Printer Reviews

I purchased my Canon Multipass C530 in October of 2000. I paid $199.99 for and it came with a $55 mail in rebate. I consider it to be a very good buy. It is still working very well with one minor quirk that I have learned to live with. If you are using it with a computer that has a Win based modem it sometimes fails to initialize on startup. This problem is easily bypassed by shutting the power off to the unit (unplugging it) and then plugging it back in.

I also found out the hard way that the unit must be kept plugged in. I had the unit plugged into a powerstrip with the rest of my computer. I would shut off the power to everything when I turned off my computer. I couldn't understand why I was going through ink cartridges so quickly, so I called Canon support. After talking with two techs we figured out why I was having this problem. Power must remain supplied to the unit in order to put the carriage in a home position which seals off the ink cartridge so it doesn't dry out. After pointing out the fact that this was one major point that they forgot to mention in the manual they were very apologitic and sent me 2 new ink tanks free of charge.

I have used this unit for everything and have been very pleased with the quality of prints you are able to obtain with it. Grant it they are not the 1200 dpi resolution that you would get with some more expensive units but they are good enough to print out fairly decent color photographs. Quality paper makes a big difference! I have printed out business brochures which turned out fantastic on the higher quality paper.

I have been doing a LOT of scanning photographs for a family photo video that I am putting together. It does a good job of scanning these pictures but if you run one through the scanner feed more than four or five times you will start to notice light track lines across these pictures (even if you keep your feed rollers clean). Because of this I am currently shopping for a flatbed multifunction unit - Canon makes one called the multipass F50 which is also a multifunction unit but has no rollars to leave track marks on my pictures. This is quite a bit more expensive though so if you can get by with only scanning a picture a couple times the C530 might still be a good choice for you.

The fax speed is great with the G3 technology you can scan a page in about three seconds and with the error reporting feature turned on you will know right away if you fax has been sent or received properly.

The printer has a built in nozzle cleaning feature which can clean out clogged nozzles with just the touch of a couple buttons. Since I have been keeping the unit plugged in the nozzles stay fairly clean and my ink tanks last pretty long.

Don't be expecting a speed demon with this machine it is not a high speed printer - full color photos take a few minutes. Just remember that this isn't a $300 machine and you can't have everything for almost nothing and you will be happy with it. All in all for the money I would say that this unit is definitly a good buy.

I actually went into the stores looking for a fax machineexpecting to spend about $150. when i saw this at [the offered price], i realized i hit the jackpot. its so nice and small and the cover closes up to hide the buttons for a better look. my print quality was exceptional even though the dpi is only 720x360. in reading about Canon's Drop Modulation technology, i can see how they do it with minimal dpi. black quality is perfect and there are NO paper missfeeds at all. it seems as though it will copy just about anything and that makes me happy. i havent had any worries about this machine and Canon has answered all my questions about the different things i can do with it. Thank you so much Canon for making a great product. Now my fax machine does 4 other things as well! Awesome.

Pros:
- Very good quality printing, takes few minutes to
go through the alignment (follow the documentation)
- The ink's are much cheaper to refill ( best thing!)
- Not too big

Cons:
- While shutting does some noisy operation before completely shutting down.

But if you want all-in-one and best value for money- go for this one!

Compared this one to various printers in the HP line and I am glad I bought this one! I also have an HP officejet 630 on our other computer, which has worked well. Scanner jams ocassionally, not a flatbed. It was time to buy a flatbed scanner/printer/copier to go with our new Dell 4600 with XP home. The reviews on the HP were toublesome since a lot of people had to contact HP tech for help and were pretty discouraged with the response, software and printer problems out of the box.
The printer and software were very easy to install with no problems, under 10 min. First thing I did was print out some photos on photo paper and they turned out great! It was a snap. Scanner worked well and produced a pretty nice image. The copier was also tested right away and did a great job. Black and white text printed out pretty fast. This one also can print photos directly from your digital camera media. The mp360 can't.
Another great thing about the printer is the ink is very affordable, 6 to $7 retail, cheaper online. A welcome relief compared to my HP, at 26 to $30.
All in all for the price you can't beat it!

This is my first experience with a computer and all its companions. I really love this printer although I still haven't figured out how to print envelops. Colors are bright and very clear, my friends who know printers are impressed so I was lucky in this purchase as I did it blind.

This is a perfect printer! Easy to install, fast and 100% reliable! A god send! Epson does it again.

I found the quality of this ink to be excellent. However, it is expensive for the amount of output you get. I found that I get far less than Epson claims.

Everything it says about this printer is true. It's quiet, it works good, it's easy to set up and use, easy to change cartridges, forgiving if you run out of paper and so on ... I'd say more but that is all I asked of this printer.

This is very useful when you are travelling out of the country with your laptop and need a printer.

I purchased 4 refurbished bjc-80 printers for our sales force. They love the ability to go onsite and print a contract while in front of the customer. When used with ink jet paper the output is great. Our reps are using these printers with the infrared port on their compaq laptops, which works great. Only problem is the infrared communications is a little slower than a printer cable, so it seems to slow the prining down 10 or 15%... all in all a excellent value that i recommend to anyone who needs a portable printer with excellent output and great portability.

i have used the HP 4000 color laser jet for the past 3 years at my school's computer lab. I have tried all kinds of paper including a relatively light card-stock, transperancies, label stock and regular paper stock. I found the quality to be consistently good and the printer itself invariably reliable. Very few paper jams and even fewer printer malfunctions.

It has descriptive error messages which are useful to someone who isn't too hardware savvy like me. And maintainance on the printer is not too difficult either. The cartridges and drum are front loading and easy to replace.

When I started my own design group this past summer, the HP laserjet 4000 seemed like the perfect choice. But I find myself leaning more toward this model because its newer and has few more advanced features over the older model.

So, even though I don't have any practical experience with this particular model, maybe my thoughts on the 4000 model are still useful!

My employer purchased several HP 4550N printers a year ago. With us, the main advantages are compatibility with several operating systems both on Microsoft and Unix platforms as well as the ability to administer this printer over the network via a web browser. For instance, you can monitor the amount of toner left in each color cartridge so supplies can be restocked more efficiently. Also, remote administration allows for changing printer settings and preventing users from making unauthorized changes.

I was part of the setup team. The printer weights 125 pounds and is rather large so at least two people are needed to move it. This makes worthwhile to look into purchasing an onsite maintenance agreement after the standard one-year onsite warranty is up. The installation process is straightforward. After removing the shipping material, the cartridges are installed and the printer automatically goes into calibration to initialize the cartridges. After this is completed and paper trays are filled, a test page can be printed. I was amazed at the printing capabilities of the 4550N when I saw the test page. It is simply incredible. With a 600X600 dots-per-inch print quality, virtually anything can be printed with superb detail. The installation was completed by one of our network administrator who assigned the IP address and then accessed the printer via the network. From what he told me, everything on his end went very smoothly as well.

According to HP, the printing costs are 1.5 cents per page for black and 8 cents per page for color printing. This is based on 5% fill for black text and 20% for color. The drum kit is rated for 25000 pages of black text or 6500 pages of color printing. The 4550N printer's intended use is 35000 pages per month. This means that the monthly cost of utilizing this printer at its duty cycle can be anywhere from $627 to $3193. For this reason, your network administrator may want to seriously consider restricting access to this printer to minimize wastage.

Performance: Our experience with these printers has been truly positive. Print quality as well as paper feed reliability is excellent. The only glitches we experienced on one or two printers was that the print was off center. This was only noticeable when printing the test page and required a minor adjustment by a service technician. The only other user complaint was noise during the printing process, which was traced to a toner cartridge.

First, the pros: The HP-8550 is a marvel of design, comely, compact, yet robust enough for a high-output office. Color is reliable, and once calibrated correctly, excellent in fidelity!

The Cons: It is slow, seems to take forever to warm up, and although the mfgr's specs indicate 53 seconds for a color print, you could not prove it by ours. For a printer designed to produce up to 60,000 pages per month, it seems a bit finicky and tempermental. It is difficult to cancel a print job once it's sent, unless you trek over to the machine and manually push "cancel." The drum kits seem to use up way too soon, and are awkward to replace. Likewise the color cartridges.

All-in-all, it's a good printer, but for the expense, I would like to see some improvements.

This printer has it all. Great looks, it's fast, clear prints, everything! Maybe it's a little pricy, but it's worth the cash. Wether you print 500 pages a day or just 1 a week, this printer is the best. Everyone should own it.

The ink is great, though a bit difficult to put in compared to a smaller printer. The quality is great and it doesn't smudge. The only fault which i found with this ink cartridge was that it did not last very long. Though i print a reasonable amount each day, my former computer printed the same amount using less ink. If you want a fast printer then buy it. But if you want a printer that does not use alot of ink then don't buy it.

Don't do my mistake I finished 3 Color-Inks and the black still not finish and maybe more :) ... I'm printing havey Photos every week so be ware to buy few of Black and alooot for Colors

I've been geeting about 4500 prints off one cartridge and 12,000+ off the drum.

The yield of 9,000 pages for this cartridge is based on 5% coverage.
To the reviewer below, if you print full all black pages you have a little more than 5% covered of those pages.

This is an excellent printer for those who don't print a lot. It will print documents at a very reasonable speed, and wonderful photos on 4x6 tabbed paper. The hardware has proven to be pretty reliable, as this new printer is based on HP's older Deskjet 3500 series.

The software has been improved greatly over last year's products. There is now a much lower chance of problems with installation. The extra software that's included isn't too large, so this printer is good for PC's close to the minimum requirements.

If you print more than 100 pages a month, or if you have a business, I'd recommend the Deskjet 6540 instead, as the ink costs half as much. Due to the higher ink cost, the 3745 is a good choice only if you don't print a lot. Otherwise, it is an excellent printer for home use.

I have to tell you that this little printer is totally impressive for such a low price. Only minor complaint is no USB cable, but I happen to have a spare. Minor bugs to sort out at first and one call to HP tech help and they answered the phone on the first ring everything has been really perfect. Far better than the Epson C80, more reliable fairly fast printing and the ink won't break you as I get about 300 full printed pages of word documents from a black cartridge for under $20.00 bucks in perfect form. I highly suggest this little simple HP printer big time for everyday printing, and the few color PICS I've made there not bad either. No question this was worth every cent paid hands down! I've had at least six other printers that all costs more but didn't show me the kind of product results this little machine dose, don't be fooled thinking its junk because the HP people have figured it out.