Canon Pixma iP4300 Delivers Excellent Prints!

For a $100 printer, the Canon Pixma iP4300 delivers excellent photos and decent all around print quality. This review is based upon my first couple of days with the printer and printing photos on Canon Glossy Photo paper. More on that topic a bit later.

The Pixma iP4300 is a basic ink jet printer. It doesn't have any screen for viewing prints or slots for media cards, so you have to use a computer for printing photos....unless you use the PictBridge connection. The printer has five separate ink cartridges (PGI-5 Black, CLI-8 Black, CLI-8 Cyan, CLI-8 Magenta and CLI-8 Yellow). This is one of the features that attracted me to this printer, after dealing with multi-ink tanks on my aging HP2110 All In One printer. At this point, I can't comment on ink usage, but I will update this review when I have more information. But, looking in the stores, cartridge replacements run around $12 to $18.

The printer has two paper feeds: the top mounted feeder and a cassette tray. I've started with 4"x6" photo paper in the cassette and standard letter size paper (all purpose and Canon Glossy) in the top feeder. Paper fed smoothly and efficiently from both feeds. Many years ago, in the dark ages of computing and printers, I had a Canon printer that was terrible at feeding paper.....it looks as though Canon has improved their paper feed.

If you look at the manufacturers specs, you'll see that this isn't exactly a small printer, but it's size will allow it to be placed in most work areas. It's gray and silver design is rather neutral, but it's design is rather boxlike....not the sleekest printer on the market. The plastic construction of the paper support and cassette tray is somewhat flimsy. These items won't handle much abuse, but should last if used properly. I would tend to think of this printer as one for home use and not a sturdy workhorse for office/work use by a lot of different users.

The process of getting the printer set up was quite easy. The quick set up guide provided by Canon is very good. The process basically requires unpacking the printer, installing the print head and five ink cartridges. This is followed by starting up the printer and letting it set itself up, before attaching the USB cable (not supplied) to the computer and installing the software (provided on cd). I was installing the software on an ancient IBM Thinkpad with Windows XP as the operating system. Installation went as per directions....about a 15 minute task. Part of the process includes having the printer align the cartridges and online product registration. My only small complaint that the instructions for using the smaller cassette for 4x6 photo paper weren't very clear.

In my search for a new printer, I wanted to keep the cost down, as it is being used as a secondary printer while at our summer cottage. At the same time, I wanted a good printer for photos as well as general printing jobs. Although I've been happy with my HP 2110, I don't like the way that HP has gone to smaller ink tanks on their printers and having to use multiple ink tanks. After reading a bunch of professional and user reviews, I decided that the Pixma iP4300 was the printer to get.

In my first days with the printer, I've printed about a dozen 4x6 photos along with some 5x7 photos on Canon Glossy paper. This isn't Canons best paper, but considered to be the paper for everyday photo printing. To put it simply....I'm very pleased with the photos. Colors are accurate and vibrant enough for my taste. I haven't had to do any tweaking, yet. The ink drys very quickly. Canon claims that the inks are very water resistant and have a very long life, but time will tell. I'm more concerned about storing my pic files and transferring the files to new media as technology develops. Any print I have for display can be reprinted when needed! Shortly, I'll experiment with other papers and printing tasks and update this review.

The interface for printer settings is pretty good and easy to use. So far, I've learned that you have to remember to push a button on the printer to switch between top or cassette paper feed. I forgot to do that on one print and was presented with a 4x6 print with only part of my pic on it. Print speed is very fast compared to my old HP. Even a page with two 5x7 photos is pretty speedy.....you can check the specs at Canon and see what they say. But, for most of us, print speed will not be an issue with this printer.

The free program that comes with the printer for processing photos if very basic. It allows you to take care of red eye and make a few other adjustments. Most photographers will use a more comprehensive photo program (I'm still using Paint Shop Pro 8- it works for me!).

I tend to process all my shots on the computer, so not being able to print directly from a media card isn't an issue for me. On my old HP, I tended to use the SD card slot mainly for downloading pics to my computer. So, with the Canon, I'm using a card reader. And, not having a LCD screen on the printer wasn't a reason for me to avoid this printer.

So....I'm happy with this printer. I'd be curious to compare it to a 6 ink model. Ultimately, I hope to get a wide carriage printer which would enable printing of larger photos....but that will require spending a lot more money!

If you only have $100 bucks to spend on a printer, and you don't need the features of an all in one printer, than I'd recommend the Canon Pixma iP4300.

Thanks for reading my review, and I hope it was helpful!

Update-July 14, 2007

After printing about 19 4x6 prints and a 4 5x7 prints, I looks like I've used about half the ink. Replacement cost per cartridge looks to be between $11 to $16 per cartridge. Wal Mart seems to have the best price for a walk in store. The nice thing is that you can replace only the color that is out.

For printing day to day documents, this printer if FAST! I just did some Mapquest driving directions. I set the print quality for "fast" and printing was very speedy and the print quality is more than adequate for the job.

Correction to my original review (8/27/07): The printer utility program does provide an ink gauge graphic which allows you to see approximately how much ink is left in the ink tanks.

Did I mention how handy the dual paper feed system is?? It's nice to be able to keep photo paper in the cassette and regular paper on top.

Update - July 14, 2007

It's All About the Paper!!!!!

Ok...I tried printing a 4x6 photo on three types of paper:
1. Canon Photo Glossy (8 mil)
2. HP Glossy (10 mil)
3. Kodak Premium High Gloss (8 mil)

And the winner is.........Canon's paper. On Canons paper, the print looks as good as something from a photo lab. On both the HP and Kodak paper, you can see the ink sitting on top of the paper, and you lose the glossy finish.

I've used both the HP and Kodak papers with my HP 2110 all in one printer, and each gave excellent results. My conclusion would be that Canon has formulated their ink to work with their papers....which means any additional paper I buy will be Canon unless I get a chance to try a couple of sheets of paper from other manufacturers to see how it works. Which means....I have an inventory of HP and Kodak paper to use on the relic (HP 2110), or swap sell my extra paper.

Conclusion....if you buy the Pixma iP4300, plan to use Canon paper unless you experiment and find something that works as well.

Update 8/27/07): I've printed at least another twenty 4x6 photos and a few other documents, and I'm still using my first set of ink cartridges. Ink gauge is still showing half a tank on most of them. This seems to be so much better than what my HP 2110 uses!