I'm Just Giving Up On My Canon

[Lilla]

Look for Lilla's post from today on the various ways to create and seal the fill hole. Mine is one that she listed so I won't repeat it here.

cannonvictim, welcome to the group. Here's a link to the post fotofreek is referring to
Post #159: A SUMMARY of various screws used to seal the refill hole

 

[OutOFtheinkwell]

This is after reading the comments by Manuchau about Canon shooting themselves in the foot. I could not agree more. I do understand in the real world that the profit margin is king for any company but in the end I've always thought that a fair shake is the key to customer loyalty in the long run. I also have a real appreciation for the individual ink cartridges that came with the i series and some Pixma Canon printers. I also have an old HP 970cse printer that is the first I owned and is still working. That has been a reliable printer as well but the Carts with the built in heads are why I went over to my two Canons as well as the fact that they print beautiful photo's. The HP Tri-color cart must be tossed or refilled when just one color runs dry, and the cost is out of this world. I can buy a set of carts at Wal-Mart for the HP for about 65 dollars and that is for the 19ML cart and they last less then a week at the level of printing we do. They also make one with twice the capacity, or 38ML but I have not seen them offered for sale in that store. And when you do find them, the price is very high! My wife is an artist and a teacher of art as well, and we take a lot of photographs and also do a lot of printing . We could not afford to do as much except for the fact that our Canon lends itself to either refilling or to availability of affordable but very good ink refills from several companys. I know that Canon has added chips and other devices to lock up their printers as far as the cartridges are concerned and that saddens me. It may not be an issue for the occasional print that many people do, but for us it is just not possible to spend 60 or 70 dollars perhaps three times a week for ink. As long as I can still find the older model Canons to use, the i series and some of the older Pixima's I will be a Canon customer buying paper, new heads etc and if they ever did go back to the BCI type carts I'd be buying that new printer as well. Time will tell and I just want to repeat once more that Canon has shot themselves in the foot with their new policies as far as we are concerned but we hope that wound heals. That ball is in their court. Sincerely, outoftheinkwell

 

[Kim57]

My Canon MP600's color is off. I have had Canons before, a MP150 and MP 400, which I loved and wore out, now I have a 600 which has many good features but cannot duplicate color well. I also have trouble with the picture lacking depth, or contrast and am asking if anyone else has trouble as the salesman at Staples, where I bought it said he thinks there is something wrong but I have to see if anyone else onthe forum is having trouble, to prove it.

 

[Molitor]

I have nothing numerical or documentary to go on, but I think that the Canon printer line is not being represented by major retailers as it was a year ago. It looks to me that the office-prosumer/advanced amateur photo market is going over entirely to HP and Epson, if you judge by sales flyers and adverts, not to mention store shelves.

I noticed this a month ago. Our Office Depot had recently undergone a complete remodeling, and the special counter where they sold ink and toner is gone. Now the refill carts are all hanging on pegs in a regular aisle, and you know what? I couldn't find a single refill for Canon inkjets, Canon branded or generic. Additionally, there were only a couple Canon printers and scanners to be seen as well.

It's just a thought, but maybe Office Depot has decided that if you buy a printer from them, they want you to buy "Office Depot" brand refills from them.

Perhaps retailers are also getting fed up with Canon's somewhat bewildering number of models, something Canon did with their digital camera line as well... Releasing five "new" models in the same time-frame Kodak or Sony would release one, sometimes in multiple colors.


As far as refilling goes... I have a Pixma ip6700D which I'm moderately happy with, and refill the CLI (chipped) cartridges with MIS ink. My technique is to use a heated straightened paperclip to make two holes in the cart, one over the sponge area (as a vent) and one over the empy area. (I don't touch the Ball Seal at all). I use a rubber band to attach the original orange thumb-lever seal thingie to the main ink port. Then I simply add ink to the empty area *almost* to the top. I wipe off the top of the cart with a damp paper towel, then a dry one, then mash a bb-sized blob of "Blu-Tack" over the fill-hole (leave the vent hole open). When I take off the orange thumb-lever seal thingie, it usually gives me a drop or two of ink (into the sink). I've never had a cart leak using this method.

Note: I use a Bostik product called "Blu-Tack" which is available here: http://www.glubie.com/01_Pages/Blu-Tack.htm Blu-Tack is NOT THE SAME as the various Fun Tack stuff that's commonly sold in the U.S. at office and craft stores. It's water-resistant, doesn't leave oil or residue (usually), and doesn't get all sticky like chewing gum. When I refill, I even rinse off the little blobs and reuse them.

 

[hpnetserver]

Canon's marketing is the worst among all major brand names. A few examples. Canon i960 was recognized as an excellent photo printer when it came out. But it was discontinued when it was selling like a hot cake. Same happened to ip4000. There are still people looking to buy these printers today. Canon did a poor job in selling ip8500 and i9900. Both were discontinued for no real good reason. And there is no replacement printer for ip8500. Now they are doing an even worse job in selling the new pro9000. There has not been a single post in this forum from any pro9000 owner yet.