Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon Pixma iP 3500 Advanced Single Ink Photo Printer

Good value printer but the cartridges are chipped so you have to use Canon cartridges. You can refill but the chips are all-seeing so even this is not a full solution.

Printer is easy to install. No major problems so far.

Uses ink every time its turned on - before its printed anything.

Not as good as my old warhorse Canon BJ3000.

I just received this printer this morning - to replace a crappy Epson 4450 that I owned for about two weeks, see my review - and I love it already!
The setup was a doddle and it works!
It's a wee bit fiddly getting the ink cartridges fitted but following the picture guide made it pretty foolproof.
The first prints were a complete revelation; very quiet and fast AND the colours actually match the original image!
I am soo happy I switched to Cannon, nice one chaps.

I wanted something basic for printing out documents, and this works perfectly.
It was dead easy to install. It's a fantastic value and a SUPERFAST printer and looks sleek when closed.
Two things i am not too happy with:
1) the print takes a while to dry, so don't try to print too much stuff at the same time - it will smudge when the freshly printed paper will slide on the one underneath.
2) the printer sometimes "dances" (cartridge part moving) and makes sounds - without me using it. Not a big problem, though... just a little annyoing.

Best cheap printer yet from Canon. Cartridges refillable and resettable (Resetters easily available for this) Newer models hold less ink and have been deliberately engineered to stop refilling by making the chipped cartridges impossible (at the moment) to reset. Better priny quality from the ip4500 due to an extra dye black ink cart if you can get one but this is excellent for lab quality prints and fast printing. Get one while you can (I have 3 for future proofing)The cost of one of these complete with cartridges is more or less the same a the cost of the cartridges on their own. Well worth buying

I've always had very positive experiences with Canon printers, however this one has been a nightmare. It will not print yellow, not matter what I do. I've performed the deep cleaning operation countless times and spent more money on ink than I paid for the printer itself. I'm utterly fed up now and am trying to get my money back.

It doesn't seem that this is a widespread problem, I'm just very unlucky to have it happen to me. Not a happy customer though.