Canon PIXMA™ iP4200 InkJet Photo Printer

This is the first Canon printer I have owned. Before buying the Canon, I had owned several HP printers I was tired of the expensive ink cartridges and the way the printers seemed to last about a year and a half.

Most of the printing we do is text using black ink. My experience with the Canon is so incredibly superior to the HP that I can't imagine why I ever bought 5 HP printers in a row without checking anything else.

The Canon Pixma iP4200 prints quickly and clearly. The black ink cartridge lasts twice as long as the HP printer cartridges did and costs half as much. The black ink cartridge costs less than $15.

Though we have not had to replace a color cartridge yet, I have checked the prices at my local Office Max and the cartridges are $11 each.

The Canon is different from the HP printers I have owned. The Canon holds 5 ink cartridges. The HP uses 2. The Canon holds four small tanks for color printing, the three primary colors plus a black ink cartridge. Then there is a large black ink cartridge for printing text using just black ink. If you put your printer settings so that the default is greyscale on "fast" mode printing, the printer uses only the main black ink cartridge.

The HP printers I've used in the past had two cartridges, one that held black ink and one that was color. The black ink cartridge cost $30 and lasted half as long as the Canon's under $15 cartridge. With the HP you only have to replace one color cartridge which sounds good at first, right? But then if you run out of one of the primary colors, you have to replace the entire ink cartridge which costs around $45. With the Canon, if you run out of one color, you replace one cartridge for $11. At worst, replace the three colors and it's still less than the HP.

The best thing about the Canon iPixma is the low operating costs. The second best thing is the speed of the printer which is very fast. I highly recommend this printer.