'Cause you Canon! (Canon Pixma iX5000)

Member Name: roberto900

Product:	Canon Pixma iX5000
Date:	05/03/08 (180 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good brand, good quality photo prints at speed, good value ink .

Disadvantages: Was pricey, but coming down.

General Introduction to the IX5000
I have come accross this printer through work and have been very impressed with the results that can be achieved. I had initially expected the quality to be poor in an area of technology where previously I had only really used a limited number of smaller printers that print directly from a digital camera (PictBridge) which were disappointing. Naturally, I had expected results on a A3 sized print to be at least equally as poor! The majority of printers are perfectly usable because most people only have need for A4 prints but above this size the range for printers becomes much more limited and since this is "A3+" size, meaning it is capable of borderless A3 prints at a good quality, is useful especially for businesses. Furthermore, although a very professional product in many respects, it is also a very user friendly product with large operational buttons, an easy to follow set up procedure and an easy to use operation in general terms. It has only 2 buttons on the front, one for power and one for paper feed, but the comprehensive software that accompanies the printer makes printing far easier than on fiddly printers with minute displays to view prints prior to prining.


Quality of Print

Quality is definately an advantage of this printer, it is from a reliable manufacturer, who are established in the printer trade and it doesn't half show in terms of the technology that is incorporated in this printer and in the end results that can be achieved without anything special in terms of print material. The Canon "FINE" technology allows this product to deliver up to a 4800 x 1200 droplets per inch print resolution and on high quality paper gives stunning results, even on borderless printing straight from a digital camera.

Speed of Print
Speed is another area where this printer is of a very good standard, even by modern standards of high quality print speed. In standard mode for A4 paper it prints about 25 sheets per minute in black and 17 per minute in full colour. It prints in pretty much the full range of sizes but then again most printers do now! It is also impressive that the transfer speed from camera to printer is not slow at all and borderless prints are possible on a very good variety of sizes, all of the most commonly used up to A3.


Ink and Paper

As with all printers, the issue of ink is important and while Canon cannot argue that they have the cheapest of cartridges, they can offer a competitive product at a good value for money price. In my opinion they offer a good deal considering the lenght of time that a carteridge typically lasts and also considering the quality of the product produced by such a brand. Canon boast two key aspects to their ink, the "single ink" system which it claims puts emphasis upon economy and makes printing more efficient and also the "ChromaLife100 system of print head" which is designed with the production of long lasting gloss images in mind. Other features worthy of noting are the auto-feeder which holds up to 150 sheets of standard quality A4 paper, a USB2.0 Hi-Speed interface for rapid data transfer and it's both Windows and Mac OS X compatible. The only downside perhaps is the lack of a small digital display to preview images, particularly when printing using PictBridge from a digital camera without a computer.

Costs and an Overview
To conclude, I believe that Canon's claim that this is an "advanced A3+ printer for high-speed, high-quality document, photo & graphic output" is a wholly true reflection of the product itself and although pricey (now £329.00 from Canon direct but about £225 on eBay) is definately worth the money for a high standard of photo lab quality prints with, in my experience, good natural colours in photos and clear text for more everyday print purposes. Interestingly, the costs for standard A4 prints are 2.2p for black/white and 5.9p for colour which compares very favourably to printers in a similar price bracket, most of which do not have the larger sized option of the IX5000.


*Note: May also appear on Ciao under the same user name*

Summary: A good printer, worth a look if you need the extras it brings for the money.

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