Printer Reviews

why is there free shipping on color ink cartridges and none on black?

I've had Canon printers using this cartridge for more than a year and won't settle for any of those knock-offs. Yeah, they're often much cheaper, but this is one area where you get what you pay for. Brand X fades and does not perform as well in the inkjet system. This has been confirmed in independent lab tests in a leading PC magazine. I have had to install and remove countless cartridges and NEVER spilled a drop. The pop-in, pop-out design couldn't be easier.

The BCI-3eBk is good quality black ink for an inkjet printer. I have used this ink for a couple of years now and don't recall it smudging on the pages I print. The price on this product (compared to HP products) is fair, but I am able to print a 100 to 200 pages before running out of ink. Of course, you will get more pages out of this cartridge if you print more color graphics than text.

why is there free shipping on color ink cartridges and none on black?

I've had Canon printers using this cartridge for more than a year and won't settle for any of those knock-offs. Yeah, they're often much cheaper, but this is one area where you get what you pay for. Brand X fades and does not perform as well in the inkjet system. This has been confirmed in independent lab tests in a leading PC magazine. I have had to install and remove countless cartridges and NEVER spilled a drop. The pop-in, pop-out design couldn't be easier.

The BCI-3eBk is good quality black ink for an inkjet printer. I have used this ink for a couple of years now and don't recall it smudging on the pages I print. The price on this product (compared to HP products) is fair, but I am able to print a 100 to 200 pages before running out of ink. Of course, you will get more pages out of this cartridge if you print more color graphics than text.

When the Epson Photo 820 (read the bad reviews; they're all true), instead of just using tons of ink when I cleaned the heads (needed often), started leaving streaks of black ink across the page, I tried to get some help from Epson's customer service. I found that a wasted effort. They must have known what the problem was (I've since figured it out from other Web sites), but refused to tell me other than to tell me to clean the heads or take it in for service. I remembered the wonderful little Lexmark that came with my iMac several years ago and how reliable it was, and I wound up buying this printer. It's wonderful! Fact is, I'm in school and don't print photos. I hate that Epson, which you can't run without both black and color inks, even if you just plan to print text. The Lexmark will run with just black ink. It does a wonderful job on text. If your primary need of a printer is text, you can't go wrong with this wonderful little printer.

First of all, I want everyone who reads this to know that this is my first review. I can say without prejudice that this is the BEST little printer I have ever owned. I started out this century with the much lesser version Z-11 which I paid almost twice as much for. While I still have that printer for the kids' computer, I would buy another one of the z-605's in a heartbeat should the z-11 quit on me. I won't even start to compare the two, but just to say the 605 is WAY better and easier to operate, from installing on the computer to installing the ink cartridges. And speaking of ink cartridges, you can just ignore the inane ramblings of :" ljrhodes " from 1/29/04. For replacement cartridges, shop the web or go to Staples for their own brand to save money. This printer is SO worth the money. As far as needing a black ink replacement, I don't know how much printing he does, but I've had my z-11 for going on 5 yrs now and have never once had to replace black. And we use it quite a bit for school and work. So there. Anyway, I hope this helps. The people who wrote in ahead of me certainly helped me decide. I got this printer when it was "on sale" for less than 50 bucks. Add to that free shipping, no tax and saving "half" again on the cable (less than $6) you simply can't beat it.

At my workplace, which it's a small office, we needed an emergency printer so we got this one. For 50 bucks we got more than we bargained for. It is extremely fast and very efficient. One week after we aquired this one another printer broke so It was a no brainer, cheap but extremely good product my boss got another one like this. Should any more printers break this will be the replacement. Why pay 100 when yuo can get such quality for half the price?

especially when the background is white. Very high eye strain at any refresh rate, guess due to the ghost image problem (eyes try to get a better focus on an unfocused screen).

I don't personally own this monitor, I have seen it, and it is an impressive monitor. The person who rated this monitor so poorly down there who said that .24 dpi is not acceptable obviously is missing some details, because I've always heard that the human eye doesn't distinguish between anything less than .25dpi....

I have heard similar complaints about customer service from owner's of Sony monitors on other websites, so if by chance your monitor does have a problem, you may be without a monitor for a couple weeks while sony fixes it.....

My beloved six year old NEC 21" monitor was finally giving up the ghost. We had spent so much quality time together. It started with me in a Mac only environment. It moved with me to PC and Unix machines. I dreaded the task of finding another display with the same quality, and doing so on a budget much smaller than the one six years ago.

After a few weeks with the G400 I'm now thrilled that the old monitor is gone. Yes, it's a 19", not a 21"... I can't tell. The higher scan rates and overall quality makes for a much sharper display at screen resolutions higher than I would ever attempt on my late monitor. Screen flicker is modest at even high resolutions (1600x1200)

The truly flat display tube was a bit odd a first. Having worked with curves screens all my life I'd adapted to their distortions. The display is crisp and flat to the very edges of the tube. Now, going back to standard curved displays is jarring.

The video control (centering, contrast, brightness, etc.) takes some experimentation and is probably the weakest piece of plastic on the monitor. But after your initial setup you shouldn't need to use it often.

Since I work with multiple machines the dual video inputs with a switch located on the front of the display was a big plus. The machine also includes a Mac adapter. Note: the monitor comes with one video cable. If you're attaching another machine (PC or Mac) you will need another.

Anyone planning on a 21" display might wish to consider saving themselves a significant amount of money with the G400. Because size isn't everything. :)

I hade this printer for 4 years now. The first time my parents got it was working good for 3 Months. Then the paper started to get jammed and both color, black, and white ink cost my parents almost $50.00. This is the worst printer I have ever had Im thinking of getting a laser printer now or something other printer that will last longer.

This printer has fantastic output and is as fast as Epson rates it. I've purchased two 760's and one 860. They are quiet and start up quite fast compared to earlier Epson Models. I've had to re-install the driver at least once on each of the three computers to which they are hooked up due to some printer spooler hanging problems. The driver does not seem to be mature yet. This printer will NOT recognize Esc /P2 codes, DEC codes or HEX codes for print control when printing from DOS or using DOS to print via the Windows Print Spooler. Epson admits this, but there is no mention in the Epson specs or documentation about this, so beware if you use DOS to print other than std 10cpi font!

This printer is relatively quiet, and has very good image quality. For reports or personal use it's very good. It does guzzle ink a little, but the image quality is superior to other printers I've seen for the same price. I've printed scanned photos and completely synthetic pictures with no complaints about quality, and I'm glad that I bought it.

From: David Perez

Re: review on my defective printer

This letter is to notify you that my Hewlett Packard printer is terrible and I'm very unhappy with both the quality of my printer, and the after sales service that I received from Hewlett Packard. Below you will find the reasons why I will probably never purchase from Hewlett Packard.

-I purchased the printer for business purposes in February of 1999. -I used the printer, under normal quality prints for the purpose of letters & Memo's. -Come Christmas I tried to use the printer under the best quality print for the first time. (To make holiday cards) -At that point I discovered that the printer did not work under this setting. (I then had to buy holiday cards) -I sent the printer to get fixed during the Christmas Break. -When the printer came back to me I tried it out, and bingo the problem wasn't even fixed. -I called the repair department and they told me to send it in again. -They didn't even fix the problem can you believe that. -Because this printer is used for the purposes of work I had to wait until our February break to send it in again. -When the printer came back this time again, I found that now 2 new problems had suddenly appeared.

List of new problems since the printer was returned from your service department:

1.The Printer now prints off centre (Example included) 2.The printer doesn't print the colours properly at the bottom of the picture (Example Included)

-This has become a very bad habit to have to send my printer in to get fixed all the time.

This is the way I see things:

1.I never got a printer that worked since day one. 2.I didn't find out that the printer was defective until December 1999 3.When I did send the printer in to get fixed, nothing was done. 4.When I sent the printer in again (Now February) It comes back with 2 new problems. 5.My warranty is now over, but the way I see it, the printer never even worked properly the entire year I had it. 6.What I would like is for my printer to be fixed free of charge. 7.If this can't be done then I would like to return this defective product in exchange for a new one. 8.I've been more than patient with this defective product and I want to be satisfied by either #6 or #7 in this paragraph.

I will not take no for an answer because I really do believe that I have not received the product that I set out to purchase back in February.

It is my second color printer and it is nice. It just hogs the ink. Otherwise, I enjoy it. Besides a few bugs that interfere with Windows Media Player and other applications, not a bad product.

Just Don't use it when you computer is on a Y2K day like DEC 31,1999. It will NOT WORK!

This is a truly great printer.

I use it primarily for black and white printing and I print a lot. It is fast, very clean, and very economical, particularly with black and white printing.

It is very forgiving of mistakes (I reuse scrap paper for drafts and many times I had papers stapled together go thru the printer without harm). I don't recommend the practice but so far the printer has survived without damage. Its real easy to clear a paper jam if it occurs, and to change the ink. So far paper jams have occured only when I've had staples on the paper, or had some other irregularity with the scrap paper I typically print drafts on.

The printer gives you lots of choices of printing quality and speed, so you can opt for draft quality to save ink and for speed or for varying degrees of better quality, which are hard to distinguish from laser quality printr.

The gray scale is excellent.

Best of all you can save money by reusing the ink cartriges
again and again. I've used one cartrige about 8 times so far.
You need to buy an inexpensive reinking kit on the web, and with practice the whole reinking process (for black ink) now takes me no more than two minutes. I'd guess I get about 1000 sheets between reinkings.

The cartridges are extremely sturdy. I put one in boiling water for about half an hour to clean the print heads and forgot to turn off the flame. When I arrived the water had boiled out and the cartidge was too hot to touch. Amazingly it still worked fine and still does many reinkings later.
( I don't recommend this to you)

The color printing seems adaquate. I don't have a basis of comparison. It is economical if you reink yourself.
There is only one cartirge for all colors, so using more one color would make the cartridge useless when that color ran out unless you reinked yourself.

All ink jet printers are uneconomical unless you reink yourselves, but this printer is a workhourse and a gem.

If you reink as I do wear clothes you could afford to get ink on and some kind of food handling thin gloves to keep the ink off you. If you are careful you wont get any ink on you, but ink is ink and hard to get off so its much better to be safe than sorry.

I really liked this printer when I first got it about 3 years ago. Sure it was loud and a little slow, but it printed pretty good. Well, after about 1 1/2 years of VERY light duty, I all of a sudden start getting error messages on my PC telling me the printer is not connected to the computer. First I changed the cord to no avail, then I tried different open USB ports on my computer, so it ends up I just have to position the USB cable perfectly to the back of the P1000 to get it to work. At least it would still work, right? Well that got me by for about six months and now it just will not connect at all. Now my HP P1000 has a nice new home in the trashcan and I'm giving Canon a try. If HP puts as much thought into printers as they do computers I definetely don't want to buy another HP product again...

I've had the P1000 for a couple of years. Worked great with WindowsME. After installing XP on my desktop I had to reinstall the printer software to get it to work. Just got a new laptop and it doesn't work at all.. in fact, the P1000 causes my Dell Inspiron to crash whenever I disconnect the USB cable. When the cable is connected the laptop never recognizes the printer.

If you are looking for a home photo-quality printer (not pro quality- but good enough form me), for a decent price. This is your printer.
I can print 8X10's that come out with amazing results. I even use my scanner to print from the negatives and the photos print out better than my local store (I am not comparing to 1-hour development, I am comparing a local specialty store with an amazing reputation).
Just make sure to use (and of course set the printer) to high quality photopaper, and you will see amazing results.
I bought this printer a few years ago and have never had a problem with it. I don't know if the newer versions are better, but I can't say a bad word about this printer.

After two horrible experiences with HP printers I purchased a Canon i550 two years ago. It never disappointed. When I decided I wanted scanning and copying capability it was a sure thing to stick with Canon. I have been using this multipass for about a month now and I am very happy with it. Great photo & document print quality. And, as well known, one great advantage to Canon printers is the reasonably priced ink cartridges. I LOVE having the ability to use the copy function when the pc is not on. This makes my bill keeping and schoolwork much easier. This mfp looks impressive on the desk and is a dark navy blue color with silver details. The only aspect of the printer that has bothered me is the size; it's a little on the large side. But, this is minor in my office as I have plenty of room for it. Looking at other mfp's at the stores, the large size is pretty standard. I ordered this on Amazon (...)- a FABULOUS price for the function and quality of this Canon. Thanks, Amazon!

*Very easy to setup and use.
*Excellent print quality.
*Scans of pictures look great.
*Copier function is easy to use, don't even need to have computer turned on.
*Fast printing.

I want to clear up a negative comment an earlier reviewer said that this machine runs out of ink quickly.

The machine itself doesn't use up the ink quickly, Canon always packages their ink cartridges so that they are economical to the average user(consumer).

What I mean is that most of the time you can buy the "black" Canon ink cartridge for typically less than $10 compared to Hewlett Packard which sells it's black ink cartridges for typically $25+. The difference being in the two products is the amount of ink contained in each one. The Canon ink cartridge for $10 has maybe half the ink that the Hewlett Packard $25 ink cartridge has.

For the average user like myself, I like given the choice of buying a smaller ink cartridge for $10 rather than being stuck with paying $25 for a size ink cartridge that will take you forever to use.

Get the idea?

A decent scanner alone would cost almost this amount, but in this product you get all 3 (printer,copier,scanner) in one. Excellent product Canon, A+

After paying $30.00 for HP cartridges for years, I selected the Canon specifically because the ink cartridges were $7.00 or less and the color $15.00 or less. While I didn't expect the ink to last as long as the HP tanks, I was pleasantly surprised to get well over 100 sheets of greyscale printing by using the draft and standard modes and reserving quality mode only for presentations. In ink savings alone this printer will pay for itself compared with other brands, many many many times over.

The only real problem (and its not really a problem) with the printer is a long warmup period followed by some overdramatic printer head gymnastics when you go to print a document or use the copier. It can take well over 30 seconds between your print request and when the first page actually starts printing, although the printer is speedy enough after it starts. For casual home or office use this really isn't a problem.

The printer is obsessive about cleaning itself because the ink cartridges don't come with a printer head. This reduces the cost of the ink cartridges considerably but the printer has to take extra care in keeping the permanent head clean. So the long warmups are actually saving you money.

Another thing to note is that the scanner is only 8 1/2 by 11 so if you need to scan legal documents this isn't the model for you. If you want to make an occssional copy or scan a photo the scanner is perfect.

Regardless of where you are printing from (photoshop, word processor, or using the copier) print quality is excellent and the supplied drivers makes it easy to configure the printout. All three functions (scanning, printing, and copying) work flawlessly as as you expected.

The supplied software is worth the price of the printer alone offering an adaquate photo retoucher ( this software won't work with .gif images though ), Optical Character Recognition, and little applets to make handling scanned images (storing, attaching to email) easy.

Setup was a mild chore made easier by following the large poster in the box, there was nothing too difficult, mostly removing packaging and installing the printer ink for the first time. The poster was quite insistant that the USB cable (which is not included and must be purchased seperately) not be attached until last.

The unit itself is about a foot tall, a legal page wide, and a page and a half deep. So it's taller than you might expect. The unit is shiney black plastic, although the top is a more attractive textured black. The sides are light gray. They match the 2004 model Dell computers fairly well. Another nice feature is the output hopper can be folded up when not in use to save space and it just looks nicer. When you print, the hopper will automatically open.

There is no USB cable included with the printer so you'll need to get one. The Belkin cable Amazon recommends with this printer is a great value and works with either USB 1.0 or 2.0 (the printer can understand both). The printer does come with a color and black ink cartridge. The ink cartridge is the popular and widely used BCI-24 series, I had no problem finding replacements on Amazon, Wal Mart, and my local office supply stores.

All told this is a perfect home/small office unit that will fit just about any budget. After a month's use, I'm very satisfied with the quality and value of this printer.

When I first purchased the S450 it worked well. Then about 3 months later, the feeder began feeding 2+ sheets through at the same time. I exchanged that unit with Canon and within 1 month I started have the same problem with an added twist, ink smuge. Take my advice, RUN LIKE HELL WHEN YOU SEE THIS PRINTER ON SALE!!!

I purchased this printer about two half years ago from an online
market. It worked for about 2 days, I called Canon and got a replacement and after three cartridge wells exchanges it worked just fine. So, after some tinkering and UPS packages I got mine to work just fine for the next two years. Of course, until last night when my three year spilled a cup of milk into the print bay. I need suggestions for a new printer ;-) Richard

I bought the Canon S450 because I wanted a step up from the low-end HP printer that came free with my computer. If you are fed up with HP printers, are looking for something that produces good quality output, and don't want to spend a lot of money, this is the printer for you. I had so many problems with ink trails on the HPs I've owned the last few years that I gave up on the HP brand completely. That is one of the big selling points of this printer. I have used it for almost 6 months months now and not once have I had to clean the print heads, even when it goes a few weeks between uses. CNet has rated this printer one of the lowest in operating costs, mostly due to the fact that you can replace each color cartridge individually. (They don't soak you on the cartridges either - some online auctions have them for as little as $6 apiece). I am very happy with both the black and color quality of this printer. I've used it for documents as well as photos and CD labels, and it does a great job.

For the casual user who wants a decent printer that doesn't require a fortune in upkeep or hours of cleaning just to get a good copy, this is definitely the one.

I bought the larger Canon CD-300 printer less than a year ago for $400. Now, Canon says they will not create an XP driver for it. That is an extremely poor customer server. Anyone making PC-compatible hardware has to be prepared to support it for a reasonable period after they stop selling it. Canon promotes their printers as Microsoft Windows compatible, but the CD-300 doesn't run on the only version of Windows that Microsoft is selling! That is deceptive. I own a Canon digital SLR and digital SureShot. Because of this clear example of how little they care about their customers, they are the last Canon products I will purchase. Today, instead of buying photo paper for my defunct Canon CD-300, I bought the Sony DPP-SV77. It's a great little printer with a pop-up display for much less than the Canon... and Sony has great customer service!

Before purchasing this item, be sure you know what you're getting (I was unfortunately hasty). It's cute and tiny, to be sure, but so are its photos--the size of a credit card. And they're not cheap. The Canon CP-100 is slightly larger but for the extra "O" you're getting newer technology and a printer that offers photos of four different sizes.

The CP-10 is a great little printer that prints a outstanding quality wallet photo without a hitch. The difference between bordered and borderless prints is that borderless prints a somewhat zoomed version of what your image display window shows so you may experience "head chopping" unless you learn to frame your shots with a little more border around objects. You must be very careful when loading paper so as not to touch the printing surface or a finger print will show up in the finished product. I was surprised at how much detail can be had on a credit card sized photo and find this to be a nice alternative to printing larger more costly images when this size will produce a compact result that serves many purposes. Portability is the key here and I use this with a powershot S110 so in two pockets you have a complete photo system on the go. With optional 12 volt auto adapter you can have instant mobile prints. It does not interface with a PC so you must print direct from digicam making a larger capacity media card a good addition if shooting away from the printer.