Canon PIXMA iP3000 Photo Printer

• Up to 4,800 x 1,200 dpi color resolution
• Up to 22 ppm black, 15 ppm color; 4-by-6-inch photo in about 36 seconds
• Built-in 2-sided printing; 4 individual ink tanks
• Direct print port, PictBridge compatible
• USB interface; PC and Mac compatible

Having five kids in school who all use our networked printer, we go through at least one printer a year.

Because of this, we tend to buy a solid printer that is "cheap" on ink, has good text quality and the ability to print good quality photos from our digital camera.

We purchased the PIXMA IP3000 here at Amazon for several reasons. 1) The price was right. After applying for the Amazon credit card, we were rewarded with a $30 discount off our first purchase using the new credit card. 2) The reviews from other websites rated the PIXMA IP3000 as a high quality buy. 3) We have had outstanding luck with other Canon printers.

After a tiring year for our Canon S630, she died a quick and painless death. We were amazed that the S630 lated as long as it did. When I say we print alot, I mean ALOT. It is not unusual for us to go through a 500 count ream of paper every month. This does not include photo printing, T-shirt transfer printing and various school project prints. Having been extremely satisfied with the S630, we did our research on the PIXMA IP3000 and decided to purchase it.

Though we have only had it a few days, we can tell a big difference in the print quality. The PIXMA IP3000 uses a new technology called "FINE" which micro-manages the print head and the use of ink. This formula has made a great difference in photo printing. The quality is really amazing. We were very happy with the photo printing on the S630, but the PIXMA IP3000 has improved photo printing 100%.

The PIXMA IP3000 is a very sleek looking machine, and looks very nice in our computer room. Once closed up, you don''t even know it is a printer. The duel paper feed system is a huge plus, the lower cassette will hold about 150 sheets of plain paper.

The bundled software seems to be of good quality, but we use Photo Shop for all our printing needs. The PIXMA IP3000 comes shipped with full versions of each ink tank, not the 1/5 filled ink tanks like many companies have went to.

We paid $92.17 for the printer, minus the $30.00 credit card reward for a total purchase price of $62.17. As our old S630 used the same ink tanks as the PIXMA IP3000 does, we felt that since the printer was shipped with 4 full ink tanks, we almost got this printer for free!

We used the "free shipping" option yet still received the printed via UPS in 3 days.

If this printer holds up for a year with this quality, we were be extremely happy.

Of note, the printer does NOT come with a USB cable.

Buy Canon PIXMA iP3000 Photo Printer Now

I am a certified technician for Canon (and other manufacturers) printers, and I can run down a few of the strong/weak points of this model. Overall, this is a good machine for occasional users, but doesn''t deliver the best quality available. It''s a good machine for what it is, and most breakdowns that I''ve seen are due to user error.

Pros:

-very fine (2pl) droplet size gives good resolution.

-separate ink tank and print head for lower-cost supplies.

-easy to use, simple interface.

Cons:

-four color system (black, cyan, magenta, yellow) doesn''t give the true depth of image colors (look for 6 colors, with photo cyan and photo magenta, or 8 with photo red and photo green for better results)

-limited ppm output speed

-inks tend to dry if printer is left unattended for extended periods of time

How to keep your inkjet printer functional:

The top reason for printer failure (particularly microfine printers) is use of incorrect ink tanks. Do not use discount inks from other companies, they aren''t formulated for the very small droplet size of this printer. Don''t use ink refill kits, either. The printhead is not usually replaced with ink cartridges, and can easily be clogged by substandard inks. Also, make sure you print something at least once a week to keep the inks fresh. You can print just a nozzle check (press and hold the rest button until the green light blinks for the second time) to refresh the cartridge with a minimum of expended ink.

Read Best Reviews of Canon PIXMA iP3000 Photo Printer Here

The Canon Pixma iP3000 printer is, simply put, an excellent combination of great printing quality, unbelievable speed (for an inkjet) and family-friendly affordability.

After years of making dye-based printers, Canon is now making inkjet printers. The advantage of ink over dye is ink-printed photos will not fade over time, at least not as fast as dye. Color ink formula has improved a lot over the last three years, to the point that they will stay vibrant for many years to come. (Of course, only time will tell whether ink photos will last "forever.")

The boxy iP3000 is not a beauty to behold, but impresses everyone in the family with its excellent image quality (very good for text, excellent for photos) and fast speed. With our old Epson printer it used to take five minutes to print a photo at 150dpi in fine mode. With the iP3000, that was cut down to less than a minute and a half, and the same picture looked better this time around, too. Yes, for those of us environmentalists, the printer can print double-sided. Whether that tends to wear down the paper feed mechanism is unknown. So far, at least it hasn''t had a paper jam. (Knock on wood.)

One of the best things about Canon printers (except the much cheaper iP1500) is they use individual ink tanks, and the replacement tanks are fairly priced, so there''s no need to buy a new cartridge to replace all the colors when only one runs out. The iP3000 is also quieter than my Epson and HP.

This holiday season, if you want a family-friendly, high-quality printer, the Pixma iP3000 is by far the best choice. It strikes the perfect balance between function+quality and price.

Want Canon PIXMA iP3000 Photo Printer Discount?

The Pixma iP3000 has performed flawlessly, and is an exceptional value.

(a) The printer is quick, and the output is very sharp. (Please note that I have not printed any photos yetjust web pages and documents).

(b) The printer can duplex pages automatically (prints on both sides of a page). This is very handy when printing documents with many pages. Duplexing appears to slow the printer down a little, but it is still quick.

(c) The iP3000 has two paper slots so you can either load up a large quantity of plain paper, or use the tray for photo paper, and the top feed for plain paper.

(d) The printer uses 4 ink tanks, which can be replaced individually. This will help reduce ink costs (compared to replacing ink cartridges in other printers).

(e) Some newer digital cameras can be connected directly to the printer to produce photo prints, so you don''t have to bother transferring the images from the camera to your PC first. (I haven''t tried this yet).

Two potential "negatives" can be (1) some Epson printers allow printing directly onto CDs/DVDs, while the Canon doesn''t have this functionality, and (2) compared to the Canon i560, the Pixma iP3000 has a larger footprint. Although I like the smaller i560 footprint, I value the features in the iP3000 more.

I bought this printer as an upgrade to my dinosaur HP Inkjet (it had to have been over 10 years old), and must say I''m very pleased so far. However, before I go any further, you should know that the printer does NOT ship with a USB cable to connect it to your computer. This is kind of disappointing, considering you''ll have to spend another $20 just to hook it up to your computer. Aside from that, I am satisfied!

The first thing one is likely to notice is the design, which is sleek, simple, and well thought out. The front has two buttons, one of which will cancel a print job in progress. The other button changes the paper feed tray, of which there are two. There is also a port on the front that allows PictBridge enabled cameras to connect and print without the need of an intervening computer.

For its price, this printer is packed with a plethora of useful features. One feature that was intrigueing was automatic on and off-the printer turns on when you need it, and off when not in use. This option needs to be configured via the Control Panel. Another useful feature is automatic duplexing. In other words, the iP3000 can print two-sided pages without human intervention. How cool is that!

Print quality and speed on this model continue to leave me grinning. The test page was printed in a matter of seconds, and a test 4x6 print came out relatively fast (Canon''s claim of 36 seconds per print seems correct). Text is crisp, and colors are fairly accurate. The test 4x6 print was a little darker than the same one when it was printed at Kinko''s, but they also have something like 8 different ink colors (versus the iP3000''s 4), so that''s to be expected!

Anyways, to cut a long story short, this printer is an amazing value at just under $100.