We have several products from Canon and we usually like their stuff, but what they're doing with their IP5300 inkjet printer makes me think it was the last product I bought from this brand. Here's the deal: they put little chips on their ink tanks to be all smart about it and tell the printer when they're going to be empty. First problem is, I have a tank complaining that it's empty even though it's more than half full. Second problem is, the damn printer driver won't let me print even *in greyscale* (which uses a separate black ink tank) because of that supposedly empty tank. Third problem is, the bypass they're telling me to use to force the print doesn't work most of the time. This system is supposed to be smarter and it's just plain dumb instead.

Given that a) I have no time to deal with that kind of shit and b) ink is an order of magnitude more expensive than champagne, I'm concluding that this is a deliberate scam to sell more ink. Or an extremely incompetent way to write printer drivers. Either way, if you're considering buying Canon printers, you've been warned. I understand that the inkjet printer business model is razor and blades on steroids, but this is too much.