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Canon PIXMA iP4200 Photo Printer

Canon PIXMA iP4200 Photo Printer
Brand: Canon
Category: CE

List Price: $129.99
Buy New: $59.95
You Save: $70.04 (54%)



New (8) from $59.95

Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars 132 reviews

Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Modem: None
Shipping Weight (lbs): 16
Dimensions (in): 20 x 15 x 14

MPN: 9992A001
Model: IP4200
UPC: 013803048438
EAN: 0013803048438
ASIN: B000A2BJC6

Release Date: August 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Features:
  • Up to 9,600 x 2,400 color dpi resolution, droplets as small as 1 picoliter
  • Up to 600 x 600 dpi for black text documents; improved smudge resistance
  • Borderless 4-by-6-inch photos in as little as 51 seconds
  • Automatic two-sided printing; includes second paper tray
  • Windows, Mac, and PictBridge compatible

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
The PIXMA iP4200 Photo Printer is a high-performance machine, combining exceptional print quality with advanced convenience features.It delivers a resolution of up to 9600 x 2400 color dpi, for amazing detail and clarity. To achieve this, Canon Full-photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering (FINE) uses a high-performance 1, 856-nozzle print head that ejects precise, consistent droplets as small as 1 picoliter, resulting in beautiful photos with virtually no detectable grain.Also, the ContrastPLUS 5-color ink system - four dye-based inks and a pigment-based black ink - produces true-life photos with a wide color palette, along with laser-quality text. You'll be amazed at your results.High performance doesn't stop there. The PIXMA iP4200 Photo Printer can produce a photo lab quality 4" x 6" borderless print in about 51 seconds. Its USB 2.0 Hi-Speed interface enables the fastest photo transfers possible from your computer.

Amazon.com Product Description
Why bother waiting for the photo lab when you can print images that are just as good--or maybe better--at home? The Canon PIXMA iP4200 combines five-color printing with a 1,856-nozzle print head capable of delivering superfine 1-picoliter ink droplets. The result is gorgeously clean, sharp prints delivered into your hands just minutes after you snapped the shot.

Color resolution is as high as 9,600 x 2,400 dpi, with black resolution up to 600 x 600 dpi. Print speeds range up to 29 ppm for monochrome and 19 ppm in color; a borderless 4-by-6-inch photo takes as little as 51 seconds. With the iP4200's automatic two-sided printing, you can easily produce glossy brochures and invitations right from your desktop. Improved ink technology supplies rich black text that offers exceptional resistance to smudges--it even holds up to highlighter pens. (All reported speeds are maximums. Actual speeds will vary.)

With its straightforward USB port, connecting the printer with your computer is a snap; the iP4200 is compatible with both Windows and Macintosh operating systems and includes software tools like Easy-PhotoPrint (Windows/Mac), Easy WebPrint (Windows), and PhotoRecord (Windows). A direct print port allows you to print directly from a PictBridge-compatible digital camera or DV camcorder, with or without your computer. The printer is backed with a one-year limited warranty covering parts and labor.

What's in the Box
iP4200 photo printer, PGI-5BK black ink tank, CLI-8Bk photo black ink tank, CLI-8C cyan ink tank, CLI-8M magenta ink tank, CLI-8Y yellow ink tank, power cord, setup instructions, CD-ROM, Canon photo paper plus 4" x 6" glossy sample pack, quick start guide, registration and warranty card; printer cable not included


Customer Reviews:   Read 80 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars An Older Model - But Still A Great Printer Nonetheless   November 25, 2008
Bryan Weiss (San Jose, CA)
Canon IP 4200P

I bought the Canon IP4200 a few years ago primarily for printing text documents, although I do occasionally print some pictures. Here are some of its pros and cons:

Pros
----
- Print Quality
The quality of printing for both text and images is superb and as good as it gets. Text printed in all of the Print Quality modes (FAST, STANDARD or HIGH) are sharp and the print quality on FAST and STANDARD modes rival that produced by the best inkjet or laser printers. The quality of the photos printed are comparable to those from a photo lab (yes, they're that good).

- Full duplex printing
Full duplex printing simply means that double-sided printing is fully automated - you won't have to manually feed documents back into the printer to finish the job after it's done printing on one side. That's really really nice, and it's a real time-saver!

- Quiet operation
The printer is fairly quiet. However, for people who share a room (college students in a dorm room, for example), the noise emitted might still be a disturbance to a roommate who's say sleeping or studying. That's where its Quiet mode comes in handy - it's whisper quiet in this mode but it comes at the expense of printing speed.

- Print Speeds
I found that the actual print speed is considerably less than what's advertised. For printing text, and assuming we're printing an average page of text -- on its lowest quality (FAST) mode, it can crank out ~6-8 PPM (pages per minute). On its highest quality (HIGH) mode, it's capable of producing ~4-6 PPM. For photo printing, it takes just over a minute.

- Reliability
The printer has proven to be extremely reliable for me. Amazingly, in the roughly 3 years that I've had this printer, it has had paper jams only a couple of times - and even then, it was because the paper wasn't properly loaded. It's been a workhorse for my printing projects, both big and small - I've printed entire manuals on this printer with no problems.

- Ink Usage
At the lowest quality mode, I can print about a ream's worth of paper - double-sided.

Cons
----

- Ink Usage
I do almost all of my printing in gray scale (black and white). You would think it uses only the black ink cartridge when it's printing in black and white - not so; it actually uses all of the color ink cartridges - at about the same rate! I had the same experience with my old HP printer as well. I Googled extensively on why this was done. Almost all resources point to the canned response from Canon stating that this is done to make the colors more "vibrant." I mean black is black is black! It boggles me why you would need colors to make black more "vibrant." Oh well, go figure.

So, if you're counting on using only the black ink cartridge to print gray scale and save yourself from having to buy the color cartridges -- don't!

There have also been reports that when the printer runs out of ink, it displays a notification about the printer being of ink and prevents further printing - that has got to be extremely aggravating when you urgently need something printed out.

Last, I should mention the price of cartridges are more on the steep side. The printer uses Cyan CLI-8C, Magenta CLI-8M, Yellow CLI-8Y (also sold as a multipack), and the two black cartridges PGI-5, and CLI-8 Black (also sold as a multipack).

- Direct CD/DVD Printing
NOT! This feature is only available in the European version of the Canon IP4200. Direct CD/DVD printing allows you to print directly on a CD/DVD. Nifty! Sure beats Lightscribe (Lightscribe drive required) or CD labels. But somehow Canon has decided to omit this feature for the US version of this printer.

No matter, if you're adventurous and have time on your hands to burn, you can retrofit the printer with a special CD tray (no longer available at Amazon) yourself. Google some to find a seller and to find instructions on how it's done.


There you have it. To sum it all up: The IP4200 produces phenomenally great looking text and photos. The main gripe I have is the price of ink cartridges. Despite this shortcoming, I still rated it 5 stars by virtue of its impressive print quality.



5 out of 5 stars Great printer, with solid customer service experience   August 11, 2008
Jake
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I have had this printer for about 2 years. It is a realy workhorse, printing lots of photos and text for myself and my wife. This thing does a great job with both. Also, despite what some reviewers on here say, the separate ink tanks have the potential to save you considerable amounts of money. Much better design than a single tank model.

Although I've never tried to refill ink tanks or use after-market tanks in this printer, I did run into the plague of ink tank error messages that many reviewers have described. Turns out I had not one, but two defective ink tanks in the printer. After discussing the issue with online support from Canon, they sent two new ink tanks at no charge. They arrived within 3 days.


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