Good picture quality, bad software when control is needed (Canon i450)

Member Name: davsherw

Product:	Canon i450
Date:	27/05/04 (228 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheep cartridges, reasonable price

Disadvantages: Makes noises when not printing, software

I'm happy with the print quality from this printer for pictures (and the borderless option is great), but I've found that the printer utility software has too many limitations. You can not fine tune the settings to get the machine to print the way you want it too. Even when you select the manual adjustment setting, it often will not allow you to switch to the highest quality settings, etc. Another limitation is that the ink levels have to be reset manually every time you install a new cartridge. With my old Epson printer the controls could easily be adjusted in the software, and the ink levels were automatically read and adjusted by the software...no manual resets required.
My other complaint with this printer is that it seems to make a lot of extra "noises". The actual printing is relatively quiet, but when it's not printing it will sit there and make all kinds of noises like it's processing information or something. My old (4 yr.+) Epson printer was much "louder" as far as the physical printing, but at least when it wasn't printing it didn't make extra noises.
I would recommend going with an Epson printer over this one based on the utility software performance alone. However, for novice users who just want to print pretty pictures and word processing files, they'd probably be pretty happy with this printer.
The other thing with this printer is the cost of replacement cartridges (they are cheep) compaired with other makes saving approx 50%
Although this reveiw isnt glowing it is a great printer and I am glad to have it.

Summary: