Good Old Trusted Printer?
 May 11th, 2004
Advantages:
see op
Disadvantages:
see op
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
Picture quality
Printing speed
Colour sensitivity
Ease of use
Value For Money
more
  heather_cromp
About me:
My exams are over... but i cant fink of any reviews to write! :(
Member since:01.08.2003
Reviews:10
Members who trust:14
Review rated by 37 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
This review received a counterstatement by a party concerned
Read Comment
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!
Thanx for Reading
Heather xx
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24.05.2004 13:34
I seem to be unlucky with printers and my latest one has now broken too. I think whichever printer you choose the cartridges are highly expensive . Fionaxx
18.05.2004 00:39
Before I buy a printer I always check out if I can get compatiable cartridges. Just bought a 3 in 1 printer, epson for about £90 and I can get 4 colour and 4 black compatiable cartridges for £20 the lot. Good review. Mark
14.05.2004 16:15
Bargain! Jo x