Customer Reviews:
 Great Printer January 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Love the new printer. Easy to install. Prints beautifully. Fits nicely on lower shelf. Bottom paper feed permits storing open pack on top of printer for convenient paper reload.
Everything good January 18, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
So far, its been everything good the review said it was. The photo print quality is superb. I've had half a dozen Epson printers in the last ten years, but decided it was time to try something else. If the Canon's ink use and cost matches the rest of its good features, I won't be going back.
Ray
 Can't use vellum paper or thicker photo paper with machine January 7, 2008
6 out of 12 found this review helpful
Sure it's cheap at $99 and is fast too, but this printer will misfeed thick matte photo paper every time and the same is true with vellum. Even putting in one sheet at a time didnt' work well. It works fine on regular photo paper, but if you want to do any kind of artsy projects you'd be better off with a more expensive printer.
CD Tray & Ink Refills January 6, 2008
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is our second Canon. We ruined the first one (ip3500) our fault.
1. This printer is capable of printing directly on CD's. Go to ebay & do a search for Canon CD Tray. There is guy there (for years now) that has the trays, a link to instructions for activating CD Printing, & a link for instructions on how to set up your Canon IP4500 for CD Printing. It is very easy, & you can revert it if you change your mind. No worry about hurting your printer. You used to be able to buy the CD Trays on Amazon???
2. Ink refills: We use high quality ink refilling on our Canon. If you get ink from a RELIABLE dealer, you have NO problems. Do NOT use a 'generic' all in one ink refill kit. They WILL mess up your printer!!!
3. inkjethelper dot com for general nfo.
4. inkjet dot cfriends for your first refill kit.
5. inksupply dot com for just ink after you already have a refill kit.
You can also get newer/updated drivers & easy photo print OR easy photo print EX from the European Web site. The guy on ebay has the links for you.
The very first Canon we bought was defective, & Amazon replaced it even before we got the defective one mailed back to them. The replacement has been working fine for years now. Amazon made it extremely easy to do the exchange. Sold by Amazon from Amazon are good ones to watch for, even if the price is a few more dollars, it is worth it.
Canon 4 Cartridge printers & up are great. The IP3500 had to have the 'Prevent Paper Abrasion' turned on all the time, but not this one. If you have problems, it is more likely a defective printer. If you get one that is not defective, the colors & printing are Excellent.
 Watch out for the bad chip in ink tank. January 3, 2008
31 out of 47 found this review helpful
My review is for IP4300. But the problem could be applied to IP4500 since IP4200, IP4300 and IP4500 all use the same ink cartridge.
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History: I am very happy with my previous Canon S750 inkjet printer. Specifically, Canon inkjet has been one of the most easy-to-refill printer. The inkhead is wearing out under 3 years heavy use. So, I bought the IP4300 to replace the S750. Starting from IP4200, Canon added chip to each ink tank to prevent the printer from using any user-refilled ink tank. There are work-around for people to still use refilled ink tank with IP4200/IP4300 (not sure about IP4500).
Problem: For my brand new IP4300, after 1 month of use, the printer started to complain that cyan ink tank (not refilled, the original one that came with the printer) was not recognized. So, I had to open the lid, take out the cyan ink tank and put it back to the tank slot again. The printer would then recognize the cyan ink tank. After 1 more week use, the printer just could not recognize the cyan ink tank anymore. Took the cyan ink tank out and put it back would not work.
Investigation: I searched the Canon web site, but could not find any useful infor to solve this problem. I then searched the web and realized quite some people had the same problem with IP4200 or M500. Based on other people's feedbacks, it seems the chip on the cyan ink tank is defact. So, I call the Canon support. The tech support "seems to familiar with" this kind of problem. He quickly proposes that the cyan ink tank may be bad. So he send me a new cyan ink tank with fedex 2-day shipping. I put the new cyan ink tank in and the printer works fine now.
Asssessment:
Pro: I am happy with IP4300's performance, it prints fast, it does duplex printing automatically, it gives out great photo print, it has two seperate paper trays to ease the loading of plain paper and photo paper, it has 5 different ink tanks that can be easily re-filled and there are quite some vendors to supply IP4200/IP4300/IP4500 inks for refilling.
Con: It's too bad that the printer just stops if not all 5 ink tanks are installed.
I still don't know how often the chip in the ink tank will go bad (reliability issue?).
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The is an incremental update after owning IP4300 for 3 months (IP4300 and IP4500 are similar). Canon adds chip to each ink cartridge to scare people away from refilling the cartridge. However, it's fairly easy to work-around that chip. I have successfully refilled the ink cartridges and I am able to disable the printer from complaining about the refilled cartridges . The biggest surprise: The 3rd party ink produces beautiful photo prints also (really can not tell it's not from Cannon's own ink). Well, this credit should go to the ink provider, not to Cannon though.
Given that I am able to control my ink cost by refilling ink for my IP4300, I definitely recommend this powerful IP4300/IP4500 printers to friends.
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