Canon Pixma iP4600

[daltoned]

Hi , has anyone used this printer and if so what's your opinion/views. I do not do a lot of photo printing and with limited budget need to replace my HP Deskjet 5150, which apart from being 5 years old, won't operate all features on Pc running Vista Home. From what I can see, printers with seperate cartridges give better quality prints.
Any advice welcome.

[scouse109]

I just bought a Canon MG5250 which is very similar. The photos it produces are excellent even on DVDs. I have owned a Pixma before and they are pretty well the same printer.

However they all have the same problem with ink - It is too expensive! Also they need to be used on a regular basis to stop clogging. The more you use it the less problems you will see.

In the real world it is a lot cheaper to go to a store and have them printed professionally.

Good luck

Phil

Check out this site http://www.rihac.com.au/ I am not on commission or anything but it makes the whole deal of printing viable.

[delboy]

Hi Eddie

We have had a iP4700, and just recently replaced it with a iP4850. Found both printers to be excellent, What Phil has said is corrct the inks are expensive and you have to be careful about clogging up. This happened to our 4700 and although you can buy a new print head it was cheaper to buy a new printer. After trying to clean and clear the print head with no success we bought a new printer. DON'T BUY CHEAP LOOK ALIKE INKS. The other thing the nice man at the shop told us, leave the printer switched on all the time if possible because, everytime you switch it on and off it goes through a head cleaning cycle sucking up gallons of ink. Phil is also correct about having them printed professionally, it could be cheaper. However I have not been impressed with some of the results I have got back from some of these places and have found them expensive, because on a couple of occasions I have had to reprint the photo's myself. Now I prefer to control the whole process myself.

Regards

Delboy.

[scouse109]

Hi Delboy

I am an IT guy and have been since 1974. There is a trick to cleaning clogged up ink. I only teach IT these days, but as a tech we used to hold the clogged device in the steam from a boiling jug. As soon as it is is too hot to hold put it in the printer and do a deep clean.

It did not always work but did on enough occasions to make it worth a try.

Clients used to look at me strangely when I would do a site visit to fix their printer and I would ask "Have you put the kettle on?"

Phil
Do this at your own risk and don't complain to me if the ink melts and drips on your floor...
:)

[scouse109]

Now I am remembering all the little tricks as my brain takes a walk down memory lane. Do you know what to do if your HDD dies and contains all you data (photos) that you were going to back up one day?

It depends on the problem, but try this:

Take the drive out of your computer and put it in a zip-lock bag.
Put it in the freezer for a couple of hours
Take it out of the freezer and put it in the computer as fast as you can
See if it recognises the drive.
If it does then get as much data off it as you can on to another drive.
Dump the drive even if it seems to work fine again.
Next time do backups every day!!!

Phil
:)

[delboy]

Hey, Thanks for that Phil. I will remember that snippet of wisdom next time my printer clogs up. Re Hard Drive, I know all about hard drives failing, had it happen to me a few months ago. Luckily I had good backup systems in place and manage to keep going. "See my thread on Backup"

Regards

Delboy.