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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: jack_bunce
Updated:06-27-06
Duration of ownership:5 Days
Strengths: Great quality printing, ADF,Duplex printing, and very fast.
Weaknesses: None so far
Overall Evaluation: I bought this printer based on my experience that I have had with a MP730 that I've been using for the past two years. For the price these machines are tough to beat, they offer a lot of features, (copying, scanning and faxing) and do them all very well. I'm especially impressed with the quality of photo printing.
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Overall Rating
1 Star Review
Reviewed by: Webslingerac
Updated:06-24-06
Duration of ownership:10 Days
Strengths: -pretty good picture printing, very good simplex (non-duplex) text printing, fast
Weaknesses: uses color ink to produce black text with duplexing option, when duplexing black text quality looks vastly inferior, does not work with any color cartridge removed, uses chipped ink cartridges
Overall Evaluation: This printer is getting rave reviews from both PC Magazine and PC World. That said, there's a big problem with this printer that neither review mentions: namely, duplex black text printing from ALL applications produces inferior results than when duplexing is off--and uses colour ink to produce black text when printing in duplex mode. Consequently, until this issue is addressed, the MP830 is difficult for me to recommend.Why? According to Canon technical support, the design flaw is by choice. But more on that later.If I don't duplex print on fast mode, the text looks very good (the problem is duplex text printing). The print quality when duplex text printing looks dotty and washed out. If you turn duplexing off, the text print quality is vastly superior.I've reproduced this problem on two different systems with two different MP830s. The difference on fast mode when not duplex printing is quite astounding. Simply using duplex printing makes the text quality significantly worse on fast mode.One might be inclined to believe bad quality from fast mode text printing isn't a big deal (except that the MP830 is quite capable of producing very good text quality even at fast mode--except when duplexing), but this problem also extends to standard printing when duplexing is enabled. That said, in standard mode the problem isn't as pronounced.Basically the MP830 is using the colour inks to produce black text instead of the pigment black ink when printing text in duplex mode. I find this to be extremely bothersome. The problem exists when duplexing text in other printing quality modes, but it's most apparent or obvious when duplexing text on fast mode.You won't find this issue listed in professional reviews from PCMagazine or PC World, simply because the reviewers probably didn't bother to check. For whatever reason, missing this issue is pretty sloppy.If you want good text quality when duplex printing, it's best not to use this printer at all: you're using color ink instead of the black pigment ink--and the text looks vastly inferior as a result.This is from Canon technical support:"The unit was designed to print using "composite black" when duplexing. Composite black is created by using color inks. Unfortunately, we do not have answers as to why Canon USA made this decisions, these decisions are determined by the developers at Canon INC."Absolutely brutal. Composite black text print is vastly inferior to the text print produced when using the black ink cartridge. Canon technical support is basically telling me that duplex black text printing on the MP830 is horrible by design. Oh, plus you have the added bonus of wasting color ink when printing inferior black text while duplexing.InexcusableUpon inquiring further, this is the reason Canon technical support gives for using color ink to produce black text while duplex printing:"Composite black is least likely to show through the other side of the document, which may occur when using black ink and printing on both sides of the paper. "Then why can I print text on one side, flip the page over manually, print text on the other side, and not experience any issue with ink showing through to the other side? The text quality looks vastly superior when I do this instead of duplexing (I do not experience any issues).It shouldn't be that difficult to allow a printer driver option to use the pigmented black ink with a longer drying time (because I've also been told by Canon pigmented black ink may smear when duplex priting) if that's what the customer would prefer, instead of inflicting poor text quality produced by color inks when duplex black text printing.This issue is very easily reproduced:Print text in fast mode with duplexing on. Thenprint text in fast mode with duplexing off.Night and dayIt's not just fast mode that's affected either; it's all print quality modes when duplex printing is enabled. More importantly, all customers have the added bonus (in addition to poor black text quality while duplexing) of wasting color ink when printing black text with the duplex printing option enabled.Canon's response to this is that pigmented black ink will smear, bleed, or show through to the other side when duplex printing. Contrary to Canon's claim, I am not experiencing any issues when printing black text in standard mode on one side of cheap Britex Premier Multiusage paper (20 lb 92 bright . . . I paid less than a dollar for 500 sheets on sale), flipping the page over manually, and printing the other side again on standard. Regardless of whether I've tested using tons of different papers (and I admit I haven't), again, it shouldn't be that difficult to allow a printer driver option to use the pigmented black ink with a longer drying time if that's what the customer would prefer, instead of inflicting poor text quality produced by composite black (created by using color inks) when duplexing black text.
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Overall Rating
5 Star Review
Reviewed by: perrypopeye
Updated:05-03-06
Duration of ownership:2 Days
Strengths: Great print quality, fast printing, color lcd, auto document feeder
Weaknesses:
Overall Evaluation: I bought this All-In-One (AIO) multifunction as a step up from my Epson RX620, primarily because the RX620 prints SLOW, and it does not have an automatic document feeder (ADF). Wow, I love the faster printing on this item and the ADF! Whatsmore, it has a high speed 33.6 fax as well! (just no phone handset for fax). I have never seen an AIO with a phone handset, that would be cool! I already have a Brother fax, but again, I bought this item for faster printing primarily and so I would not have to hand-place every copy job. Print quality is great. User controls are easy to use. I almost chose the Canon Pixma MP780 instead, but this machine has better DPI and faster printing and a color (& bigger) LCD screen. ;) This item has a scanner, fax, printer, and copier. I highly reccommend this item.
