OT: Pixma iP4500 $90 w/free shipping

craftech wrote on 2/5/2008, 8:03 AM
Thought I would pass this deal along for someone looking for a capable CD printer.

Buy.com has this printer right now for $90 with free shipping. Lowest I have seen in awhile for this printer.
More reliable than the Epson models in my experience.

You will need a cd tray which is available on eBay. I use a type F Disc Dabber tray for my iP4300 which I bought from cd-trays.com. I believe the iP4500 takes the same tray, but I would call or e-mail him just to make sure.

The method of enabling disc printing for American imported Canon printers is widely available on the internet, but cd-trays has the instructions on their website as well.

Since I started printing with my iP4300 more than my Epson R300 I have had far less Epson induced frustration. While it worked most of the time, when it didn't it became really aggravating. The cartridges are also puny in the Epson and hold very little ink. With the Canon, even though the ink warning comes up, you can ignore it for a very long time and it will still print. In fact you can print 30-40 more discs even after it says the cartridge is "empty" depending upon how much of that particular ink color the job demands.

Also, for normal printing the iP4500 has been getting some very good reviews.

John

Comments

aldo12xu wrote on 4/6/2008, 4:16 PM
In Canada you can buy the IP4500 for $99 cdn and it comes with the DVD printing tray ("F" Tray).

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10095889&catid=10492

I just got it a couple of days ago. Did a few test prints and I'm pretty happy with it. It takes not more than a minute to print one DVD. I was considering the Dymo Disc Painter which is $200 at TigerDirect.ca but the Canon was half the price and can print photos.
riredale wrote on 4/6/2008, 10:12 PM
The Buy.com price is now $116; too bad FutureShop can't ship to the States.

I have a couple of IP3000 printers, which are maybe 4 years old but still going strong. They hold 4 colors but have the advantage of using the old-style cartridges which (1) are cheap, and (2) are refillable, if you go for that sort of thing. I love the disk-printing capability, and use Nero Cover Designer to do my layouts.
NickHope wrote on 4/7/2008, 1:29 AM
I have a Canon ip4300 and an ip4500. They both came with CD trays here in Thailand and the trays are indeed identical.

I have had 2 x Epson R210 printers and these Canons are way better. Much faster and more reliable. The ink lasts much much longer. No silly ink-wasting nonsense when you turn them on. The CD tray is much more robust and doesn't wear out like the Epson one does.

One of my Epsons is dead but I still have to battle with the other one occasionally because I haven't got round to re-doing some DVD artwork in Canon's CD-LabelPrint. But I'd better do it soon because the Epson takes years off my life in frustration every time I use it. Thank god Canon gave me an alternative.
rs170a wrote on 4/7/2008, 2:30 AM
aldo12xu, Staples Canada also has that printer for $100.

Mike
craftech wrote on 4/7/2008, 5:51 AM
I posted the deal on February 5.

Currently, you can find the printer for a reasonable price at the following places:

Dell for $89.99 after a $30 rebate.

Amazon.com $95.99 with free shipping.

The Apple Store for $99.95 with free shipping.

Newegg or Chief Value for $99.99, but shipping will set you back $10.

But either way, in the states you will have to hack it to print DVDs and buy a tray separately. Shoddy Epsons are the only readily available monopoly allowed for that purpose here in the States.


John
baysidebas wrote on 4/7/2008, 7:18 AM
On the puny Epson ink cartridges: I've taken apart Epson cartridges after they reported an "empty" condition just to find that there was still nearly 50% of the ink remaining in them. How's that for supporting the blades business?
craftech wrote on 4/7/2008, 7:33 AM
On the puny Epson ink cartridges: I've taken apart Epson cartridges after they reported an "empty" condition just to find that there was still nearly 50% of the ink remaining in them. How's that for supporting the blades business?
===========
Like most unsuccessful attempts at stopping consumer fraud by corporations in the US when Epson "lost" the California lawsuit for this practice the customer got a $45 certificate at the overpriced Epson store OR you could jump through hoops for an alternative benefit of 25% off Epson overpriced E-Store purchases for a total theoretical discount of up to $100 with respect to each registered printer.

Little incentive for Epson to stop the practice of shortchanging the ink.

Sounds like a Microsoft settelement.

John
JJKizak wrote on 4/7/2008, 8:02 AM
The monopoly is that every time Epson designs/introduces a new printer the cartridges are re-designed also and it's like the price of gas.
But don't get me wrong, my Epsons are performing very well (960/R1800 but every time I think of purchasing ink and custom paper I think of all the special "Kodak papers" and the 15 dollar cost of an 8 x 10 Kodak portrait and then tell myself I can make 10 Epson portraits for the cost of one Kodak, and make them perfect. Epson should provide an option side mounted humonguos ink supply (fits all Epson printers) which I would pay 150 bucks for no problem.
JJK
riredale wrote on 4/7/2008, 9:01 AM
I don't think the issue is that a cartridge that registers "empty" still has some ink left. For example, what if the engineers determined that a lot of burned-out nozzles were caused by running that ink color completely dry? Then the logical solution would be to replace the cartridge at the 90% mark, or some other level.

The real issue should be whether a cartridge delivers its advertised life. If a magazine test determines that a cartridge can print 500 pages (making the cost per page, say, $0.03) then I would expect my cartridge to last for 500 pages. I couldn't care less if there was still ink left in the cartridge--it met the spec.

I've read that Canon and HP printers can have this burnout issue, since they eject ink by "boiling" it out. Since you buy a new set of nozzles with a new cartridge, the HP products presumably don't care, but Canon keeps the nozzles, making this possibly an issue. The Epsons, by contrast, use a mechanical ink ejection technique, so burnout is not relevant, but perhaps their design makes running completely dry a very bad thing. And with Epson, if your nozzles are screwed up you might as well throw the printer away, since they are not user-replaceable.
DavidMcKnight wrote on 4/7/2008, 9:36 AM
"Epson should provide an option side mounted humonguos ink supply (fits all Epson printers) which I would pay 150 bucks for no problem."

If Epson did that they would lose money from the cartridges....but others have. It's called Continuous Ink Supply, we use two of these for our Epson R200 and R210. We've printed probably 5000 dvds and hundreds of full color case labels.

http://reliantdigital.com look for the InkCaddy II

I wish they had one for the canon or other disk printer, cause we have just about wore these Epsons out.
aldo12xu wrote on 4/7/2008, 11:44 AM
It'll be interesting how much mileage I can get from the Canon cartridges. I'll be using it mainly for DVDs and will update this thread when I've gone through my first set of cartridges. If I can get it down to less than $0.40 per disc, I'll be very happy.
craftech wrote on 4/7/2008, 12:29 PM
I don't think the issue is that a cartridge that registers "empty" still has some ink left..................................The real issue should be whether a cartridge delivers its advertised life. If a magazine test determines that a cartridge can print 500 pages
==============
The printer stops working when the chip tells the printer that the cartridge is empty whether it is or not. Most of think that is a gyp I am sure. Most of us don't feel for the corporate argument when we feel screwed or gypped. It appears to me to be a very small percentage of the population that invariably takes the corporate argument over that of the consumer especially when consumers in fairly large numbers feel gypped or have purchased unsafe products. A very very small percentage feel for the perpetrator over the victim.

Moreover, what excatly is the advertised life of Epson Ink cartridges and how does a "magazine test" determine that? What is Epson's advertised life of their cartridges, NOT what are PC Magazine's test results? And yes the implied warranty argument also used against Epson in court IS a valid one.

Of course Epson had no problem going after aftermarket ink manufacturers for patent infringement. Supermediastore being one of them.
God forbid they should have competition for their overpriced (printer stops working when WE SAY you got enough out of the cartridge) ink cartridges.

And also, by the same argument you present, your FX1 had only a 1 years parts warranty and 90 days labor. If after owning it for 14 months it failed due to faulty parts and it cost you seven hundred dollars to repair you should suck it up and not complain because it outlasted it's "advertised life".

John