Well, I decided to go for the much cheaper Canon i350. I got it from
Staples (UK) for £59. I had to pay out an additional £9 for a USB lead but
I can see the sense of having this as an extra since you may already have
one from a previous printer. It installed faultlessy, which is more than
much of my software did.
Impressions so far: Noisy (but with teenage children in the house, who would
know!). It has a Quiet Mode, accessable from the Properties panel. It is
switched off by default but I haven't yet found out any reason why anyone
should want to switch in from Quiet mode. I'm not sure that it makes that
much difference though.
In Standard Print colours look a bit faint (though I am using cheap paper)
but text is very clear. It doesn't have the 3 colour cartridges of some
Canons. It handled printing Russian lettering (something my 610 refused to
do properly) and fed the paper through neatly one sheet at a time.
Speed was never an issue. Just as well since there is a fairly lengthy
initialisation period before it starts printing. But it is faster than my
previous printer.
The Maintenance software is easy to use. A neat feature is one that
controls the speed that the paper goes through so that you can allow
sufficient time for ink to dry. Since this can be affected by climate and
make of ink, it is a good idea that you can set this yourself and change it
easily. At the moment, the default setting is fine for me.
A slight confusion for me when it came to the initial 'lining of the
printheads' where you have to see which of a set of patterns printed looked
'the least irregular'. Since all of them looked perfectly regular to me, I
assumed that what they meant was the pattern with the most solid block of
colour rather than one with white lines going down it. I left it at the
default settings again and it looks fine to me.
I'll be looking out for how often the cartridges need to be replaced (but I
see that replacements, even of the Canon brand, are not too pricy) and if
the printer dies before, or just after, the 1 year's guarantee - I'll let
you know. I can't imagine that it will be able to keep going for 7 years
like my 610.
I chose not to pay a further £25 for a 3 year maintenance contract. Time
will tell if this was a wise choice.
Evi
