Canon ip4000 vs ip6000--help!

[InkjetMike]

I have an opportunity to buy a floor model ip4000 with ink for $99 and an ip6000 new in box, also for $99.00.

Couple questions:
Is one of these clearly a better printer than the other?

I couldn't tell which was better for photo printing quality, reliability, ink costs etc.

 

[Osage]

To InkjetMike,

Short answer---at that price get them both.---but the ip6000 has the much higher manufactured list price.

The ip4000 is a five color more general purpose printer---good at both regular text printing and very good at photoprinting.

The ip6000 loses the larger black text cartridge of the ip4000 and gains two colors---photo cyan and photo magenta. Making it a more specialised 6 color beast--not as good for text but better than the ip4000 for photoprinting. Ink consumtion will also be slightly higher in the ip6000 for most things.

But both are non-chipped Canons so printing will be dirt cheap if you use third party cartridges or refill your own cartridges.

 

[fotofreek]

IP6000 is a six color photo printer that was the replacement for the i960. I've read that the i6000 wasn't quite as good a photo printer as the i960. Something about the printhead having less jets. It uses the usual four colors, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, and also has photo cyan and photo magenta. The last two are low dye load inks that provide smoother transition of colors in areas like sky, skin tones, etc. Instead of spacing the dots further apart to create a less intense magenta tone, for instance, it uses the light dye load inks, thus leaving less white space in between the dots to lighten the color tone. I use the i960, a six color printer, and the pictures are excellent. The ip4000 is a more general use printer. It has the four color cartridges, CMYK, and also has a pigment-based black in cartridge for text printing when the plain paper setting is used. I have read that the photos are quite good, but my sense is that the six color printers are potentially better. Cost-wise, you will use lots of the low dye-load ink in the six color printers as compared to the CMYK cartridges. I don't know the ratio, off hand, but I would guess that you would use two or three photo magentas and two photo cyans for each magenta or cyan cartridge replacment. The good news, when you refill your own cartridges, is that the ink cost is 10% or less than for Canon OEM carts so it isn't that critical. That said, however, the four color (plus text black) ip4000 is more economical to run. The other issue is that the ip4000 is a demo model. Who knows if any of the carts were run dry or the printer sat unused for a long period of time. Could be a head clog now or one waiting to happen. If the ip6000 is still in its factory sealed box I'd lean toward it because 1) it is new and 2) it is a six color printer which usually produces better photos.

 

[InkjetMike]

Thank you both for your answers--I've gotten some good info here. I'm not quite sure what I will end up getting, but your comments have given me some good things to think about.

The ip6000 does seem appealing, because I'd like to have great photo quality(e.g. for CD covers, etc.), and I'd think this would get the edge over the 4000. I will need to print documents with it since this will be my sole home printer, so I would like to know how fast it prints a standard page of text. I've been unable to locate this info online thus far.

As for the ip4000, this shelf model does not have the ink cartridges installed, so I'm a little doubtful its been used for printing although I could be wrong (the printers are at Circuit city). The clerk said they likely had the cartridges stored away with the rest of the materials for the unit (he has to check on this and wasn't able to today). I'd like to see if they are willing to give it a test run for me, and I'll also ask whether it is still under warranty.

I get the feeling that for $99 each that these are great deals, esp. with their non-chipped design being such an issue.

Mike

 

[hpnetserver]

Ip6000d is a better photo printer than ip4000 although the difference is not very much. Photos printed by ip4000 look definitely good (better than good actually). But photos from ip6000d are definitely better if you compare with ip4000. Ip6000 spec says it is a slower photo printer but it is still a bit faster than ip4000 printing photo. It is slower than i960 but the speed difference is not that much. I have seen ip6000d printing photos. It is slower than my ip8500 but it is still faster than most Epson photo printers. If your mind is not pre-occupied by the idea that it is a slower photo printer you most likely won't feel it is slow. It is an ideal photo printer, except it has more features than necessary that make it more expensive. It's more economical because it uses only 6 ink tanks, not like ip8500 which uses 8 tanks. Ip4000 is a very fast text printer, much faster than ip6000d. Ip4000's text printing is in pigmented ink if that's important to you. If you print photo mostly you will love ip6000d. Refurbished ip6000d was once available at Fry's Electronics for $69 for quite some time. Many of my friends got it for Christmas last year. I already had ip8500 so I passed it. I should have bought a couple of them and put them in storage like fotofreek did with ip5000. For $99 better get one full year of warranty from it. Refurbished ones only have 90 days. Christmas time has all kinds of good deals but it is also the time the pocket has less money.

 

[InkjetMike]

I just double checked with the folks there to confirm the price ($99). The printer has not been used at all and it comes with the manufacturer's full warranty, so I'll probably buy it.

 

[InkjetMike]

Strange turn of events today. I went to get the ip4000 at Circuit City and it turns out the ink, cables, booklets, etc., could NOT be found. As I was discussing this with the clerk, I watched the ip6000d go out the door.

I came home and looked some more on the web. I found an ip5000 going for $139 + shipping, so I bought that. Hope this is a great printer, because I didn't originally intend to spend this much.

Mike

 

[Osage]

You will do very well with a ip5000.

 

[fotofreek]

Your experience at Circuit City is typical of these types of stores. If they couldn't find the ink carts and accessories for the floor model, I wouldn't trust their statement that the printer hadn't been used as a demo! If it has been used even once and it is sitting without ink carts it will undoubtedly be clogged. You know the old statement that "he who hesitates is lost"? In this case I think you've actually won! The ip5000 is supposed to be a better photo printer (at the highest quality setting) than the ip4000 due to the one picoliter printhead. I don't know if it rivals the i960 or the ip6000 in photo print quality, but I understand that it is quite good. I have an ip5000 new, in its factory sealed box, on the shelf for when one of my other printers dies, and my wife is using an ip5000 printer but doesn't print photos. She uses it for printing emails, web pages, and other text based documents. I should really try it for photos someday just to compare it with my i960 that I use only for photos and color graphics.

There was some fear that the ip5000 print heads would be more prone to clogging due to the smaller jets but I've seen posts from more than one user of the ip5000 on the printer newsgroup that aftermarket inks have worked well with it and there hasn't been clogging problems. The ip5000 was the only one picoliter printer in that generation of Canon printers. In the latest Canons (with the chipped carts) there are more one picoliter models, so that technology has apparently proven to be successful.

 

[Music Image]

I would have to agree with fotofreek,

If a store is slack with their information, theyre bound to be slack in other areas, and it is VERY likely you will have come out better off in the long run not getting the floor model.

FWIW, my ip4000 absolutely flies when Im doing mainly text. Even faster in draft mode which I use a lot lately as it suits my needs. As folks say, the ip4000 is a good all rounder, and is very fast on text. It suits me wonderfully. Im not into pro photo work and therefor I havnt got a trained eye so to speak, but the few photos Ive printed are in my view, stunning, and perfectly good enuff for me.

Hope you go well on your ip5000 and all the best on it.

Music Image