The Canon BJC 4400 is not the fastest printer on the market. Currently theres a widening contrast between the printing capabilities of laser printers and inkjets, and as this is fairly old printer this further hinders its capabilities. This is one trade off the printer and you will have to ... Read review
The Canon BJC 4400 is not the fastest printer on the market. Currently theres a widening contrast between the printing capabilities of laser printers and inkjets, and as this is fairly old printer this further hinders its capabilities. This is one trade off the printer and you will have to consider this when purchasing, is speed a requirement for your printing needs?
The quality of the printer is reasonable, or atleast it was when ... ...these catridges.
Canon claims that the printer produces "photorealistic" prints however in reality in order to get such quality printouts one needs to purchase not only the specialist ink catridge, but also purchase expensive inkjet paper and use optimum printing settings, which of course use more ink. If you start with a good-quality image, and use the "photo" cartridge and special "photo" paper, you ... more
The Canon BJC 4400 is not the fastest printer on the market. Currently theres a widening contrast between the printing capabilities of laser printers and inkjets, and as this is fairly old printer this further hinders its capabilities. This is one trade off the printer and you will have to consider this when purchasing, is speed a requirement for your printing needs?
The quality of the printer is reasonable, or atleast it was when it initially came out. DPI (dots per inch) Resolution is 320 x 720, this is nothing compared to modern day printers which can reach resolutions of up to 5760 optimised dpi. However at the time (this printer cam on the market back in 1999) this was considerably good quality.
Recently I have also experienced problems such as horizontal banding, particularly in black and white printing. This is where there are distinct lines through the text, or images which the printer seems to miss. This means head cleaning is neccessary and this can waste extra time and also ink.
The catridges for this printer are a disadvantage. They are highly expensive and also quite difficult to find. Canon, like brands such as HP and Lexmark, use technology whereby the print heads are part of the catridge, this is good in that print heads never have to be replaced however means that catridges are more expensive, at around £20 each. There are two catridges available for the printer, one which is a standard black/ colour and one which is a "photo" catridge, expect to pay even more for these catridges.
Canon claims that the printer produces "photorealistic" prints however in reality in order to get such quality printouts one needs to purchase not only the specialist ink catridge, but also purchase expensive inkjet paper and use optimum printing settings, which of course use more ink. If you start with a good-quality image, and use the "photo" cartridge and special "photo" paper, you can get an attractive print, but it's nothing that will put the local photo shop out of business any time soon.
There are also other disadvantages which one might consider, the paper tray holds little paper, which means you can only get about 20 sheets in at a time and you have to manually feed thicker paper, including glossy photo paper.
Despite this, the printer accepts a wide range of paper formats, including legal size, as well as envelopes, stickers, transparencies and even t-shirt transfers, so its nice to play around with if your bored at the weekend!
The printer also has extra benefits, if your willing to pay that extra price, you can purchase a scanning catridge. Now when i first heard of this, I didn't have a clue what it was all about but its actually very clever technology. Canon give you the option of purchasing a small catridge (just the size of an inkjet catridge) which can scan in images and text. The quality is obviously not exceptional but it sounds like a clever idea to me and saves space cluttering up your desk with a printer and a scanner. At the same time, your also saving money, okay so the scanning catridges are expensive, but not as expensive as your typical full size scanner.
Now, summing it up then the Canon BJC 4400 has its advantages and its disadvantages. Its got a range of options, the quality is reasonable and the printer accepts a wide range of paper formats however on the other hand it is quite slow, consumables are expensive and photo realistic prints can only be achieved if your willing to put in the extra cash and buy the catridges, the paper and go the full way. Despite this however your not paying £100 for this printer so what can you expect? When i first purchased this printer it cost me £150, yet this was four years ago and prices have dropped considerably. Now you can pick up these for as little as £30 or £40, and if you like buying used you can get them for £10 on ebay!
When you consider this, then its fair to say that this printer is quite good value for money. At that price, it gives a reasonable print quality at a reasonable speed. If your not a professional digital photographer or working in an office environment were speed is essential, this could be the printer for you. It is perfect for the home office and is ideal for the odd photo print out and the kids homework etc. Okay so it compares nothing to some of the printing beasts out there today...which lets face it before long will be able to make cups of tea! But again, look at the price, for well under £50 this is a true bargain printer and for that reason I would recommend it, its a good little reliable printer, and hopefully me and my little BJC 4400 will have plenty happy days of printing to come!
Advantages: Affordable, good quality pictures, USB and parallel ports Disadvantages: NO CABLE, slow text printing, flimsy paper out 'tray'
at a maximum resolution of 2880 dpi, but I could discern very little difference between that setting and the 1200 dpi that my old CanonBJC4400 printed at. I used the same picture in both printers, using the manufacturers ink and the manufacturers own photo paper. While my Canon did show signs of banding, this is more to do with the printhead than the resolution. Experiment with the settings if you want to print photos as the top resolution gobbles ink at a phenomenal rate. You definitely won't need to print out text using this setting.
On the whole the Epson Stylus Colour 680, is a well specified inkjet printer that prints great quality photos, but at 2880 dots per inch, don't expect your cartridges to last very long. It is also a little slow when printing large text documents (50 pages plus). It should also be noted that, as of yet, there are ...
The BJC4400Photo offers the home and small business user stunning PhotoRealism quality and Drop Modulation Technology which ensures clear and vibrant, photo quality prints. In addition, the BJC-4400Photo can accept the optional IS-22 scanner cartridge, allowing 360dpi color, sheet fed scanning. The BC22e photo cartridge is included in the box free of charge, along with a pack of glossy photo paper, enabling users can start producing photo quality prints straight away. Buy this Laser Printer and you'll receive a free plush Tiger from the WWF collection. Not only can you enjoy the bonus of your plush animal but also have the knowledge that you are supporting WWF with their efforts to reduce the decline in animal and plant species and protect the natural environment.
None breaksdown within 2 weeks, utter crap wouldnt buy another HP product again. 
