Prints, Scans, Faxes, Copies and sucks ink like it's going out of style
Written: Jun 19 '05 (Updated Jun 19 '05)
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Pros: Decent price of the unit itself, does all things reasonably well. Size is OK too.
Cons: Uses too much ink, small platen glass, cost of ownership high (due to ink usage).
The Bottom Line: If you are looking for an inexpensive jack of all trades, look here. Beware that ink usage is too high in my opinion mitigating the value quotient; ink is expensive!
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| oman9's Full Review: Canon MultiPASS MP730 All-In-One InkJet Printer |
I've had this printer for about a year and a half now. I purchased it with my computer and got a discount at the time from Dell. I paid $199 for this Canon and have been generally pleased with it. It does a good job being an all in one machine. Considering the amount paid it is a reasonable value. There are some costs of ownership that increase the dollars spent and decrease the value quotient however; namely the cost of ink cartridges and the frequency of the need for replacement.
PRINTING
This is a color printer which comes with 4 easy to replace ink cartridges. There is the largest ink tank, black and then 3 equal sized ink tanks; cyan, magenta and yellow. This printer will also print color photos. The qualify of the color reproduction is OK, especially considering the magician inside this box only gets to make color recipes from 4 different colors listed above.
A nice feature of this printer is that it works with your computer to alert you of low running ink cartridges. I sometimes wonder if Canon hasn’t conspired to have those messages appear prematurely in an effort to get the consumer to replace the cartridges a bit early. These cartridges are quite expensive as well. The printer driver software allows one to select “Grayscale” printing. This essentially defaults print jobs sent to the printer to “black and white” mode, using different shades of gray to replicate color. I set mine to Grayscale in an effort to conserve the color tanks since I was replacing them frequently relative to the amount of printing I was doing, which wasn’t much. I wish I could quantify the amount of color pages before needing to replace a cartridge but I would just be guessing. Suffice it to say if definitely seems like I was replacing cartridges too rapidly. If you’ve read some of my other reviews you know I’m one of those Costco fans. Costco does carry the cartridges so you are getting a decent price and they do carry value packs for the black tanks. Still I wasn’t interested in replacing tanks even at decent prices every few months for the limited printing I was doing. I even went so far as to get an old HP LaserJet 6P printer to handle the vast majority of my printing as a remedy. I used to own an HP LaserJet IIIP which served me well for a little over 10 years and that printer was a champ. A little slow but at least those laser cartridges lasted quite a while. The fact that I went to Grayscale and subsequently to the LaserJet 6P is somewhat of a sad testament to this MultiPass printer.
Printing color photos is relatively easy and produces a decent quality photo. I purchased Kodak photo paper to print 4 X 6 photos and this MP730 does reproduce pictures satisfactorily as long as you aren’t looking for too high of quality. If you are looking for great quality photos, you might want to look elsewhere for your hardware purchase. For me, when I need a photo on the quick the MP730 delivers just fine.
SCANNING
I occasionally scan photos with this MP730. Here I’d say the MP730 does just fine leaving nothing to be desired for my needs. The glass is 8.5” by 11.7” so that size limitation may be a deal breaker for some.
FAXING/COPYING
I’ve used this only a few times as a fax machine. It performs fine in this capacity as well. Here the unit meets my expectations for a basic fax machine. Ditto for the copy function. If it fits on the glass as described above, it copies OK. Beware of needing to copy legal size documents. If you need to do this the glass isn’t large enough although I believe you can use the document feeder to feed legal size through. I have not tried doing this as copying isn’t something I need to do at home too often and I’ve only used it for letter sized copying when the need has arisen.
PRINT SPEED
Canon claims black copy printing of up to 22 copies per minute while color checks in at up to 14 copies per minute. Based on my experience these claims seem reasonable although I’d guess just a bit slower. I haven’t timed it so I’m making that assessment based on feel. Not significantly different to dispute the manufacturer’s claims and they do say “up to” in their statement.
SOFTWARE
I actually use Photo Shop Elements 2.0 and I’ve found that scanning software to be a bit more to my liking. The included software with the Canon is probably OK for most. I think I just like the look of the interface of PSE a bit more. I wouldn’t knock the included software and should not be a deal breaker issue at all for those who don’t own PSE or another similar program already.
I will put a "YES" recommendation as long as you are aware that ink will cost you. The unit functions well but that ink usage for me is an issue.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
For those of you wanting to see these specs, check out http://www.usa.canon.com/html/conCprProductDetail.jsp?modelid=9035&%20item=9090&%20section=10223 for those details.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 199
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
oman9
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Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 2 members
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