Canon MultiPASS MP390 - This is not one of Canon's best!
Written: Aug 07 '06 (Updated Aug 20 '06)
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Pros: Looks good, most features are pretty easy to use, quite dependable
Cons: Guzzles ink, pricey
The Bottom Line: Not the best thing that Canon has come up with. Average performance device.
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| ark76's Full Review: Canon MultiPASS MP390 All-In-One InkJet Printer |
Product:
Canon MultiPASS MP390 All-In-One InkJet Printer
This multi-function printer comes with a printer, fax, scanner, and copier. Uses BCI-24 cartridges which are sometimes hard to find, but not expensive. You can always get store brand substitutes.
How much I paid for it:
$275 at Office Max. It is now a lot cheaper since newer models are available.
How long have I used it:
About 1.5 years, regularly
Features
Printer:
-Canon claims that this printer prints 18 pages per minute for black and white and 12 pages per minute for color. I have not found this to be really true. It is much slower than that.
-The advantage is that this comes with adjustable ink density, so you can choose how much ink you want to use for a particular print job. This applies for the copier and other features too.
-I have not tried printing color photographs with this, but have tried with black and white photographs. You need a lot of ink for these and it is simply not worth it in my opinion. Much easier to just get it done at your local photo center.
-This device can print photos without a PC connected to it. This is only if your camera is capable of direct printing. I have not tried this feature. It has a USB port to the right of the device where you can attach your camera with a USB cable
-I find that the printing is pretty good in quality for an inkjet, but it leaves a lot to be desired if you are printing really important documents. It is not really very fine and sharp around the edges of the letters, so it looks a little smudgy.
-I have had paper jams very rarely, and this is usually when I have not loaded the paper properly in the tray. The printer does try to adjust the paper and put it in its place and coughs it up if that doesn't work!
-The cartridges are not very expensive and you can get Office Max or other store brands also to replace Canon cartridges for about half the price
Scanner:
-This is a very useful feature, but has its limitations.
-The downside is that it can only scan documents that fit on its platen glass, which fits a standard 8x11" document. Anything bigger and it won't fit! I found this a big disadvantage because I have a lot of documents that are a little larger than this and their edges get cut off if I try to scan them.
-The good news is that it is very easy to use. Just put the document on the platen glass, open up the desktop software and scan. It scans pretty fast too depending on the resolution you are looking for. I believe it scans up to 1200 x 2400 dpi resolution.
-This scans photographs pretty well. The color is pretty good. It is not an exact color match, but will do.
-It comes with MP Toolbox software to help scan and print images. This is fairly user-friendly with auto-crop feature which lets the scanner auto-crop the scanned image.
Copier:
-Not the greatest of its features. The images are dark and smudged and seem to use up a lot of ink for the edges/borders where there is no image! I usually use only the B&W copy feature and have found the quality less than desirable.
-This feature works pretty fast
-This function works without a PC attached
Fax:
-This is a fairly complicated feature. I have still not figured out how to make the thing stop giving the fax tone when I get a normal incoming phone call! I have chosen to put it on automatic setting, which means it is supposed to automatically detect which is a fax and which is a normal phone call, but to date, this has not worked out for me. It always starts ringing for all incoming calls and starts giving a fax tone when it is not supposed to and I have to hang up and call the person back! I would definitely say that this feature is not for fax newbies. If you have had a fax before or used some similar device, you might find it easier, but that is just speculation! So far, I only turn on the machine in fax mode if I am expecting a fax. Otherwise I prefer to turn it off.
-This can be bothersome even if you are just printing and you have not really selected the fax feature. When there is an incoming call, it automatically starts ringing and creating the above problems!
-Sending faxes is fairly easy with this one, but receiving them needs you to be more well-versed with fax machines in my opinion. Read above for problems you might encounter.
-You have to be sure that there is paper in the paper tray or it will store the fax in its memory and it is quite a chore to figure out how to print that out! Select to print as the faxes come in and leave paper in the tray.
-Be sure to enter all relevant information into the fax feature, like your name, number etc., so your receiver gets the required information. You are required to register this information before sending faxes.
-You can send color faxes if your receiver has a color fax too
A few other things:
-This device is pretty heavy. So make sure you have your car when you are buying this one! You cannot carry it home on public transportation!
-Is compatible only with Windows 2000/ME
-It comes with all its required software and you won't need to buy anything additional to use it
-Installation is pretty easy
-It looks pretty good with its black and gray colors
-Does occupy a bit of space on your desk, so be sure to check if you have enough space- but then, all multi-function devices I have seen are pretty big
-This is pretty noisy and takes a long time to start/power up- it makes all these strange clicking clacking noises and takes at least a whole 2 minutes to start up!
-Changing the cartridges is pretty easy
-It has an alarm feature which makes a 'ding' sound to alert you to every mistake - like there is not enough paper, you cannot turn it off when it is printing and what not
-It has an energy-saver mode that is quite a good thing if you are the type to forget to turn it off! :-)
-It has a memory card reader, although I have never used this feature.
-The price I paid is probably not the price you will pay- it is much cheaper now- shop around
-In my opinion, it does use up ink pretty quickly, so be sure to turn the ink density used to lowest setting when you first put in a new cartridge. This is more than adequate for very good ink density prints. Later when you notice that it is becoming lighter, you can increase the ink density. This selection has to be made for each print job and is not stored in its memory. It just automatically chooses medium ink usage every time you turn it on. We use up an ink cartridge every 6 months or so, but we don't do much printing since this is only for home use.
I am fairly happy with the MP390, but it leaves a lot to be desired. But compared with an HP inkjet I have used before, this device is more dependable and has not crashed as often as the HP. I have to point out that the HP was a stand-alone printer.
I am still saying I would recommend it, since it has never given me any major problems with its actual functioning and has never crashed. Plus it is a Canon! :-) And, it is a very useful thing to have at home- I do not have to rush out someplace to send faxes or to copy anything.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 275
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
ark76
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Location: Waltham, MA
Reviews written: 53
Trusted by: 9 members
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