not what it is advertised to be.
20 Great Photo Printer, once the print driver is tweaked.
This printer prints super fast and quiet also. The multi-color cartiridge with empty sensor allows you to only change the color that is empty. Text pages punch out quick and sharp. Out of the box, don't expect photos to print all that well without tweaking the print driver to optimize for photos. They turned out pretty pixelated. You will have to read about all the setting in the manual in order to understand what all the settings are for. Took me about 8 different settings and prints to get the results I was looking for in photos. Once that was done, the photo prints were excellent!! From the lab-like quality and that was with kodak paper which everyone seems to have problems with that brand jamming. Would have given 5 stars if it weren't for the intensive driver work required for good photos, which may be a little overwhelming for the average user looking for a photo printer. The bottom line is Excellent Prints, make sure you read the manual.
21 Great buy!
Great buy! Easy setup. I was printing photos in minutes. Print quality is excellent. Software includes "Easy-WebPrint" which automatically sizes web pages to fit width-wise on paper...no more cropping of the right quarter or fifth of the webpage being printed. Paper can be fed from the tray on top or the cassette. Also has a USB port on the front for ease of plugging in additional USB devices.
22 Lab quality prints, great price all around
Quite simply, I wanted a printer that gave me 1) lab-quality prints in 2) any size up to 8 1/2 x 11 that was 3) quick & easy to use, with or without a PC. (My wife is PC-adverse and wants pictures on-demand.) The Canon PIXMA ip4000 delivers.
I looked very closely at the HP Photosmart 8450, Epson PictureMate and Stylus RX500, even the entry-level HiTi. It seemed I would either be paying $250 or more to do sizes over 4x6, or just doing 4x6 to get great quality at reasonable price. Fortunately, I was able to find a printer that could deliver across the board. I had narrowed things down and was leaning towards the $200+ HP until I started looking at the per-picture printing costs, and the PIXMA then became a no-brainer.
I am not a professional photographer, but I am framing and displaying pictures printed from the PIXMA around the house. I have not been disappointed.
23 Gorgeous prints.
I bought this last night after reading reviews. Though I've printed only about five pictures, I've done the same one on all, comparing on a few papers (one of which was printed from a store kiosk).
These 4X6 that I used look incredible on the canon Photo Pro Paper (you get 5 with the printer, but they cost around $30 retail for 75 sheets). I've also tried some cheap low-gloss kodak stuff (print job looked like hell), and HP's top of the line paper (about half the price of canon's best). The HP prints looked good, but not quite as good as on the canon paper.
Like I said, I also compared this with a kiosk print from a drugstore, and this printer does a better job. To my great surprise, when you print this on the good photo pro paper and look at it from all angles it looks simply like a normal 35mm print; what I mean is, if you print on lower quality paper (or use a drug store print) and then look at it on angles it looks almost as if the picture is layered: as colors change across the picture you see nasty ridges. However, no such ridges _at all_ with this IP4000 and the photo pro paper.
So, this review is as much for the good paper as the printer, but to make a very long story short, this printer has finally given me confidence in the quality of home-created digital photographs.
Awesome printer! I don't know if it's much better than the $50-cheaper IP3000, but I'm very pleased that for $150 I've now got an incredible printer :)
For my rambling you can rate this review negatively if you like!
24 Simply awesome.
(...)
This is my first photo-enabled printer and I must say I'm impressed with it. I was expecting good quality but nothing close to a regular film print. This printer instead delivered a close match (certainly not the same) which left me positively surprised.
I decided to buy this printer because I wanted to print some of my photos, maybe not the best ones (for which I would only get them from a studio), but those who I liked and wanted around the house.
The article on "Tom's Hardware" was a decisive factor in choosing this printer over the IP5000 or the Epson. Especially the very low cost per picture.
25 Satisfied Customer
I am very pleased with this printer. It was a breeze to install and prints clean, crisp copies. The noise level is low and it's much quieter than my previous printer. Amazon delivery was also very prompt. I'm grateful for the Amazon reviews which prompted me to purchase this top notch printer, as it's well worth the money.
26 Great photo printer for cheap....
Mine cost about $100 after coupons and discounts at OD. I got this as a replacement for my Canon S900 which clogged up, and it costs less to just go ahead and buy a new printer than try to fix the old one. I got it primarily for photo printing. And it does a great job at that using Canon photo paper. Fine detail, great contrast and flesh tone rendition, hard to tell from the camera shop. Amazing for a $100 printer with only 3 colors and 2 blacks. My wife is very critical of photos and she even likes these! As far as text, this is not so good but it is not as important for me. The big pluses: very fast, quiet, duplex printing, 2 trays, very frugal with the inks, and excellent photos. Not much to complain about, hope it lasts longer than the 2 years the S900 did....
Edit 4/16/2005:
I installed another printer on my computer a couple of days ago and it made the Pixma print badly. It seems having a Dell 540 dye sub photo printer on the same computer causes a conflict which messes up the Canon output (makes odd streaks). The Pixma is now on another computer on the network.
27 Paper recommendations for ip4000
I found nothing to dislike about this printer except for performance on plain paper, expecially in Standard Quality. I have tried different papers (Hammermill, HP, Office Depot, Kodak) on this printer and finally found somewhat a match for it for both text and graphics. Here it is:
Plain: Kodak Bright White Inkjet Paper (110+ brightness, 24 lb. 90 g/m2, $6.00 at Office Depot). Works with either Standard or High quality plain paper setting.
Plain (second choice): Office Depot Color Inkjet paper.
(HP Bright White is terrible for this printer in Standard mode. It produces smears for blue. Hammermill is not much better.)
High Quality: Epson Matte Paper - Heavyweight. This paper is excellent for color photos when you set the driver to use Matte Paper Photo or High Resolution paper.
Hope that helped.
28 Very good printer at an affordable price
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...
29 Outstanding Printer!!!!
I have been using the Lexmark Z series printer for far tooo long now!! I used to spend almost $40.00 on the cartridges and have a MAJOR mess to deal with when I tried to fill it. And the printer was very noisy and limited.
I had read all the reviews on the Canon iP4000, and found the best price right hear on Amazon.com! I have been printing photos galore! Printing on quality plain paper is almost as good. The printer is almost silent! It does an excellant job!! I couldn't be happier!
The negative reviews are from people who can't follow the set-up instructions.
30 Excellent All-Around Printer!
This printer is great for printing anything from text documents to photos. Everything prints incredibly fast!
Photos look like they were developed in a photo lab and they print in about 30-40 seconds. Just incredible! I do recommend the canon photo paper, believe me, the paper does make a difference. Don't try to save money by buying cheap paper.
There are two paper trays; one can be used for regular paper and one for photo paper. This thing also has duplex printing, which works as fast as those huge laser printers and has the same, if not better, quality.
This printer is also very quiet. I have two other printers and this one is by far the quietest. A pleasant surprise.
Overall a great printer for photos, text, and just about anything else. I looked at a bunch of printers including HP, Epson, and Canon, and this Canon iP4000 is by far the best. It prints much better than those $250 printers. I bought mine for $120 on sale at Best Buy.
This printer is quality. It has 5 individual ink tanks, two of them are black: one of them is for regular text and one for photos. The photo black is key for nice looking photos. The other colors are the three traditional colors: yellow, magenta, and cyan. Don't think that extra ink colors make a difference, I looked at those printers and they printed worse than the Canon iP4000.
I read all the reviews on the different websites including Consumer Reports, Amazon, and a bunch of other professional reviews. This printer is one of the best on the market!
31 Great Mac Printer
Within 25 minutes I was printing, 10 minutes to unpack and 15 for setup and installation. I have an iMac G5 and it took about 5 minutes for software installation, a reboot and about another 3-5 minutes for printer head allignment. I printed a 9 page b&w/color doc which took about 1 minute to prep and 2 minutes to print. The quality is great and the ink was dry by the time I pulled it from the tray. I used the top paper loader and did not have any problems with paper jams. There was little noise with the prep and printing, I had an Epson c82 that was a few years old that you could hear throughout the house. I havn't tried photo printing yet but don't expect too many problems. Reasons why I chose the iP4000, size, separate ink cartridges, the price of ink replacement, printer noise and ease of setup.
If you use the top loader, make sure you pull out the extender on the tray, if not your paper will fly off the printer. There are no memory card slots but there is USB on the front for plugging a camera into. Another nice feature with the ink cartridges, there is a pull tab to open the plastic wrap and a quick turn plastic piece covering the ink. This may be a minor detail but with Epson ink you needed sissors to open the packages.
Overall, I was very impressed with the setup and ease of use. If you are looking for a new printer, look at this one. The separate ink was my main reason for this printer. There are 2 blacks one for color printing and the other for b&w which is nice.
32 A great printer at a great price!
I received this printer yesterday, and couldnt wait to hook it up and try it, after reading all the rave reviews about it. I was not at all disappointed when the first print came out. This printer prints better than any printer I have ever seen! The pictures DO look like they came from the developer. Colors are crisp and true to life. Printing is fast. Nice feature is that you can have photo paper in the cassette tray below the printer and have regular paper in the multipurpose tray on top. I hate Epsons, had a HP882C, and now this one. Canon, you have outdone yourself this time! Thank You! This printer prints like a $300 printer. You will not be disappointed. Guaranteed.
33 Forget About Printing Photos On Plain Paper
My old Canon S520 finally died. It was a great printer. I replaced it with a Pixma iP4000. My primary use of printers is to print photos on heavier plain paper such as Hammermill Color Cover Copy 80 Pound. The S520 did an excelent job of this. The Pixma does a terrible job. No amount of tweaking will bring the results up to acceptable. Photos on photo paper are fine.
34 USA Models Have Disabled CD/DVD Printing Tray
People are fed up with printer manufacturers having cartridges with sponges that don't refill well (Lexmark), or smart chips that prevent refills (Epson), not to mention HP's methods including "Expired Cartridge" messages, etc. If we don't, as consumers, vote "no" by not buying these printers and sending letters to CEO's we'll just get more of the same scamming. I was excited to read about Canon Pixma IP3000 & up models with separate ink-tanks & no smart chips. Examining all the Pixma models at a local store I noticed this extra pull down tray in the front-middle. After going home to look online, talking to Canon tech support and the local store meantime checking on it...it's a disabled/never will work CD/DVD printing bay. Yet the same models in Europe have a working CD/DVD print bay. Why did Canon USA leave the drop down tray there, only plugging the CD/DVD entry slot with an extra piece of plastic if it can never be functional or upgraded anyway? The USA price does not reflect the non-functional CD/DVD printing either. So I will (doubtedly) try to get a Euro model or wait for Canon to release USA models that are fully functional. I may end up temporarly buying the Epson R200 but I feel like I should be ashamed supporting Epson and their smart-chip scam. There is a chip resetter device (avg. $10 to $15) but I don't know if it works well yet. Forget Lexmark unless you have money to burn on cartridges. And there's concern about Epson printers wasting/spraying ink all over the inside (read all R200 reviews) that soon causes problems (dries solid/hard). The Canon has ink tanks with no smart chips, look easily refillable, and their print head underneath the ink tanks holder is also removable (i.e. replacable, but I don't know what that will cost. If other printers' print heads go you pretty much resort to trashing the printer). I believe some Canon models use up ink by frequently running it's own cleaning cycles but don't know if that applies to Pixma line also. If they are tanks that refill well than that is probably okay. It looks like the Pixma line is leading the way in printing and cartridge technology. Canon: Kudos for heading a little more environmetally responsible with the Pixmas obviously designed for long-term usage in mind but PLEASE get those CD/DVD printing trays functional soon!
35 Great Start, but Fussy About Paper
This was my first Canon printer and I was stunned at its initial performance. It produces photos that at 4x6 come close to the dye-sub prints you get commercially. But after living with the 4000 for a few months, I am planning to scrap it and go back to the Epson InJets or HP Lasers I relied on for years.
I find this printer to be extremely easy to jam with letter-size paper, even when using stock with specifications right in the middle of Canon's recommended range. I may have been spoiled by the Epsons and HPs over the years where you could throw anything including a shingle at them and they would print it out. It doesn't seem to be a problem with photo paper, only letter-size stock. None of the cleaning routines built into the printer seem to help. I could keep it as a dedicated casual photo printer, but there are many better dedicated photo printers out there like the HiTi dye-sub.
Using premium InkJet paper with this printer I can rarely get more than two printed sheets without a jam. It wasn't like this out of the box, so I suspect that the roller design allows them to get dirty easy and the cleaning routines for the machine aren't adequate to clean it thoroughly.
I was planning to get the Canon MPX780 when it was released next month for my wife's SOHO. It uses the same engine as the PIXMA series and produces incredible quality. But given how cranky and unreliable this unit is, I'm changing plans. I'll be replacing this one and finding something more reliable for the SOHO.
Your experience may vary from mine, but consider my experince before you spend your money.
36 Defective after printing 2 photos
I searched through all of the photo printer reviews and settled on buying this printer. I set it up, printed 2 photos, and now it makes loud cracking noises and won't print anything because the print head is not alligned correctly. I called customer service and was told that I will have to take it to someone for repair. Of course, I haven't had time to do this for 4 months now. I live in Manhattan and lugging this big printer across town is not easy. I just wanted a printer that would be easy to set up and use...to SAVE time...instead of developing film the traditional way. For now this printer is just collecting dust.
37 This printer is INCREDIBLE!
I was in the market for a new printer after my second Epson died. I decided to do some research here and on a few other sites before running out to buy a new one. I chose this model due to the excellent reviews on every site regarding the Cannon PIXMA series. I chose this particular model due to the duplex print capability.
When I got the printer home I had a slight problem installing it but that was due to a program that was running so it was my fault not the product or software. After I closed that program and re-booted it installed very quickly. I was off and printing in a matter of minutes.
The reviews I read say that the photo quality is not as good with other than Cannon paper. I disagree, I printed some photos on the 4x6 Cannon paper that came with the printer and then printed some on some photo paper I got at Staples. I can't see any difference, they are all excellent quality.
What I DO see is that this printer puts out FAR superior photos than any Epson I have ever owned and I am totally impressed with that! They truly look like I just went to the local store and picked them up. I printed a few photos for a friend a couple of weeks ago on the Epson with that same Staples paper, the photos I just printed on this Cannon are MUCH better.
The borderless feature is probably quite common now but I'm loving it. The Easy Photo Print software that comes with this printer is GREAT! I'll admit that I am not a manual reader so that program fits me perfectly. No need to read anything it's pretty self explanitory on the screen as you are doing it. You can print single photos, they automatically adjust to the size of the paper and you can print contact sheets or combine photos on 8.5 X 11 paper with or without borders all by clicking on the different options that come up on the screen.
The duplex option is SO wonderful. Really works well, I have always hated printing a webpage or e-mail and the only thing on the second page is one line so you've wasted a page on nothing.. This eliminates that, "Easy WebPrint" installs right with the printer and you just click "duplex" on the task bar and thats it.... The easy webprint also formats the print out to fit the page so you don't have the cut off that you usually get on the right margin.
Bottom line, this baby is worth the low price!
38 Best Printer in Several Price Ranges
The enthusiasm written below is sufficient for me to keep this brief. I've used HP for years, and never thought I'd buy anything Canon. Stated simply, you will not find a printer that will perform its various tasks as well as the Canon Pixma ip4000. Absolutely excellent photos, fine text and virtually faultless printing. This is not to say that extremely cultured eyes will not find some performance aspect to be less than the highest end printers, but factoring those printer's costs renders comparisons moot. A pro could use this without apology, and when you think of what the unit costs, there is simply nothing out there in this price range (or several above!) that can match it. (I found mine for $119 at CompUsa.)
One note about the bundled OS X software: it works but it's creaky. It runs like an app that's been quickly ported to the Mac OS X, but not really perfected. So it will work but be patient. Most users will have iPhoto or Photoshop anyway, so don't let that stop you. You cannot go wrong with this machine.
39 Great inkjet printer
When my HP printer died, I searched around and found this printer on Amazon. I could not be happier. The quality is fantastic (especially when set to "high print quality"), and it prints photos as well as Walmart's digital photocenter. The ink is in individual tanks, so you don't have to go and buy every color when all you really need is one. The tanks are clear, so you can see how low your ink is at all times helping you to insure that you don't run out of ink while printing out a critical project. The black is much much cheaper than my HP's black ink cartridges (HP about $26 and Canon's being about $13).
If I were to have a complaint it would be that it is very slow printing the first page. After it prints the first page, the following pages print much more quickly.
I never thought that I would say this, but I like this printer much better than my HP printer.
40 Another outstanding Canon product...
I bought this printer for our au pair to use with her digital camera and laptop based on my experience with the bigger, more expensive i900D printer. In many ways I now envy her.
This printer is attractive and folds up into a nice, compact block when not in use. It has two paper inputs-a drawer and a top feed slot. If you use the drawer there isn't any need to really unfold much of the printer and you avoid the annoying curl that paper sometimes develops standing up (on other printers--haven't had that problem with either Canon really).
It prints quickly and quietly. On black text it is much faster than my other printer, in part because it uses the higher-capacity 3e black cartridge. Color is of high quality, but not quite as good as the Canon printers that use six color cartridges. There are up models of the same printer that provide the additional quality for real photo junkies. The difference is at best marginal, though. You might never notice.
One thing I really like about this printer is its simplicity. Unlike some printers, it doesn't feature nine zillion controls. The printer drivers give you good control, so having just one button on the printer ("power") is very elegant.
The color ink cartridges are a bit small and they aren't super cheap. Serious printing in color will use them up quickly and I've taken to buying them from the Canon website in bulk. Unlike some printers, though, you can see through the Canon cartridges and will feel comfortable that you aren't tossing ink in the trash.
The software is very good and the printer installed easily. All-in-all a very good printer at an excellent price.
41 Excellent color photos, easy set-up
I received my printer yesterday, replacing my outdated Epson Sylus 740i. Set up took about 10 minutes with easy to follow instructions. Today I did an experiment printing color photos, without any type of editing, from the program given with the Canon printer vs. the JASC paint shop photo album software that came with my new Dell PC. Comparing both, I have decided the photos made from the Canon software are better images, more true color and sharper. The Canon software is also much easier to follow to perform certain tasks to edit or set up your pictures before printing. I read all of these reviews before purchasing this printer and am happy to add my positive comments to them.
42 One Purchase You Won't Regret
I purchased the Canon Pixma ip4000 two weeks ago to go with my Canon A75 dig cam and I am hugely impressed. Out of the box and running in less than 15 minutes, including the software installation. Generally, I'm no big fan of bundled software and normally choose to do a custom install. If you're like me, be sure to install the Easy Photo Print utility - it makes choosing the paper size and type, photo layout, and previewing a breeze. Haven't touched the other features, but I haven't had a reason to yet.
The ip4000 whipped out a 12 page doc with a few graphics in less than three minutes...but I did not buy this printer for printing docs...I bought it for printing pics. So, how does it do? Most excellent! The reason I sat down to write this review, when there are so many other favorable ones already, is to summarize my adventures with photo paper. Despite the advice of many others here at Amazon, I was lured by the buy-one-get-one-free sale a local chain was running on HP photo paper. Do Not Waste Your Money Or Your Time! Buy the Canon paper and be done with it, you won't regret it.
In a nutshell, I picked one photo of my very adorable, 4 year old son, and I printed it on both the HP paper and the Canon paper. I did two rounds. In the first round I told the printer that I was using Canon Pro paper for both prints and in the second round I told the printer that I was using glossy paper. I wanted to see if the results were determined by the paper or by the printer settings. It is most definitely the paper that produces the results. Regardless of what I set the printer to, the pictures on the Canon Pro paper are hard to distinguish from those I get back from the lab. No matter what I set the printer to, the photos on the HP paper are not worthy of the movement of my fingers to type how truly bad they turned out. Straight into the trash they went, along with the unused paper.
I've read in other reviews for Canon printers that the paper is made for the ink, or vice-versa. I couldn't say if it is simply the quality of Canon paper, or if the ink and paper really are designed to work with one another, without hooking up a different brand printer and doing a run. I don't really care, and you probably don't either. I want a printer that is easy to use, has some well thought out engineering and produces pictures that aren't a waste of my time or money. The Canon paper and the Canon printer do this exceptionally well, and this is all I need to know.
There are plenty of other great things I could say about this printer, but the other reviewers pretty much have that covered. Bottom line for me is that the printer, the ink, and the Pro paper are all less expensive than Canon's competitors, and together they produce fantastic pictures.
Happy Holidays!
43 Best purchase I've ever made
I've replaced a 10 year old Apple color printer with this iP4000 and couldn't be more pleased! First photo print looked as though it came from a photo lab.Simple to understand and use and Cannon's tech support is second to none! I purchased after buying a Cannon digital camera because I was so very happy with the camera and now have ordered a Cannon scanner as well.
44 great printer for documents and digital photos
For those who need to print documents here and there, like for college papers, or for those who take digital photos for fun, this printer is great and inexpensive for its performance.
Documents have minimal feathering - only the closest inspection will reveal them, and the print speed is good, but still slightly slower than laser. All types of graphics come out well, too.
I know people who take photos as a serious hobby, and nothing beats film photos, but the digital photos the iP4000 makes are not bad. From 12 inches out, they look as good as any film photo. Any closer and you'll see any number of pixels depending on your camera and picture settings quality.
After playing with this printer and making photos a while longer, I read CNET.com's new review and the critics there said the iP4000 is ACTUALLY better for photo prints than the iP5000! The pros there said that the Canon i9900 and PIXMA iP8500 are amongst the best photo printers out there, but they cost like $300-$400.
I also recommend telling the printer that you are always using Canon photo paper or printing paper, since the printer seems to print less well on non-Canon brand papers FOR NO REASON THAN TO BOOST CANON SALES! But you could buy Canon ink for $6 while HP printers require $30 inks or more, so for that reason, Canon is still the better product.
45 Excellent print quality for an almost unbeatable price!
As a college student about to move away from home, I found myself in need of a new computer and printer. After looking at several different models made by Canon, Epson, and Hewlett-Packard, I decided to go with Canon's PIXMA iP4000 for several reasons. For school purposes, I didn't really need a photo printer, but the price was excellent - one of the cheapest in the store, in fact - and it's definitely been worth it. I also liked the fact that this printer has separate black cartridges for regular printing and for photo printing, so the ink doesn't need to be replaced as often.
It's now been about two months since I purchased this printer and thus far I've encountered no disappointments. It prints very quickly. Regular documents take only seconds per page and come out crisp and clear. Photo printing is advertised as taking about 36 seconds. Mine take about 50 when printing at high quality, not including the few seconds of delay before printing actually starts, but this is still perfectly sufficient for my needs.
Printing is almost silent for photos, though somewhat noisier for regular documents. I also like the fact that there are two paper trays, so I can keep plain white paper in the standard feeder and photo paper in the cassette beneath, and can switch between the two with just the push of a button.
The photo quality when printing on Canon's 4''x6'' Photo Paper Plus Glossy (when I bought my printer at CompUSA, they included a 50-sheet package for free) is outstanding. It's almost impossible to tell the difference between this and a genuine lab-printed photograph. If you hold the prints at an angle to the light there will sometimes be one or two faint horizontal lines, but they are hardly noticeable. The printer also comes with a free 5-sheet sample package of 4''x6'' Canon Photo Paper Pro which seems to be just as nice, though slightly less glossy than the Photo Paper Plus Glossy.
You can also, in theory, connect a digital camera to the printer with a USB cable and print photos directly from the camera. Unfortunately I have not been able to try out this feature because my camera is not PictBridge / Canon Bubble Jet Direct compatible. However, loading the photos from my camera onto my computer and printing them from there is very simple and doesn't take much longer.
The iP4000 is not quite as aesthetically pleasing as it could be, but it isn't unattractive either. The unit is a little bulky, especially when all the trays are extended, and takes up a significant amount of desk space. However, this is the least of my concerns. For all printing purposes, I've found nothing to complain about. Setting up the printer is also fast and simple. The instruction manual is clear and easy to follow and I've had no problems whatsoever. I'm very happy with my purchase and would certainly recommend this printer to anyone.
46 can't beat it for the $
I won't repeat all of what others have said in previous reviews, but...
It's hard to find reasons not to like this printer, and I'm quite picky about gadgets. Great features include two paper sources (tray and traditional feeder) so you can have different papers available at all times (such as photo and plain). Duplex printing is also very effective. VERY quiet and fast, it produces excellent photos and text. Five ink tanks (2 for black...one standard, one for photos) reduce cartridge costs. All magazine tests and reviews I've read confirm that Canon is the least expensive to operate over time (HP printers cost the most). The only slightly irritating feature is the way the front door opens...it slams down unless you hold it and lower slowly by hand.
A great mulit-purpose printer that's a real bargain for the price.
47 Great Printer!!
An easy to use, high quality printer! Prints effeciantly without sacrificing quality. Also, it's very quiet! Excellent photo quality!!
48 Great printer, you want believe how good it is.
I don't have much to add beyond what others have said. This printer is pretty fast, does great on pictures. And generally just does a nice job. This is my first non-HP printer. My Photosmart 1000 died, but I don't miss it now.
Individuals ink cartridges are nice. The way it closes up completely when not in use is very nice in a home environment. I will say the various trays and such when folded out seem pretty flimsy. They haven't been a problem they just don't engender a feeling of solidity. But everything works great. This did keep me from giving it 5 stars however.
When closed up reminds me of a mid-50's styling somehow. Not in a bad way, just different than some other styles.
But where else do you get a machine that prints pretty quickly, very nicely and does very well as a photo printer for such a low price. Even better, it can print on both sides of the paper. Too good.
49 Great Printer! You won't be sorry...
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!
50 Canon i4000 printer
Having read about this model, I couldn't wait to try it out. It delivers! SILENT, fast and colorful! I'm usually an Epson guy, but this may have convinced me to switch. The ink NEVER RUNS OUT...unlike my thirsty Epsons ( 880 & 1280). Having a cassette for glossy 4x6 photos and the sheet feeder for text is a great way to go. After 4 months, I have no complaints and still working on my first ink cartridges. 4x6 glossy highest quality drops in 55 seconds. Text flies at about 10 (real) pages per minute! As much as I love this one, I can't help but wonder about the double resolution of the i5000...but who could ever tell in a 4x6 photo!?!
51 Exceptional printer!
I didn't realize how blurred my pages and pictures printed until I got this new printer, and then it all became clear! This printer has clean, accurate printing, it is fast for printing text, and my photos turn out beautifully! I also love the feature of separate ink cartridges for color, because it has saved a BUNDLE on ink! In fact, I have saved the cost of another printer! It is also a sleek looking unit, when all closed up. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that it gets a little bulky when the paper trays are open (which they must be in order to function, of course!) All together, though, this is the best printer I've ever owned.
52 A great new line.....
Well, after owning an HP Deskjet 970 and a Canon i860 for the last 2 years, I thought I'd try the new Canon Pixma line. I bought both the Pixma i5000 and the Pixma i4000. Canon claims that the i5000 is the new flagship model, but I've found that I'm very satisfied with the i4000. While the i5000 boasts a much higher color resolution capability, after printing out a dozen 4"x6", a dozen 5"x7", and a dozen 8.5"x11" photos, the photo quality was comparable. Now, I'm just a run-of-the-mill Prosumer, but I find tremendous value in the i4000. The photos came out crisp, clear, with very little noise and moderate saturation. Skin tones were soothing, and the colors that were vibrant in real life translated the same on Canon High Gloss paper.
I've found text to be sharper in HP, in general, but for everyday home office applications, you'll find the Pixma i4000 will suit you just fine.
53 Great value for the money
I needed a photo printer to go with my new 3ccd video camera, and picked this up at CompUSA for $79.95 as an opening day special after agonizing over the many models to choose from. After spending a fortune on cartridges for my Lexmark printer (around $32 each); I opted for the Canon since it uses 5 separate ink tanks at arond $5 each when an individual color runs dry. I am no technophobe, but installation was very easy to follow out of the box and I printed my first 4x6 picture in about 15 min from the start using an SD card and reader, and the resulting photo was even better than I ever expected! Just from this 1st effort I am convinced to go strictly digital for the quality and cost savings. I am totally happy with this machine and sure than anyone else will be as well.
54 FANTASTIC Printer !!!!!
That must of been a fluke with the last reviewer and the print head being used. Mine was sealed and is working perfectly!
Ive had this printer about 2 weeks now and I love this Printer. It prints Excellent photo's. All my friends and Family are amazed at the quality this baby spits out. Its an all around Great printer. I Highly recommend it. :)
55 Great printer for printing photos and type
Well, I haven't used an inkjet printer in a while, and let me tell you that, judging by this printer, they've really come into their own. I honestly no longer want a laser printer -- this printer does everything very well. Initally, I gave this printer 3 stars because of a print head problem, but now I think I'd give it 4 1/2 stars. (Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't let you change your rating, although they did quickly resolve the print head issue.)
The black text ink looks like a laser printer -- it's amazing what that second black cartridge can do. (There's two black cartridges - one that looks good for photos and another that's great for very sharp edges like type. Just make sure you choose the correct options so you don't get the photo black ink for text.) I really recommend this printer if you want to be able to print great text.
The photos are also stellar -- it really does look like a photo from a regular camera. The color matching is very good, and you can't tell the photo was created from a printer. I've had a picture of my little cousin on the refrigerator for about 4 months and despite being in a sunny room, the print has not noticeably faded.
I was also surprised by how fast this printer is. I can print a 4x6 photo in under a minute. Regular black pages spit out quickly, too.
The dual paper trays are a very nice touch. It makes it very easy to quickly pop in a piece of photo paper, then go back to printing on standard paper. It can also print on both sides of the paper, although that does take a bit longer.
56 Best PRINTER I have had yet! A CANON Believer!
What a weekend.... I wore out my second CANON S820 -- AFTER PRINTING MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF GREAT PHOTOS ON IT OVER A FEW YEARS (I LOVED MY CANON S820). Anyway, I went to COMPUSA for a replacement...and was talked in to trying an HP....after returing it disappointed - I was then talked in to trying an Epson....after returning it disappointed... I went back to CANON and I am thrilled with the results.... I do wonder why I was trying to change! I should have just stayed with CANON!!!!! :-) This printer makes great photos with no adjustment reqd..... the HP and Epson didnt offer the same ease and I like the software options best with the CANON also. You can tweak the printing if you so desire much easier on the CANON and have more control than that the Epson or HP.
57 A great inkjet printer
This printer is a great buy and economical to operate. The print quality for photos, graphics and text is excellent. Because Canon uses individual ink cartridges instead of the tri-color units, there is no wasted ink. My existing software, including some of my older programs, had no problems printing to the new Pixma. I love the look of this printer with its sleek lines and black casing. I relied on a Canon color inkjet (one of the first models) for 8 years and it was a great little workhorse. The new Pixma is slow and pulls a lot of memory when printing in high-quality mode, but the resulting images are worth the wait. I print a lot of poster-size photos, large signs and banners; this printer is well-suited to my needs!
58 Quality photo printer with duplex printing, low cost!
I bought this printer one month ago, I upgraded from an Epson Photo Stylus, that has nothing but head clogging from day one. this printer I wanted to wait a month and see how it behaved after sitting for a week without use, etc and ink consumption. I am using this on Apple G4 933, using USB 1.0, OS 10.3.5.
the Canon printer software installed without a hitch, and the interface and options are much more easier to use then the epson drivers were in OS X. I was never able to print on 4x6 borderless prints in my epson, always wanted to print somewhere not where the media was, the Canon is flawless, I have printed to 5x7, and 4x6 photo paper using iPhoto and no problems. beautiful prints! better then what Epson gave me, smaller droplet technology and higher resolution then what my Epson of similar cost provided 2 years ago. I picked this Pixma 400 up for $118 on sale at Office Depot.
you can store your paper in the lower tray, and keep photo paper or CD labels in the top tray, and choose either from the front button on the unit where your printing too, or you can do it via software, this is my only complaint, is in the initial print dialogue box when yo print from OS X this is not an option to choose your source tray, you have to go into media option and then choose from there, by default it will use what the button on the unit is lite for. No biggie. Also duplex is done the same way, an extra 2 stesp to set an option, I think you shoudl have easier access too. once you get used to knowing to set this before printing, everything else is to love about this. printer, never had to clean heads, ink consumption seems to be very low, I have made several prints, speed is very good in all my friends opinions compared to there printers and eye popping quality on canon paper plus or pro paper.
I'm very happy with this product, was considering the i860 or i960 but this won my appeal for the duplex option, whcih helps you save paper when printing websites, Ive even ran HP brochure paper through with asstounding results.
59 Great Printer
I bought this printer last night and had it set up in no time. I printed pictures using the software that came with the printer. No problems...pictures were awesome. Printer is very quiet and pretty fast. Next I hooked up my new Fuji S3100 digital camera directly to the printer. It interfaced perfectly and I printed a sample picture. No problems once again. Haven't tried any basic printing yet since I bought it primarily to print pictures. I've already got my USB ports full so I used the parallel port. Worked fine.
For the price, this is a great printer.
60 Great printer right out of the box
I received the printer yesterday and set it up in about 30 minutes. The software installation took a bit longer in my iMac using the OS 10.3 driver. I also installed the OS 9.2 driver. It gives great output, both text and photos with both OS X and OS 9. I use high quality paper to get best results. It is at least twice the speed of HP 970csi and prints better quality photos.
Pros
1. Quality of output
2. Dual feeds, both top loading tray and front loading cassette. You toggle between them with a button on the front panel.
3. 5 translucent cartridges 2-blk and 3-color so you only replace what you use.
4. Uses the same USB cable as my old HP 970
5. Ease of set up and use
6. Borderless printing
7. Print dialog box shows existing level of ink in the cartridges
Cons
1. Not as quiet as I anticipated, only slightly better than my HP 970
I highly recommend it for light duty use. (I don't know what to expect upon heavy use.)
61 Great Printer
I received my new printer one day ago and it was a breeze to set up. I am using the Mac OSX operating system and the directions given were clear and simple to use. After following the guidlines to check on the print pattern, I uploaded some pictures from my digital camera. The results were better than I have seen from Kodak. I also have a Canon scanner and it worked hand in hand. I like the idea of two separate feed trays. I keep all my copy paper in the bottom tray and use the top feed when I want to print photos.
PS I had a slight problem with my original printer order and Amazon worked out a very nice solution..
62 First impressions: extraordinary technology
I went from a very annoying 5 yo HP ink jet printer to the Pimxa 4000. It is a startling transition; printers have evolved far faster than computers in the past five years.
Other reviewers will comment on images, etc. Suffice to say they are extraordinary, you must use Canon papers and inks, etc etc. Here are some points that you may not read elsewhere.
1. It's a 50 MB driver installation for XP, about 30MB for OS X! Both drivers are complex. I also installed the borderless printing package on my G3 iBook, but it's too slow to be useable. It's also as ugly as Canon's other OS X software. It's an OS 9 app that's been tweaked to run "native" in OS X; I wonder if it uses some proprietary emulation layer. I suspect the OS 9 version of the same package might be faster.
The XP custom install doesn't really let you choose where to put things. The html documentation, for example, ends up in the WINDOWS directory. Weird.
2. They say this is a "5 color" printer, but two of them are black. Marketing!
3. I almost returned this when the other PIXMAS (5000, etc) came to the US market. On review though, this holds up well. The higher numbered PIXMAs below $200 US mostly have unnecessary gizmos. One of them IS a better photo printer (6 inks), but it seems to be ONLY a photo printer. I need something the kids can print color documents on. There's a $300 PIXMA that is clearly superior (7 colors, 2 black) but it's more than I wanted to spend.
4. Most ink jet printers should be used at least weekly, if not every 3-4 days, to keep the nozzles in fine shape. I don't know if that will be true of the PIXMA.
5. This is NOT a simple device. It's not trivial to setup or to use. I would not recommend it for someone who's not a photo geek or fond of studying manuals.
6. There's no way Canon is making any money on this printer. Clearly their margin is on the supplies.
7. Color management is a very dark and extremely misunderstood area. This printer did a plausible job rendering images taken by a Canon camera, processed on a Mac and printed from an XP machine (sRGB profiles on Mac). On the other hand my iBook prints were too yellow. I switched to using ColorSync to control the printing from my iBook. That dramatically slowed printing but produced more plausible colors. I'm still working with this, but I'm currently getting better color results printing from my XP machine than my iBook -- even though all my photos are managed on my iBook.
9. It has a parallel port as well as the USB cable. That seems a bit odd. I can't imagine a machine with power enough to use this printer that wouldn't have a USB cable.
10. I had trouble doing borderless printing. Eventually I figured out the various complexities of print orientation, image size, etc. I can do borderless printing from Adobe Photoshop Elements and from iPhoto and Graphic Converter. It is quite tricky to set up all the various driver configurations however.
63 Canon Pixma IP4000
I read the review on steve's web cam and they were glowing reviews. The statistics on paper were too good to be true, but now that I have this baby on my desktop it is good, and it is true. The things I like most about this printer:
1.) Dual sided printing
2.) USB 2.0 support for speedy printing
3.) Paper slot top feeder and slot at bottom for envelops and other labels.
4.) Very quiet and speedy printing
5.) Pixtabridge support
6.) With only 5 color jets the pictures printed with plain paper look just as good as the behemoth i9900
7.) Borderless printing
8.) Good photo printing support with wallet side photos(x9) and included gloss paper with the printer
It's a great printer and I am glad that I bought it. Newegg rocks and I got it cheaper here than my normal shopping places. If I had any problems with this printer I would have to say that it didn't include a usb cable =)
Terrance Harris
P.S. I agree with the previous review about the tray being flimsy and falling open. The reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because it isn't perfect but an excellent printer and for what you pay for it is a great product.
64 Great Printer! Good set of features! A Real workhorse
Just got it this week from Amazon; upgraded from Epson 740.
Things I like:
1. Very quite and fast; excellent text quality and good photo quality.
2. Ease of use.
3. Double sided printing; I love it
Things that need improvement:
1. While starting a print, it seems to take a couple of minutes thinking... once it starts printing, it is fast. But still doesn't look that fast to me - may be around 15 pages per minute not the claimed 25 pages.
2. The front cover seems flimsy. You have to push just a little to open it up. But it falls so hard - you don't expect to fall that fast; could have put a dampener so it comes down and settles nicely.
IN all it is a great printer!
65 Great Value ... Extremely well thought out
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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66 Awesome! Six Stars Please
The printer is sharp looking, and easy to set up and install. Photo quality on Canon Photo Plus paper is excellent..hard to tell the difference between pictures developed by Snapfish. Photo printing speed at high quality setting is very good. Text and mixed graphics and text have excellent quality and print twice as fast as my old HP 970CSE. Printing is very quiet.
For those that use a wireless print server, this printer works with my DLink-824VUP print server (the print server does not support bi-directional printing, and the Canon software reports this, but you can disable the Canon reporting. The printer works just find with the printer server without bi-directional communication).
The bundled software is excellent, and is competetive with Photoshop 2. I sent a question to Canon, and promptly received a reply.
One of the best technology purchases I have made in several years. Highly recommended.
