Canon Pixma MP830 Office All-In-One Inkjet Printer (0583B002) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've been waiting for this printer to come out for quite some time. I previously used Canon's MP730 and completely loved it. This new version adds several great features, and after a few days of playing around with it, it has lived up to my high expectations.
The MP830 is a bit shorter and wider than Canon's previous all-in-ones, and it looks a bit more "classy" with a black-on-black keypad and a color LCD screen. There are two paper trays: the main tray is an upright tray in the rear, and a pull-out tray is located on the bottom of the machine. My old 730 had a plastic cover that protected the paper in the vertical tray from dust, and that cover is no longer included. I live is a dusty area, and if the paper gets a layer of dust on it, that dust can collect on and clog the print head. To remedy this, I've decided to use the smaller pull out tray as my primary paper tray (you can select the primary paper tray with a button on the keypad).
This printer uses Canon's new "8" series inks. While these are top-of-the-line inks (UV resistant, pigment/dye system), they are considerably more expensive than the 3 or 6 series inks used my many of Canons previous printers. Also, each ink cartridge has a small computer chip attached to it which makes obtaining remanufactured or generic cartridges difficult. At the moment you cannot find generic ink for this printer, and various websites advise against refilling these cartridges as they ink density is different from the previous inks, and doing so might wreck your printhead. So if you were used to paying $3/cartridge for generic canon cartridges, you might have to raise your ink budget for a while (currently, cartridges are about $14 each, and there are five of them in this printer).
This printer has duplex printing and scanning, meaning that it can scan/print both sides of a sheet. At some point, I was led to believe that the scanner was able to scan both sides *at the same time*, but that is actually not the case. After a piece of paper is scanned through the auto document feeder, it is sucked back in, flipped around and re-scanned. This adds considerable time to your scanning tasks. If you are pressed for time, it is actually faster to scan in "manual duplex" where you scan the front sides of pages, then manually the pages over and re-scan the back sides. However, if you want to hit the scan button and walk away, the auto-duplex does its job well. The same issue exists for duplex printing--it works, but it takes more time than if you had manually duplexed the pages.
The fax is a fax. It works fine, and some test color-faxes I sent came out well.
The copier also works well, and the duplexers allow you to make two-sided to two-sided copies, but as I said before, this takes some time.
The scanner does a great job with photos and documents. It is considerably faster than earlier models, thanks in part to the USB 2.0 interface and new scan sensor. Also, the updated scanning software is a significant improvment over previous versions.
I've printed out some photos and they are of amazing quality, which is what I expect from Canon printers. However, because of the cost of the inks, I will not be printing photos very often. The text is a bit light for my taste (the black is more like a very dark grey).
All in all, this is a great printer/scanner/fax/copier and I am very happy with it.
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Note: Unfortunately, the memory card slots on the printer do not allow for USB2.0 transfer to the comptuer. If you need to move lots of data from a memory card to your desktop, use a dedicated card-reader; using the slots on this printer takes way too long.
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ADDED 5/9/06: After having this machine for just over a month, I have to say it runs through ink way too fast. My ink status lists several cartridges as only 25% full, and is warning me that two of my colors are "almost empty." I print 90% black text, 9% color documents (web pages, rebate forms, etc), and only about 1% photos (I have only printed 2 4x6 photos since I purchased the printer). My previous Canon printers sipped ink, this machine chugs it, and at $14/cartridge, that is unacceptable. (Especially becuase the print quality isn't much better than previous printers.)

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