Canon Reviews

This printer is actually the updated version of Canon BJC-85(Black) printer. This printer has a portable, compact and lightweight design yet it produces crisp, vibrant, professional-quality printouts. It features USB, parallel port and fast IrDA (version 1.1). It is a great printer for your travel & laptop/PDA needs.

I bought one of these printers and fresh out of the box it didn't work. They sent me a refurbished printer for a brand new printer. They did see the error of their ways and sent me a new printer which lasted a few months before I had to send that one back. They sent me another printer and that one lasted the longest about 7 months. Overall, in one year I went through 5 of these printers before I said enough and they pro-rated my refund. So if you're a risk taker go ahead and buy it.

I've had my BJC 6000 for over 5 years and am very satisfied with the product. The print quality is still great after all these years and hundreds (if not a couple thousand) of copies for me and the kids. I found the ink tank system to be exceptional. I never threw out any unused ink like I did with my HP multicolor cartidges. I was going thru quite a few cartridges and started to refill my own. I've saved a lot of money however, the quality is just not the same no matter what the inkjet aftermarket folks say. For the quality jobs, I stick with genuine canon products. The only griped I've had are the startup is noisy and the hign resolution printing is sloooow. However, I'd buy another BJC 600 except... in the past few years the ink jet printers have gotten even cheaper and better!

I purchased my BJC 5100 about 2 years ago when I was looking for a large format printer (11x17) at a reasonable price. While the 5100 did meet those criteria, I have since had second thoughts about my purchase.

What I like about the printer:
Good color and B&W print quality at a reasonable speed; minimal space required for a large format printer; attractive initial price.
What I don't like:
Ink cartridges are expensive (this is where printer makers make the real money) and don't last very long; if idle for more than a few minutes the thing goes through a loud and annoying boot cycle before it finally prints.

For the most part this is a decent printer if you need larger format capability and don't want to cough up 3 to 4 times the money required for a competing product. But, be warned; if you are contemplating upgrading to the XP OS or already have it, don't buy this machine. Canon doesn't provide printer drivers for XP that support the 5100. This is extreeemely aggravating for those like me who need to upgrade or replace a computer but otherwise want to keep using their 5100...

I own two of these machines and I have to admit I am a fan of Canon products. I also own their digital camera and copy machine. For the money it is hard to complain about this printer. It delivers nice crisp text at a very acceptable speed and can do some really nice things with digital images using their photo cartridge. If you buy cartridges for this machine at your neighborhood office supply, you could complain that it can be expensive to run. I personally used compatibles that I purchase on the internet and use a refill kit on the larger tank in holder two. This really makes the machine economical. The fact is that if you use a manufacturer's ink on any machine, you will pay a premium price. That's how they make their money. The larger format ability of this machine is also a bonus considering the low cost to initially acquire.

I have absolutely loved this printer. It carried me through 3 years of school without constantly running to the computer lab to print drafts of papers. It handles a very high volume well.

I have also found that by ordering off-brand ink tanks I can save a lot of money. Frankly, if you buy the Canon, HP or whatever manufacturer's ink, you're really being bilked out of a lot of money.

I'm selling my printer because, like many of you have found out, it is not XP compatible. That's very clearly stated on the box. A manufacturer has no obligation to provide you with new drivers because you didn't read the printer information before upgradning your computer. If you're running an older OS and plan on doing so for a while this is a great little printer. It comes with my highest recommendation!

I am still waiting for my Csnon Printer. He said he ship it once but
they could not find me. The second time he ship it thru the US Post
Office around Sep. 2. 03 and so far I havent seen my printer yet.

I was going to order the printer , however when I clicked on to purchase it, the price went from $39.00 to $89.00. Folks this is false advertising. I can see why Amazon.com has lost their creditability. I guess I won't be purchaseing anything from there. WORD TO THE WISE, WATCH YOUR WALLET.
The printer is a good one but not worth $89.00

I wanted to buy this product for 29.99. but i did not see how to buy. all i saw was more information on this product. you do not have a buy now button or any button for this

I have had mine a little over a year, and while it did great at printing both in black and in color (the output of photo-type documents was grainy at best), I had habitual problems with the printer not printing in black. It would go through all the motions, and even replacing the ink tank and print head did not fix it. Canon's advice was to take it to a service center, which led me to the "it's cheaper to buy a new one than to fix it" situation. Printheads, at $52 or so each, don't last as long as I had hoped either. Not a bad printer, and maybe you will not have the problems mine has, but I must believe there are better on the market

I bought this printer because I wanted something inexpensive for some home printing. I was quite pleased with the results. However, it does use up a lot of ink and I've noticed that the print quality isn't always 100%, but it's very good otherwise. Don't buy this if you are going to do a lot of heavy duty printing, or if you have a small business, because it isn't the fastest printer. But if you are just going to do some home printing for fun, this is a good choice if you don't want to spend a whole lot of money. I know this isn't the best printer on the market, and like I said, don't use it for heavy duty printing or for businesses, but for a little home printing for fun, this is the right way to go!

I bought this back in '99 with my webtv (which is now msntv). Once I got a computer I discovered I wanted a better printer. I never had a printer before so I have nothing to compare it to.

It lasted me for 3 years. It made a little noise, took about a minute to warm up, and a few seconds to touch the paper cause the ink can slighly smear. The ink tanks (which have 2, 1 for black and 1 for color) take awhile to empty with minimal use. The black is cheap, like 10 bucks, but the color is like 30 bucks. The 2 ink tanks come with the printer but the cable doesn't.

The main problem with me was the disc that came with it. The software isn't up to date with what's on computers now. So I caught hell with trying to install it.

This is great for college or simple printing.

The main drawback of this printer is Canon's design for getting ink to the print head. Because the ink has to seep through a sponge to get to the print head, the amount of ink flow is limited. For instance, if you were to print something that had, say, heavy black in one area, it would print okay for the first few lines, but much more than that and it'll start leaving blank streaks across your paper where there wasn't enough ink to feed the print head... effectively ruining your print. Also, it seems that the print heads get dirty quickly, as I have to run the print head cleaning program about once every two weeks.

I've used HP Deskjet printers for years and just recently decided to upgrade. My son needs a color printer so he got the HP-693c and I bought a Canon BJC-3000. My biggest complaint about the HP's was the single color cartridge - run out of one color and you have to throw the entire cartridge away. Not so with the BJC-3000.

I've had good results with the graphics and printed some photo-quality images using Kodak InkJet photo paper. You have to do some adjustments of the settings to get things right, but the results are very good once that is done.

The major complaint I have is the noise coming out of this thing! It isn't bad while printing, but during initialization and after printer a few sheets, it goes into a mode where it sounds like it is coming apart. All ink jet printers do this, but this one is especially noisy.

After searching through tons of other printers to purchase to go with my iMac, I finally settled on the Canon BJC-3000. It only took about 10 minutes to set it up - and that includes the amount of time it took to remove it from the box! The color is wonderful. The first few things I printed were on plain paper and the quality was great. When I put in special photo paper, it looked like you would expect - a photograph. I'm very impressed with the Canon - especially for the price...it performs much better than the HP 550C I purchased 5 years ago...

The speed and print quality is perfect for at-home use with professional-looking quality. As with any injet/bubble printer, using the right kind of paper for the job does make a difference. With the plain paper, text looked laser-jet sharp. Color looked just fine, as well, but it doesn't have the crisp quality of using special photo paper. Also, the color bled through the back of the plain paper, however, the color didn't run which saves on using that expensive for draft or quick copies.

The individual tanks are a lot less expensive than having to purchase brand new ones...

Another thing I love about it is that, in addition to my iMac, I also have an old IBM machine. Just for the heck of it, I plugged my printer into it, and guess what? Yes, it works. One printer that can be used on both platforms. All it takes to use it on both computers is the right cable. A USB cable for the iMac and a parrallel cable for the IBM. NOTE: No computer cables were included with the printer. They do have to be purchased separately.

Another note of versatility - Canon has an add-on that can be purchased to make the printer into a scanner. My understanding of the way it works is that you take out the toner cartridges and replace it with a scanning cartridge. I saw a demo, and it looked pretty simple...Not bad, but it is sheet-fed...However, if you have a small work area and don't have room for another piece of equipment, it would be a smart buy if you are desperately in need of scanning capabilities.

The savings in the long run on toner and paper, and being able to use it on both my IBM & Macintosh machines made this an intelligent choice for me. Plus getting the rebate? It certainly is the best [money] I've ever spent.

It is a very good cartridge, BUT impossible to buy through local stores like Staples and Office Depot. Must be ordered online ( with shipping charges). Amazon has the best prices, but I feel the cartridges should be available in a store