Perfect Multi Function Printer

I just bought this printer and I LOVE it. It's the perfect all in one printer for home/ small office use. I am a student and wanted an all in one so i could print copy and scan documents without the stress of using the school's facilities every time. This printer is exactly what I needed. The print quality is superb. Even photos printed with this printer come out looking just as good as lab quality photos. The colours are vibrant and rich and borderless printing is excellent. Photocopying and scanning quality is really good too. However printing speed is not the fastest but it doesn't detract from the beauty of this machine. The printer itself has a small footprint and I love the way everything folds into one compact design and eliminates dust getting trapped inside the printer. Overall this is a great printer for the price. Note that a usb cord is not included in the package.More detail ...

A nicely designed printer...

Review updated on October 13 2009 to reflect firmware changes and add information on ink consumption -



The Canon MX-860 is an all-in-one printer designed for home or small business. The printing is fast sharp and clear. The auto-document feeder scans both sides of the page a tremendous time saver when you work with two-sided originals. Couple that with duplex-printing and it's trivial to reproduce two-sided forms and documents. The network connectivity also works well...in the six months I've had the printer it's operated flawlessly in a mixed Mac/Windows environment on both wireless and wired networks.



Let's look at the MX-860 on a piece-by-piece basis ...



Printing

The Canon MX-860 uses a set of five ink cartridges for printing. Two of the cartridges are black with the other three being the typical Magenta/Cyan/Yellow set. The printed output is easily sharp enough to be used for business letters; it almost rivals laser printers in quality. To save paper the printer has built-in duplexing. I haven't measured it but single-sided printing speed is quite good...I suspect that the 38 pound weight of the printer is due to some good size motors pulling the paper and moving the printhead around. Printing in duplex mode is quite a bit slower. To avoid smearing the printer waits for the first-side to dry before printing the second side.



Photographs have good tonal gradation and overall appearance however they don't equal those from a high-end printer that's specifically designed to print photographs. The difference though is slight and everybody has liked the prints that I've made. The printer has the usual slots on the front to allow you to insert your camera's memory cards.



Scanning

Whoopee! Duplex scanning! Have you ever tried to scan a stack of two sided pages? And get them merged into one file in the right order? I tried. Once. Then I went out and paid $400 for a dedicated scanner (the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510). With duplex scanning capability on the MX-860 I wouldn't have needed to do that. You put the papers in the feeder tell the printer that it's a two-sided original and push the button.



Faxing

Outgoing faxing works fine. The faxes seem to get there. Originally the designers of the fax system missed an extremely important feature...you couldn't specify the number of rings before the fax machine answered. Without that ability it was almost impossible for the machine to peacefully co-exist with your phone service in a single line household. This problem was fixed by a firmware update and current purchasers can set the number of rings before pick-up. Unfortunately Canon hasn't posted the new firmware so owners of older machines are stuck...be careful if you buy one used. +1 brownie point for recognizing and fixing the problem. -2 for not making it available... :>(



Networking and Setup

I had no problems getting both the wireless and wired network up and running. The setup is simple and straight forward. You'll need a USB cable to get the wireless network configured. It may be possible to wirelessly configure the wireless network but there are certain insanities that even I won't try. You can only use one network - wired or wireless - at once. As I mentioned in the intro it comes with both Macintosh and Windows software. Getting it to work on my additional networked computers was as simple as inserting the DVD and running the install program.



Ink Consumption

Some printer politely sip ink but this isn't one of them. It's not quite as bad as beer consumption at a frat party but in the last 2500 pages I've gone through six black and two full sets of color cartridges. That works out to slightly over 10.5 cents per page at Amazon's current (11/11/09) prices for OEM ink cartridges...fine for normal use but not great if you're going to use the printer heavily. Your ink consumption will vary depending on the mix of photos graphics and text that you print.



Packaging

You know that ubiquitous orange tape that printer manufactures use to hold everything together? It's there in spades. I wish I owned that franchise. Otherwise it looks like the printer should ship well. It's well isolated with plenty of molded styrofoam.



In summary this is my fourth Canon printer and probably the twentieth printer that I've owned. Outside of the faxing issue it works great. The duplex scanning and printing are valued additions and real time savers...I would have given it a solid five stars if it wasn't for the faxing problem. I haven't used the printer enough to get a sense of long-term reliability; after a couple of thousand sheets of paper it's been jam free and solid.More detail ...

OMG This Printer Is Incredible

I Just got this printer from Adorama today (via UPS) and this thing is incredible. Im a professional photographer and this printer prints lab qaulity prints super fast. I made sure I used Photoshop to print some test pictures )4x6 on Canon Photo Plus Semi Gloss and it matched exactly what was on my screen. As a matter of fact the prints look better than whats on my screen...I had to do a double take. I no longer will be using the lab to order prints for my clients (only wedding books) Im printing them all myself. The speed is also amazing. The only thing I dont like thus far is the noise of the print head when the printer starts up and before prints start printing. When the picture prints its pretty quiet though. I will update my review after about a week after i dump a few hundred more prints for my clients.



***** Update #1 ***** : Ok Now I've had this printer a few weeks and I've printed a few hundred pictures in a variety of sizes (4x6 5x7 8.5x11 and 13x19) and this is a must have printer for those wanting to print their own professional lab (and better than lab quality) photos. This bad boy is very fast and the print quality is just absolutely superb (I use Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy Ilford Galerie Smooth Pearl Ilford Galerie Smooth Gloss Paper and Ilfor Printasia 13x19 paper and Canon Photo Paper Plus Glossy II 13x19). I've shown my photographs to a variety of clients potential clients freinds and family and they are blown away by the quality of the prints. When I tell them I printed them myself they are like "What? No way" and then they asume I must have spent a whole lot of money on the printer...which is wrong ([...] after rebate from amazon/adorama).



Pros :



Fast - This printer spits out a vibrant and full of color 13x19 glossy print in under 3 minutes 30 seconds.



[...]



Quiet - I can print at all hours of the night and not worry about waking anyone up. When Im in the next room with the door open the printer prints so quiet I cant even hear it and have to come check on the print job to make sure it didnt crash since I cant hear any noise in the next room..lol



Quality - Prints professional quality prints on a variety of papers in many different sizes.



Paper - You ARE NOT limited to Canon papers as you can use a bunch of other manufacturers papers. My Favorite thus far is Ilford (cheap from amazon and is basically identical to expensive Canon paper).



Ink Usuage - Good on ink Not really an ink guzzler. I printed dozens and dozens of 4x6's and even a bunch of 8x11's and 13x19s and the ink kept going and going until I finaly started running low (after many prints had been printed). Also I now use The Continuous Ink System so ink is now dirt cheap. Costs something link [...] per cartridge (estimated - all I know is I pay [...] for and 8 pack of about 880 ml's of ink which is over 80 cartridges (no joke visit fleabay and youll see tons of them)...Save money and Dont buy Canon Ink Carts and you will save at least 50% right off the bat).



Cons :



B&W printing - Prints mediocre black and white prints. This is no secret and I knew this before I bought it. I dont care about black and white prints just color so its all good for me.



Size - This is a big mamma-jamma. You will have to dedicate a space to this thing because of its width.



CD Printing - The US version of this printer does not print to CD's at all and there are no hacks that enable the CD printing feature (Like with the Pixma Pro 9000). If you need CD printing just print to photo quality CD labels.



Overal: This is a fantastic buy. If you need professional quality color prints done in house you will surely love this printer. Canon outdid itself with this model... The price is steadily falling too. Especially after the [...] rebate.



***** Update #2 ******



DO NOT USE OR BUY THE CONTINUOUS INK SYSTEM FROM SUPERjetUSA With THIS PRINTER:



I bought the continuous ink system from superjetUSA off ebay and it worked fine for a short while and then it leaked ink all inside my printer. All 800+ml's. It was a huge mess and it caused me to use many hours of my valuable time and waste dozens and dozens and dozens of pieces of plain paper/photo paper to clean out the leaking mess. Then SuperjetUSA refused to give me my money back and kept telling me to do this and that and email them pictures of the mess. It took me weeks to clean it up and there is a still an ink mess in my printer. ONLY USE INK CARTRIDGES (stay away from the Continuous ink system) FROM A GOOD SOURCE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.



I've had this printer for months and it continues to be an awesome printer. No complaints. I made almost the entire printer purchase price of the printer back within only a few weeks of having the printer..thats how good the prints are.. THE CANON PIXMA 9000 MKII is an awesome investment.More detail ...

Great Printer!

I purchased this printer after a lot of research here on Amazon and elsewhere. This printer is replacing an old Epson Stylus Photo 780 that I've had for years. I was really unhappy with the Epson because the ink heads clogged up constantly. I also wanted the newest printer possible since I've had problems with other devices not updating their drivers so this printer fit the bill.



The Canon printer has been wonderful for me so far. It was easy to set up and install and worked right away. I'm using Snow Leopard on a Mac so I had to download the actual driver from Canon's web site but this is easy to do and pretty self-explanatory.



I love that the printer is all enclosed. The regular paper sits in a tray at the bottom and everything can be closed up so that dust doesn't get into it. Photo paper is loaded at the rear.



This printer has individual ink cartridges a plus in my opinion.

I am using it lightly (10-15 regular color pages 1-2 photos per week) so I have not dented the supply level on the ink cartridges and can't really comment on how fast the ink runs out. The print quality is pretty good for the regular paper and very good for photos. I was very impressed with the photos that I printed they were sharp and the color was great.



The software drivers are adequate and not too confusing. I found this printer very easy to use and of good quality. I'm very happy with it and it's miles better than my old Epson.



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Excellent printer - Here is info on bluetooth adapter; case.

We bought this little gem to take to Europe. First impressions are very favorable. It's small reliable and prints beautifully. At just over four pounds it's perfect for travel.



The little Bluetooth adaptor also works very well. Reading the manual (!) I discovered it is possible to mount the adapter permanently inside the printer so that it's not exposed and doesn't need attachment every time it is used. This is a simple procedure and enhances the usefulness of the Bluetooth capability that is all but de rigueur when traveling. The installation / setup information is also in the electronic manual that comes on the CD.



But as good as the printer is it does not come with (nor does Canon offer) a case of any kind. I found the perfect solution - from Case-Mate: go to http://www.case-mate.com/laptop/macbookpro15/15gblackcases2 and buy the 'Glovez 15"' sleeve (like a large envelope with a velcro closure / flap). It comes in an assortment of colors and is a skin-tight (but very workable) fit in the 'length' direction. When inserted the printer doesn't take up every bit of the case in the 'width' direction meaning there is just enough room to also accommodate the cord and AC brick. Throw these in close the flap and you're always ready to roll.



Best part: this 'Glovez' sleeve is only $9.99 + $3.99 S/H and gets to you in a few days. It's not bulky - just what one wants to protect the printer but not take up room. (As an aside the Case-Mate Glovez 13" [for the MacBook 13" and Air] fits the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 perfectly).More detail ...

An Amazing Value Printer

Disclaimer: I do not own this printer but have worked with and installed tons of them at my school and I use them all the time. Anyway we have about 4 of these units and all work perfectly fine.



Quality: The image quality of this printer is stunning the detail level and color reproduction is great! When compared to the Canon iP6600 the color and detail reproduction seem to be slightly better.



Speed: It is fairly fast for photo printing its not a speed demon or anything but it is faster then most printers I have used.



Features : This printer has a ton of features too many to discuss but it can scan images it has a card reader and can be hooked up to the network via ethernet or via wifi.



Ink Consumption : This printer is also very easy on the ink and the wallet. Ink seems to last a fairly long time even when doing a lot of photo prints.



Setup: Setup was painless I installed all 4 of these units in about 40 mins just run the disc connect the printer install the print head and then the ink cartridges. ( I do however wish they used less packaging )



All in all I woud definitely recommend this to a friend. I have yet to have a single problem with any of the 4 and they are being used by tons of people each day for photo printing.



Edit; I forgot to mention that I have only tried this on Windows XP can't comment on the problem the other user spoke of with Macintosh Snow leopard 10.6.More detail ...