I am looking for a new printer and am torn between the iP3000 and iP4000

I notice that the iP4000 has two black inks, why is this.
They are BCI-3eBk and BCI-6Bk

What are the differences between these inks and why two blacks???

Does the mono print use one and the colour print use the other or something.

What are the significant differences between the two models apart from the
additional tank?

Thanks.

> I notice that the iP4000 has two black inks, why is this.
> They are BCI-3eBk and BCI-6Bk

Pigment black and dye black. The dye black is used for photo paper a
feature on the ip4000 but not the ip3000

I have the ip3000 and the mp760. Once and a while for photo paper the
pigment black kicks in on the ip3000 and you can see it's not as glossy
as the colors adding a 3d quality to some things. This can look good
as is the case with text, diagrams, outlines, or information, or bad as
is the case of shadows. I'm told black kicks in at 80%, and I believe
the small black is only used for glossy paper, but I'm not sure as much
of the printer's logic involving color is a mystery to me.

> What are the significant differences between the two models apart from the
> additional tank?

That's about it. Both are virtualy identical save the printhead and
it's older. I assume that the PC board and roms are different but
don't know that for a fact. The color of the printer is different.
Layout and features are identical. I went with the ip3000 because I
wanted to spend as little money as possible while I tested to see if I
could enable the CD-printing feature... a price roughly equal to the
cost of the ink it came with.

I use the ip5000 but you can say this applies to the ip4000, for the
only difference on the ip5000 is the print head resolution of 1pl,
which is only attainable on 'Photo paper pro' setting.

The printer is awsome, I have had mine over three months and not one
single head clog, nor a manual head clean required to date, mind you
I've stuck with Canon ink.

As the previous posts say's, pigment black is the larger tank and is
used for text, the smaller black is a dye photo ink.

One good thing about the ip4000/5000, is that you can print a
composite document, it could be picture and text, or graphics and
text, this simply means you are using the large pigment black ink for
text and the dye for colours, these printers you'll find very
economical with the inks.

The ip3000 will use the same black for both text and colours.

Davy

tHE DECISION IS A NO BRAINER - THE IP4000. THERE ARE MANY SALES AND
REBATES GOING ON NOW SO THE PRICE DIFFERENCE IS SMALL. THE LARGER BLACK
INK TANK IS FOR TEXT. THIS IS ON BOTH. THE SMALLER IS A PHOTO BLACK ON
THE IP4000 AND PROVIDES BETTER CONTRASTING PHOTOS.

BE SURE TO USE CANON OEM INK SO YOU DO NOT GET A PRINTHEAD CLOG

ngreplies wrote:

>I am looking for a new printer and am torn between the iP3000 and iP4000
>
>I notice that the iP4000 has two black inks, why is this.
>They are BCI-3eBk and BCI-6Bk
>
>What are the differences between these inks and why two blacks???
>
>Does the mono print use one and the colour print use the other or something.
>
>What are the significant differences between the two models apart from the
>additional tank?
>
>Thanks.
>
>
>
>

Davy wrote:

>One good thing about the ip4000/5000, is that you can print a
>composite document, it could be picture and text, or graphics and
>text, this simply means you are using the large pigment black ink for
>text and the dye for colours,

Just to nit-pick, I don't believe the Canon printers are object oriented
for ink selection.

For instance, if you print a text document that is all black, with the
default plain paper selected, it will print with the pigment black ink.
But if you print the same document, and it has just one character that
is red, the entire document is printed using the dye CMY colours to
simulate black.

I know this was true of the entire i-series, and I don't think Canon
changed their print engine in the newer iP-series.

In article Bill says...
> Just to nit-pick, I don't believe the Canon printers are object oriented
> for ink selection.
>
> For instance, if you print a text document that is all black, with the
> default plain paper selected, it will print with the pigment black ink.
> But if you print the same document, and it has just one character that
> is red, the entire document is printed using the dye CMY colours to
> simulate black.
>
> I know this was true of the entire i-series, and I don't think Canon
> changed their print engine in the newer iP-series.
>
So how do you know this to be true? Have you tried looking at the
printhead laying down the ink on plain paper. You can easily see the
pigment black AND the CMY both being used.

colinco wrote:

>In article Bill says...
>> Just to nit-pick, I don't believe the Canon printers are object oriented
>> for ink selection.
>>
>> For instance, if you print a text document that is all black, with the
>> default plain paper selected, it will print with the pigment black ink.
>> But if you print the same document, and it has just one character that
>> is red, the entire document is printed using the dye CMY colours to
>> simulate black.
>>
>> I know this was true of the entire i-series, and I don't think Canon
>> changed their print engine in the newer iP-series.
>>
>So how do you know this to be true? Have you tried looking at the
>printhead laying down the ink on plain paper. You can easily see the
>pigment black AND the CMY both being used.

Actually we used magnification to see the colour of the dots. It's easy
to spot when CMY is mixed to produce black.

The reason we checked was the print speed changed depending on the
document being printed. When it printed with the black ink only, the
print speed was slightly higher and you could actually see the page
advance was greater. The printhead has a much larger swath across the
paper when laying black ink. But if there was any colour in the
document, the speed was slower and the page advance was smaller.

So we compared pages under magnification and found CMY was used to
create black.

> there are many sales and rebates going on now so the price difference is small

Near as i'm aware there is only that $20 rebate going on until
september... and that's it. And the ip3000 qualifies for the same
rebate as the ip4000. There are other rebates as well if you buy a
camera at the same time, but the ip3000 also qualifies for those as
well typicaly speaking. Your reccomendation is moot.

ip4000 amazon $104.95 + shipping
ip3000 amazon $69.99 + shipping
Difference 34.96

ip4000 newegg $124.00 shipped
ip3000 newegg $88.00 shipped
Difference $36

ip4000 compusa $129.99 + tax
ip3000 compusa $99.99 + tax
difference $30

One can expect to spend $30 to $40 more for the ip4000 over the ip3000.

The time to buy was two to three months ago when the price was about
$65 for the ip3000 or $100 for the ip4000.

Is it worth $30-$40? It's hard for me to say. I'd reccomend you go to
your local retail store with a digital camera and a pack of photo paper
and print off one of your own images to each printer. If you noticed a
remarkable improvement spend the extra money. If not, don't worry
about it and be happy.

But keep in mind there are new models as well.

> So how do you know this to be true? Have you tried looking at the
> printhead laying down the ink on plain paper. You can easily see the
> pigment black AND the CMY both being used.

I noticed this once when on my ip3000 I was running out of a color,
probally magenta. I was printing some lyrics and wanted some cyan and
others black. All the colors were skewed due to the lack of the
magenta including the black text, which I found very odd as it was text
and assumed that was covered by the bci-3e black.

I don't understand the rhyme or reason of the driver choosing go to
color or dedicated black. I'm told 80% is the usual threthhold, but
when I observe things like this happening I simply have no idea.

"Bill" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:HPGdnUour6cGQYneRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
> colinco wrote:
>
>>In article Bill says...
>>> Just to nit-pick, I don't believe the Canon printers are object oriented
>>> for ink selection.
>>>
>>> For instance, if you print a text document that is all black, with the
>>> default plain paper selected, it will print with the pigment black ink.
>>> But if you print the same document, and it has just one character that
>>> is red, the entire document is printed using the dye CMY colours to
>>> simulate black.
>>>
>>> I know this was true of the entire i-series, and I don't think Canon
>>> changed their print engine in the newer iP-series.
>>>
>>So how do you know this to be true? Have you tried looking at the
>>printhead laying down the ink on plain paper. You can easily see the
>>pigment black AND the CMY both being used.

My canon i850 has a completely blocked black ink head. yet it still
produces stunning photos even strong blacks. The only conclusion is that
black is made up of the other colours. It also explains why yellow runs out
much slower than cyan and magenta.