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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: rlm2
Updated:10-08-06
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: It Works,fast printing with USB 2 connection. Love the two paper trays, I use one for envelopes and other for paper.
Weaknesses: NONE
Overall Evaluation: The best printer I've ever had. Got rid of all the HP drivers and software, and now my computer has not had any kernel panics. The support software is perfect.
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Overall Rating
3 Star Review
Reviewed by: princedavis
Updated:08-29-06
Duration of ownership:6 Months
Strengths: Fantastic text and great photos, dual sided scanning & copying, duplex printing
Weaknesses: Ink cartridges are expensive and don't last long, does not make good use of photo black ink
Overall Evaluation: I have been using this printer for the past 6 months or so, and I have mixed feelings. It is easy to set up and install, but it is somewhat slow to boot (the HP this printer replaced was ready in a few seconds -- the MP830 takes about a minute to boot up).Once you get the printer set up and begin printing text and photos, it is easy to see why this printer has been so well reviewed. Text is sharp and photos on Canon's photo paper are virtually perfect. The unit also has duplex copying/scanning/printing.When it comes to features and print quality, this unit is most definitely 5 stars, however there a few issues with this printer that greatly restrict its utility. For one, the unit is equipped with two black cartridges. The black for text is a large cartridge with a deep, black ink. The photo black cartridge is a smaller cartridge that contains an ink that looks more like a very dark gray. When you print a text document in Word, the text black ink is used. If, however, you want to print a document that contains black text and color images, diagrams, charts, etc, but you want those color images in grayscale, the printer will then use the photo black ink for the entire document (text, images, everything). The resulting print therefore appears to have dark gray, washed out text, and printing any significant quantity of grayscale material will quickly deplete the small and more expensive photo black cartridge. There is no way to use only the text black cartridge in the drivers at all. Similarly, if you print any document with automatic OR manual duplex printing, the entire document will be printed using the PHOTO black ink, and not the text black, again resulting in washed out text and a rapidly diminishing photo black cartridge. This strange feature is a huge issue for me and has really tainted my view of this printer.One last issue is that the printer invariably smears all the text in the return address portion of an envelope. I believe this is due to the rapid speed at which envelopes are printed (they are fed quickly, and it seems as though the rollers are smearing the ink before it can dry).Overall, the print quality of this printer is fantastic, and the only real significant problems could probably be fixed with driver updates. I worry, however, that no such updates will be coming, as the photo/text black ink issues are reportedly unresolved in the older MP780 as well.If you are in the market for this printer, just know that you might end up replacing the photo cartridges more often than you might have thought, and the grayscale printing and duplex printing feature are made almost useless by Canon's decision to use the much-lighter (and more expensive) photo black ink.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: joshsmit2005
Updated:07-22-06
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Fantastic color output.Very fast color and monochrome printing (one of the fastest)Automatic Document feeder (scan & fax)Built in Duplex printing
Weaknesses: Slow duplex printing (printing on both sides of a page) No USB cable included in the box.
Overall Evaluation: I compared quiet a few multi-function printers before buying the MP830. The following were my comparison models. Hewlett Packard OfficeJet 6210Hewlett Packard OfficeJet 7410Canon MP500 All-in-oneFirst my pet peeve : None of the printers listed above came even close to the advertised print speed (pages per minute). So I will not use the advertised print speed for my comparison. It would be based on actual print speeds that I can see.The Canon MP830 was comparable to the MP500. It too had FANTASTIC picture quality. Text quality was excellent too. I could have picked either one of these printers - But the MP830 also had the fax capabilities. It could even fax a document in color (again not one of my original criteria) . It has 5 separate ink cartridges, more than all the other printers I had seen. It also allows to simultaneously select different pictures from a memory card, and print using select different layouts and combination ? all of this using the LCD screen only ie. without connecting to a computer!The MP830 has 2 scanners, one flat bed - used to scan high quality prints one by one. and the second scanner is built into the document feeder on top of the machine - use this for unattended scan (or fax) of multiple documents.So I finally opted for the Canon MP830 all in one, it gave me all of the the features I needed and then some. Summary of features of the Canon MP830 - Color Printer- Scanner (from flat bed OR adutomatic document feeder)- Copier with enlarge/reduce- Fax- Photo printing (without PC)- Separate ink tanks for each color- Duplex printing- Memory card slot- Direct printing from memory card- Preview camera pictures on LCD screen- Change layout of photos directly onthe printer (without PC)The only negatives I could find was: - color duplex printing is somewhat slow.- Canon does not include a USB cable in the box - so if you dont already have a pile of usb cables, you will have to go to the store to get one. - Leo Patterson
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Overall Rating
4 Star Review
Reviewed by: humantuch
Updated:07-17-06
Duration of ownership:2 Weeks
Strengths: *EXCELLENT QUALITY PRINT*QUICK PRINT TIME*NICE LCD SCREEN*RESPONSIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE
Weaknesses: ~PHYSICALLY BIG MACHINE~VERY HEAVY~NO DEDICATED FAX SOFTWARE UTILITY~LOTS OF OTHER REDUNDANT SOFTWARE~SLOW WARM-UP
Overall Evaluation: ONE OF THE FEW HIGH QUALITY 4-IN-ONE (PRINT, COPY, SCAN & FAX) MACHINES THAT ALSO HAS DOCUMENT FEEDER.HAS SEPARATE INK TANKS FOR MORE ECONOMICAL REPLACEMENT (THEORETICALLY).EMAIL CUSTOMER SERVICE AT LEAST TRIES TO RESPOND IN TIMELY FASHION, THOUGH OFTEN NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO EXACT QUESTION.LOTS OF EXTRA SOFTWARE I FOUND CONFUSING AND UNNECESSARY.OVERALL A GOOD BUY FOR THE FEATURES AND QUALITY.
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Overall Rating
4 Star Review
Reviewed by: studentadvocate
Updated:07-16-06
Duration of ownership:2 Months
Strengths: good print quality, high speed fax, stylish, easy to use
Weaknesses: drinks ink like most all-in-ones,
Overall Evaluation: This is a great all-in-one for home use. With its high speed fax (33.6 kbps), printer, scanner, and copier, you can run your own home office very well. Print quality is great. The things I do not like about this printer are: 1. Drinks ink quickly, but ALL AIO devices do this, so nothing new; ink is also expensive, so buy the ink in multi-packs, like 2 or 4 packs, to save a little money (buy the ink on amazon.com or staples.com e.g.) 2. When the color ink is low, but the black ink is high, it reminds you EVERY time you go to print, so instead of just having to hit the print (black or color button), you also have to hit the OKAY button every time you go to print (dumb)-- it should just show you on the LCD screen that ink is low, and NOT make you have to hit an extra button every time you go to print; I would give this item five stars IF it did not have these two quirks.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: toddcouch
Updated:07-16-06
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Fantastic photo quality. Good speed. Love the ADF for scanning and copying multi-page documents. I like this printer far better than the HP equivalents and I've been an HP fan for many years.
Weaknesses: None so far.
Overall Evaluation: Wonderful printer at a great price. The photo print quality is amazing, the ADF is a must for scanning multi-page doucuments. The Cannon software is so easy to use and makes the scanning process almost effortless. I use the MP830 mostly with my MAC but also use it to scan many documents to my PC for my PC based business.My rating is A+ for this printer.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: KlarkKhent
Updated:07-12-06
Duration of ownership:30 Days
Strengths: Duplex for fax/scan/copy/print. Appearance. Build quality. Print quality. Auto document feeder.
Weaknesses: Possible duplex printing problem for black printing...
Overall Evaluation: This is a great machine -- a fax, scanner w/ ADF, copier, and color inkjet printer! For these functions, it works GREAT -- with one possible exception. When you print duplex B/W, it appears to use composite black (from combining the color cartridges) rather than the dedicated black cartridge. This drastically increases the cost of duplex B/W printing and also reduces the speed. Canon may fix this with a driver update, but until they do, caveat emptor. Still, for the price, this is a great value.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: igorlipov
Updated:07-12-06
Duration of ownership:2 Weeks
Strengths: Beautiful photo prints
Weaknesses: No network interface
Overall Evaluation: Very good printer for such price.It has all functions for small office operation, except networking. I'd say this is a best printer I've ever had.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: chanmancan
Updated:07-06-06
Duration of ownership:1 Days
Strengths: Great output. Duplex printing. Have a USB port and memory slots in the front for digital camera.
Weaknesses: The front panel and its menu it harder to use than my old HP OfficeJet printer. Setting up the fax function is harder than it should be.
Overall Evaluation: Beside the interface and setup everything else about the printer is great. The printing, scanning and copying quality is great. Also each color have their own separate ink cartridge which will cut down on the cost in the long-run. I just wish Cannon had a printer with these features that you can also connect to a network.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: abx
Updated:06-28-06
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: FAX, Two-Side Printing/Scanning, Fast
Weaknesses: None
Overall Evaluation: The two-side printing/scanning (Duplex) is a very good feature. The print speed also fast. With FAX ability allow this machine to work for most of the task beside having the computer. Really like it.
