Best all-in-one printer on the market
Written: Mar 18 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Build quality, two paper feeders, auto-duplexing, brilliant & fast output, excellent scanner, DVD/CD printing
Cons: Nothing serious, pretty big and heavy, no fax software, interfaces is inferior to Canon MP960
The Bottom Line: This is an excellent product, I am very happy with my purchase. I hope you will be as well.
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| manch55's Full Review: |
I love this printer. Starting with packaging - everything speaks of quality. There is no other manufacturer that packages printers with so much care as Canon does.
I am not going to review the printer capabilities - they were reviewed ad nauseam in other reviews. I'll just share my experience and hope that it will help you in your decision. I really needed a CD printer, Canon did not have this capability and is much more expensive than other printer so I bought three printers to run a comparison test. The participants were: Canon MP830, Epson RX580 (Ultra Definition) , HP Photosmart D5160. My primary goal was to find a great photo printer that prints directly on DVDs. So here are my findings:
Photo Printing:
Canon wins hands decisively. It is much faster than other printers, photos (as in Epson( are smear-proof (not in HP) and, most importantly, photo quality is much better than Epson and HP. As good or better than you get in your photo lab.
Text & Document Printing:
Canon wins, hands down. Not only it is much faster, the output is much better and as a HUGE bonus, it offers an automatic duplex
Copying and Scanning:
Canon wins, hands down. Much better scans than Epson. HP did not have a scanner, but I compared it with my old HP PSC 2355 and Canon was much, much better. It also offers duplex scanning and copying in batch or single mode!
Fax:
The two other contestant did not offer fax feature, Canon could have done a better job. It is really disappointing that Canon did not bundle any Fax software with the printer. Also, when I get a fax, the printer does not ring and chirp like HP – you don’t know what is going on, but then you get a fax page printed. I like fax software that was included with my old HP Laserjet 3100. Still, Canon does faxes just fine.
Bundled Software:
I think it is a toss up. HP, Canon and Epson bundle very powerful software suites, easy to use, offering great features.
CD/DVD Printing:
Now, here in this review where the fun begins. If you researched printers, you will be surprised as only Epson and said HP offer direct CD/DVD printing. That is true. HOWEVER! In Europe, Canon offers CD/DVD printing with its printers. So, some less than bright person in Canon in his or her infinite wisdom decided to make this feature available to European but not to Americans. No, I did not buy my printer in Europe.
But what I did is that I went on eBay and bought a tray for CD/DVD printing. This is a Canon OEM tray that WILL work with your printer. The printer is identical to the European one, even your SW CD contains driver that will support direct DVD printing. You just need to reprogram the printer (takes about 5 minutes) The excellent, step by step instructions are also provided with the auction. On eBay, search these keywords: "Canon MP830 CD Print Printer Tray D". Yes, printer tray D is the one for MP830. Just do yourself a favor, by an OEM one. It will cost you about $30.
As far as results, they are amazing. DVDs come out professional looking, perfectly centered, printing is very fast, colors are vibrant and results are much better than I saw with HP/Epson or even with the professional CD printers such Primera Signature. I am using latest Surething 5 software and very happy with it – it supports Canon Pixma printers.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
manch55
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Location: San Francisco
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 2 members
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