Rating: 
Summary: Even my 70 Year Old Dad Loves This!
Review: Got this as a replacement for my dad's dead printer, a compaq that had already been replaced under warrantee twice within 3 months. The Canon S400 is so easy to use, so easy to set up, my dad doesn't have to work with kludgy software to do something as simple as change print cartridges. He loves the fact that this printer automatically cleans its own heads periodically without him doing anything. He prints daily reports of up to 40 pages per day, and used to get real frustrated when other printers' skipped or ran too quickly out of ink. The Canon S400 is consistently clear! After having 2 strokes, my dad needs things kept as simple as possible. The Canon S400 makes things great, simple and very easy to use. Best of all, my dad's only had to call me once to help him out (his personal tech support, you know). Fixing the problem was a snap. A great printer at a wonderful price and the cartridge refills won't empty your wallet!
Rating: 
Summary: Canon comes through!
Review: I bought this printer after my old Epson 400 died, and am very satisfied! Driver software offers a lot of control over the printer and even allow for an option to turn the printer on and off automatically as needed. (pretty cool because my printer is out of the way!) Color ink can be replaced one color at a time or all together. Ink is pretty cheap too. Black print speed is great and color is sharp. I recommend it if you want a low-cost alternative to high priced HPs and low quality Epsons.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing to write home about...
Review: I bought this printer over a year ago. I use it mostly for work, which means 95% of my printing is just black text, and it had done a decent job for that intended purpose. I have tried printing some photos on glossy photo quality paper, and the results are not impressive. My biggest complaint, however, is the lousy job of feeding paper. It will often times grab several sheets at once and pull them all through a the same time! This can be extremely annoying, paticularly when it grabs another sheet of paper half way though a page, which completely screws up any multiple page print jobs. I did buy this because it was cheaply priced (got what I paid for), and I do like the 4 seperate ink cartridges, but I think you can do better. Do youself a favor and spend an extra [$$$]or so and buy a better quality printer, especially if you plan on printing the occasional color glossy picture.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing to write home about...
Review: I bought this printer over a year ago. I use it mostly for work, which means 95% of my printing is just black text, and it had done a decent job for that intended purpose. I have tried printing some photos on glossy photo quality paper, and the results are not impressive. My biggest complaint, however, is the lousy job of feeding paper. It will often times grab several sheets at once and pull them all through a the same time! This can be extremely annoying, paticularly when it grabs another sheet of paper half way though a page, which completely screws up any multiple page print jobs. I did buy this because it was cheaply priced (got what I paid for), and I do like the 4 seperate ink cartridges, but I think you can do better. Do youself a favor and spend an extra [$$$]or so and buy a better quality printer, especially if you plan on printing the occasional color glossy picture.
Rating:
Summary: Good basic printer
Review: I got this printer after going through two Epson printers over the years. The Epson printers, both top rated in consumer mags, often produced messy pages with smeared ink. I had to constantly run the cleaning utility. The cartridges on the Epsons also clogged all the time. The same thing happened to my sister's Epson. Too much trouble for a basic printer. Getting back to Canon--this printer has been great. No clogged cartridges or messy pages. One thing--I seem to get better printed text when I select graphic rather than text for the type of print mode.
Rating:
Summary: Canon still is the best
Review: I have gones through at least 8 printers in the last 16 months. some of the problems are Lexmark just doesn't like heavy print jobs and uses way to much ink; HP is a good printer but if you do any software work on your system you are continually reloading drivers (yuk). Xerox and Epson the ink runs like water. But with my canon I have no problems, the only reason I now have the S400 is because I gave one of friends my BJC 2000, they had a hp. The printing speed is great and the cost of ink is sooooo much lower, plus the canon system doesn't use a ton of ink when print so I don't have to wait for the paper to dry. So if you want a dependable work-horse I suggest Canon printers.
Remember, though, printers are like cars--- once you find one that works for you, you stick with it.
Rating:
Summary: Good basic printer
Review: I have had this printer for a little over a year now. I got it ...last fall and hoped to use it for color printing mainly, but also to print small black and white documents (I have access to a laser printer for most black and white). I bought it because of the low priced ink tanks.
What I have found out is that the S400 does not print when I want it to. At first, I was using the parallel port connection (don't even think about doing this). The connection isn't fast enough for the printer and every page you try to print will be illegible. Using the USB connection has helped, but I still throw out about 1 out of every 3 pages that I print because they don't come out correctly.
In short, the S400 isn't reliable. I find myself walking across the building to print a single page instead of trying for 20 or 30 minutes on my S400. Don't buy this printer. It will be a waste of your time and money.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a reliable printer
Review: I have had this printer for a little over a year now. I got it ...last fall and hoped to use it for color printing mainly, but also to print small black and white documents (I have access to a laser printer for most black and white). I bought it because of the low priced ink tanks.
What I have found out is that the S400 does not print when I want it to. At first, I was using the parallel port connection (don't even think about doing this). The connection isn't fast enough for the printer and every page you try to print will be illegible. Using the USB connection has helped, but I still throw out about 1 out of every 3 pages that I print because they don't come out correctly.
In short, the S400 isn't reliable. I find myself walking across the building to print a single page instead of trying for 20 or 30 minutes on my S400. Don't buy this printer. It will be a waste of your time and money.
Rating:
Summary: horrible purchase
Review: I was so frustrated with this printer...I intentionally broke it to buy a better one. The print time is extremely slow, the quality horrible and the letters not in line. I guess you get what you pay for.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent low priced printer
Review: I've had experience with close to 10 printers in my computing life, and I must say that this Canon is a pleasant surprise. Small and light, it is very easy to use and prints very clear text. The setup was extremely minimal, using a cd-rom disc it comes with which guides the very short setup process. It works well with my Dell Dimension 4100, and the 4 ink tanks can be purchased as needed. I am an English major and have printed lots of literature and reports with it, and I was able to use it for 5 months before replacing any cartridge (though with your own printing conditions this time period may vary.) The cartridges themselves at around $12 to $15 each were not hard to find, and all 4 only cost me about $50. It comes with a small hard plastic ink tank holder for keeping around spare ink tanks out of the box (leave them in the plastic though!). The ink tanks fit inside an ink cartridge which comes with the printer which doesn't have to be replaced. The ink tanks themselves can be replaced one at a time, and they click into place inside the printer easily. The print head must be aligned after replacing one or all four on the ink tanks, but this is also easy to do-- the computer properties box guides you through the process, which takes all of 3 minutes. If you have any questions, the cd-rom comes with a full product instruction guide viewable on your computer with Adobe Acrobat Reader. This printer will cost you under $100 any way you slice it, and I have had mine for a full year with no problems. The printing speed is fine, and the printer itself is not any louder than any other bubble jet or ink jet printer. The printer will prompt you onscreen if an ink cartridge is low or if the paper runs out. Even with a low ink warning, I was able to print regular text for well over a month, though if you are looking to print graphics or pictures the individual color will need to be replaced sooner so as not to affect the dyes of the graphic. The paper guide is thin plastic and a little flimsy, but it does the job. Overall I recommend it to anyone who simply wants a small, affordable, quality printer for text, internet webpages, and small to medium sized color pictures and photos. It will more than pay for itself in the long run. For the price you can't go wrong.
| 
