Hi there, I'm thinking of replacing my old HP deskjet 845c with the canon pixma ip5200. This hp has lasted until now without any problems, so in realibility terms it is good, but at times the paper tray will auto over feed itself 2-3 papers at one go for printing (recent problem) and the ink is very expensive to up keep. I'm only with OEM inks.. as my last trial I used some remanufactured ink that claims to give high quality print (yeah bullshit ads)[perfect10 inks]. The first thing I noticed is it prints more darker and once some droplets of water get to the paper...your document is doomed [never had such problems with oem hp black but oem hp colours do happen]. The oem ink costs like ...RM85-90 with 25ml ink [ rm amount/4 = U$D)] for one black and if i'm not mistaken it lasts to almost 500pgs or less.
So I went around browsing and first thought of a laser printer, but again I found that at times I would need to print colour so back to the inkjet, I've looked at hp again. HP is getting more expensive. Their ink is like one cartridge for RM50-60 [5ml inside one], which is totally out. Epson on another hand, not too impressed with their durabite inks and as many has complained about the frequent printhead clog, also is out of my consideration. Then comes to Canon. I've personally had a old canon, but it didnt really last long...so I did not consider one at first. Then it occured to me, I was using a low end budget one. So I've decided to try canon again, by choosing a mid range model, like 4000 - 5300 range. I've even look at the cartridge price and find it to be very affordable as one only costs RM45-50[26ml], in another words almost half price of my HP15 cartridge!
But then as I've browse inside here, I start to realise some unpleasant things about canon. One of them is the duplex printing with colour ink usage even if u specify grayscale on plain paper? My old HP isnt that smart too. Let say if I were to print a document with black text and colour text together in one page, it will also use some colour ink to print the black text, which isnt what I want. So I hope someone could give me hints, how will they use the ink when I enable to colour printing on plain paper. Will it be smart enough to use only pigment black text on normal text and only colour inks on coloured text/diagrams? Any other canon recommendation? I'm using it for school stuff, definately will print more on black only but occasionally need to print colour as well[would prefer separate ink tanks than those tricolour crap].
Thanks in advance.
So I went around browsing and first thought of a laser printer, but again I found that at times I would need to print colour so back to the inkjet, I've looked at hp again. HP is getting more expensive. Their ink is like one cartridge for RM50-60 [5ml inside one], which is totally out. Epson on another hand, not too impressed with their durabite inks and as many has complained about the frequent printhead clog, also is out of my consideration. Then comes to Canon. I've personally had a old canon, but it didnt really last long...so I did not consider one at first. Then it occured to me, I was using a low end budget one. So I've decided to try canon again, by choosing a mid range model, like 4000 - 5300 range. I've even look at the cartridge price and find it to be very affordable as one only costs RM45-50[26ml], in another words almost half price of my HP15 cartridge!
But then as I've browse inside here, I start to realise some unpleasant things about canon. One of them is the duplex printing with colour ink usage even if u specify grayscale on plain paper? My old HP isnt that smart too. Let say if I were to print a document with black text and colour text together in one page, it will also use some colour ink to print the black text, which isnt what I want. So I hope someone could give me hints, how will they use the ink when I enable to colour printing on plain paper. Will it be smart enough to use only pigment black text on normal text and only colour inks on coloured text/diagrams? Any other canon recommendation? I'm using it for school stuff, definately will print more on black only but occasionally need to print colour as well[would prefer separate ink tanks than those tricolour crap].
Thanks in advance.