Recommend me a good quality color printer.

[Maximilian]

Ahh i miss the days of simplicity, with my old HP deskjet 720C. It looked simple, it was simple, it worked well for many years.

I need a new printer though, ive tried an all in one thing, the lexmark x1270 and it dosent print very well, ive tried messing with the cartridges but the quality is still garbage so i need a better printer and i dont know squat about printers so help please It must meet the following criteria:

1. Must work on vista 64 bit

2. Must print in good quality, my HP deskkey 720C printed in good quality, it got the colors correct and text was pretty readable, cant say that for the x1270

3. Must be a good quality printer, but cheap. Im not looking for professional stuff here i just want a printer that will print my uni work in color and not make a mess of it, if its an all in one printer/scanner/other thing then thats fine but im only ever gonna use the printer, i had a seperate scanner once, scanned my face with it, never used it again.

4. If its small thats an awesome bonus, this isnt neccesary, the first 3 points are far more important.

So yeah thats basically it, if you cant recommend me a specific model then tell me what brands to steer clear of. I gotta say i dont like the look of HP, their lineup and model numbers make no sense compared to the 6xx/7xx/8xx days, but like i say i dont know anything about printers its just an observation.

 

[zig3695]

canon ip5000, ip4000 or ip3000. theyre all about the same just different speeds (theyre all quick though). cant beat 'em in my opinion. great speed, great results, cd printing and CHEAP ink. dont get the *200 flavors, they have chipped ink ($$$). i have an ip4000 myself, i cant recommend anything else after having this for a while...

 

[Maximilian]

Ok ill check out canon.

EDIT: I found the ip3500 and 4500, think ill go with one of those.

Just for a peek i looked at HP's website here what a mess of a product line. Im seriously hp 6988dt? 6980dt What the hell?! and the 6980 is more expensive than the 6988 despite having a lower number. Makes no sense.

 

[Rottie]

I am happy with iP4000 I use it to print photo all the times. The quailty and colors are so great. My family thought I bought it from photo studio

 

[zig3695]

no not the 3500 or 4500. those are chipped carts, and possibly even crummier build quality then the 3000 or 4000. i know that the 5200 is not as nice as the 5000 was, the 5200 is noticeably louder even though its newer. the 3000, 4000, and 5000 were the last of the best inkjet photo printers, imo. they also made a few multifunction printers with similar guts but i like to print on cd's so i never tried them.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: zig3695
no not the 3500 or 4500. those are chipped carts, and possibly even crummier build quality then the 3000 or 4000. i know that the 5200 is not as nice as the 5000 was, the 5200 is noticeably louder even though its newer. the 3000, 4000, and 5000 were the last of the best inkjet photo printers, imo. they also made a few multifunction printers with similar guts but i like to print on cd's so i never tried them.

The problem you have to remember is in a lot of countries the Canon ip4000/5000 etc has been phased out,I know for a fact in the UK I can only get the newer iP4300/4500 models.
I'll probably end up getting the iP4500 myself(seen good reviews).

As to chipped cartridges,this is the downside of the newer models and hard to avoid,anyway I hear its quite easy to use a compatible cartridge and remove the chip from the Canon OEM cartridge and then swap it over to the compatible cartridge.

Info on chip removal/replacement guide here. (PDF file)

Btw I have been quoted around £60 for a new printer head for my Canon i865 printer in the UK from various web sites,considering I can buy a new Canon iP4500 printer which comes with Canon ink cartridges too for £64 inc free delivery you can see which is the better option in my case.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: Mem

Originally posted by: zig3695
no not the 3500 or 4500. those are chipped carts, and possibly even crummier build quality then the 3000 or 4000. i know that the 5200 is not as nice as the 5000 was, the 5200 is noticeably louder even though its newer. the 3000, 4000, and 5000 were the last of the best inkjet photo printers, imo. they also made a few multifunction printers with similar guts but i like to print on cd's so i never tried them.

The problem you have to remember is in a lot of countries the Canon ip4000/5000 etc has been phased out,I know for a fact in the UK I can only get the newer iP4300/4500 models.
I'll probably end up getting the iP4500 myself(seen good reviews).

As to chipped cartridges,this is the downside of the newer models and hard to avoid,anyway I hear its quite easy to use a compatible cartridge and remove the chip from the Canon OEM cartridge and then swap it over to the compatible cartridge.

Info on chip removal/replacement guide here. (PDF file)

Btw I have been quoted around £60 for a new printer head for my Canon i865 printer in the UK from various web sites,considering I can buy a new Canon iP4500 printer which comes with Canon ink cartridges too for £64 inc free delivery you can see which is the better option in my case.

Easy as that eh? I hope so lol because i bought an ip4500 before i read zigs reply. I never saw any 5000 series available anywhere anyways.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Soviet

Originally posted by: Mem

Originally posted by: zig3695
no not the 3500 or 4500. those are chipped carts, and possibly even crummier build quality then the 3000 or 4000. i know that the 5200 is not as nice as the 5000 was, the 5200 is noticeably louder even though its newer. the 3000, 4000, and 5000 were the last of the best inkjet photo printers, imo. they also made a few multifunction printers with similar guts but i like to print on cd's so i never tried them.

The problem you have to remember is in a lot of countries the Canon ip4000/5000 etc has been phased out,I know for a fact in the UK I can only get the newer iP4300/4500 models.
I'll probably end up getting the iP4500 myself(seen good reviews).

As to chipped cartridges,this is the downside of the newer models and hard to avoid,anyway I hear its quite easy to use a compatible cartridge and remove the chip from the Canon OEM cartridge and then swap it over to the compatible cartridge.

Info on chip removal/replacement guide here. (PDF file)

Btw I have been quoted around £60 for a new printer head for my Canon i865 printer in the UK from various web sites,considering I can buy a new Canon iP4500 printer which comes with Canon ink cartridges too for £64 inc free delivery you can see which is the better option in my case.

Easy as that eh? I hope so lol because i bought an ip4500 before i read zigs reply. I never saw any 5000 series available anywhere anyways.

Hehe I was only speaking for myself ,end of the day it's whats available in your country.

 

[Skott]

Recently when I was shopping for a new printer the IP4300 was hard to find and the prices had actually gone up. I assume due to its low supply. Then I heard it was being phased out and the IP4500 was its replacement.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Skott
Recently when I was shopping for a new printer the IP4300 was hard to find and the prices had actually gone up. I assume due to its low supply. Then I heard it was being phased out and the IP4500 was its replacement.

I just ordered my i4500 printer,going to use the old syringe method like here at bottom of page. ,at least I won't have to take the chip out until I need to replace the cartridge down the road.

 

[zig3695]

you fools! j/k

should have checked out ebay. yes, the 3000, 4000, and 5000 have been phased out and you cant buy them in a B&M store. Ebay my friends. i just paid $100 for an ip4000 and $150 for an ip5000. the 4000 needed a new printhead= $50 new. the 5000 came with new printhead. 4000 works like new now- these printers dont wear out, the printheads do and they can be had for $50 a pop.

theyre still not easy to find on ebay, but they are there. fine by me though, if you all want to void your warranty, soak your hands in colored ink and have stains in your carpet go right ahead! ill be buying $7 sets of nice clean ink NEW carts everytime AND my ink monitor still works like a charm.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: zig3695
you fools! j/k

should have checked out ebay. yes, the 3000, 4000, and 5000 have been phased out and you cant buy them in a B&M store. Ebay my friends. i just paid $100 for an ip4000 and $150 for an ip5000. the 4000 needed a new printhead= $50 new. the 5000 came with new printhead. 4000 works like new now- these printers dont wear out, the printheads do and they can be had for $50 a pop.

theyre still not easy to find on ebay, but they are there. fine by me though, if you all want to void your warranty, soak your hands in colored ink and have stains in your carpet go right ahead! ill be buying $7 sets of nice clean ink NEW carts everytime AND my ink monitor still works like a charm.

EBay you have to be careful,my brother got stung for £1000(ordered a laptop ,guy took the money and ran).

Also latest I heard is they are working on a chip resetter for Canon ip4300/4500 etc...

End of the day Canon ip4500 fills my needs(great price,cheap cartridges available and refillable).

 

[Zepper]

Yup, the 4500 should be good. The unit is priced higher than the 4300 it replaced, so maybe they made it a bit sturdier. the chipped tanks are a PITA, but can be worked around. Someone here is selling clone tanks with a one-time use chip on it. IDK whether it was reset or is the best they could do on a clone chip. Those tanks are over twice what I'm paying for clone tanks w/o chip and transplant my chips over to them. I recently bought a Canon -refurbed 4200 with a full set of new chipped tanks and a90-day warranty for way less than the cost of the tanks alone... So keep your eyes open!

.bh.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Zepper
Yup, the 4500 should be good. The unit is priced higher than the 4300 it replaced, so maybe they made it a bit sturdier. the chipped tanks are a PITA, but can be worked around. Someone here is selling clone tanks with a one-time use chip on it. IDK whether it was reset or is the best they could do on a clone chip. Those tanks are over twice what I'm paying for clone tanks w/o chip and transplant my chips over to them. I recently bought a Canon -refurbed 4200 with a full set of new chipped tanks and a90-day warranty for way less than the cost of the tanks alone... So keep your eyes open!

.bh.

I'll give you my review once I receive my Canon iP 4500,being picked at the moment so should get it within a few days .

 

[Maximilian]

I just recieved mine today. Wow printers have advanced some since my HP 720C, theres 5 cartridges and they have lights and this printer can suck paper in and roll it out, it goes both ways. Sweet. I never got a USB cable with it though :frown: Im using the one from my lexmark x1270, im gonna email and tell them i never got a cable and get one sent out, so i can sell the lexmark with its cable.

Whats the deal with chipped ink? Whats it do? Does it prevent something or what? Im assuming its supposed to prevent me from using anything but canon print cartridges yes? Unless one of the workarounds mem pmed me is used.

 

[Zepper]

The chip in the Canons are part of the ink level monitoring system. If you buy the clone tanks and transplant, you use that feature so you have to eyeball the ink levels yourself.

.bh.

 

[Mem]

Whats the deal with chipped ink? Whats it do? Does it prevent something or what? Im assuming its supposed to prevent me from using anything but canon print cartridges yes? Unless one of the workarounds mem pmed me is used.

Quite normal for printers to be supplied without leads, as to the printer ink cartridges Zepper is right ,basically you lose monitoring function since the chipped cartridges count how much ink is used so it will know when it has ran out regardless of if you refill it via syringe etc...so will lose the ink monitoring function unless you install a new Canon chip cartridge.

Basically I'm happy to eyeball the ink levels until a chip resetter is produced for the Canon iP 4300/4500 range(Canon has high encryption on the chip from what I have read so its going to take time for one to be cracked and mass produced) the money that's saved by buying third party inks outweighs the chipped monitoring level IMHO.


Soviet you should of purchased a spare USB lead from Ebuyer sametime as your printer,something like 49p .

Update on my order,should receive my iP4500 printer tomorrow.

 

[Maximilian]

Oh... so they wont give me a lead then... oh well ill just sell the lexmark without a lead.

So basically theres absolutely nothing bad about a chipped ink printer, sweet, i suppose you would know if it ran out even without looking at the cartridges because it would start to print in strange colors like ye olde HP 720C did when it was running out.

Well now that it all set up, ive printed off a 7 word notepad document and i can read it perfectly, so its already better than the old lexmark was, dont know what went wrong with that printer. Im gonna print off a many page phase 1 habitat survey with a map later so ill see how that goes.

 

[Mem]

Installed my iP4500,took good 5 minutes for auto print head alignment,I had no problems with Vista x64,just installed the lastest Vista x64 drivers from Canon website(I did not bother with the supplied Canon ip4500 setup CD).

Package wise comes with mains lead and about 4-5 sheets of matt photo paper A4 size,you use 2 sheets for head alignment,CDR tray comes in a seperate small cardboard protected package and last but not least 5 Canon ink carts are supplied.
Instruction manual is slightly larger then DVD size case in about 25 languages,also supplied is a quick start fold out sheet that shows you how to install print head,inks etc...

I like the fact you can feed paper from the back or via cassette tray at front,nice touch and also the piano gloss black and silver finish of the printer is very nice looking(finger prints watchout).
I printed about five A4 photo prints and was impressed with the quality to say the least,I thought my i865 was good but this printer is step or two up at least in print quality.

The actual case looks quite solid and I like the fact that everything folds away so you end up with a box shaped printer with nothing exposed(until you open it for printing) so good for helping to keep the dust away.Noise wise on default setting its very quiet, I can hear a slight squeak as its printing (maybe normal or because its new) but nothing to worry about.

5/5 is my rating for price,quality of the iP4500 .

 

[Maximilian]

I thought it was neat that it came with a "quiet mode" that you can set to come on and off at certain times. Mine goes into quiet mode at 9pm and comes out of quiet mode at 11am the next day, nice feature because i was up till 3am typing some crazy report and needed to print it out afterwards.

 

[zig3695]

all im trying to tell you guys is the ip4000 and its brothers are every bit as quality and good as the ip4300 or 4500 except they dont have expensive pita chipped ink. its not a matter of being old or new models, they are built just as good but are cheaper/more simple to run. i know trying to find them is a hassle but its worth a little pain in the beginning to avoid constant struggles throughout the life of the printer.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: zig3695
all im trying to tell you guys is the ip4000 and its brothers are every bit as quality and good as the ip4300 or 4500 except they dont have expensive pita chipped ink. its not a matter of being old or new models, they are built just as good but are cheaper/more simple to run. i know trying to find them is a hassle but its worth a little pain in the beginning to avoid constant struggles throughout the life of the printer.

If I wanted to buy a ip4000/5000 which is NO LONGER AVAILABLE IN UK PERIOD!!!!!!!!! I would of just got a new printer head for my i865 printer,fact is ip4000/5000 is not in the equation due to obvious reasons,personally I'm very happy with the ip4500(newest model) and also the chipped cartridge is not an issue since that can be worked round,besides sooner or later you'll have to upgrade to a newer model or do you intend to stay on the ip4000 forever?

Don't know what you mean about struggle ,end of the day I'm 100% happy with my purchase and that's all that matters.

FYI I never buy Canon ink cartridges(way overpriced),I use high quality third party compatibles and refills so ink cost is not an issue.The printing speed performance of the ip4500 over my old i865 and even the old ip4000/5000 models was also another advantage(I do quite a lot of colour A4 printing).

Side Note : My i865 ink levels onscreen were never very accurate anyway,sometimes they would say low when there was no ink left,I just use the 100% reliable eyeball check to be sure of ink levels.

 

[TC777]

Originally posted by: Mem
Installed my iP4500,took good 5 minutes for auto print head alignment,I had no problems with Vista x64,just installed the lastest Vista x64 drivers from Canon website(I did not bother with the supplied Canon ip4500 setup CD).

Package wise comes with mains lead and about 4-5 sheets of matt photo paper A4 size,you use 2 sheets for head alignment,CDR tray comes in a seperate small cardboard protected package and last but not least 5 Canon ink carts are supplied.
Instruction manual is slightly larger then DVD size case in about 25 languages,also supplied is a quick start fold out sheet that shows you how to install print head,inks etc...

I like the fact you can feed paper from the back or via cassette tray at front,nice touch and also the piano gloss black and silver finish of the printer is very nice looking(finger prints watchout).
I printed about five A4 photo prints and was impressed with the quality to say the least,I thought my i865 was good but this printer is step or two up at least in print quality.

The actual case looks quite solid and I like the fact that everything folds away so you end up with a box shaped printer with nothing exposed(until you open it for printing) so good for helping to keep the dust away.Noise wise on default setting its very quiet, I can hear a slight squeak as its printing (maybe normal or because its new) but nothing to worry about.

5/5 is my rating for price,quality of the iP4500 .

Do you live in the United States? I thought the version they sold in the U.S. didn't come with the cd tray, or did they change that for this model?

Also is it quiet? I know my IP4000 is quiet, but I was going to replace it due to printhead problems.

I debated about getting the IP4500 or an Epson rx680. I don't know if the Epson's are quiet now days or not like the Canon printer is.

 

[TC777]

Originally posted by: zig3695
all im trying to tell you guys is the ip4000 and its brothers are every bit as quality and good as the ip4300 or 4500 except they dont have expensive pita chipped ink. its not a matter of being old or new models, they are built just as good but are cheaper/more simple to run. i know trying to find them is a hassle but its worth a little pain in the beginning to avoid constant struggles throughout the life of the printer.

Thats the problem with the IP4000. It such a popular printer and such non-existant supply anymore, any place that sells it would cost a fortune. A merchant on Amazon sells it for $500.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: tcool93

Originally posted by: Mem
Installed my iP4500,took good 5 minutes for auto print head alignment,I had no problems with Vista x64,just installed the lastest Vista x64 drivers from Canon website(I did not bother with the supplied Canon ip4500 setup CD).

Package wise comes with mains lead and about 4-5 sheets of matt photo paper A4 size,you use 2 sheets for head alignment,CDR tray comes in a seperate small cardboard protected package and last but not least 5 Canon ink carts are supplied.
Instruction manual is slightly larger then DVD size case in about 25 languages,also supplied is a quick start fold out sheet that shows you how to install print head,inks etc...

I like the fact you can feed paper from the back or via cassette tray at front,nice touch and also the piano gloss black and silver finish of the printer is very nice looking(finger prints watchout).
I printed about five A4 photo prints and was impressed with the quality to say the least,I thought my i865 was good but this printer is step or two up at least in print quality.

The actual case looks quite solid and I like the fact that everything folds away so you end up with a box shaped printer with nothing exposed(until you open it for printing) so good for helping to keep the dust away.Noise wise on default setting its very quiet, I can hear a slight squeak as its printing (maybe normal or because its new) but nothing to worry about.

5/5 is my rating for price,quality of the iP4500 .

Do you live in the United States? I thought the version they sold in the U.S. didn't come with the cd tray, or did they change that for this model?

Also is it quiet? I know my IP4000 is quiet, but I was going to replace it due to printhead problems.

I debated about getting the IP4500 or an Epson rx680. I don't know if the Epson's are quiet now days or not like the Canon printer is.

I live in UK hence UK version of iP4500 comes with CD tray .

Yes its very quiet.

I prefer Canon over Epson(I have had my share of Epson printers in the pass) due to the fact that Epson seem to clogg up faster and require more print head cleaning.