Opinions? Which Canon printer should I keep - i860 or ip3000

[trelled]

I originally purchased my Canon i860 awhile back, and it's done a superb job for occasional photo printing and everyday printing. I was given an ip3000, and now trying to decide which printer to keep. The 3000 is a bit more compact, uses 1 less black ink cartridge. Have not performed a detailed print quality comparison, but both seem to do well. I don't need two printers, which one should go in the garage sale? Thanks in advance for your opinions.

 

[cmonkey]

if they were my printers, and I could only keep one... I'd call canon support and see if the print head for either has been discontinued.

That's what did it for me, my i960 finally gave it up, and since the print head was discontinued, I had to buy a new printer. (I didn't have 2 to start with)

If both print heads are still available then your decision may be a bit tougher

 

[ghwellsjr]

You are going to put a Canon printer that uses chipless cartridges in a garage sale? You should at least advertise it on Craigslist.

But to help you decide between the two printers--they will print identically on plain paper except that the iP3000 has the ability to print double sided documents. One feature I really love about this kind of printer is that you can print a document in booklet form which takes one quarter the amount of paper.

The advantage of the extra thin black cartridge in the i860 is that it will give you darker blacks on photo paper. The difference between the two printers will be quite noticeable when you look at a photo with a significant amount of dark area printed on both printers. But without the comparison, the iP3000 prints acceptable photos. Keep in mind, this only has to do with photo printed on photo paper. Photos printed on plain paper will be identical on the two printers.

But since you only print photos occasionally, I would recommend keeping the iP3000, provided, like cmonkey pointed out, you can get a spare print head. But if you don't buy one now, there is no guarantee that it will be available if and when you need one. I personally always buy two of whatever printer I like just so that I will have a spare when the emergency hits. There's nothing worse than making a quick decision about a new printer when you can't afford the time to do good research.

I got an idea--why don't you keep both printers so you will have one as a spare?