Canon IP4000 - overpriced?

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Andy

Looking for a printer which will Print photos and CD/ DVD's. I plan to make
good regular use of it.

Ive got it down to these 3. I've used ebuyer for the price examples, you
can probably get them all slightly cheaper shopping around

Epson R200 - £65.99
Epson R300 - £77.90
Canon IP4000 - £92.78

What i can't understand is why the Canon is so much more expensive?.

The Epson R300 has many more features. I would have expected this to be the
most expensive.

I like the Canon but I can't bring myself to pay so much more for less
features.
 
Andy said:
Looking for a printer which will Print photos and CD/ DVD's. I plan to
make good regular use of it.

Ive got it down to these 3. I've used ebuyer for the price examples, you
can probably get them all slightly cheaper shopping around

Epson R200 - £65.99
Epson R300 - £77.90
Canon IP4000 - £92.78

What i can't understand is why the Canon is so much more expensive?.

The Epson R300 has many more features. I would have expected this to be
the most expensive.

I like the Canon but I can't bring myself to pay so much more for less
features.
Click to expand...

I guess it's all relative, I'm looking at the iP4000 and thought the ~£90
price was good -paid damn near twice that three years ago for my S630.
 
Andy said:
Looking for a printer which will Print photos and CD/ DVD's. I plan to
make good regular use of it.

Ive got it down to these 3. I've used ebuyer for the price examples, you
can probably get them all slightly cheaper shopping around

Epson R200 - £65.99
Epson R300 - £77.90
Canon IP4000 - £92.78

What i can't understand is why the Canon is so much more expensive?.

The Epson R300 has many more features. I would have expected this to be
the most expensive.

I like the Canon but I can't bring myself to pay so much more for less
features.
Click to expand...

The difference is only £15, you can very easily make that back with lower
running costs. Here's one view of Total Cost of Ownership:
http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer/20041025/printer-11.html
 
Andy said:
Looking for a printer which will Print photos and CD/ DVD's. I plan to make
good regular use of it.

Ive got it down to these 3. I've used ebuyer for the price examples, you
can probably get them all slightly cheaper shopping around

Epson R200 - £65.99
Epson R300 - £77.90
Canon IP4000 - £92.78

What i can't understand is why the Canon is so much more expensive?.
Click to expand...

As a side note, I can't understand why printers are so much more
expensive in the UK. Converting Canadian Dollars to Pounds:

The R200 is in my sales flyer for £44 and the Canon iP4000, £65.
Mind you, North American Canons don't have the CD/DVD printing feature.
My own printer, the iP5000, currently goes for £87 (minus CD/DVD
printing).

-Taliesyn
 
Taliesyn said:
As a side note, I can't understand why printers are so much more
expensive in the UK. Converting Canadian Dollars to Pounds:

The R200 is in my sales flyer for £44 and the Canon iP4000, £65.
Mind you, North American Canons don't have the CD/DVD printing feature.
My own printer, the iP5000, currently goes for £87 (minus CD/DVD
printing).
Click to expand...


Are those prices with tax? If so, what rate?
 
Andy said:
Looking for a printer which will Print photos and CD/ DVD's. I plan to
make good regular use of it.

Ive got it down to these 3. I've used ebuyer for the price examples, you
can probably get them all slightly cheaper shopping around

Epson R200 - £65.99
Epson R300 - £77.90
Canon IP4000 - £92.78

What i can't understand is why the Canon is so much more expensive?.

The Epson R300 has many more features. I would have expected this to be
the most expensive.

I like the Canon but I can't bring myself to pay so much more for less
features.
Click to expand...

Just out of interest, where are those prices from?
 
Andy said:
Looking for a printer which will Print photos and CD/ DVD's. I plan to make
good regular use of it.

Ive got it down to these 3. I've used ebuyer for the price examples, you
can probably get them all slightly cheaper shopping around

Epson R200 - £65.99
Epson R300 - £77.90
Canon IP4000 - £92.78

What i can't understand is why the Canon is so much more expensive?.

The Epson R300 has many more features. I would have expected this to be the
most expensive.
Click to expand...

Only in the UK are the prices more expensive. Anyway the Epson has a
known design problem with the feed mechanism for DC/DVD's. May people
have had problems with it. A friend of mine is on his 3rd R300 for that
reason.

The Canon has twin paper feeds, prints full duplex automatically, is
much faster, the business document printing is much higher quality, and
the photo quality maybe marginally better. I think it is a better deal.
 
Only in the UK are the prices more expensive. Anyway the Epson has a
known design problem with the feed mechanism for DC/DVD's. May people
have had problems with it. A friend of mine is on his 3rd R300 for that
reason.
Click to expand...

I heard that but them again there are alot of people who havent had any
problems and love it.
The Canon has twin paper feeds, prints full duplex automatically, is much
faster, the business document printing is much higher quality, and the
photo quality maybe marginally better. I think it is a better deal.
Click to expand...

It is a good printer but the R300 has more features and the Epson is rated
higher for photos. having the LCD screen
etc the Epson must also be more expensive to produce which is why i cant
work out this pricing of canon's. canon must know they are lsoing out to
the Epson's

I would much prefer the Canon but no printer seems to last these days so i'm
sadly going to have to go for the Epson simply on price
 
Andy said:
I heard that but them again there are alot of people who havent had any
problems and love it.
Click to expand...

They just have not printed enough CD's to have the problem.
It is a good printer but the R300 has more features and the Epson is rated
higher for photos. having the LCD screen
etc the Epson must also be more expensive to produce which is why i cant
work out this pricing of canon's. canon must know they are lsoing out to
the Epson's
Click to expand...

Read the reviews at www.pcmag.com

The LCD screen is really not the way to edit photos. Use the computer
and a photoshop like editor.
 
Andy said:
I heard that but them again there are alot of people who havent had any
problems and love it.


It is a good printer but the R300 has more features and the Epson is rated
higher for photos. having the LCD screen
etc the Epson must also be more expensive to produce which is why i cant
work out this pricing of canon's. canon must know they are lsoing out to
the Epson's
Click to expand...

What you save upfront on the Epson you'll end up losing on the higher
running costs.
I would much prefer the Canon but no printer seems to last these days so
i'm sadly going to have to go for the Epson simply on price
Click to expand...

It's your call. I'm going for the iP4000, even though I'm probably going to
pay more than your quote to get it from a retailer with a better customer
service record.
 
measekite said:
They just have not printed enough CD's to have the problem.
Click to expand...

Possibly. But i don't see a widespread problem being shown or a recall.
Most customer reviews are quite favorable
Read the reviews at www.pcmag.com

The LCD screen is really not the way to edit photos. Use the computer and
a photoshop like editor.
Click to expand...

agreed, that wasn't really my point.
 
Derek Baker said:
What you save upfront on the Epson you'll end up losing on the higher
running costs.
Click to expand...

refills roughly the same price.
It's your call. I'm going for the iP4000, even though I'm probably going
to pay more than your quote to get it from a retailer with a better
customer service record.
Click to expand...


If i could justfy the money i'd buy the Canon too. I am even tempted to try
and hold out to see if Canon do drop their prices
 
Taliesyn said:
As a side note, I can't understand why printers are so much more
expensive in the UK. Converting Canadian Dollars to Pounds:

The R200 is in my sales flyer for £44 and the Canon iP4000, £65.
Mind you, North American Canons don't have the CD/DVD printing feature.
My own printer, the iP5000, currently goes for £87 (minus CD/DVD
printing).

-Taliesyn
Click to expand...

The cd/dvd printing probably explains the price difference
 
Andy said:
Possibly. But i don't see a widespread problem being shown or a recall.
Most customer reviews are quite favorable
Click to expand...

Epson America replaced them no questions asked. Then they started just
replacing the defective CD Trays. Epson UK, from many posts in this NG,
is not very accommodating to the UK customers as Epson American is.
They seem like two different companies.
 
Andy said:
refills roughly the same price.





If i could justfy the money i'd buy the Canon too. I am even tempted to try
and hold out to see if Canon do drop their prices
Click to expand...

The Epson permanent heads require more cleaning cycles and therefore
more ink. The ink is also more expensive. The difference will be more
than made up for on running costs.

But the R300 is a good choice and is a nice printer. It is just not the
best choice or the best value.
 
Tell him not to put the CD tray down on the feed-end. Damaging the plastic
strip on the CD tray is the most common fault. Its a stupid idea to be
honest, but if your carefull with the tray it works fine.


*slightly* faster on documents - but the Canon is lower quality on photos -
remember we are comparing a 3 colour to a 6 colour printer here...

Compare the print quality from the review on
http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer/20041025/printer-08.html - notice how
much grainier and over-saturated the Canon iP4000 prints are in comparison
to the R300
The Epson permanent heads require more cleaning cycles and therefore more
ink. The ink is also more expensive. The difference will be more than
made up for on running costs.
Click to expand...


Not if your using 3rd party ink its not - at £1.50 each (compared to about
£11.00 for Epson carts, and about £8-£9 for a Canon) you save a fortune. Ok,
the print quality isn't quite as good as the OEM stuff, but for 99% of what
people use a printer for its perfectly acceptable.
Also, considering the Epson is much higher photo quality than the Canon,
using 3rd party inks on the Epson would still give you better prints than
the Canon using OEM ink.

But the R300 is a good choice and is a nice printer. It is just not the
best choice or the best value.
Click to expand...

That depends what you want it for. For many people its much better value and
quality than the Canon.
 
Andy said:
Looking for a printer which will Print photos and CD/ DVD's. I plan
to make good regular use of it.

Ive got it down to these 3. I've used ebuyer for the price examples,
you can probably get them all slightly cheaper shopping around

Epson R200 - £65.99
Epson R300 - £77.90
Canon IP4000 - £92.78

What i can't understand is why the Canon is so much more expensive?.

The Epson R300 has many more features. I would have expected this to
be the most expensive.

I like the Canon but I can't bring myself to pay so much more for less
features.
Click to expand...

I have four printers: - an R800, an iP8500 an i9950 and an RX620 (OK, five
if you count the PictureMate, which I don't). Which do I use the most? I'll
give you a clue - it isn't an Epson.

I love the images my R800 produces, I hate the way it clogs. I had to spend
£30 the other day on a set of cleaning tanks to get it working again because
it hadn't been used for about six weeks. I left my i9950 in its box for nine
months. It was pressed back into service after my SC900 bit the dust after
nearly a decade's good and faithful service. Did I need to run endless
cleaning cycles to unblock the heads? Did I need to spend any money to bring
back to its former glory? No, I did not. It worked flawlessly right out of
the box. Why? Because it uses dye, not pigment, based inks. Pigment inks are
like paint, and dry like paint. Pigments are water-based and, therefore,
evaporate and do not (IME) clog the printhead.

I bought my iP8500 last week to replace the SC900 and I love it. It's fast,
it does duplex, the prints are accurate, I can put up to 200 pages in the
cassette. It's the best £270 I ever spent on a printer. The only downside?
The case shows every mark - but that's the only downside I've found thus
far.

IMNSHO, it's the best printer on the planet. Cheap to run, quick to print -
I can't fault it.
 
Andy said:
refills roughly the same price.



If i could justfy the money i'd buy the Canon too. I am even tempted
to try and hold out to see if Canon do drop their prices
Click to expand...

Golden Rule of Printer Ownership: - the lower the initial costs the higher
the cost of ownership.

Compare the R800 and the iP8500. The R800 costs nearly £100 less than the
iP8500, but the tanks are, depending on where you purchase them, around £15
for the colours and £10 for the gloss optimiser. The Canon is £100 more,
but the tanks cost around £5-£6 each. Cost of a set is £145 compared with
£48 for the Canon. IOW, you can purchase three sets for the Canon for the
price of one for the Epson.

You must spend more to spend less.
 
Miss Perspicacia Tick said:
Golden Rule of Printer Ownership: - the lower the initial costs the higher
the cost of ownership.
Click to expand...

if youre buying a lexmark!!!
Compare the R800 and the iP8500. The R800 costs nearly £100 less than the
iP8500, but the tanks are, depending on where you purchase them, around
£15 for the colours and £10 for the gloss optimiser. The Canon is £100
more, but the tanks cost around £5-£6 each. Cost of a set is £145 compared
with £48 for the Canon. IOW, you can purchase three sets for the Canon for
the price of one for the Epson.

You must spend more to spend less.
Click to expand...


I think anyone would have to be daft to buy Epson or Canon carts. The
price is the same for generic carts
 
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