I don't know if I should cry or puke.

[Paul Verizzo]

Maybe both.

I've been using Canon printers for over twenty years, way back to the S series, BCI-6 carts. Possibly earlier. I've loved the iP3200?? and subsequent iP4300 and iP4500. I've had several of the former and of the latter. Still two old iP4500 for parts....or just can't bear to toss them. I love the fast printing that the PGBK cartridge gives, and damned good photos to boot. All in one. A year ago I found a NOS iP4500 on eBay, paid $275.


A couple of months ago I started getting sketchy printing on the PGBK use. Office stuff. I ran a deep clean, no improvement. I opened the lid, and EFF!, the cart was empty! No warning. I filled it, ran more cleaning cycles, no improvement. I clutched my heart knowing that the head was probably burned out. Canon failed me. At a year old.


I found two sets of genuine Canon cartridges on eBay for.....well, I don't recall exactly. $90? Put them in, no improvement.


I'm well aware of the lack of new heads for this unit, but I found the usual refurb on Amazon for only $43. And unlike the Chinese imports on eBay, I can return it. What to lose? Well........


I put it and the genuine carts in, let it settle down.............and the printer shut off. Would not respond to the power button. I unplugged, replugged, and got the alternating green/orange. EFF! I unplugged it overnight and it came back on in the morning. Hooray.


Ran a nozzle check. Absolutely nothing. Totally blank.


I think I opened the cover again, I did something, and then.........it shut itself off again. And there it sits at present. Totally dead, no matter how long off line.


I am so invested in this old technology. Inks, time, resetter, cartridges, and equally, knowledge of how to make it hum. Familiarity.


Maybe it's time to move on. The iP4500 manual was printed in 2007. I did some poking around on the intertubes, and it appears the iP4600 was the last of this type with the PGBK cartridge. I could be wrong. While doing so, I was extremely disappointed to see that Canon now removes information ten years after last production. WTF? One thing I've long loved about Canon is that they kept all of the pages, manuals, and drivers up "forever." Until now. I mean, how much does storage cost these days? Close to nothing.


So, if I have to go new(er), suggestions? I obviously don't want bottom feeder crap. I want that fast office document ability and photo quality that my buddies have been giving me for years. Ability to refill cartridges. I don't want all in one or wifi connections.


Thanks for your time!

UPDATE: After posting this, I went to eBay. It's amazing. There are still quite a few iP4500 and similar printers brand new available. Ca. $250. Square Trade, another $45.

I also looked on Canon and the only new printer that even came close to being desirable is the G2260. Yeah, only $200. I'll presume heads available for some years to come. What about mega tank ink costs? Thoughts? I noticed that it does not have a dedicate dye black ink.

Thoughts?

UPDATE II: Deeper into the rabbit hole, I ordered a G2260 from Amazon for $200. Although I have all that financial and emotional investment with my iP's, this just makes so much sense. What astounds me is that CLI-8 carts with 14ml of ink cost +/- $20 USA, the color megatank inks have 67 ml and it costs $12! WTF, to coin a phrase. Gee, ya think they been effing us over for decades?

Any idea if I can use my CL-8 bulk inks in this?

 

[websnail]

Honestly the iP4500 was in my opinion one of the best built printers before Canon started down the "cut quality, lower cost" route so if you can get a decent unit with sealed printheads I'd seriously consider it. That said, consider that printer drivers may be an issue if you're using a Mac.

As to the G series... Not played with them enough to know a lot but I did fill a G2501 (I think that was the model) with our standard Canon compatible ink that we sell for the CLI-8's and they worked perfectly so, so long as your ink is still not reaching the point of bio growth contamination, you should be able to use it fine.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

Honestly the iP4500 was in my opinion one of the best built printers before Canon started down the "cut quality, lower cost" route so if you can get a decent unit with sealed printheads I'd seriously consider it. That said, consider that printer drivers may be an issue if you're using a Mac.

As to the G series... Not played with them enough to know a lot but I did fill a G2501 (I think that was the model) with our standard Canon compatible ink that we sell for the CLI-8's and they worked perfectly so, so long as your ink is still not reaching the point of bio growth contamination, you should be able to use it fine.

Thanks for the ink info. I'll use up what I have, but at $12 for 67ml, I'll go genuine Canon as I run out of each color.

Yes, a real shame they went the route that they did. All the better printers are montsters, to say nothing of costing more.

After spending almost $300 on this printer a year ago, and almost $100 more on genuine cartridges, I can't see doing that the rest of my printing life.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

Maybe both.

I've been using Canon printers for over twenty years, way back to the S series, BCI-6 carts. Possibly earlier. I've loved the iP3200?? and subsequent iP4300 and iP4500. I've had several of the former and of the latter. Still two old iP4500 for parts....or just can't bear to toss them. I love the fast printing that the PGBK cartridge gives, and damned good photos to boot. All in one. A year ago I found a NOS iP4500 on eBay, paid $275.


A couple of months ago I started getting sketchy printing on the PGBK use. Office stuff. I ran a deep clean, no improvement. I opened the lid, and EFF!, the cart was empty! No warning. I filled it, ran more cleaning cycles, no improvement. I clutched my heart knowing that the head was probably burned out. Canon failed me. At a year old.


I found two sets of genuine Canon cartridges on eBay for.....well, I don't recall exactly. $90? Put them in, no improvement.


I'm well aware of the lack of new heads for this unit, but I found the usual refurb on Amazon for only $43. And unlike the Chinese imports on eBay, I can return it. What to lose? Well........


I put it and the genuine carts in, let it settle down.............and the printer shut off. Would not respond to the power button. I unplugged, replugged, and got the alternating green/orange. EFF! I unplugged it overnight and it came back on in the morning. Hooray.


Ran a nozzle check. Absolutely nothing. Totally blank.


I think I opened the cover again, I did something, and then.........it shut itself off again. And there it sits at present. Totally dead, no matter how long off line.


I am so invested in this old technology. Inks, time, resetter, cartridges, and equally, knowledge of how to make it hum. Familiarity.


Maybe it's time to move on. The iP4500 manual was printed in 2007. I did some poking around on the intertubes, and it appears the iP4600 was the last of this type with the PGBK cartridge. I could be wrong. While doing so, I was extremely disappointed to see that Canon now removes information ten years after last production. WTF? One thing I've long loved about Canon is that they kept all of the pages, manuals, and drivers up "forever." Until now. I mean, how much does storage cost these days? Close to nothing.


So, if I have to go new(er), suggestions? I obviously don't want bottom feeder crap. I want that fast office document ability and photo quality that my buddies have been giving me for years. Ability to refill cartridges. I don't want all in one or wifi connections.


Thanks for your time!

UPDATE: After posting this, I went to eBay. It's amazing. There are still quite a few iP4500 and similar printers brand new available. Ca. $250. Square Trade, another $45.

I also looked on Canon and the only new printer that even came close to being desirable is the G2260. Yeah, only $200. I'll presume heads available for some years to come. What about mega tank ink costs? Thoughts? I noticed that it does not have a dedicate dye black ink.

Thoughts?

UPDATE II: Deeper into the rabbit hole, I ordered a G2260 from Amazon for $200. Although I have all that financial and emotional investment with my iP's, this just makes so much sense. What astounds me is that CLI-8 carts with 14ml of ink cost +/- $20 USA, the color megatank inks have 67 ml and it costs $12! WTF, to coin a phrase. Gee, ya think they been effing us over for decades?

Any idea if I can use my CL-8 bulk inks in this?

Does anyone know if the G2260 tries to get photo black by mixing the color carts, or does it add some of the pigment black?

 

[Artur5]

If the G2260 behaves likes my IP3000 (only 4 carts: CMY + pigment black, no photo black); then it will mix CMY for printing anything on non plain paper, be it glossy, matte etc. Pigment black will never be used on this media, only on plain paper, if the page has no color content. If it has color, I'm not sure if it will mix pigment black with dye CMY in the same page. I'd think not, but some people say otherwise.
That said, the IP3000 is a very old machine, Maybe current Canon printers use the inks in a different way.

 

[The Hat]

Does anyone know if the G2260 tries to get photo black by mixing the color carts, or does it add some of the pigment black?

The four colour Canon printers never use the pigment black for photos on glossy paper, there is no way to get the printer to use the black cart under any circumstances, no matter what ink you mix into it, the C Y M inks are quite capable of producing a decent colour photo on their own.. Pigment black ink is only used for text printing..

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

matte etc. Pigment black will never be used on this media, only on plain paper, if the page has no color content. If it has color, I'm not sure if it will mix pigment black with dye CMY in the same page.

I recommend you to look to the IP3000 service manual - to the pages pp 21-22 - IP3000 Print Mode - which list in detail which inks are used for all possible driver settings - quality , paper type, duplex and borderless printing which all make a difference. And the table goes to that level of detail even listing which of the C and M 5 pl or 2pl droplets are used. You find similar tables in other service manuals for other printers as well.

 

[Artur5]

Thanks for the reminder. I forgot that I had the manual service of the IP3000 ( those were the times when service manuals were easly available .. ).
Indeed pigment black is used only for plain paper or transparency; never for photo paper. The printer uses all 4 colors for printing on plain paper, if the page contains non black colors. What about grays ?.. well, that's a moot point, my IP3000 is long gone.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

What about grays ?.. well, that's a moot point, my IP3000 is long gone.

Gray is a color and printed as a mix of CMY, if you print a grayscale ramp the driver is rather soon transitioning from the pure black to the mixed dye inks - somewhere around a 95% black luminance. That was easy to test with the IP3000/4000, they printed with no cartridge loaded - they didn't have chips, and printing a grayscale ramp w/o black inserted directly showed the transition range.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I forgot that I had the manual service of the IP3000 ( those were the times when service manuals were easly available ..

Yes, manufacturers seems to tighten circulation of the newer manuals and possibly requiring removal from particular sites.

I was looking to the service manual of the Pro-9000, and it is interesting to see that the printer is running in a 4 color mode or a 6 or 8 color mode depending on the driver settings - quality level and paper selection, and it could be quite possible that these modes have been propagated to the newer Pro200 - Pro300 modles as well - but I can't find the service manuals to look for it.