Canon PIXMA iP4300 Photo Printer (1438B002)

• Exceptional resolution--up to 9600 x 2400 color dpi
• Buil-in two sided printing and second paper tray
• Easy-PhotoPrint 3.5 software makes it simple to enhance and print amazing-looking digital photos
• Up to 30 ppm black and up to 24ppm color
• Capture image with a PictBridge-ready digital camera/DV camcorder, connect, and print

The Good:

-Outstanding output quality for the price

-Good speed

-Automatic Duplex printing

-Lightweight drivers/software

-Inexpensive ink

The Bad:

Aside from a slightly cheap asthetic feel, I can''t find a thing. And for such a low price, it''s to be expected. Other manufactures might have shnazzier printers at the same price point, but keep in mind most other manufacturers don''t sell printers, they sell ink, so you pay for it in the long run.

Overall I am extremely satisfied with this printer. Coming from an IP4000, I had high expectations, and this did not dissapoint. I have owned every major brand of printers (HP, Epson), and Canon is absolutely where it''s at. Cartridges are much more affordable, you aren''t forced to install 400mb of junk that loads 5 processes at windows startup (HP), and the attention to detail is great (i.e., you can program the printer to shutoff after X minutes of being idle). Do yourself a favor and buy a Canon.

Buy Canon PIXMA iP4300 Photo Printer (1438B002) Now

I ordered this 4300 for the office on the basis of great results with its predecessor, the 4200, at home. If you''re new to the Pixma line, expect the machine to function flawlessly if not beyond expectations, though at a slightly higher cost in ink than other printers. (Always keep a spare of each of the 5 colors on hand, and forget about finding clones for this model or cheaper ink prices than those posted on Amazon.) The iP4300 is a slight upgrade of the extremely popular iP4200 (see reviews of that machine). If you print a lot of photos, you''ll notice a 40% increase in the rate of processing. If you want a preview monitor on your printer, you''ll find it available on the higher-numbered, costlier Canon Pixmas (the ip6600 is the newest; the price of the ip6000 is currently attractive, but the machine is two years old). Finally, I wouldn''t discount the duplex printing feature, retained on the 4300. It has saved me not only paper but numerous trips to the copy machine.

Advantage of the iP4300 over the 4200: Significantly faster printing of color copy because of added ink jets.

Disadvantage of IP4300: Slightly wider and deeper than the 4200, taking up more desk space. (Height and weight are the same.)

Bottom line: Still the best and most dependable all-around printer (not just photos) for home or office in this price range, at least until HP or Epson (I''ve previously owned both) return to form. If you need a clincher, it''s the duplex printing.

Read Best Reviews of Canon PIXMA iP4300 Photo Printer (1438B002) Here

I was using an HP Photosmart 7260 which made very good photo prints. It used 6 color photo ink but I had to change one cartridge to pigment ink for text.

I bought the IP4300 and here are the differences:

**It uses separtate ink cartridges but uses 4 colors for photos.

**The print quality is equal or better than the HP (but close).

**The IP4300 is quiet and 2 3 times faster.

**The print driver has both auto and manual modes so you can tweak the print.

**It has two paper paths. I put photo paper in the back feeder and plain paper in the front cassett. Located below the pull out catch tray.

**I can set the default to plain paper and select photo settings when needed. The printer will automatically use the back paper feed.

**This printer has automatic head alignment and it works great.

**You can turn on a power save mode to have it shut off if not used after some time (I chose 30 minutes). It will automatically turn on when printing.

**All 5 cartridges are installed. Pigment black produces excellant text.

**I have seen some reviews where itwas stated that the prints have a red tint. I got the same thing at first. If you are not using Canon paper, start with this setting: Select paper "Photo Paper Pro" and High Print Quality. This removed my red tint (I use Kodak paper).

Overall, if you want a printer for text and high quality photos, this is it. If you are looking for advance photo printers Canon makes those too. These are not usually good for text.

Ron

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You searched diligently to find the right camera at the right price to capture those precious moments and exploit those eye-pleasing scenes. But once those amazing snapshots were taken, you needed a printer just as superb to make the photos worth their megapixels. I have always stuck with Canon for my camera, and because of this iP4300 I now stick with them for my printer. This printer produces phenomenal results, something I expect when I worked hard to take good pictures.

The set-up and installation guide is step-by-step. You don''t need to worry about whether you''ll be able to set it up or not, because it is quite simple. Everything you''ll need is in the box EXCEPT a USB A to USB B cable. You will have to purchase a USB cable to connect the printer to the computer. The drivers and utilities installed total a little over 200 MB, not very big. Registration is extremely easy. Not a complaint about the installation (using Mac OS X 10.4).

The plastic that the iP4300 is made out of is a little flimsy, but not anything to worry about. You would still have to try very hard to break it. It is a slightly larger than normal printer, but not unmanageable. The fact that all of the trays fold up into a perfect box-shape is very convenient.

The photo quality is phenomenal. Of course, you will want to get some photo quality paper. I printed off 4 3x6s on a page, then an 8x10, and instantly saw a difference from any other printer I''ve dealt with. I did colors and black & whites, high contrast ones too, and in the all black areas I did not notice any streaks or lines. It was superb quality.

I was torn between this and the iP6700D. But in researching, I noticed that the iP6700D has two more photo colored ink cartridges (which sounds appealing at first) BUT less nozzles than the iP4300. So divide the already fewer print nozzles over 6 ink cartridges means a significant drop in nozzles per ink color in comparison with the iP4300''s nozzle count. Then, the iP6700D offers the same B&W resolution as the 9600x color resolution, which also sounds better. But the iP4300''s 600x is all you really need for B&W. The B&W print quality is amazing, do not worry. So unless you just have an insatiable desire for an LCD screen, I recommend to you the Canon iP4300 over any other printer.

I had a Canon BJC4200 for almost 10 years and it worked flawlessly. I got bored and bought a HP. My God! What a mistake, the HP were always cleaning its head, were slow, and when I printed a 10 pages document and went away, the pages were never in order! I quicky got rid of the HP and bougut an Epson. BIG MISTAKE. Epson economy printing is a joke. It is grey, faded, almost like if you had printed 1000 pages and the ink is in its last days. I called Epson and they told me that the NEW EPSON are programmed to print (in econo mode) in that way (grey and faded). I got angry for that rip off and bought this Canon. What a change! It is fast, it has dual tray, it never get jammed, it prints large documents and the pages are always perfectly rearranged and MOST OF ALL, in the Canon economy mode (even tough is very fast) the quality is excellent, like the NORMAL mode of the Epson. I just laughed at the people of Epson after seeing the economy mode impressions of Canon. My conclusion is the Canon is WAY AHEAD of its COMPETITORS. Canon makes the BEST ink jet PRINTERS in the industry. PERIOD.