very good printer, but hideous when you finish the ink (Canon Pixma iP4200)

Member Name: Jamesth

Product:	Canon Pixma iP4200
Date:	07/09/07 (168 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: very good printer/ can print photo on the fly and dvd covers

Disadvantages: very difficult to learn how to change the ink with unofficial cartridges because of a chip

Before starting this review I want to state I always thought as canon as a fair and honest brand, right now I am not so sure any more, I had some epson printe in the past and I always found them decent, but compared to canon they sure were something else.

What are ip4200 strong points ?

IP4200 is a solid printer, has some decent featues like a usb connection for digital cameras so you can import photographies directly and print them on the fly, has a very good cd/dvd printing system which is easy enough to master, and has medium/good quality regarding every kind of printing in general.

Ip4200 has 5 ink tanks 2 black one big and one normal sized, one yellow, one cyan and one magenta.

It has (Stated by the web site only 1 picoliter drops) but you will probably finish the colors tanks quite fast probably..

It will connect to the pc via a simple usb port which right now is standard for almost every pc.

What is the bad side of the printer then ?

The printer goes with a little chip on every ink tank, and will not work if the tank hasn't got the chip, which create 2 kind of problem actually and not only one:

1) how can I be sure that I really finished the ink or is the printer making me throw away a half-full tank ? you can probably find the printer service manual on some internet sites (you need only to search with google) which strangely enough does not come with the printer at least if I remember correctly, some sites sell it and some other link it freely.

2) will I be able to find low cost ink ? probably yes but here come the real bad part, you will have to remove the chip on the previous cartridge and put on the new one... and then reset the printer, if you have done everything correctly you can then continue to use it, if you made a mistake, good luck correcting it...

3)if you want low cost ink you have to buy probably ink cartridge without the chip or else the price would be a lot higher due to technology involved, and mostly these are sold without the chip.

Summary: good printer but hideous when it comes to change the ink

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