Canon Pixma iP5200R Inkjet Printer Review
Photo printing had been dominated by the Epson R800 in the year 2004, and just then, Canon released its Pixma iP5200R which seemed to be the perfect rival for the Epson model. Another good model that seemed to pose a great competition too was the HP Photosmart 8250. Here, the following review is on the Canon’s Pixma iP5200R.
The Pixma iP5200R colour inkjet photo printer has overcome the only disadvantage that its predecessor, Canon Pixma iP5000 had, which was Built-in networking. But, has maintained what was loved in that model, that is, user friendly operation, Autoduplex printing, good compatibility, speed and the excellence in the quality of text and graphics. The ‘R’ suffix in the model has been included to indicate the wireless networking included.
Designed in style:
The Canon Pixma iP5200R Wireless Photo Printer looks sleek and stylish in its silver and black finishing. It has its dimensions as, 6.7 x 16.5 x 11.2 inches (H x W x D) and 7.5kgs. The printer unfolds in style for your use. It sports a flip-up 150 sheet auto feeder and a flip down output tray of capacity 50 sheets that would extend up to six inches in the front. The unit also has a secondary paper cassette that has a capacity of 150 sheets which can be extended to accommodate papers of letter sizes. A secondary front panel above the paper exit, folds down to take a CD or DVD carrier which supports both 120mm and 63mm discs. It was a great idea of canon to include a cover on the rear side of the printer which is of great help for you in case of any paper jams. At the rear are a mains socket and separate connections for a USB 2 link and an Ethernet cable. The absence of an LCD display and a memory card slot is disappointing.
Switches and ports:
As a feature of all the Pixmas, the iP5200R Pixma’s operation is driver centric. The top right corner of the printer has the large power button, followed by a PictBridge port, a paper feed button and a paper input source switch. You have two ways by which you can monitor the status of the printer. You can either have a look at the Software status monitor or the power LED flashes 2 to 9 times to indicate the status and error conditions of the printer. The LEDs present in the facia of the printer illuminates to show which paper tray has been selected, but the printer itself automatically switches the source once the paper in one source is over. However, you will be able override this setting using the options available in the printer driver menu. This printer can be connected via USB 2.0, network cable or via a Wi-Fi link to one or more printers, all of which can address the printer independently.
Simple installation:
Ease of use is clearly a priority, and this continues through the simple installation utility. Setting up of the Canon Pixma iP5200R printer is extremely easy and takes a maximum of ten minutes. All that you will need to do is, install the printer driver and then the other organising, image editing and web page printing software which are optional. The physical set up includes installing the printhead and the five ink tanks and then the USB connection to your PC. And once this is done, you can connect the power chord and the iP5200R will be ready to print off your cherished memories. As you insert each cartridge in the carriage a red LED illuminates to confirm that the cartridge is properly in place.
Printer driver menu:
The canon’s printer driver has six tabs that make navigation very easy. The main tab allows you to select the paper type and the input source. With this menu, you will be able to set the default source, override the switching source, and even choose the continuous auto feed. With the help of the paper allocation feature, you can specify both the size and the surface type of the paper that had been loaded in the tray. The options in the print quality settings include high, standard and draft quality and with the custom setting, you can choose between Fast/Coarse or Slow/Fine prints and also set the type of half toning applied to photo images. Tweaks can be made to the automatic colour adjustments. Orientation, Duplexing, and number of copies can be set in the page set-up tab and a margin can also be allocated along any of the edges for the sake of stapling. The ICM (Image Colour Management) of windows can be used for software-based colour management. There is a check box to select gray scale printing and a wizard-based print adviser to provide help for novice users. The other tabs are also filled up with a lot of other interesting features. Once you have made the desired settings, you can also save them with a profile name for future use.
Paper Allocation feature:
Canon Pixma iP5200R Duplex Photo Printer does not automatically detect the size of paper that is loaded, however it has the Paper Allocation feature. Using this feature you can specify the type of sheet that you have loaded into the tray. So, in case you choose the wrong input source, the printer switches the source to the right one automatically. This feature is an economical one as it prevents paper wastage when given wrong entries. It saves a lot of time for you when you are dealing with papers of various sizes at the same time.
WiFi and ChromaLife100:
WiFi connectivity lets everyone share a single printer without clumsy connecting cables. Canon’s ChromaLife100 system of print head, new formulation inks and Canon genuine photo papers preserves your memories producing long-lasting photos.
Print head and Cartridge:
Canon Pixma iP5200R uses Canon’s FINE (Full-Photolithography Inkjet Nozzle Engineering) 1,856-nozzle print head that spits one picoliter ink droplets, which means a pixel is formed by 32 droplets with a amazing resolution of 9,600×2,400dpi.
The Pixma iP5200R is a four colour model based on the ContrastPlus ink system. The colours include dye based cyan, magenta, yellow and black. These colours are for photo printing purposes and pigment based black is used for printing text. The large black ink cartridge lasts for 360 pages of standard text. The BCI-6 colour tanks are used as in the case of the other Pixmas and an optional monitoring system is available that warns you before each of the tanks are completely depleted. As you must have noticed, the cred is absent and so the final output of the photos are not striking enough to compete with dedicated photo printers. Yet, the quality of the prints are much better than that of some of the other Small office printers.
Compatibility:
The compatible papers include the Photo Paper Plus, Canon Photo Paper Pro along with the other papers that have semi-gloss, glossy, and matte surfaces. Transparencies, plain paper, envelopes, and other business-oriented papers are also supported. Since the machine can handle duplex printing, printing can also be done on coated CDs and DVDs with the help of the separate disc holder that comes with the printer.
Canon Pixma iP5200R photo printer is compatible with both Windows and Mac operating systems.
Maintainable and economic:
For the purpose of maintenance, there is a maintenance tab in the driver menu. It has the customary nozzle cleaning and print head alignment functions. Bottom plate cleaning set up is also available that uses a piece of letter-size paper that has been folded and straightened out to wipe the printer clean prior to two-sided printing. All very innovative and useful features. The transparent Single Ink system ensures economical operation minimising ink wastage.
Print speed:
The printer has a print speed of around 10 papers per minute which is quite good for a photo printer. And when it comes to printing photos, it takes just over a minute, not that impressive. This slowness might be as a result of the smaller droplets which requires slower movement of the print head to achieve the desired quality. Colour prints take about 36 seconds.
Print quality:
As we said earlier, the quality of the prints does not match the ones of a dedicated photo printer but the tiny droplets produce excellent text quality. The photos had good deal of details and accuracy has been achieved in the mid tones. The skin tones are represented well and banding was absent. The complete range of colours have good saturation especially the photos that are worked on with the photo shop. Full, borderless printing shows small amounts of photo vanishing off the edge of the paper. Canon Pixma iP5200R is not recommended for any important printing needs.
Software offered:
Canon Pixma iP5200R border less photo printer comes with Canon’s Easy-Print ToolBox software which uses Easy-PhotoPrint to break your photo printing down into three easy steps. Just select the images that you wish to print then select the paper that you are using and then select a layout, which means that you have no need to dive into the printer driver settings to get the printing done.
The software included in the package are, Easy-WebPrint, Easy-PhotoPrint, PhotoRecord, Easy-PrintToolBox, CD-LabelPrint for Windows. Easy-PhotoPrint and CD-LabelPrint for Mac.
Warranty:
Canon provides Pixma iP5200R with one year limited warranty.
Verdict:
Canon Pixma iP5200R is a great option for the home users who are also looking for good text and graphics output. If you are looking for a similar kind of a printer with an LCD display and memory card slot, then go for Canon Pixma iP6700D Photo printer. Pixma iP5200R offers fast black text and high quality, four-colour photos in a machine which can handle CDs and DVDs, can print on both sides of the paper and can be addressed across a wired or wireless network. It has rich set of features and justifies the price tag.
Check other Canon Photo Printers, Inkjet Photo Printer Reviews in this website.
Canon Pixma iP5200R Printer - Technical Specifications, Features
| Manufacturer | Canon |
| Model Name | Canon Pixma iP5200R |
| Printer functions | Printing alone |
| Printer type | Colour inkjet photo printer |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 6.3” x 17.5” x 12.2” |
| Weight | 16.1lbs |
| Display | None |
| Interface | USB , 802.11b , 802.11g , Ethernet 10/100Base-TX |
| Inkjet Technology | Canon FINE (Full-lithography inkjet Nozzle Engineering) |
| Ink Cartridge Configuration | 5 individual ink tanks |
| Print Speed | Up to 15 pages/min - Black fast - A4 Up to 11.7 pages/min - Colour fast - A4 |
| Max Resolution | 9600 dpi x 2400 dpi |
| Supported media types | Cards, CD discs, DVD discs, Envelopes, Photo paper, Plain paper, Photo stickers, Transparencies, Iron-on transfers, Matte photo paper, Glossy photo paper, High resolution paper, Two-sided photo paper, Semi-gloss photo paper |
| Media Sizes | 4 in x 6 in, 5 in x 7 in, A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in), A5 (5.83 in x 8.25 in), B5 (6.93 in x 9.83 in), Legal (8.5 in x 14 in), Letter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in), Com-10 (4.13 in x 9.5 in), International DL (4.33 in x 8.66 in), 2.13 in x 3.4 in |
| Total media capacity | 300 sheets |
| Trays | 2 x Autoload 1 x Manual load |
| Connectivity | 1 x Hi-Speed USB 1 x Direct print port |
| Connectivity | 1 x Hi-Speed USB
1 x Direct print port 1 x Network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX - RJ-45 |
| CD/DVD printing | Yes |
| Duplex Printout | Yes |
| Borderless printing | Yes |
| Operating system supported | Apple MacOS X 10.2.1 or later, Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP |
| Software Included | Canon PhotoRecord, Canon CD-LabelPrint, Canon Easy-WebPrint, Drivers & Utilities, Canon Easy-PhotoPrint |
| Power Consumption Operational | Approx. 3W (standby), approx. 19W (printing) |
| Box contents | The iP5000R printer, Mains cable, five ink tanks, Print head cradle, CD/DVD printing tray, Manuals and Softwares and Drivers. |
| Warranty | 1 year warranty |
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