Canon Pixma ip4300 (Canon Pixma iP4300)

Member Name: alan32

Product:	Canon Pixma iP4300
Date:	03/12/07 (297 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Economic to buy, easy to use and quality good

Disadvantages: Price of cartridges from Canon

I have been very pleased with my ip4300 since buying it months ago, using various types of paper and producing a single copy of a 100 page book on it. This last job was with heavy duty matte photo paper obtained from ebay and cut to B5 size.

Instructions are clear throughout and the on-screen manual might be pedantic, but that is best for me anyway!

My only gripe concerns the price of ink cartridges, albeit that is a problem with all inkjets anyway. A full set will set you back the price of the printer. As I use it quite a lot, I have found it best to buy generic cartridges at a fraction of the price although they are fiddly. Ebay have various suppliers that will sell you a full set at less than one fifth of the best Canon set price. The fiddly bit concerns the need to carefully remove the original cartridge chip and refix it on the new one. Once done successfully, there will be some messages to deal with and no level showing in the ink tank monitor window. That does not matter though as you will get symptoms of printing deterioration and can then confirm the need for new cartridge with the nozzle test. But only do this cheap cartridge thing if you are happy to chance the "fiddly bit" as a damaged chip will mean it will not work and the suppliers' installation notes can be sketchy. It's OK for me though and I have an excellent printer with low running costs.

Glossy paper gives full photo quality. The printer is robust generally. Smudging is extremely rare. The cassette paper tray is very easy to use. When closed down it is a simple box to keep clean. Frankly, I am hard pressed to find anything wrong with it or indeed with the two previous reviews.

Summary: Excellent purchase for home use

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