Canon Pixma iP4000 - unleash your photo creativity!
The Canon Pixma iP4000 is a 4 color ink smart and flexible photo printer with multiple features and benefits not found in other printers of the same class or type.
The printer does full duplex, two sided page printing while also housing two print paper trays. This gives the flexibility to both save paper if printing out documents and have a 2nd tray already loaded with photo paper to print photos if you decide to print a photo. You don't have to mess with changing paper as with single path paper feed printers, merely change a printer setting.
The ultra fine 2 pico droplet, over 6000 droplet print head produces sharp, grain free prints that can rival commercial photo prints. Canon's supplied software makes printing photos on the iP4000, about as easy as it can get! Even a novice, new user can be making beautiful prints in minutes, merely using the supplied software. Add a photo editor, like Adobe Photoshop, some practice and knowledge of photo composition, and creative possibilites are practically endless!
Even prints made up against 6 and 8 color printers, it was very hard to tell one from the other in standard 4x6 prints. For regular text printing, the iP4000 produces sharp and crisp text at blazing fast print speeds over 20 pages per minute. The two sided printing featute with collate will both save paper and present a pleasing printout, few could find any complaint with.
Ink usage depends on how the printer is set by the user. In draft mode printing, text is sharp and presentable while conserving ink use to a minimum. Coupled with the ability to replace only the individual ink tank color that is running low, saves a lot of money over other printers using 3 color cartridges. Most users should be well satisified with ink use economy with the iP4000, resulting in one of the lowest cost per prints available from any inkjet printer.
The ONLY down side we could find with this printer is that it suffers from 'red tone cast' while printing sepia prints. Many other photo inkjet printers suffer the same 'red tone cast' problem. Since most users will seldom (if ever) print in sepia mode, we don't find this to be a big problem. With some practice, using the iP4000 manual ink settings, an acceptable sepia tone print can be made with very little effort.
With any photo inkket printer, it is the COMBINATION OF BOTH THE INK USED AND PAPER, that will produce the maximum, beautiful, colorful prints the printer is capable of making. If the user chooses to use 'oem', cheaper, replacement inks, and paper commonly available, the resulting photo prints will suffer. Color shift is a very common problem when using non-Canon replacement ink as well as overal photo print longevity or 'photo fade', using the cheaper photo paper. The user will 'get what they pay for' in the end.
If users stay with Canon replacement ink cartridges and Canon Photo Pro papers, it is possible that photos, with proper care, will stay sharp and vibrant for 25 years or longer.
Over all, we give this printer a 4.5 out of 5 and highly recommend it to any user, either novice to professional, who need to make commercial looking grade prints on a seconds notice or like to do all their own photo editing.
(review c.2006 F. Bottke)Read full review
