Disappointing
Written: May 26 '04
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Pros: Price, good software, cheap cartridges, excellent printouts when it works.
Cons: Shoddy build quality, unreliable printing, lack of USB cable in box.
The Bottom Line: Avoid it, this is definitely not up to scratch.
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| rgs_uk's Full Review: Canon BJC S200 InkJet Printer |
I bought this to replace a ten-year-old Canon BJ10SX which had given great service. In fact I have a total of three BJ10SXes! Two of which still work perfectly. But they aren't colour.
I saw the S200 on offer at £35 ($60) and foolishly I imagined it would be up to the same standard... It isn't. The lack of a USB cable is ridiculous, as someone else mentioned. But the shop gave me one free.
At first I was knocked out by the great colour print outs even on ordinary paper. I thought it was terrific, even though there is some very slight banding on areas of black. The software is easy and works well. Paper handling is miles better than on the old BJ10SX! But, after a couple of months of perfect printing, the problems began.
I had a regularly recurring problem where it seemed the printer wasn't 'firing' the black ink immediately when it started printing the page. With the result that the first few words were partially missing. This drove me to distraction. Cleaning the head, deep cleaning, aligning the print head, changing the cartridge etc. Often nothing solved the problem for hours and then it would just clear up. It happened with Canon cartridges and the cheap non-Canon ones. I don't know how much ink and paper I wasted due to this.
Then I had a pretty basic paper jam which seemed to damage the print head. It didn't work anymore. Its ridiculous that a paper jam can do this! Canon sent me out a new head. I've had the same black ink problems with it.
Also, the cartridges are terrible for drying up. Go on holiday for a week and you will need new cartridges when you return. I have had to start keeping the colour cartridge in a plastic container in the fridge, as I can easily go a week without using colour.
I just printed some A4 posters for my dad and ended up having to fill in the first letter of the heading with a black pen because, no matter what I did, I could not get the printer to produce a perfect sheet.
I have several Canon products (camcorder, scanner, camera) and had great respect for their brand until this. I find it very disappointing that they produced the S200.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): $60
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
rgs_uk
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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