Multifunction Printer Recommendation

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RoyS

First post from a newbie .....

Our old (very old) HP deskjet has expired with a loud grinding noise,
so we are in the market for a new home printer and, as we are short of
space, we are considering a multifunction.

Requirements are for a text and document printer including diagrams,
colour scanner for both page and book, and copy function (preferably
colour). No need for fax, and we won't be printing photos. I accept
that any of the functions can be better on a standalone machine, but
are there MFs that give 'average' quality on each of these required
functions??

Is any one manufacturer considered best-of-breed?? - I've sort-of
assumed that Canon is the best, but am not sure. Also, I would be
grateful for any specific model recommendations. We are looking
sub-£200 (which probably means sub-$250).

Many thanks in advance for your help - Roy Simpson
 
First post from a newbie .....

Our old (very old) HP deskjet has expired with a loud grinding noise,
so we are in the market for a new home printer and, as we are short of
space, we are considering a multifunction.

Requirements are for a text and document printer including diagrams,
colour scanner for both page and book, and copy function (preferably
colour). No need for fax, and we won't be printing photos. I accept
that any of the functions can be better on a standalone machine, but
are there MFs that give 'average' quality on each of these required
functions??

Is any one manufacturer considered best-of-breed?? - I've sort-of
assumed that Canon is the best, but am not sure. Also, I would be
grateful for any specific model recommendations. We are looking
sub-£200 (which probably means sub-$250).

Many thanks in advance for your help - Roy Simpson
Click to expand...


My own personal recommendation would be to go for a Canon MP750

However please note I have no direct experience of other
multifunctionals so I can't make that recommendation unequivocally.

That said, reviews on the unit are very good.. the speed of a
photocopy is excellent. The feature set is amazing and I keep finding
new things to do with it... Refilling carts is easy to do so costs can
be kept low... and even if you go with aftermarket carts Canon is
still cheaper than Epson equivalents...

My personal favourite aspect are:
- booklet printing
- the document feeder for scanning
- photcopying speed
- printing quality
- the "quiet" mode for printing at night/ when the kids are asleep :)


The only down sides I've seen so far are:
- the fact that there is a tiny bit of bleed at normal printing speeds
with the black on plain paper (I had to look for this though)
- the lack of water fastness of the ink (unlike Epson CX6x00 series
printers)


I'd recommend you buy soon though as MP750's seem to be going out of
stock. http://www.pricerunner.co.uk should give you the best place to
get a deal in the UK.

Hope that helps.
 
RoyS said:
First post from a newbie .....

Our old (very old) HP deskjet has expired with a loud grinding noise,
so we are in the market for a new home printer and, as we are short of
space, we are considering a multifunction.

Requirements are for a text and document printer including diagrams,
colour scanner for both page and book, and copy function (preferably
colour). No need for fax, and we won't be printing photos. I accept
that any of the functions can be better on a standalone machine, but
are there MFs that give 'average' quality on each of these required
functions??

Is any one manufacturer considered best-of-breed?? - I've sort-of
assumed that Canon is the best, but am not sure. Also, I would be
grateful for any specific model recommendations. We are looking
sub-£200 (which probably means sub-$250).

Many thanks in advance for your help - Roy Simpson
Click to expand...
==================

I'm happy with a refirb Dell 962 I bought a few months ago for about $95 as I
recall. It has both a flatbed and sheet feeder scanner/copier which was
important to me. And a built in fax that I don't much use, but has been handy a
time or two. It's a rebadged Lexmark x7170 I believe. One advantage to me is
that it is also dead simple to refill the cartridges with a generic kit from
Sam's Club. To get new cartridges you have to get them sent from Dell, not your
local store if that's a problem. It's not to me.

On the down side, it's a bit noisier than it needs to be but not bothersome.
And it's not a unit I'd buy to print photographs, but then I'd never do photos
on a printer anyhow. The color is quite nice though for run of the mill
graphics and so forth.

There are a lot of other reasonable choices out there too. I'd just be careful
not to get stuck with a printer that will cost you a fortune to keep supplied
with ink. Some of them came out awhile back with cheap up front prices but
incredible per sheet ink costs.

Good luck with your choice...

Bill
 
Martin said:
My own personal recommendation would be to go for a Canon MP750

However please note I have no direct experience of other
multifunctionals so I can't make that recommendation unequivocally.

That said, reviews on the unit are very good.. the speed of a
photocopy is excellent. The feature set is amazing and I keep finding
new things to do with it... Refilling carts is easy to do so costs can
be kept low... and even if you go with aftermarket carts Canon is
still cheaper than Epson equivalents...

My personal favourite aspect are:
- booklet printing
- the document feeder for scanning
- photcopying speed
- printing quality
- the "quiet" mode for printing at night/ when the kids are asleep :)


The only down sides I've seen so far are:
- the fact that there is a tiny bit of bleed at normal printing speeds
with the black on plain paper (I had to look for this though)
- the lack of water fastness of the ink (unlike Epson CX6x00 series
printers)
Click to expand...
NO BLEED IF YOU USE QUALITY PAPER AND OEM INK
 
Martin, Bill - thanks for your replies and advice. I will look more
closely at the Canon range, both the 750 and the 450.

Best wishes - Roy
 
My votes?

Canon MP7xx series - excellent print speeds, very fast, very nice text
and photo quality with dual paper trays. Works great here at work.

Epson RX500 or higher series - excellent photo prints, moderately fast
photo and text print speeds, decent alternative to the Canons. Works
great at home for me.

HP 3310 - huge 3.6" LCD display, very fast print speeds, very good all
around. New cartridge set and system design, so no prior models to base
expected reliability on.

----

In the end, use www.fatwallet.com/c/18/ to find latest printer deals for
the above.

Use www.shopper.com + expected # of prints per cartridge to figure out
the per page ink costs, and also factor in the cost of price of paper as
well (for photo prints).

The one that has the best combo of price per page + print speeds should
be the one to pick (this constantly varies, so you'll have to do the
math using today's prices).

Keep in mind that the above are all excellent choices and can be sub'd
for each other w/o worry or losing any significant feature in any dept.

---

Oh, the very latest PC User computer magazine from japan has the top-end
Canon MP950 doing much sharper negative and slide scans than the top end
Epson or HP all-in-one units. This is a rare feature most don't use in
today's digital camera world, but if it's important to you....
 
Martin said:
My own personal recommendation would be to go for a Canon MP750

However please note I have no direct experience of other
multifunctionals so I can't make that recommendation unequivocally.
Click to expand...

Hi,
you seem to have one, so you can probably answer my question :
I'm very much tempted by this Canon (MP750) , the features as a printer
are very impressive, and I know the printing engine used, but I could
not find one in demonstration to see if the scanner (with a document
feeder), when used as a flatbed, is able of scanning **well** a folded
document or even a small object.

Some Canon scanners are "CIS" technology, and don't even scan correctly
a paper that has been folded: the folded area is blurred , there no
"depth of field", so you can't scan a book if you can't crush it
absolutely flat on the glass.

Is the scanner a CIS or does it use a fluorescent lamp and so can scan
even a "not so flat" document ???
 
Hi,
you seem to have one, so you can probably answer my question :
I'm very much tempted by this Canon (MP750) , the features as a printer
are very impressive, and I know the printing engine used, but I could
not find one in demonstration to see if the scanner (with a document
feeder), when used as a flatbed, is able of scanning **well** a folded
document or even a small object.

Some Canon scanners are "CIS" technology, and don't even scan correctly
a paper that has been folded: the folded area is blurred , there no
"depth of field", so you can't scan a book if you can't crush it
absolutely flat on the glass.

Is the scanner a CIS or does it use a fluorescent lamp and so can scan
even a "not so flat" document ???
Click to expand...


Hi,

Assuming a few things I did a couple of tests for you so you can see
what the MP750 can achieve.

Test #1
Well folded and abused (approx legal sized) leaflet with 3 folds in
flat bed scanner.

Result: #1
The scan came out reasonably well although you can see that the paper
has lifted slightly and lost some colour definition.. Hardly
noticeable though.


Test #2
Book (Black and white text) 220 pages.. opened mid way.

Result #2
The lid of the scanner actually lifted (at the hinge end) and evened
out pressure on the book to keep it as flat as possible. The scan was
obviously still not completely flat (damaged spine would result
otherwise) but it did scan well and despite some shadowing, the result
was reasonable. Certainly the fact that the hinges lift to provide a
horizontal (well -ish) level over a book or similar, help enormously.



Final notes:

For small objects, eg: playing cards, the MP750 is about as good as
any other flat bed scanner.. However from my own experience I ended up
using my Fujitsu Fi-5110ex2 document scanner for a stack of playing
cards.. The document feeder on the MP750 is unable to take documents
of less than A5 size without a LOT of assistance from the end user,
apparently, due to the paper guides and rollers...


Hope that helps...

Martin
 
Martin wrote :

..../...
Hi, ..../...
Test #1
Well folded and abused (approx legal sized) leaflet with 3 folds in
flat bed scanner.

Result: #1
The scan came out reasonably well although you can see that the paper
has lifted slightly and lost some colour definition.. Hardly
noticeable though.

Test #2
Book (Black and white text) 220 pages.. opened mid way.

Result #2
.../...
but it did scan well and despite some shadowing, the result
was reasonable. ..../...

Hope that helps...

Martin
Click to expand...

thanks, it helps very much, I think I found the right gift for my
student daughter !!;-)
 
Martin wrote :

.../...


thanks, it helps very much, I think I found the right gift for my
student daughter !!;-)
Click to expand...

Heh... You're welcome... Oh and just to note the MP750 is going out of
production so you'd best get one reasonably quickly :)
 
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