 "Cheap printers, expensive ink--buyer beware" | 2009-08-25 |
| - Reviewed By User: A16IF47B3QSWIP |
| Canon makes competent printers at low prices, but be aware that you need to use the expensive Canon brand ink. Canons are notorious for clogging when much less expensive non-Canon replacement inks are used, and Canon has other little tricks such as including chips on the ink cartridges so that a half-full non-Canon replacement cartridge may register as empty. I have years of experience with Canons, including the IP4200; I'm tired of these tricks--it's Epson or HP from now on for me. |
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 "Prints great, but has a few quirks" | 2009-07-16 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2F8Y8U04R0N3P |
I've had this printer for quite a few years now. I initially bought it knowing I would use it mainly as a general printer, but wanted the optionality of being able to print photographs on it and have them come out well.
In the past I've owned older Canon bubblejets and before this a Lexmark but I've always liked Canon's (cameras and printers). So I did my research and this one hit the sweet spot.
I have to say I do generally use it for quick printing (maps, letters etc.) For that, the color is okay......but it's not going to equal that HP Color Laserjet you've got in the office. Pictures come out well and are hugely controlable thanks to the wonderful printing software that comes with it (set ink quality, paper characteristics, page layout).
So it prints well. Only a few gripes:
- it doesn't play well with replacement inks. The ink monitoring software finds you out and annoys you to death.
- it's quite large, and when it's at full speed you can feel it through the desk.
- it is EXTREMELY slow going from power on to ready. I also have problems with it powering off after 2-3 minutes for some reason (that isn't due to the auto power off function).
So - good printer, with a few quirks. |
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 "It worked great" | 2009-07-06 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3KXM5CUPWF5CC |
| I bought a new, never used, but opened iP4200. Ink cartridges were not included, but I got a discount. If I wanted to use the original ink the discount would hardly cover the cost of the ink, but I decided to use compatible cartridges. I saved some money. The printer came very soon in a very good condition. It works great. Thank you. |
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| "I love this printer" | 2009-04-02 |
| - Reviewed By User: A34DOS2JLBV9PU |
| At first I missed my scanner when I bought this printer. However, due to the money I now save on the inexpensive ink cartridges and the quality of the prints, I am a very satisfied customer. |
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| "Great printer, but only use genuine Canon cartridges" | 2009-01-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: AJFX11IJVDJ5F |
| Prints great photos quickly. Sometimes it's a little difficult to get the photo paper to feed into the top slot, though. Don't buy anything except genuine new Canon cartridges or you'll get ripped off big time. |
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| "An Older Model - But Still A Great Printer Nonetheless" | 2008-11-25 |
| - Reviewed By fadedjeans |
Canon IP 4200P
I bought the Canon IP4200 a few years ago primarily for printing text documents, although I do occasionally print some pictures. Here are some of its pros and cons:
Pros
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- Print Quality
The quality of printing for both text and images is superb and as good as it gets. Text printed in all of the Print Quality modes (FAST, STANDARD or HIGH) are sharp and the print quality on FAST and STANDARD modes rival that produced by the best inkjet or laser printers. The quality of the photos printed are comparable to those from a photo lab (yes, they're that good).
- Full duplex printing
Full duplex printing simply means that double-sided printing is fully automated - you won't have to manually feed documents back into the printer to finish the job after it's done printing on one side. That's really really nice, and it's a real time-saver!
- Quiet operation
The printer is fairly quiet. However, for people who share a room (college students in a dorm room, for example), the noise emitted might still be a disturbance to a roommate who's say sleeping or studying. That's where its Quiet mode comes in handy - it's whisper quiet in this mode but it comes at the expense of printing speed.
- Print Speeds
I found that the actual print speed is considerably less than what's advertised. For printing text, and assuming we're printing an average page of text -- on its lowest quality (FAST) mode, it can crank out ~6-8 PPM (pages per minute). On its highest quality (HIGH) mode, it's capable of producing ~4-6 PPM. For photo printing, it takes just over a minute.
- Reliability
The printer has proven to be extremely reliable for me. Amazingly, in the roughly 3 years that I've had this printer, it has had paper jams only a couple of times - and even then, it was because the paper wasn't properly loaded. It's been a workhorse for my printing projects, both big and small - I've printed entire manuals on this printer with no problems.
- Ink Usage
At the lowest quality mode, I can print about a ream's worth of paper - double-sided.
Cons
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- Ink Usage
I do almost all of my printing in gray scale (black and white). You would think it uses only the black ink cartridge when it's printing in black and white - not so; it actually uses all of the color ink cartridges - at about the same rate! I had the same experience with my old HP printer as well. I Googled extensively on why this was done. Almost all resources point to the canned response from Canon stating that this is done to make the colors more "vibrant." I mean black is black is black! It boggles me why you would need colors to make black more "vibrant." Go figure.
So, if you're counting on using only the black ink cartridge to print gray scale and save yourself from having to buy the color cartridges -- don't!
There have also been reports that when the printer runs out of ink, it displays a notification about the printer being of ink and prevents further printing - that has got to be extremely aggravating when you urgently need something printed out.
Last, I should mention the price of cartridges are more on the steep side. The printer uses Cyan CLI-8C, Magenta CLI-8M, Yellow CLI-8Y (also sold as a multipack), and the two black cartridges PGI-5, and CLI-8 Black (also sold as a multipack).
- Direct CD/DVD Printing
NOT! This feature is only available in the European version of the Canon IP4200. Direct CD/DVD printing allows you to print directly on a CD/DVD. Nifty! Sure beats Lightscribe (Lightscribe drive required) or CD labels. But somehow Canon has decided to omit this feature for the US version of this printer.
No matter, if you're adventurous and have time on your hands to burn, you can retrofit the printer with a special CD tray (no longer available at Amazon) yourself. Google some to find a seller and to find instructions on how it's done.
There you have it. To sum it all up: The IP4200 produces phenomenally great looking text and photos. The main gripe I have is the price of ink cartridges. Despite this shortcoming, I still rated it 5 stars by virtue of the impressive print quality it produces. |
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