Canon Pixma MP530 Office All-In-One Inkjet Photo Printer

• Compact, stylish unit saves on office space while giving you all the features your workgroup needs to thrive
• Features a productive 30-page Automatic Document Feeder; prints up to 29 pages per minute (ppm) in black and white, and 19 ppm in color
• 150-page fax memory safely stores all incoming faxes if paper or ink runs out; built-in scanner offers 1200 by 2400 dots per inch optical resolution
• Dimensions: 18.4 x 10.4 x 18.4 inches (WxHxD); weighs 28.2 pounds
• All-In-One photo printer prints, copies, scans, and faxes

You should be aware that this printer has a serious "ink low" behavior. When any ink cartridge is getting low (which still means a lot of ink left by the way), it changes the Fax reception model. Instead of printing your faxes as they arrive, it dumps them into memory. So, even though yellow (say) is low, it will not print your B&W fax!

It takes more than 5 steps to print the fax and delete it (menu, scroll to memory item, ok, scroll to print, OK document, scroll to print all pages, ok, menu to go up, scroll to delete, ok to delete, ok to delete, menu to get out).

Worse, after a couple of these, the memory is mixed up. So, when you want to send a Fax, it will say "memory full" even though the memory is empty. You then have to power cycle the printer (hold down on/off for 1 second, wait 10 seconds, power on, wait for it to get ready (another 10-20 seconds).

This means you either have to waste ink by throwing out cartridges before they are empty, or you have to deal with this mess. Canon says there is no workaround or fix for this.

There are 3 other problems with copying you should know before you buy (I wish I did):

1. You cannot use the Auto Document Feeder (sheet feeder) when copying or scanning with any setting in auto (exposure, size, etc). It does not make any of that clear, so if you find it refuses the auto doc feeder, reset everything to manual :-(

2. Black duplex printing uses color cartridges for one of the sides, so uses the more expensive ink. That is, it does not use the blank ink for both sides.

3. Copying speeds are much slower than the blurb implies. If you make 10 copies of one page, it is as fast as they say. If you copy multiple pages, each one takes much much longer, does the scan, and then does the print. Also, if any setting is in auto mode, it does a two pass scan (one to check the page), and that takes a really long time.

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I''ve had this Canon All-In-One for about a week now. It was very easy to set-up with my Windows XP machine due to the clear, easy to follow instructions. It''s desktop footprint is surprisingly small and it takes up less space on my desk than the printer and photocopy machines it replaces.

Print quality overall is very good, while the printer is quiet and fast. Text is clear and crisp and color photos are printed with surprising quality on photo paper. Maybe not quite as good as a dedicated photo printer but, never the less, good enough for this professional photographer as quick proofs.

The scanner is not of the highest quality, but seems to scan well at medium resolution and with fair color fidelity. Not quite a dedicated professional photographers scanner but perfect for normal home and home business uses. The software is easy to use and in advanced mode, quite flexible, enabling the user to dial in manual settings to make the best scan possible. The auto settings seem quite satisfactory for basic home users and should make scanned images look colorful and sharp.

I have not had a chance to see if all the Fax functions work as advertised and I have not yet explored all the ways in which this flexible machine works. The 2 paper trays is a great idea I store normal paper in one and glossy photo paper in the other one push of a button on the front control panel and the paper source can be chosen, eliminating the need to swap out paper types.

I will also have to see how economical the MP530 is with ink cartridges, but having spent the 1st 2 days printing everything I could as tests, the software reports that the ink cartridges are pretty much full.

The MP530 looks great, performs very well and is a good price. So far I am very pleased.

Update on 9-26-06 : I have had some time to use more of the many functions of this printer.

The Fax function has now been tested and works fine with my telephone/answering machine. It sits in line with the phone and only cuts in to pick up the fax if there is an incoming fax, otherwise the answer phone does it''s job unhindered. Perfect!

I have had also a chance to print some photo business cards, quite a few high resolution 8x10 photos and the normal daily B&W text printing. Print quality overall has been very good and the Duplex print (as well as the duplex copy) functions have been very much appreciated and used continuously, as has the web print software. According to the ink cartridge software, the cartridges seem to be still fairly full. The ADF (auto document feeder) works ok if what you feed into it is uncreased, unfolded and of the standard letter size.

The overall build quality is great and I have had nothing but compliments from people who have seen this printer and its output.

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I also had a difficult time finding one of these units to actually see and touch and reviews on this machine are few and far between. I finally found one at Fry''s electronics in Fountain Valley.

We have been using an HP officejet 6110 and it finally stopped recognizing print cartridges so I decided to look for a new machine. I was not happy with the cost of replacement cartridges for the hp and it goes through them fairly quickly. The Canon uses induvidual ink cartridges and reviews of similar Canon''s show one of the lowest printing costs available in an inkjet.

I have read the reviews for the mp500 and the mp830. Most people seem to be happy with these machines. I was about to purchase an mp500 when I saw the mp530 on the Canon website. I preferred the 530 because of the fax capability. I believe the 530 uses the same print technology as the 500, and the copy/scanning mechanism is also the same. I use an mp500 at work and the print quality is very good and the scan quality I would rate as good so I ordered the 530.

I have been very happy with the quality of the print. As good as the hp6110 or better. The copy quality is good but the colors tend to be a little washed out which is similar to the mp500. I am sure an adjustment in the printer settings would help with the colors. Quality is a little less than that of the hp but it uses a different scanning mechanism and the quality is acceptable for our uses. I have yet to use the fax function so I am not able to comment on that feature.

I am also very pleased with the looks of the machine. All of the doors and covers close giving the 530 a very sleek look unlike the HP. The output door opens automatically when printing or copying. The print speed is also faster than the 6110.

So far I have not had any compatability issues with the Canon. I have this printer connected to an imac G5 and it works very well. Overall I have given a rating of 4 stars. I think it is an excellent value for the price. After my experience with the hp6110 I don''t think I will go back to hp. From what I have read Canon''s products are generally reliable and that will hopefully be the case with this machine as well.

Hope this review helps.

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I purchased the Canon MP530 and have had very good results so far. All the bad reviews about the ink cartridges are by people who gave up on the printer without a simple Google search to fix the problems. You can disable the Print Monitor all together so that the printer will work no matter how low the ink levels are. This is helpful when you refill the ink cartridges yourself, as I have done. Canon would love you buy their tanks every time they go low, but you can refill them yourself; but you must turn off the print monitor because the printer thinks it''s tanks are empty even though you''ve refilled them.

Do it this way: 1) go to "maintenance" tab on print properties 2) select "View Printer Status" from the bottom 3) Click "Option" and deselect "Enable Status Monitor" -That Simple!

A minor annoyance that doesn''t warrant a one-star rating from other users. I really like this printer!

I''ve had this machine for about ten days now, long enough to test all its features and find that I''m 100% satisfied with every one of them.

Installation was a no-brainer on both my XP and iBook

Photos print fabulously with the sample canon glossy paper included

Scanning is extraordinarily good! And the software which allows you to manipulate your scanned images is super useful and very easy to use.

I scanned in my tax returns and saved them to PDF files in 10 minutes!

I scanned in a 2x3 photo from 1964, enlarged it to 4x5 and printed it in 5 minutes, and the new image is as good as the original!

Copying and FAXing are easy and faster than on my old HP Laserjet 3200

The back sheet feeder and lower cartridge work well, provide convenience, and fold up to protect from dust when not in use, as does the automatic document feeder up top.

The paper catcher even unfolds automatically if you are printing a document or photo and forgot to open it!

The machine is very quiet.

UI on the printer panel is intuitive, and the accompanying software is really good, with no conflicts with XP, which is often a problem.

Highly highly recommend this product. Totally worth its price tag.