Canon PIXMA™ iP3000 InkJet Printer

Okay here We go! I personally have about 50 printers. Several brands and many models. I will not go in depth about the tech spec as this would be more trouble then its worth. But I would like to give you an educational review on printers in general and Canon ip 3000,4000 and 5000 models. All three have similar operating principles. The 3000 has three color inks and 1 pigment black ink. The 4000 and 5000 have 5 ink systems. 1 pigment black tank, 1 dye based black tank, and dye based cyan magenta and yellow tanks.
Though I have a couple of each model the reason I prefer the ip3000 over the other 2 is not that it is a better do all printer,(for photos the ip4000 and ip5000 definately get the nod) but because it seems to do everything very well. There is an extra step in performing proper maintenance on the 4000 and 5000. This is printing a small(4x6) photo on regular paper a few times a month to weekly depending on the inks you use. The dye based black isn't used in regular printing from the web etc. unless you use the photo settings.
Unlike most other printer brands the Canons and Epsons have fixed printheads that facilitate ink tanks rather then cartridges which bring us to the cost saving and the assumed cost savings with these printers. FIRST OFF aftermarket compatibles fall short on almost all objectives but cost. But if you have to replace printheads from using these it gets very expensive. 40- 50 bucks for Canons and much more for Epsons as the Epsons have to be replaced by a professional usually at a much higher cost then replacing the printers. I have personally thrown out over 20 printers some that I have ruined or received ruined from testing aftermarket cartridges. What turned out as a quest for cheaper printing turned into a professionally serious venture as to what the real costs were. I have bought several gallons of test ink from various manufacturers and many brands of compatibles. A few printers I have purchased had aftermarket cartridges and I found out why they were being sold. Usually at the cost of another print head on another printer. This gets expensive. the cost of this review? Well over 2 thousand dollars on printers, printheads, cartridges and inks. There are a couple of brands of inks and or vendors that I would definately stay away from. As a rule i stay away from imported inkcartridges. The cost savings arent great when you think of the cost of a printhead after just 2 (8x10) photos.I ruined 2 printhead back to back.
If refilling your own OEM cartridges purchase ink from only reputable ink venders or manufacturers.Refilling Oem cartridges do an admirable job but need to be refilled before running empty to ensure proper flow of ink. The most reasonable solution is to print often and leave printer on to minimize clean cycles.
AVOID buying fixed head printers with no ink tanks in them as they dry and clog extremely fast and are expensive to replace. In all, due to lower print cost, SPEED and quality. It is very hard to beat the fashionable CANON IP3000. But these printers are skyrocketing in both used and new prices.Fixed printhead models of Lexmark, Canon and HP offer what alot of people consider reasonable alternatives. But, 2 cartridges can run you over 70 dollars for some brands,driving actual costs of oem inks from a couple to several thousand dollars a gallon.But factor in all the overall costs the IP3000 is a Champ. For more photos opt for the ip4000 or ip5000. Speed and versitility? ip3000!!!!

Have 6 ip3000, ip4000, and ip5000. Make great color prints with cartridges that cost $1.50. Cleaning print head by soaking in alcohol is easy. IP3000 with 4 cartridges makes as good a print as the IP4000 and IP5000 with 5 cartridges and has less problem with plugging heads. Print many color CD's with print tray available on Ebay and Acoustica label printer software. Gives good near professional results.

Using widely available non-Canon ink cartridges, you can get low per-page cost. The printer features low-noise/quick print performance. I've printed over ten thousand pages with no significant maintenance. This printer was recommended to me by Canon servicers, when I had problems with earlier models. This print will save you money long-term if you print alot of pages, and use non-Canon ink suppliers (such as Ink Oasis). It is also a great color printer and photo printer. Believe me, you'll love it!

Its an excellent printer i think the best of the first pixma
generation it doesnt have chips on the inks so you can use
third party inks without a proble the printer is very versatil
and prints vivid collors and its fast ... good printer for a good price.

IT WOULD TAKE A STAKE THROUGH THE MOTHERBOARD TO KILL THIS MACHINE
LIKE ALL INKJETS, THE PRINT HEAD IS IT'S ACHILLE'S HEEL BUT IS EASILY REMOVABLE AND CLEANED OR REPLACED.
UNLIKE CERTAIN OTHER BRANDS WHICH WILL GO UNMENTIONED, THIS MACHINE WILL CONTINUE TO PRINT EVEN WHEN THE COLOR CARTRIDGES ARE EMPTY.
THAT'S A PLUS WHEN THE MAJORITY OF ONE'S OUTPUT IS PRINT.
LOVE IT!
R.A. COMUNALE, MD

These are superb printers. They are fast on text, reasonably fast on photos, and fairly quiet. They are not prone to clogging and the print head is user-replaceable if necessary.

Two features stand out:

1.> The duplex printing is great. Being able to easily print both sides of a sheet should be standard on all printers.

2.> The ability to use aftermarket ink. I have used Abacus ink in an ip3000 for two years with perfect results. The individual color and black cartridges are long-lived and very inexpensive compared to the "chipped" cartridges used on the later Canons (and HPs, Epsons, etc.).

The only drawback might be the dye-based inks, but I have not seen fading on any of my prints.

This printer using cheap ink and prints quick and nice. The unfortunate
thing is that they quit making these printers and changed to 6 inks on the
new pixmas. I currently use several of these machines and just love them.

I orginally bought my iP3000 for $45.00. I have seen them for as much as $400.00 now and I paid $201.00.

I was able to add the CD printer tray, Replace the Ink absorbers, reset the maintance setting and get a printhead and inks all on ebay at really great prices.

It is a real work horse but if you repair it your self look on line for info and really really be pacient and don't force anything - also be very gentile around the 'Ink Purge Unit'. Hip Hip Hippity Hop !!!!

we like the printer easy refills and works good with eatable inks cheep to maintaine easy to set up and use.

I own the same model, I got it for my daughter, because the ink is less costly, I have own the same machine for several years and the only thing I don't like about the machine is no scanner.

I bought this printer years ago not because I needed a new printer but because Canon had a great rebate offer if you bought a Pixma printer and a Digital Elph camera. Needless to say, I love both of them and have gotten lots of use from them. The camera deserves its own review, but I will point out that the Pixma has a USB port for connecting your camera directly to it and printing pictures without going through the computer. I haven't actually used that feature, but it might be useful for folks that just want to print photos immediately without editing/cropping/etc.
The printer is fairly wide and takes up a moderate amount of desk space, but I think this helps give it a stable base, so it doesn't shake much while printing (and ensures higher quality prints). The photos are beautiful, and looked better than ones I had printed at a local print shop on one of those dedicated print-your-own-photos machines. They also print fairly quickly. I use it every day for eBay and printing shipping labels, which it does very well. The only times the paper jams is when it was folded or incorrectly inserted by me. There are two paper trays which work well and have easy indicators for how to insert different sizes of paper. Even with it's width, it doesn't take up a lot of forward or behind space, you can fold up the trays when not in use and regain a lot of desk space if you need to. Printer cartridge maintenance is incredibly easy. Just open the top, wait for the printer to move the cartridges into position, lift a flap, and remove/install whichever cartridges need replacing. I like that the colors are separate tanks, so you don't need to replace a whole color cartridge if you're only out of red.
The included software is very good as well. It works well, is easy to use, and includes lots of useful features for maintenance, cleaning print heads, printing test patterns, re-aligning print heads, print quality, photo effects, and printing on different types and sizes of paper. It also does very good and fast full duplex printing, meaning it will actually print both sides of a page for you, making printing reports and long documents a snap ( as well as saving paper! )
Now my favorite feature: With a bit of tinkering and modification, this printer can print directly on printable CDs and DVDs. I can't explain here, but if you search google you'll find how to do it. You need to buy another part, download some software, and do some technical tricks, but it can be done. The output from this is very sharp and accurate, although not glossy or as dark as I'd like it. Compared to my last CD printer, it's great though.

One last recommendation. Do not use generic ink tanks on this printer. It's not worth it. Trust me.

This is a great printer. I print about 10k pages a month and i have several of these and swear by them... one i've used for 4 years. It does a good job on photos and an excellent job on text and grayscale photos come out well also. I print on everything from copy paper to high gloss photo paper and it does a credible job with all. I prefer the IP4000 for good photos, though. I also regularly use oem cartriges... they work well but i recommend that you purchase cleaner cartriges (one for each color) and use it to run a cleaning cycle on a regular basis. This has unclogged printheads that had been clogged for over a year. I've never had to replace a printhead after i discovered the cleaner cartriges. Abacus24-7 has the best prices i've found in the US and excellent quality ink. I've also been refilling recently... a word of advice... a hot glue gun works best for sealing the cartridge and is easily removable for the next refill. This has brought my refill cost down to about $1.20 a cartrige. With the volume i use (about 50 cartriges a month) this is an important savings.

After using various brands, I totally stick to Canon now. Well, except for an oversized Epson I bought for which Canon does not have a similar model. We do a lot of test prints of our free scrapbooking and card making designs for www.ScrapbookScrapbook.com so we need a good reliable printer.
This model is one of the last to accept generic, non-chip ink cartridges, which save you a ton of money.

I like this printer It does a great job on photos, runs quiet, and it is fast
We have 2 and our daughter has one at her home.... I decide to buy it because of the price and also the price of the inks...I do wish that canon still made this printer for it is a good all around printer and easy to use.......

I had a large supply of ink cartridges that work only in this machine. I could not find this particular printer for sale anywhere else. It works perfectly and arrived in good time. It is exactly as described by the seller. I have been satisfied with every item purchased something from ebay.

This is the worst printer I have ever owned, and that goes back to dot matrix. Colors suck even after extensive work with the Canon people & head replacement. I use basic ink jet paper from Wal Mart & that is supposed to be the reason the color stinks. Paper delivery is similar to my trash hauler & just as noisy. Make me an offer.

We all want a good quality printer and one that dont cost us a fortune to buy the ink. This printer prints high quality pictures and the ink is not costly at all. Shaped like a retangular box that does not take up space and has a tray for printing out 8 by 11 and 4 by 6 photos. Great Quality too. Would recommend buying!

The print quality is good to very good.
I use this as a volume printer, printing flyers, reply cards etc.
What I like the most about this printer is the ease by which you can
refill the ink tanks. It has no chips to upset this process or
void your warranty or functionality.
Being able to refill the tanks saves me loads of money.
Don't know it I would recommend pictures etc with refilled
ink... probably need to stay with Canon ink when you desire
very high output.

This is the least expensive inkjet printer to operate with ink cost around 1.30/cartridge (generic).

I'll assume you are familiar with Canon inkjets somewhat and understand that most new inkjets (Canon, HP, Epson, etc.) need to use "genuine" inks to operate. The Canon IP3000 does not! It will lead a happy life running on compatible cartridges as long as you print a few sheets each week to keep it flowing.

I use the printer heavily and like the fact that it prints fast wwith good photo quality. While not quite the photo quality or speed of the IP8500, the IP3000 makes up for it in fewer ink cartridges and a much lower price.

The IP3000 supports very quick USB transfers. Once the printer has printed at least one page (to prime it's ink), it starts almost immediately after you clik "PRINT" in most applications. Compared to many printers that make you wait for several seconds before anything starts to happen, this feature is usually missed when purchasing printers based on box specs.

I'd recommend this printer for anyone who needs fast photo quality AND wants to take advantage of using non-Canon inks. If you are into high volume printing (special events & novelty photography), this is the best printer for you!

I hooked three of these to my computer and let them print my 80 page catalogues. They print both side of the paper and also collate and produce the finished products.
So far I bought 9 iP3000 and they saved me thousands of dollars.

Easy to use, ink jet is providing excellent quality with compatable cartridges from PrintPal, paper tray contains more than ample paper supply, and the unit prints B & W at a very accectable rate. color also. Would recommend this unit , or similiar units of equal or newer models as your "default printer for all your printing needs !

I managed to pick up one of these when they were just becoming
popular at a great price and with a rebate. Now that it's several months
old, I can say I wish I bought two (since they don't seem to be readily
available any more).

My experience with the printer is mostly with simple document printing,
though I have used it for both graphics and photo printing and have utilized
the duplex function.

Best liked: Excellent, borderless photo printing quality on top quality photo paper; very fast document printing; duplex printing!; folds up to breadbox size (good for keeping dust out); simple to use software; two paper-feed trays. Seperate ink tanks. Price.

Least liked: Graphics quality on plain paper only fair. Text quality fair to good, but not great (default quality settings on plain paper). Ink tanks a little small. Did not come with USB cable.