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Canon PIXMA MX350 Review

March 15th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted in Canon, Printer Reviews

The PIXMA MX350 is a mid-range inkjet multifunction printer targeted at small or home office. It has an easy to understand interface and offers some useful business printing features such as an automatic document feeder. It is not designed to a high-volume office printer and velocities reflect this.

Canon PIXMA MX350 Review

The Canon PIXMA MX350 has a 2.5-inch LCD screen and a front-mounted control panel that allows you to print jobs without a PC (although Canon’s software for PCs more powerful control offers). A top-mounted automatic feeder makes it easy to copy multiple page documents.

The user interface of the Canon PIXMA MX350 is leaps ahead of the MX270 and MP550. Arranged along the top of the front, a click-wheel controls and well-marked around the bright and clear 2.5-inch LCD screen. The graphical display can be a bit slow to bring new menus, but the controls are intuitive and we had no problems using it.

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The back of the Canon PIXMA MX350 has two RJ11 phone jacks (for input and pass-through of a telephone line), USB and Ethernet connections and an AC outlet. These connectors give the PIXMA MX350′s focus on home office – a built-in fax you can fax documents using a PC or the printer itself, while the wired network port means sharing between multiple PCs simple. The printer also offers integrated wireless networking. We chose a direct connection to our test Windows Vista PC with a standard USB cable.

While versions of Windows from XP to download and install printer drivers on the Internet for barebones printing, faxing and scanning, the installation of Canon’s printer monitoring software suite from the CD opens up a range of adjustments, maintenance and extensive usability options.

Canon PIXMA MX350 Review

We found the print performance of the Canon Pixma MX350 multifunction inkjet to roughly between the MX270 and MP550. The text is well down to size as small as 6pt treated. In Standard quality mode, the PIXMA MX350 pumps out 8.4 pages per minute monochrome, and the introduction of an image or color to the mix this figure drops to 4.8 pages per minute. This is slightly slower than the similarly priced PIXMA MP550 – if you’re going to print large amounts of documents, we would rather choose.

Despite being an office model, the Canon Pixma MX350 can produce reasonable printing when delivered with a high resolution digital photos. Fine detail is not particularly clear, and some blurring is evident in sensitive areas, but we have not noticed that vertical lines or grainy. The flatbed scanner is equally competent, with 1200×2400 images and text that clearly reproduce the most detailed picture.

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The Canon PIXMA MX350 uses a black and a PG-510 CL-511 three-color cartridge. High performance versions of these patterns can be purchased, bringing the total printing cost of 23.6c per A4 page. This is slightly more expensive than printing with Canon MP550, but not excessive.

The PIXMA MX350 is an authorized printer that features a small office will benefit is. It is easy to use thanks to a thoughtful layout and printing both text and photo prints show no major shortcomings.

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Canon imageClass MF4570dn Review

March 10th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted in Canon, Printer Reviews

Canon IMAGECLASS MF4570dn falls into the category most boring monochrome laser MFP. But it is also one of the rare examples of a product that puts together the right roles at the right way to a clear winner. Which in turn makes it more than a little interesting, with a balance of high speed, the richness of the MFP functions, and the price which is above the crowd. Even the weakest properties slightly below par text quality is good enough high-quality business documents.

Canon ImageCLASS MF4570dn Review

The MF4570dn is a bit large to share a desk, but still reasonably compact at 14.6 by 15.4 by 16.6 inches (HWD), making it easy to find space for the typical office or micro relatively busy home office it is for. Like the Brother MFC-7840W, printing, scanning and faxing even over a network, scan to e-mail through an email email from your PC program, and work as a standalone copier and fax. Another welcome touch is the 35-page automatic document feeder for scanning multiple documents, and legal-size pages that are too big for the flatbed.

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Paper handling is a bit limited, there is no scope for additional charge. However, the printer offers all the input capacity of micro-most home offices need, with a 250-sheet main tray and a 1-sheet manual tray. It also includes a built-in duplexer for printing on both sides of a page.

Design was standard fare. I’ve MF4570dn on a network and used a Windows Vista system for my tests. One of the more pleasant surprises was the speed. The printer is rated at 26 pages per minute (ppm), which should be close to the speed you see a text file with no graphics or photos. More importantly, our business applications suite (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing), but came in at 12.3-ppm, making it the fastest mono laser MFP in its price class that we’ve tested, and even faster than some more expensive printers.

Canon ImageCLASS MF4570dn Review

To get an idea of how fast this is, consider that the MFC-7840W is only 8.2 ppm. Even the more expensive Brother MFC-8480DN managed only 10.6 ppm. The current second place for speed or below the price range is the HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf MFP with a speed of 11.3 ppm.

Closest to the MF4570dn comes to having a weakness is the quality of exports, which is a bit below par for the text. Fortunately, a little below par for a monochrome laser is still fairly good quality. You would not want the printer to be used for serious desktop publishing, but unless you have an unusual need for small fonts, you need the text to find more than acceptable.

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Graphic output is a contest for the vast majority of monochrome laser MFPs, and easy enough for any internal business need. Photo output is dead on one line, making it suitable for printing Web pages with recognizable photographs or print photos in client newsletters and the like.

Should be clear, the MF4570dn offers a lot to like and little to complain about. The combination of high speed, much of the MFP functions, ample paper handling, and output quality makes it a great fit for any small office. Most important, it will be hard to better for the price, or do to put it another way: For now at least MF4570dn is home and small office monochrome laser MFP that others will have to beat.

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Canon imageCLASS MF8350Cdn Review

February 23rd, 2011 | No Comments | Posted in Canon, Printer Reviews

The Canon IMAGECLASS MF8350Cdn Color is a printer or various functions can be called an all-in-one printer. The printer produces high quality output at very high speeds. The printer is available at a price of $ 599, including a warranty of 1 year on-site. It has a small usability issues, but the measures which the printer makes it an excellent fit for small and medium offices.

Canon imageCLASS MF8350Cdn Review

The printer is great in its appearance and is attractive in every sense. The printer can scan, fax and network printing. It can function as a standalone copier and fax machine, complete with an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) 50 pages, to enable multi-page, simplex scanning documents to legal size. The paper capacity of the printer is its strong aspect.

The tray of 250 sheets will be sufficient for most small offices. The printer is a multi-purpose tray 50 sheets, so you can half to load paper and the sheet without changing the process of switching paper from the tray. A “print duplex unit” for automatically print standard, which is printed on both sides of the paper.

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If you have additional input capacity, you can add another 250 sheet tray for the total 550 sheets. The printer can be quite easily and are one of the places where the printer is just missing some aspects of usability. The hardest part is looking for a place to keep this unit and then move to another location. The printer has its measurements, 18.9 x 17.0 x 19.1 cm and is compact, it’s something big.

The printer weighs 64.2 pounds, when the toner cartridges are not loaded. Setting up the printer on a network is not difficult. You simply remove the package of materials, the cartridges, load the paper to install, cables to connect and then finally run the automated installation routine from disc. Canon has stated that it has a complete set of oem software provided for Windows 2000, Server 2008, Windows XP, Windows 7 and Server 2003 and drivers with the printer.

Canon imageCLASS MF8350Cdn Review

You are also offered a complete set of printer drivers and software to scan drivers for Mac OS X 10.6 through 10.4.9 far and USB connections. All drivers are available on the website of the Company. Canon offers a fax driver so you can fax from any computer on the network by storing the command, “Print” from within a program and then select the fax driver.

But the driver does not install by default and you have the option to accept, “Easy Setup” to install. To install the driver, you have the option to explore, “Custom Installation” and then install the program command. Once you install the printer to get there you really surprised by looking at the speed of the printer that prints 21 pages a minute for mono-chrome and color sheets.

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The printer can easily be called as the fastest color laser that acts as an all-in-one device for its price. The quality of the output of the printer is not outstanding as his speed, it is good. The quality of the text is less. The graphical output is much fun for every business need, which includes PowerPoint handouts. It is also very good for marketing materials such as tri-fold brochures and mailers page.

You may notice small white gaps between the colored blocks that the color around the text. The photographs appeared great. The snaps can be used in advertising brochures or pins on the board of an office or client newsletters. To use the command “scan” a program, you should move to the device, set it up for remote scanning, and then return to the device to retrieve the document you had the scan. Otherwise, the process proved very difficult.

Canon imageCLASS MF8350Cdn Review

This process sounds simple if your printer is somewhere close-by, otherwise it will be difficult for you to walk now and then. As an alternative, you have two choices. First, you can send the scan directly to the hard disk of your PC from the control panel of the printer, saved in PDF, TIFF, PDF or compressed JPEG formats. Secondly, you can scan to a USB memory key that allows you to print, scan and recover the document and file to your seat, once and for all.

The installation of the printer not hide the possibility of fax driver. The graphics and text quality could be slightly improved. Also, the fax driver is not present serious problems if you know the method of installation. Over all, the printer is one of the best color laser all-in-one device for a small workgroup or office.

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Canon imageCLASS MF3240 Review

February 21st, 2011 | No Comments | Posted in Canon, Printer Reviews

By most measures, the Canon IMAGECLASS MF3240 is an impressive all-in-one laser, suitable for a home office or as a personal AIO in any size office. This does not mean it’s not deficiencies. In particular, it lacks an automatic document feeder (ADF) and the graphics are a bit below par for monochrome laser printers. But I am impressed by what it delivers: a printer, scanner, PC fax capability, and a standalone copier and fax machine for not much more than the cost of a personal laser printer. It also prints a lot faster than other AIOs for anything near the price.

Canon imageCLASS MF3240 Review

Setting up the MF3240 is easy. It’s a little big, at 14.5 by 17.7 by 18.2 inches (HWD), but small enough to squeeze in a cramped desktop. With a weight of 26.4 pounds, the printer is strong, yet light enough to move fairly easily. Once a place for you, you just install the toner cartridge, load paper, plug in the phone and power cord, and you’re ready to begin copying and faxing. For printing and scanning, you must buy software, install it and then connect the USB cable.

CANON IMAGECLASS AIOs in general tend to be fast. The MF3240, built around a 21-pages per minute (ppm) engine, is no exception. It whipped through our business applications suite in just 8 minutes 36 seconds. The least expensive AIO with a faster time on our tests was the Editors’ Choice Canon MF5770 IMAGECLASS, which cost twice as much and is only slightly faster, at 8:17 am. The more expensive Samsung SCX-4521F was substantially slower, at 14:21.

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The MF3240 also did well on text quality, with more than half our test fonts easily readable at 4 points and only one highly stylized font need to be as large as 8 points. This level of quality you can count on to any text you want to print process.

That said, the printer display graphic quality that was a bit below par for a monochrome laser. The two main problems in my tests were visible dithering, which as mild patterns in a number of shades of gray and in the form of graininess in others, and a tendency to lose thin lines. The result was not always pretty, but as long as you stay away from thin lines, the MF3240 should be fine for internal business use. As is typical for laser printers, photo quality is suitable for printing Web pages or client newsletters, but not for photos that you would want as a souvenir.

Canon imageCLASS MF3240 Review

I ran into a little problem when I wanted a print job. The front panel has a Stop button, this button has no effect on printing, but it will stop a fax or a copy in progress. Because there is no switch, I had to pull the plug from the outlet to stop printing. I found out later that there is a way to get a job through the front panel show, but inexplicably, it’s buried deep in the menu system.

Despite the less-than-perfect graphic quality and the minor issue of the hidden cancel command, the Canon MF3240 IMAGECLASS offers a lot for the money. Unfortunately, the lack of an ADF you can not even as an option limits usefulness of the device, but that’s the only thing that keeps earning an Editors’ Choice. Regardless of the size of office you work, chances are that you want to fax, copy, scan or multiple documents at least occasionally. And on each page scanning is a time consuming task.

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Canon PIXMA iP4820 Review

February 15th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted in Canon, Printer Reviews

Over the years we have owned a succession of Canon inkjet and admired for their beautiful color and relatively low maintenance costs. The Canon Pixma iP4820 responds to the reputation, with beautiful 9600 x 2400 dpi color output and a five-tank ink system to print borderless photos up to 8.5×11 inches. You have to sacrifice some comfort with this model, such as Wi-Fi capability and a memory card reader, but this machine is good for casual photographers on a budget who are looking for high quality pictures.

Canon PIXMA iP4820 Review

We received a pre-production model of the printer, so that our box contained only a power machine and nestled in a foam cradle. Software and paperwork will naturally accompany the shipping product, but you must supply your own USB cable. We downloaded the driver and related programs from the Canon website and had no problems installing the software.

The Pixma has a sleek, glossy black design with a few lights and buttons on the front of the unit. The body has two 150-sheet, both auto-feeders. The luggage cover, which flips from the top, is used for the feeding of stock in the letter format, photo paper, and envelopes. Among the front paper output slot is half, slender 150-sheet cassette for A4, A5 and B5 paper. We want the input / output system, but we did not like the overly thin paper cassette or front output. A release tape arrived at our jam, and it took many soft curious to unlock, so the drawer could grow to letter-size paper to hold. The front paper output tray telescopically and feels a bit too flexible, considering how fragile it is-one smooth stroke, and it’s toast.

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Unusually for a printer in this price range, the iP4820 has automatic duplexing, which means you do not need to manually flip stacks of paper to print on both sides of a sheet. Saving paper, particularly for printing available document design, eco-thinking is a plus in our book, so we tried the duplex printing function using the shelf and not using discounted software. For each leaf, the first face came from the front of the printer, was withdrawn, and again came up with the printed side.

Two buttons on the lower right front of the unit-one for power, for a RESUME / CANCEL-panel cover. There is also an LED that flashes when an error such as a failure of paper or toner is detected. Circling the printer are the cable connections around it: The power cord is plugged into the left rear, while the USB interface is on the right rear. A PictBridge port for printing photos directly from any compatible digital camera, DV camcorder or camera phone, to the front.

Canon PIXMA iP4820 Review

As much as we have many opportunities like about the Pixma iP4820 is the lack of a few key areas. Noticeably missing, given that the one photo printer, a LCD screen for previewing prints, as well as memory card slots for access to photos, independently of a PC. You also can not connect this printer via Wi-Fi.

Get up and go, all you have to do is add the five ink tanks. This model uses cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink tanks, plus a second, larger black cartridge. This high capacity black tank gives you some flexibility that can lead to printing ink savings. If you’re only printing in black, the printer can switch to monochrome mode, and it will only use this high-capacity ink cartridge. If, on the other hand, you want to print in color and black mixed, then the use of ink from the smaller black cartridge. This prolongs the life of the smaller black cartridge, which means you need to buy less ink.

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The CD that comes with the latest Canon printer, the drivers, a manual, and two primary apps: PhotoPrint EX and HD Movie Print. Easy-PhotoPrint EX allows automatic photo correction, plus the ability to quickly albums, calendars, and stickers. This small utility makes it easy to crop, rotate, and color to your photos before printing to adjust. The Full HD Movie Print app you can print still images from HD movies you with a Canon PowerShot and EOS digital SLR camera. We found this app useful and easy to use, although only a small fraction of users will be able to use them.

When we start to print, we found that, like most low-end inkjet printers, the Pixma iP4820 will not blinding speed. Compared to similar inkjet, but the times we saw were impressive. Our standard 20-page test file took 8 minutes of pure text and 49 seconds to print high quality of the model mode. Same pages in normal mode took 2:07. (Of note: The difference in quality is negligible, so unless you are worried about having perfect prints, we would stick with the normal mode, but rather the quality of the output later ..) As comparison, a directly competitive model, the Kodak ESP 3250, took 9:29 and 3:52 of these tasks, respectively.

Canon PIXMA iP4820 Review

The Pixma iP4820 was the ESP 3250 when printing our 10-page test document consisting of a mix of text and graphics belabor. In normal mode, it did the job in 1 minute and 36 seconds, with over one minute faster than his competitor. It held her ground when printing photos, as well. As our full page (8×10-inch), high-quality sample pictures sent to the iP4820, but finished the job in 1 minute and 55 seconds, more than twice as fast as the Kodak ESP 3250.

Print quality, overall, was high. On standard office paper, text was crisp and attractive set of 3-point, and color reproduction was very good. We also printed a full page glossy photo on Canon’s photo paper, and found the colors to be accurate and sharp. True neutral grays neutral, no evidence of a red or blue cast. Skin tones also were correct, if slightly less saturated.

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Cost per page is about average for a budget inkjet. For documents mixing text and graphics, the Pixma iP4820 will cost you about 12.5 cents per page. For monochrome pages, you will pay about 4.5 cents per page. Note that our cost per monochrome page is based on the yield of the smaller of the two black tanks. When we wrote this page, Canon no estimates for the larger tank.

Apart from the thin construction of a few of the accessories, we found little to dislike about this printer in this price range-it’s fast, has an automatic duplexing, and printing text and beautiful pictures. The lack of an LCD screen and Wi-Fi connectivity necessary sacrifices for the price, but we think this model the benefits outweigh the disadvantages for most users the budget. We recommend the Pixma iP4820 for everyone in the market for a reasonably priced inkjet, especially if you’re an amateur photographer on a budget, or you often print double-sided documents and do not like to flip over piles of paper.

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Canon SELPHY CP800 Review

February 11th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted in Canon, Printer Reviews

While more and more products are encouraging you to save images from your digital camera to portable hard drives, memory sticks or online servers so you can share them with your friends and family, it seems the idea of fewer companies are hardcopy promote snaps that you can display the old fashioned way, in albums.

Canon SELPHY CP800 Review

Fortunately, Canon has not forgotten this principle and has just announced the SELPHY CP800, which is an upgrade of the company’s previous ultra-compact photo printer, the SELPHY CP780. Available in chic black or white (the latter an unusual mix of matte and glossy surround), weighs a trim 940 grams and can almost be balanced in the palm of a hand.

The ink cartridge slides in from the side and on the other hand, two USB ports, one for connecting a flash drive and the other for attaching to a PC and to buy software online.

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The top is dominated by a tilting 2.5-inch color TFT display and a neat row of large, clearly marked menu buttons that easy to make your printing needs. At the front there is a host of memory card slots that you want to throw any format (including the rarely used xD-Picture Card) and the opening for the paper cartridge that you select will manage.

Though the CP800 is supplied with a power you must pay extra for a snap-on battery on the back (which will yield about 36 postcard size prints per charge). The machine prints three types of images – Postcard (148 x 100mm), L (119 x 89mm) and Credit Card (86 x 54mm) – and each pack comes with the right printer ink cartridge and 36 maps.

Canon SELPHY CP800 Review

If you decide to print from the PC instead of via the memory card directly from your camera or flash card, you can have some fun with the included Photo Printer SELPHY software allows you to create frames and graphics to to add or put your photo in a calendar. Warning: the female voice-over guides can drive you homicidal after extensive exposure, but fortunately you can turn it off …

ID prints can be produced, too, and a brutal Shuffle feature will arrange multiple images in a creative design. Some effects can be added (eg Sepia, Positive Film, smooth skin), the brightness can be adjusted and photos can be improved by using the Auto Image Optimize option.

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On average, pictures are after about 1 minute and 15 seconds, and that’s because they do at least three passes through the machine and color layers are added. The results, though, are definitely worth the wait when the sharpness is stunning, the authenticity and richness of the colors.

Conclusion

For the quality of images, general coolness and all-round compact, it is difficult to fault the Canon SELPHY CP800. It’s just a shame that they do not throw in the battery and you have to shell out for three different types of printer cartridge bundle.

Canon SELPHY CP800 Review

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Canon PIXMA MX340 Review

February 9th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted in Canon, Printer Reviews

The PIXMA MX340 is a member of Canon’s small range of inkjet all-in-one printers. They have fewer facilities for the photo enthusiast and more for the small office, so you can expect a fax and Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), but not a memory card reader to see.

Canon PIXMA MX340 Review

And this is what you get. The slim, large black and white box has a high gloss top, which unfolds in a 30-sheet automatic document feeder, mounted in the lid of the scanner. The front of the surround panel holds that a bitmap, mono LCD display in the middle. Although well used, with a good screen font and icon-based status information, there is no backlight, which can make it difficult to read unless you direct overhead light.

To the left of the LCD screen are three large fashion buttons for copy, fax and scan. On the right is a numeric keypad for dialing and fax numbers at the extreme right are two large buttons for black and color copies. There are 20 items with a quick search that comes up with possible names as you type. There is also an advanced system for rejecting unwanted faxes, based on the source of the fax call.

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The front panel is a small illuminated blue badge, which shows that the PIXMA MX340 Wi-Fi, and a pull-down cover which automatically opens when you forget to print and sits in a corner on an elevated bin offer. A flap open at the rear to pull a tray, which can provide up to 100 sheets.

On the back are connections for USB, Ethernet and a fax line, but many people will choose to connect via wireless and installation is simple, as you can access via a keypad.

Canon PIXMA MX340 Review

These four colors machine uses two cartridges, one black and the other tri-color, and this clip in easily, once you’ve hinged the scanner section on his’ hood mode. It has a well-damped release, so when you close it, the upper part bang down on the print engine. Drivers for Windows and OS X are standard, Canon has a good support beam, including OCR software and document management. A copy of Canon’s web page print utility is also included.

Canon has taken to quoting sensible speeds for inkjet printers and claims 7.5 ppm for black printing and 4.5ppm for color. Our 5-page black text document completed in 54 seconds, giving a real-world speed of 5.6ppm, but the 20-page document reinforces 6.9ppm, not a long way off the claimed speed. The five pages of text and color graphics document with a speed of 2.4ppm, while just over half the rated speed. The machine performed quite a household before some of these pictures and this time is normally excluded from ISO print speed tests.

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A single page color copy completed in 41 seconds, while a 5-page black text to copy from the ADF one minute, 16 seconds it took both of these times are very acceptable for a SOHO machine. A 15 x 10cm glossy photo paper for Canon, printed on high quality, took 1:21, but printing at normal quality of a PictBridge camera, the time reduced to only 53 seconds.

Both photos were taken to the normal high standard of Canon, with colors looking very natural and displaying a good level of detail. Dark areas of the picture was less detailed than we normally see Canon machines, and although this can be tweaked through software, we’ve seen better from previous Canon all-in-ones.

Canon PIXMA MX340 Review

Color images on plain paper are generally good, although some notable dithering in lighter shades. Color specimens showed signs of a purple cast in a number of shades of blue and black text on colored backgrounds show some bleeding. Black text is generally reasonable, although there is some confusion, especially around the posts.

The two cartridges are available in standard and high-yield versions and use the high capacity versions cost of 4.3p for ISO produces black page and 9.3p for ISO color, both in-0.7p for paper. None of these costs is particularly good, with similarly priced machines like the HP Photosmart Plus B209a, providing equivalent cost of 3.1p and 7.7p. You can certainly get inkjet devices that are cheaper than this machine.

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Conclusion

Canon Pixma MX340 is a neat, maintained all-in-one, with a reasonable speed, fairly good facilities and fax print and copy performance. It is expensive to run already, and print quality, unusual for a Canon machine is not the best in its class. While the wireless connection is useful to have, it is becoming much less of a differentiator than it was. There are some machines that can get close to or above the performance of this machine, in which an increasingly crowded field product.

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Canon PIXMA MP560 Review

January 17th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted in Canon, Printer Reviews

Canon PIXMA MP series of songs from her all-in-ones from MP250 to MP990, MP560 but the only two models away from the top. The MP Series is designed for the enthusiast customer, who is more interested in photo prints from an all-in-one than in the multi-page fax and copies.

The PIXMA MP560 has the same faux-luxurious look of most of the series, with silver sides and lid of the scanner, plus black-colored edges, and back panel. The control panel cover hides the printer when not in use and when folded, it reveals a 50mm LCD panel.

Canon PIXMA MP560 Review

A comprehensive set of controls includes soft buttons associated with the display and a click-wheel to scroll through menu options. There are separate buttons for black and color printing and a stop to the current job. On the front are two LED indicators and third label Wi-Fi, wireless activity to identify.

There are two separate paper sources on the machine: a 150-sheet paper tray with lift-up support on the back and a 150-sheet cassette, which slides in from the front. Canon recommends using the rear tray for photo blanks and the cassette for plain paper, but it is possible to use both media to be used in either drawer.

Below the control panel on the front is a hinged plastic cover for a set of three card readers. These provide for CompactFlash, SD, MemoryStick and xD and there’s a PictBridge socket underneath the card slots, which doubles as a USB connection. You can print from a USB drive or to a scan through this connection.

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At the back of the PIXMA MP560 has a single USB connection, but there is also wireless support. This includes quick setup protocols for major fast-Link Systems, creating secure wireless connectivity with most modern routers very simple.

The printer supports five cartridges, black with a small photo next to the larger, standard black cartridge is used for text printing on plain paper. Each cartridge is connected to the printhead and Canon’s system of LEDs indicates when the cartridges are inserted and when it is nearly empty.

Canon PIXMA MP560 Review

Drivers are for Windows and OS X, though there is no stated support for Linux. Canon offers a good software bundle with the printer, OCR software on the scanner and WebPrint EX for simple web printing support includes.

Canon is more honest than most with its speed and progress rates of the PIXMA MP560 prints at 9.2ppm and 6.0ppm in black color. Even this relatively modest speeds are difficult to duplicate testing, especially since the machine is keen to have short breaks for pattern during most housekeeping jobs.

Our five-page text print 53 seconds, equivalent were 5.7ppm and in the longer, 20-page document is only increased to 7ppm. Our black text and color graphics job back with a speed of 3.3ppm, just over half the rated speed.

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However, even these speeds are not far off those of the main competition. If you look at the performance of two-sided printing, though, they look positively cheetah-like. Our 20-page document, duplex printed on 10 sheets, produced at a rate of 2.0 minutes per side, which is really slow so many people will not be duplexed.

Print quality is what we would expect from Canon and is good on both plain and photo paper. Black text is quite heavy on the page but still manages a clean impression, therefore, remains easy to read. Colors are reproduced perfectly and although there are some obvious dithering patterns in lighter tones such as yellow, the overall result is clean and clear.

Canon PIXMA MP560 Review

The colors in our test were close to photocopy the original, with only minor relief of hues. Our test photo printed in the best picture mode of the machine, gave smooth color gradations and detail in brighter areas of the image. However, the colors were a bit too rich especially the red, and some shadow detail was lost.

The four cartridges are the only running costs in this machine and there is only one version of each, so all you can do is shop around for the best price. Using the best prices we could find gave a cost per page of black ISO 3.3 p, and 7.4p for an equivalent of ISO color page.

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These costs are pretty good, comes in, for example between 1p and 2p less than the Brother MFC-5490CN, which equal cost of 4.3p and 9.3p registered.

Conclusion

Sitting about halfway between the Canon PIXMA MP495, with its dual-cartridge design and no two-sided printing, and the sooner PIXMA MP640 with its CD and DVD printing, the Canon Pixma MP560 is a good mid-ranking inkjet all-in-one. Although her own double-sided printing can be so slow only marginally useful, most of its other functions, including the convenience of wireless connection, make it a good choice for home and small business applications.

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Canon imageCLASS MF4370DN Review

January 12th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted in Canon, Printer Reviews

Canon IMAGECLASS MF4370dn is one of the new generation of inexpensive monochrome laser all-in-ones (AIOs). The low price, small size and light weight to serve nicely as a personal AIO in any size office. But it also contains a network connection and the ability to print, scan and fax over a network and can serve nicely as a shared printer in a small office. Even better, it delivers fast speed along with high quality output, particularly for text, making it a welcome choice in what context.

For those who do not need to connect the printer to a network share, the MF4370dn is available in a less expensive non-network version and the Canon IMAGECLASS MF4350d. Despite the difference in model number, Canon says it is the same printer, so most of my comments here should apply to it as well. However, keep in mind that print and speeds over a USB connection usually differ from speeds over a network to scan.

Canon imageCLASS MF4370DN Review

Besides printing, faxing and network scanning, the MF4370dn works as a standalone copier and fax. It lacks an option to scan to email, but it comes with PageManager 7.15, which allows you to scan a document and send to your e-mail program by simply clicking and dragging.

Office-friendly features include a 35-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) for scanning, copying and faxing multiple documents as easily scan legal-size pages. The ADF scans only one side of a page, but the printer has a duplexer for printing on both sides, and the copier includes an option for double sided printing copies of originals that can be easily activated by pressing a button on the front panel.

A requirement for a personal AIO is small enough to fit on a desk comfortably without dominating the desktop. The MF4370dn is that tests for a compact 17.9 by 15.4 by 21 inches (HWD). It weighs only 27.6 pounds, so a person can easily move into place.

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Setting up the MF4370dn on a network is absolutely standard in theory. Find a place for it, load the toner cartridge and paper, connect the cables and power cord, and run the automated installation routine from disc. I ran into a little problem in that the printer does not automatically get an IP address, as it should, the router I normally use on my test-bed network. Canon says it has not seen this problem, and indeed, the printer worked on my tests with a different model router. Of this writing, Canon says that to further investigate the issue.

Anyway, I fell back to enter the address manually with the original router, which is easy enough if you know how. If you are not comfortable enough with networking to do, a quick call to Canon technical support to guide you through the steps.

Canon imageCLASS MF4370DN Review

I tested the printer using Windows XP. According to Canon, it also comes with drivers and a full range of programs for Windows 2000, Windows Vista and Server 2003. In addition, you can download printer and fax drivers from the Canon web site for Mac OS 10.2.8 and higher, download and scan drivers for version 3.9 and later.

Did I mention that the IMAGECLASS MF4370dn fast? Canon rates the engine at 23 pages per minute (ppm). That’s like the similarly priced Brother MFC-7840W, which until now was the claim of the fastest AIOs in its price range, tied at 7 minutes 51 seconds. However, the MF4370dn is faster. I timed our business applications suite (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software) at a total of 7:08.

Canon AIO shines even when it comes to text quality, once edge of the MFC-7840W. In our text tests, most fonts qualified as both highly readable and well formed at 5 points, with some qualifying at 4 points. Only one heavily stylized font with thick strokes needed 20 points to pass both thresholds. Although the quality is a bit short of what you would want for the most demanding desktop publishing applications with small letters, it’s more than good enough for anything else.

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Graphics and photo quality are both typical for a monochrome laser. I saw visible dithering in the form of light patterns on some shades of gray and a tendency for some slopes with a patchy appearance, rather than a smooth curve, but the overall quality is good is good enough for any internal business use. Photos were good enough for printing Web pages or client newsletters with photos, that’s about all you can expect from a monochrome laser printer.

Apart from the built-in duplexer, which is a remarkable advantage for MF4370dn, the paper capacity is typical for the price, with a standard 250-sheet paper tray and no options to increase it. That should be enough for personal use, lightweight and suitable for small-office use. As a welcome extra, a one-page manual slot lets you print on an envelope or on special paper.

Canon imageCLASS MF4370DN Review

As attractive as the MF4370dn as a printer, but stumbles badly as a scanner, beginning with a pronounced clumsy approach to scanning. For most PhD students, you can simply give a command scan of your computer, or you can use the printer, go put the document you want to scan in the ADF or on the glass, and then instructed to scan from the control panel to give . If the AIO is on your desk, the two approaches is useful. If you must walk to the AIO, scan from the control panel is clearly preferable, because only once you walk to the printer, scanning, document retrieval, and walk back to your desk.

The MF4370dn, you must go to the printer and a scan button on the AIO in the scan mode set, and then return to your desk to give the scan command press. In addition to being unusual, this approach forces you into two trips to the AIO once put it in scanning mode, and once to retrieve your document later. Worse, if you’re distracted by, say, a phone call, the AIO a timeout scan mode and turn around before you give the scan command following the third voyage.

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Even if the awkwardness of this approach not disturb the slow scan times. I do not even bother scanning for PhD students, unless they seem unusually fast or slow. A stopwatch confirmed my sense of MF4370dn intolerable slow scanning an 8-by-10 photos at 200 pixels per inch (ppi) color mode. The prescan took 23 seconds and the scan itself took an unacceptable 4 minutes 56 seconds. Canon says it was unable to duplicate the slow scan time and was unable to propose a reason. What seems to include most of the time the transfer of data over the network rather than the scan itself. In fact, it took less than one tenth as long to scan over a USB connection. Canon says it is looking into this matter.

Despite the Canon MF4370dn print speed, output quality, and duplexing are problems with the scanning are enough to Brother MFC-7840W, which is a better overall mix of characteristics. That said, however, if you’re primarily interested in printing, copying and faxing, the MF4370dn nevertheless worth considering. Make sure you either do not scan over a network very often or you are extremely patient.

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Canon PIXMA MP495 Review

January 6th, 2011 | No Comments | Posted in Canon

Entry-level all-in-one printers continue to fall in price and improving their feature sets. new PIXMA MP495 from Canon is the same price as its predecessor, the Pixma MP490, and now wireless connection as standard.

However, leave some things out of the equation, even without memory card slots or a PictBridge port, which had both the MP490. The ‘P’ in MP495 is supposed to stand for the photo, but it is difficult to see how this all-in-one eligible, since it is impossible to print photos directly from a camera. You’ll have to load into a PC or Mac, the first place, and conventional print them from there.

Canon PIXMA MP495 Review

Canon has swung away from the silver and black coloring and has instead opted for a gloss black look, which is clever, but so easy to wipe that you’ll probably want to keep a cloth handy. It is also a devil to photograph, but that’s our problem.

The paper path is conventional enough, with paper input of 100 sheets formed on the back, a fold-down tray in front. The front tray pops open automatically when you start printing with the closed. At the top of the machine is a simple flatbed scanner with a lid that lifts to accommodate books and loose sheets.

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The keypad is surprisingly busy for a low cost printer, with a seven-segment LED display uses the number of copies as symbols of status conditions returned. There are also indicators of ink, paper jams and paper type, which is adjustable by means of a button. In front of all these six buttons to start and stop scan and copy jobs, to call setup and features a print automatically to the page, which is a peculiarity.

This is a twin-cartridge printer, with separate black and tri-color cartridges. Canon describes it as a hybrid system, which simply means that the black pigment ink, while the inks we dyes. Both clip into place once you’ve lifted the main part of the PIXMA MP495 scanner.

Canon PIXMA MP495 Review

Wireless setup is more confused than some, such as the setup program only refers to USB or wireless network connections and record only when a way down the network route. You must install the wireless cable used for temporary connection and your WPA password on the PC, then although the process is fairly automatic. The instructions can certainly be clearer for those unfamiliar with printers – this is an entry-level machine.

Canon is fair minded enough to quote ISO speeds, in this case 8.8ppm for black and 5 ppm for color. Even these more realistic figures were hard to beat under test, but because the printer test preparation and taking out 15 seconds or so before each print. This time would be excluded from the ISO measurements.

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Our five page text document printing 5.6ppm, but this increased to 6.9ppm in the longer, 20-page test. The black text and color graphics pages took more than two minutes, but what a speed of only 2.4ppm. A single page copy completed in 41 seconds and a 15 x 10cm photo on an A4 sheet of glossy photo paper took 1min 24secs. Both rates are reasonable for a machine at this price.

Print quality is generally good with clear, well-formed black text and draft mode, text is still looking very useful. Colour graphics are also clean and bright, providing attractive and eye-catching documents. We had problems with the registration scan have missed in the color we produce sharp marks in areas of solid color. This was reproducible between specimens, but could have been a problem with this sample.

Canon PIXMA MP495 Review

The photo print was clean and colors were natural, though, unusually for Canon, a much darker detail was lost.

Since the last review of the Canon machine to the same patterns as the PIXMA MP495 to use, it is surprising to find that consumer goods cost slightly increased. In this business, you normally expect prices to continue to decrease over time, but this does not always apply to cartridges.

Using the best prices we could find on the Internet is ISO page cost of 8.6p and 4p for black color. These are similar to other Canon all-in-ones, even those cost considerably more. Compared with entry-level all-in-ones from other manufacturers, which are running in the middle of the field.

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Conclusion

What it really comes down to is whether you value more than wireless connection card slots and PictBridge port for your camera. If you rarely print photos than the Canon Pixma MP495 still offers good value as a low-cost printer, copier and scanner. If you need to print images, though, it’s harder than its immediate predecessor.

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