Canon PIXMA iP4700 Premium Inkjet Photo Printer (3742B002)

• Incredible 9600 x 2400 color dpi1 for the best in photo lab printing
• Print amazing 4 x 6 inch borderless photos in approx. 20 seconds
• The ChromaLife100+ system gives you beautiful and long lasting photos
• Keep It Green - Built-in 2 sided printing helps the environment and cuts your paper usage by 50%
• Do even more with the included software from easily printing web pages with "Easy-Web Print EX-4" to effortlessly adjusting photos with the new "Auto Photo Fix II"

I purchased this printer after a lot of research here on Amazon and elsewhere. This printer is replacing an old Epson Stylus Photo 780 that I''ve had for years. I was really unhappy with the Epson because the ink heads clogged up constantly. I also wanted the newest printer possible, since I''ve had problems with other devices not updating their drivers, so this printer fit the bill.

The Canon printer has been wonderful for me so far. It was easy to set up and install and worked right away. I''m using Snow Leopard on a Mac, so I had to download the actual driver from Canon''s web site, but this is easy to do and pretty self-explanatory.

I love that the printer is all enclosed. The regular paper sits in a tray at the bottom, and everything can be closed up so that dust doesn''t get into it. Photo paper is loaded at the rear.

This printer has individual ink cartridges, a plus in my opinion.

I am using it lightly (10-15 regular color pages, 1-2 photos per week) so I have not dented the supply level on the ink cartridges, and can''t really comment on how fast the ink runs out. The print quality is pretty good for the regular paper, and very good for photos. I was very impressed with the photos that I printed, they were sharp and the color was great.

The software drivers are adequate and not too confusing. I found this printer very easy to use and of good quality. I''m very happy with it, and it''s miles better than my old Epson.

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Aug. 2010, 8 months later: I''ve had to change my opinion of this printer. It still puts out the best photos I''ve seen from any inkjet printer, and I''ve had my share. The colors are true and vivid. However, to get true and vivid, you can go broke on the ink. This printer was costing me so much in ink that I no longer print a "good photo" until two to three weeks after taking it. That''s just to be sure that it''s as good as I initially thought, haven''t taken a better shot since, and that I''m willing to use the ink. And, I''ve switched from 8x10 to 5x7 prints. In 8 months, I''ve spent over $300 on ink!!!!

Second, I couldn''t understand why everyone was complaining about how slow this printer was. When I first got it, I thought it was fast. Now, it''s either slowed down to a snail''s pace, or I''m just now paying attention.

This is not my primary printer, and I wasn''t really paying attention until one day I didn''t use my LaserJet IV (almost 18 years old and still going strong, but B&W), and just left it set on the PIXMA, and I swear it took the better part of 5 minutes to get around to printing the photo. Then, I printed a one page black and white note. Not even the font was fancy: Times Roman, 12 pt. It took 90 seconds to get a page printed.

Why the difference in perception? I warned in my initial review that you had to set the printer on "draft" when printing just a B&W document. Well, after printing a batch of photos on high quality, I forgot to reset it to draft. It''s a pain in the ... neck, but the difference in speed is phenomenal. And "draft quality" is actually very good for a document, even a document that has a few color font changes.

Would I recommend this printer? No. Would I buy it again? Probably, and the reason is that I just don''t know what printer would have the quality of prints. Speed is not that important when it comes to my photographic endeavors. Speed is important for the handbooks and manuals that I write, and my old HP has yet to fail me. If speed and ink costs are important, DO NOT buy this printer. In a Wall Street Journal article from last year, it stated that 80% of HP''s profits come from in sales. What? You thought that a $79 printer was too good to be true? Well, I''ve known about ink costs for many years, but I''ve had Canon, Epson, and HP printers and they can all drive you to the poorhouse when it comes to ink. Canon has the best prints, but what good is it if you can''t afford the ink to run it. And now, instead of dying with a load of ink on my hands, I''m going to die with a load of 8x10 photo paper. HP photo paper at that. Everybody wins but me. ;.)

And now back to our regularly scheduled review. From December 2009, unchanged.

I waited a month before writing this review, wanting to make sure that I gave the printer its due, and be fair to what it turns out to be its one fault, common to almost all inkjet printers.

In one sentence: this is a well-designed, beautifully made, great printer than does everything I want, and then some. In more than one sentence...

We all know that printer manufacturers make 80% of their profits from ink. Well, the problem with this Canon, is that that''s going to 90%. However, since the quality and speed of print is so much better than the Canon 150 that it replaced, I can''t officially complain until next year.

I don''t use several of the functions of the higher end PIXMAs such as directly printing from the camera (it''s best to format the card after a day of shooting), and my primary printer is still a 17 year old black and white HP LaserJet. But, I wanted this printer as a spare for that inevitable day when I''ll need a printer for text, billing, and such. Until that day, I''ll have leftover black cartridges, and will have spent a small fortune on the cyan, magenta, and yellow which come to about $38 for the three, the same price as getting the black thrown in.

I bought the printer with what I figured was a year''s supply of ink. Well, the first thing I notices was that the cartridges are 25% smaller than the same Canon 150''s, and the 150''s don''t fit this printer. I''ve often said that the old bumper sticker, "Whoever dies with the most toys wins," is inaccurate. Actually, the one who "wins" is the one who dies just as the last cartridge runs out of ink, and you also get to miss the last dentist appointment that week. Well, it''s never going to happen, and we''ll just face the fact that we''re helping the economy by having all odd ink cartridges that have no other use and will leave a carbon and cyan, and yellow, and magenta "footprints" in the ecology of our world.

A nice feature is that the cartridge lights up when it''s running out of ink. It''s a little disconcerting when three of the four are lit like it was Christmas all over again, but it it''s good to know which one needs replacing without having to read which color is which.

Seriously, the printer is fast, convenient, and I prefer the wired rather than the wireless printers to maintain the speed and to avoid problems with home networks which can lose their signal in the middle of an 8x10 high res photo. Fair warning: I bought a pack of 100 4x6 photo paper so that my wife could have "hard copy" prints of the grandkids. I don''t use Canon''s software, but something similar. And, since it was Christmas (and birthday) time around here, the pack of 100 (especially set on multiple and batch printing) lasted ... maybe 15 minutes.

IF you use Canon''s high glossy photo paper which in most cases I do recommend either separate the photos individually and let them dry, or leave them in the tray for 15-20 minutes. With 8x10''s it''s best left overnight to make certain that they are dry. HP paper dries faster, and both work find with this printer.

I also found that the 4700 will "conserve" print if you don''t check the "Highest Quality" box in the properties before printing. It''ll save 20-30% of the ink. However, there are some photos where you just have to have long-lasting, high quality photos. I like to print out prize-winning photos (as well as a few wedding pix), and noted that I might get 15 8x10s from these really small cartridges. (See examples of some photos which require this at the free site, . Some of the scenics, and even one of a colorful kestrel an take an enormous amount of ink. Sooooo, the alternative is to really think about which photos you want for an album that you may never look at again.)

By the way, plain black and white print is extremely fast once the document is in the queue, and here''s a plus that very few have thought of: the Canon iP4700 can be stopped in mid-print, quickly and easily. If you change your mind or see an error, one click and the printer stops printing. This is my 4th non-LaserJet printer, and by far my favorite. Let''s hope it doesn''t break the bank.

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My trusty Pixma iP5200 bit the dust a few weeks ago due to an unknown problem. It always functioned well, and was very reliable and produced excellent results. I depended on it for all my regular printing, especially the hidden feature for printing on CD/DVD discs. They came out beautifully in about 30 seconds. It was time to move on and upgrade. Or so I thought.

First, I had to wonder why Canon produced the Pixma iP5200 several years before the new iP4700 came along. What''s up with that?! Nevermind. I went ahead and ordered the 4700. After receiving it and setting up, I discovered several troubling things. I noticed it takes forever to start up when you send it a print job. Several minutes at least, all the while spewing wasted ink during way too many cleaning cycles. And if the unit wasn''t already turned on, it was reported as Offline by the computer and has to be manually powered on, not very user-friendly!

To add insult to injury, Canon doesn''t seem to be getting paid enough for their ink cartridges, and so, to improve revenues, has reduced the newer CLI-221 cartridge capacity to a mere 9 mL of ink, and drained the PGI-220 to only 19 mL. The older CLI-8''s had 13.6 mL in them, and the PGI-5 Bk had 26 mL! That''s over 30% less ink you are paying the same amount of money for, and the printer goes through more cleaning cycles than it''s predecessors did. You do the math!

The last straw for me was finding out that the printer does not print CD/DVD discs. This was a very important feature to me. Units sold in Europe are endowed with this capability as a standard feature. I was able to utilize the hidden feature in my previous iP5200 by reprogramming it for Euro mode, and using CDLabelPrint (which, by the way, works wonderfully and can print all the way to the 17mm center hole!).

Bottom line, I ended up selling the printer 1 week after purchasing it to a friend who did not need the CD/DVD printing feature, and acquiring a Canon iP4500 legacy printer (the very last model produced which does CD/DVD printing, now sadly discontinued).

Beware of this unit''s limitations. It will print very high quality photos, and does fast and crisp text. However, your consumables costs for ink are going to much higher (unless you know how to refill using quality inks), and the issues with no CD/DVD option and refusing to print from a power-off state pushed it over the edge for me.

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My old Canon i960 was dying, and it was time to purchase a new printer. After loads of research, I chose the Pixma ip4700...and it completely lived up to the high expectations I have for Canon photo printers. Prints are crisp and colors are fantastic. Plus, technology has improved so much since I last purchased a printer--dpi is better, and print speed is much, much faster than my old i960. For around $100, you can''t go wrong. People are always amazed when they see prints I make on Canon printers...the quality rivals and possible even surpasses print labs.

The quality of the printing from this printer is as good as any I have seen, which makes it all the worse that I still can''t give it better than one star. The fact is that if it were a car, it would be the number one model traded in during Cash for Clunkers, since this printer eats ink like Al Gore wastes fuel flying everywhere, and than some. It isn''t just on the high end settngs either, as even on fast quality and with standard paper it drains both your ink and your budget. If you have the money to burn, you''ll get great prints. If not, look for an older model like the 4200 or 4300, both of which I''ve owned (the 4700 was a replacement for the 4300 that lasted years and printed thousands of pages per month without sending me to the poor house over ink). After years of buying Canon, my next printer isn''t going to be from them without some serious research into ink consumption on their and other brand models. Too bad, I realy like the way this printer prints, but my old 4200 will be getting more use, with the 4700 saved for those rare times I can justify the cost.