Canon Pixma MX850 Office All-In-One Inkjet Printer (2436B002) by Canon
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List Price: Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Canon Pixma MX850 Office All-In-One Inkjet Printer (2436B002)
Digital camera Review: A few problems.
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought a MX310 and then had the pleasure of installing and configuring the MX850. I'm just going to highlight some important things.
The MX850 was more convenient than the MX310. I like the full color LCD screen for easy fax configuration. I also like the native Cassette paper source.
The documentation for printer installation and configuration is too vague. I was having an issue with Networking the printer between three different computers and when I kept looking at the book I wondered if they meant something other than what I initially understood. I finally got it to work the next day, but I can only theorize why it didn't work the first time.
Problems that it shares with the MX310:
The software installs itself in multiple folders in the start menu. Why can't it just create a single folder and put all the things that have to do with the printer in there? It doesn't do that; it installs, even the manual, in a different folder in the start menu. It was nice of Canon to add clutter to my start menu.
Another is difficulty in receiving faxes. These printers have a hard time distinguishing a voice call from a fax call. Even on Telephone Priority, they answer voice calls with the fax and then hang up on the person when it notices no fax info. When receiving a fax, they mistake it for a voice call. I'm still trying to figure this out.
Digital camera Review: A great All in One
Summary: 4 Stars
It does use ink quicker than my old Epson but the quality is great, buying the multi pack replacement ink from amazon is also the best value and no tax - I bought 1 from circuit ciy for over $18 with tax, I got a 2 pack for $25 on amazon.
The setup was easy to follow and relitively quick - about an hour in total.
Printing - the draft quality is very usable for everyday text and web pages which also saves on ink. I have only printed a few photo's (color and B&W) and these were very sharp and true.
Copying - it is really useful to have Color or B&W buttons so you dont have to search through menus to go back and forward like some other printers, the quality is very good whether you use the feeder or the flat bed.
Fax - this actually took the longest in set up as the directions are not the clearest but once going it works well - including the option to send in color.
Scan to email - the files are larer than my last printer and I have not looked very hard into how to change the resolution or even if you can. As I scan a lot of documents to email clients it has caused a few issues as some people dont have email accounts which allow large attachment sizes but so far this is my only small complaint.
Overall a great buy for the price - over $100 cheaper than any other site or Store that I could find when taking into account shipping and tax.
Digital camera Review: A little tweaking gets you pretty good prints
Summary: 4 Stars
The Canon mx850 has some great features that very few printers have. I use the print and copy feature the most (actually I haven't even used the fax or scanner yet) and I love the fact that I can do double sided copies. The copies have been suitable for me at this point, but I haven't had to have a critical eye to judge them.
At first, I was pretty disappointed with the printing aspect of the mx850. The text looked like it came from a poor inkjet, even at a "high" quality setting. My old printer, the HP Photosmart 1115 (I had it for 5 years) definitely printed better text, which I found odd since it had 5 year old technology. I was finally able to figure out how to get crisp clean text and better quality photos (I've been trying to print my marketing materials such as brochure/rack cards). In the Printer Settings, if you click on Media Type: Photo Paper Pro and then click on Print Quality Custom and then 'Set', set it to "1" being the highest. This made my rack cards look so much better than using any other media setting and quality setting. Actually, I went through each media type to see ifyou can set it at "1" quality, and I think the Photo Paper Pro was the only choice. Which means that Canon wants you to think that Photo Paper Pro is such a good quality paper that your prints look better, but really what's going on is that the printer won't print high quality prints unless you select that media type.
So, I was going to give it 3 stars until I found the ability to do that. I can't judge the faxes and scanning aspects, but I won't use those as much and I don't have a high expectation of them. I just wanted a good printer and copier that can fax and scan.
Hope this helps....
Digital camera Review: A lot of printer!
Summary: 4 Stars
This printer does everything well, as far as I'm concerned. Pictures come out beautiful. However, this is a BIG printer. I didn't realize how much space it would take up, so be prepared to make room.Digital camera Review: A printer with issues
Summary: 2 Stars
I decided to replace my trusty Canon i960 and Epson Scanner with the nifty new Canon MX850 with thoughts of consolidation of space and getting newer, better technology. How wrong I was.
First, the good news is that the built in duplex capability is great - my favourite feature actually even though it does slow down the printing considerably. The other great feature was simply the unified capabilities of what this machine can do with lots of features for a relatively low price.
Now the not so great. The big disappointment for me was the scan quality and the included software. Both my documents and receipts that I scanned always required after-the-fact treatment to make them legible (possibly due to this not being a CCD based scanner) but the included software did not make it easy to crop and/or edit the images quickly before output. This really slowed down my workflow. Also, just getting to the scanner software is a convoluted series of clicks that should not be that difficult.
The big show stopper was a "6A00" error that occured one day after 3 months of mild printing and after one successful 6 page print job. Based on a google search, it looked like the "purge unit" had a gooey buildup of ink and sure enough I looked and that was the case + a loose white pin that clearly belonged somewhere but was not in it's place. Apparently the gooey build-up caused the issue. Given that my other Canon was flawless for many years, I didn't have the time or patience to send my relatively new printer for servicing so this was really the final straw for me.
I've gone back to my old trusty and reliable printer and scanner while this one will wait for repair and/or go to a charity. A disappointing experience.