The Little Printer that Could

Every once in a while a product comes along that greatly exceeds expectations.  The Canon ip4300 printer is one of those products.  This printer usually sells for around $100 and occasionally with rebate for as little as $80. 

Actually, the ip4300 is just one model of the Canon "5-ink" printers.  The ip4300 has a number of siblings that use the same ink combination so what I'm writing about should also apply to the:

• MP-530
• MP-600
• MP-810 
• MP-830

Previous years' models that appear to use the same print engine are the:

• ip4200
• ip5200 

If anyone knows of other Canon models that fit this description, please contact me so I can update this list.

The ink colors used in this printer are a black dye ink, a black pigment ink, cyan dye, magenta dye and yellow dye inks.  The 5-ink version printers I'm writing about use the type 8 dye ink, NOT the type 6.  (There were older 5-ink models using the type 6 ink.  They are NOT a part of this discussion!)  The actual ink cartridge numbers in the ip4300 and siblings are: CLI-8BK, CLI-8Y,  CLI-8M, CLI-8C and the pigment black cartridge PGI-5BK.

So, we ask the question again:  can a "cheapie" printer be capable of outstanding quality?  Let's find out.