Canon PIXMA MP830 All-In-One Printer (30 PPM, 9600x2400 DPI, Color, PC/Mac)

Canon Pixma MP830

PIXMA MP830 All-In-One Printer (30 PPM, 9600x2400 DPI, Color, PC/Mac) Review, by Danny Allen May 8, 2006

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• Latest User Reviews 15 reviews
• Reviewed by: campbell927

  Duration of ownership: 2 Years

  Strengths: It's an all-in-one

  Weaknesses: Very slow Expensive to use Fax inflexibility

  Overall: I bought this machine nearly 2 years ago based on the strength of professional reviewers. They loved it. I'm not feeling the love. The main thing I dislike about it is the high cost of ink cartridges. There are 5 separate cartridges (2 black ones!) and if just one is empty you can't print anything until it's replaced. The cartridges cost about $15-19 each and can't be refilled. I also don't seem to get many pages from each cartridge, even when printing in draft mode. Another fault is that you must choose the draft mode each time - there is no way to change the draft mode to the default. The scanner software isn't intuitive and often fails when I use it. I tried unsuccessfully to set up the fax mode myself but had to resort to calling tech support because the instructions made no sense. I'll say the tech support person was knowledgeable and was able to walk me through it quite easily. I suspect it is because they get multiple calls daily and know the instructions by heart. And when I had to replace a phone, apparently I lost all the fax memory because it reverted to the initial problem - that is not going directly to the fax even though I was paying for a 2nd ring tone. It's also important to know that you can't send faxes directly to your computer with this unit. They must be printed out, using even more ink. Finally, I find the machine to be very slow, especially when using it from sleep mode. I'm now researching a replacement because I simply can't afford the ink cartridges. I hope I can sell it for a few bucks on craigslist, but I'll certainly not consider another Canon printer, regardless of what the pros say.

• Reviewed by: DescentII

  Duration of ownership: 4 Months

  Strengths: Built in Duplexing is great for the printing that I do. The ADF is also a nice feature. Prints quickly with no jams.

  Weaknesses: Color LCD does not show photos clearly. No built in networking. Networking is PC dependent.

  Overall: I bought this printer to replace an HP photsmart all in one. I print alot of doublesided documents, and this printer handles this with out a problem. The HP did not have built in duplexing, and would constantly grab more than one sheet at a time. I have read complaints about ink consumption, but after 1000 plus pages- double sided, I am only on my third set of cartridges.

• Reviewed by: prowler650xt

  Duration of ownership: 3 Weeks

  Strengths: quality of photos and very easy to operate.

  Weaknesses: Ink cartridges useage and price

  Overall: This is a follow up to my previous posting regarding stretched faces. Canon has fixed the problem, it was my pictures it self. I have fixed the picture problem with Adobe Photo. This is a wonderful machine. I would fully recommend it.

• Reviewed by: bkharm

  Duration of ownership: 3 Days

  Strengths: Great color photos. Lots of features for reasonable price.

  Weaknesses: None so far.

  Overall: I had an HP 7210 for two years - major defects appeared during warranty and HP replaced the unit. Out of warranty, the machine turned itself off and won't power up. It's not the power cord, so what do you do with it? Can't be repaired. So on to the HP Photosmart 5280. Set it up and just wasn't thrilled with it. Staples nicely let me exchange for the Canon MP830. This machine cost a little more but has lots more features, including automatic document feeder and duplex capability. Other reviewers have mentioned color quality (particularly faces) on the MP830, but the comparison between the same image on the HP and the Canon comes out favoring the Canon for crispness and contrast. I'm so much more satisfied with the Canon that I doubt that I'll go back to HP.

• Reviewed by: gordonc

  Duration of ownership: 14 Months

  Strengths: Other than what is set out below, apart from associated ink problems it is quite a good machine.

  Weaknesses: Only 2 serious problems I have found with this Canon Pixma MP830 machine: 1. It is far to expensive to run because of its excessive ink usage; and 2. Canon’s attitude to the misrepresentations it made which induced me to buy the thing.

  Overall: Don't buy if you wish to predominantly print black text. SEE www.inkjetfraud.com for more info & evidence, as Canon is being taken to court over this one. ALSO - CANON CUSTOMER CARE THREATENS TO SUE CUSTOMER www.inkjetfraud.com/canon-response-1.html

• Reviewed by: llundber

  Duration of ownership: 2 Months

  Strengths: Does most other functions very well. Nice double sided scanning.

  Weaknesses: I like this product, but I cannot fax directly from any Mac apps, which almost defeats the purpose. Very discouraging and extremely wasteful of paper when you have to print out the fax, and then send manually. Disappointed in Canon when I wrote to them and they issued a long, unacceptable reply about how they could not (and apparently will not) resolve this.

  Overall: Don't get it, because of the inability to fax directly.

• Reviewed by: dirt01

  Duration of ownership: 1 Year

  Strengths: Printing is good. Scanning is good.

  Weaknesses: Faxing is BAD!!! Unable to manage faxing through PC which means LOTS of money for VERY expensive ink cartridges.

  Overall: All those giving good reviews must not have ever experienced what its like managing a fax machine through the PC. I just got off the phone with Canon to confirm there is nothing I'm missing when it comes to the total lack of this machines ability to manage transmitting and receiving faxes through the PC; ability to manage contact list through the PC; and ability to create cover letters through the PC that automatically attach to faxes your sending. Sure, you can store faxes AFTER they've been printed by scanning them in or you can use Word to create cover sheets and then you have to print them to send with the fax. And what does that equate too -- a TON of money going towards VERY expensive ink cartridges. Its really a joke and without the simple ability to manage faxing through the PC I'm not sure this all-in-one amounts to much at all. Its like I just took a HUGE step back and bought something from the 80's. PLEASE head this advice and look elsewhere!!! And for those I haven't already bored to death...the guy at Canon proceeded to tell me the option I'm looking for just isn't something Canon is interested in these days because they had too many support calls where data was lost because of PC related issues so they decided it was best to have users print everything. Errrrr....isn't that the whole point of technology - to eliminate file cabinets and make peoples lives easier? Its like them saying the photos their digital cameras take should not be viewed by PC's anymore since they are unable to handle the support calls from people that don't understand data loss is not their problem!

• Reviewed by: butwhat

  Duration of ownership: 1 Month

  Strengths: card readers & decnt print quality

  Weaknesses: Size - It's huge You can not receive faxes directly to the computer nor can you store scanned and sent faxes both features that my Canon MPC755 had. And the main reason's I bought another Canon Multifunction machine

  Overall: I just set up my new MP830 and when I got to the point of setting up the fax I was angred and disappointed. I am used to receiving all my faxes directly to the computer. This machine does not support receiving faxes to the computer so it's fax function is of little use to me. Every received fax must be printed then scanned into the computer - what a waste of ink & time. My last multifunction would automatically store both received and sent faxes in my computer. If I didn't want them they would disappear at the click of my mouse. A whopping big No Thanks from me.

• Reviewed by: koolgadget69

  Duration of ownership: 3 Weeks

  Strengths: user friendly, nice text prints, memory card slots, photo quality is great, 2 sided printing, 2 paper trays, menu is easy to navigate.

  Weaknesses: it need to warm up before use, glass platen is only for letter size paper, not lighted keypads.

  Overall: I bought this machine as demo from CompaqUsa during out of business sales. This machine works great, menu is easy to learn, I printed dozens of photos using the card slots, they all came out great, they look better than the prints from photo shop. Many complaints about the cost of ink cartridges, they are not bad compare to HP, Epson & Lexmark cartridges, their ink cart. cost more than Canon. I owned the previous Canon model MP 780 and I was happy with it,the new MP830 has a lot more features. I paid only $120 for this machine during the going out of business sales.

• Reviewed by: rpiescik

  Duration of ownership: 2 Months

  Strengths: I love the duplex feature it has been a great paper-saver, but that is about it for praise!

  Weaknesses: This unit is one of the worst offenders of consuming ink cartridges yet by Canon!

  Overall: I bought this all-in-one unit based upon all of the rave reviews online. What a mistake that was! I have had nothing but problems with it. In the two months that I have owned this unit I have consumed only two black ink cartridges and 10 each of all the colors. Here is the catch, I know many of you will think I'm crazy here, but 90% of my printing/copying is strictly black & white. Seldom do I want color! So, why did the canon design team create such a flawed unit. They have designed a unit that will consume your colors first then work on the black inks next. In my conversations with Canon I mentioned that I strictly choose the black feature for scans & copies, yet the machine automatically hits up the color inks first to make black. I do the same for my word & excel files as well. I strongly recommend that anyone looking for an all-in-one unit think twice before choosing this unit. You will save yourself a hugh ink bill! Go towards a laser unit, they may cost a few bucks more up front, but in the long term they will be much cheaper on the consumable side!

• Reviewed by: sonora77

  Duration of ownership: 8 Months

  Strengths: very reliable; never jams, answers fax calls but lets regular calls through to phone / answering machine, photo color good; very good instruction booklet; good tech support. The ADF (automated document feeder) works very well, too. It handles papers that are not crisp and smooth, like bills.

  Weaknesses: Slow to 'warm up' - maybe 2 minutes from turning on until menus available; uses up ink quickly

  Overall: Menus are confusing - I needed to call tech support during setup because I couldn't find menu choice to allow fax to passthrough to phone; they answered right away, gave me the information, sent me a test fax to verify it. I have yet to change the ink, but I'm not a heavy user of it; whenever I have used it, however, it's worked great - copies, faxes, printing.

• Reviewed by: blcain

  Duration of ownership: 2 Months

  Strengths: Beautiful photo prints and fast black printing on both 20lb copy paper and photo gloss

  Weaknesses: Does not seem to like third party heavy weight photo glossy paper too much.

  Overall: I print calendars for car clubs and a RT66 museum. The paper I was using at the time was 55lb glossy/matte. After about 40 calendars of 14 double sided pages each, I had to start "hand feeding" the paper one sheet at a time. The printer would not feed the paper by itself and I would get a "no paper" error. After awhile it would not even feed 20lb paper correctly. After getting in touch with Canon service -Execllent experience! - I was sent a replacement printer. This one seems to feed that same 55lb paper without a problem. The fax is very convient -don't care about the lack of a cover sheet in the software. I use third party fax software. The scanner is very accurate and fast. I use it to scan all my paper work into PaperMaster Pro. I gave my HP all-in-one to the church.

• Reviewed by: ScottGunn

  Duration of ownership: 7 Months

  Strengths: Still adore the above and beyond features, and use them all the time making professional documents and brilliant pictures. It will do anything I need to be done so far. By far the best printer I owned. I did over 2 months of research before buying it, and it was time well spent

  Weaknesses: Bordered printing still causes some problems on large pictures or in aligning very spefific labels.

  Overall: As I said, best printer for the money I have owned, and that's over 7 total. The ink whines are really unfounded. f you want to conserve ink, set the quality lower and save ink! It is not like the printer sectretly hides ink or purposely uses a lot. The ink is going on the printed page, no where else. If you want a stunning picture, use the ink at a more rapid rate. If you dislike this great printer just because of the ink, try lowering the print quality to conserve ink. Even at lowersettings the printer rivals some of the best printers on the market, period. Best prionter in production.

• Reviewed by: eric

  Duration of ownership: 2 Months

  Strengths: Update on previous review.

  Weaknesses: None

  Overall: A 2nd call to the VERY HELPFUL Canon Tech Support revealed that when I print black text on the high quality setting, it actually uses the big black ink cartridge. I set the default setting to high quality, so text comes out great now. This morning I printed some pictures. I've got my own darkroom with this thing! Who needs a photo print center anymore! I'm sold on Canon for sure- the MP830 impresses me more every time I use it!

• Reviewed by: greymann19

  Duration of ownership: 3 Months

  Strengths: Nice design, low ink costs when compared to others, excellent printing and scanning quality, very stable drivers and software, pc-faxing.

  Weaknesses: Minor stuff with one exception: a larger paper cassette would be nice, and the auto sheet feeder would be a great place to keep legal sized paper except the back part isn't really tall enough to keep the paper from sagging backwards. Fax menu options are a little too complicated. Otherwise, my only serious complaint is that while the machine has excellent pc-faxing capability, for some brainless reason Canon decided not to include any cover-sheet software.

  Overall: Nearly a perfect machine. I've tried virtually every brand over the years and Canon rules. Epson's aren't bad, but it's hard to find a good one that faxes as well as prints/scans/copies. HP's print great but the ink is costly and their software remains bloated and buggy. Brother MFC's rock as faxes/PC faxes but their print/scan quality is average at best. As for the Canon MP 830, the lack of a pc fax cover sheet is incredibly annoying, mainly because I can't understand what possible reason Canon would have for not including it. I waste a lot of paper because of this. Still, this is by far the best MFC out there.

• Reviewed by: hank2048

  Strengths: photo quality

  Weaknesses: INK USE!!!

  Overall: most expensive printer you will ever own due to ink usage. uses small amounts of color to produce black. this printer is a SCAM! Stay away.

• Reviewed by: olsjoy

  Strengths: Versatile, Very fast printing; black cartridge was easy to reload.

  Weaknesses: Huge, heavy

  Overall: I've had this about three months and 'tho it's heavy (33 lbs) and has a large footprint, I love it. It comes with a goodly supply of ink, but I finally ran out of black and found it was easy and cheap to refill the cartridge (tho the ink meter doesn't work on that cartidge). Used InkTec refill kit. Paid atound $130.

• Reviewed by: dehreth

  Strengths: All in all, this has been a very good printer with one or two exceptions

  Weaknesses: 1. Cartridges have to be changed too often; they are expensive: and hard to find in Office Supply stores. Occasionally, they have not been in stock at our Staples or Office Max or Costco

  Overall: 2. I have been receiving an error message saying that I have two #5 cartridges or I have selected two cartridges, etc. I have no idea what this is about so I am getting impatient.

• Reviewed by:

  Strengths: This unit is a good piece of equipment and apperars to be well built.

  Weaknesses: Software is crap

  Overall: This unit is a good piece of equipment but what drags it down is the bundled software. The MP Navigator 2.2 is worthless. Half the time it can't find the printer and the other half of the time it becomes a memory hog and bogs down the computer. I have an older HP ScanJet 6200c which works great with the HP software supplied.It is unfortunate that Canon chose to go out and purchase the cheapest software on the market that isn't worth a hoot. I had uninstalled it and reinstalled it three times and it still isn't working right.Good thing I had an old copy of Ulead Photo Explorer 6.0 on my external hard drive. I used it and it worked just fine. I will be deleting the Canon bundled software tonight.It is unfortunate that we had to pay for this crap software. It seems to me that Canon should give a rebate to anyone who bought this machine since my HP works great and so does the Ulead software, so it must be the cheap software supplied with this Canon multifunction and not anyone?s computer.

• Reviewed by:

  Strengths: Text print is great with the black ink. The pictures come out great, BUT

  Weaknesses: IT EATS INKS. SEEMS LIKE THE BACK TEXT INK IS GONE IN UNDER 80 PAGES. THE COLORS GO FAST WITH A FEW PITURES.

  Overall: I GUESS THE OLD SAYING YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR IS TRUE HERE. THE TEXT AND PICTURES ARE GREAT BUT WHAT A COST. THE CANNON CARTRIDGES SELL FOR 15-25 EACH X 5 = $100+. I GUESS ONE COULD GO TO OFF BRAND OR CONT FEED CARTRIDGES FOR A MUCH BETTER PRICE. BUT I WONDER HOW GOOD THAT INK REALLY IS?