I have no idea where to start, it seems that cannons may be a place to
start, basically I need something with the same features as an Epson cx6600,
( no fax needed). I don't need photo printing capableness either.
what should I stay away from?
Any suggestions?
Thanks for your time
Canon has a number of sub-budget models. You should avoid these
unless you specifically have some application where you need
cartridges with heads on board, low yield, high cost per page. In all
fairness you might need to print 50 pages every 6 months, then they
are worth looking at.
This would include the MX300, 310, just about anything M somethin
below 500.
Now, they have new models which will cost you more per page as they
shunk the size of their cartridges. This is the mp620, and the new
mp980. But both offer wifi, and the mp620 is $130 from
http://estore.usa.canon.com/.
Canon's feature set is pretty basic. You can't for example scan to
memory card, and in fact I can't seem to write to memory cards on my
mp830.
Best in terms of price at the moment are
mp530 - $100 shipped amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Pixma-O...?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1227513325&sr=8-1#
Fax model, small sheet feeder. Smaller than average head. Cd
printing optional. ip4200 print engine.
mp610 - $130 shipped amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Pixma-I...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1227513389&sr=1-1
Photo model. Card slots, larger head than the mp530. It's one of the
smaller AIOs from canon, with the exception of models below mp/
mx500.
There are the "office" models, the mp830 which is in short supply, and
the mx850 which is the network edition. Both offer sheet feeders,
fax. the Mx850 has a set of medium sized color nozzles over the
mp830.
mx850 $170 shipped amazon.com, $170 shipped from buy.com
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Pixma-O...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1227513501&sr=1-1
mp830 - priced above $200 presently.
mx700 $110 shipped buy.com
http://www.buy.com/prod/canon-pixma...er-canon-pixma-mx700/q/loc/101/205557539.html
Oh, there is also the mx700. This features a lower resolution color
head than the other models, but does offer network, but not wireless.
The black text head is also smaller. It is also missing the extra dye
black cartridge, so if you are printing on anything but plain paper,
it uses a mix of cyan, magenta, yellow to make black. This isn't
really an issue on photo paper, but this is an issue on matte paper.
You can always just say "plain paper" and avoid the problem.
I think of this like my old ip3000, which actually did very well on
photos. CD printing is not an option on this model. Normally I'd say
avoid this model as it's normally sold for $200, within the same
ballpark of other models that offer more features, and then then there
is the mp530 which offers the extra black and higher resolution photo
printing, but no network. I think duplex printing is also not
included on this model, but to be honest I don't find duplex printing
to be that useful a feature since printer page flipping takes so
long.
mp960 referb - $100 + shipping
http://estore.usa.canon.com/webapp/...1&parent_category_rn=17251&top_category=12054
This is the photo model, with 7 ink tanks. To be honest, if photo is
not your priority, I'd avoid this model since it takes extra tanks,
and increased the cost per photo print. But it does produce prints
that are a tad better than my mp830.
Text printing is pretty much the same on all these models, except the
mp530 and the mx700 which offer only 320 text nozzles, vs 512
nozzles. This results in a marginal performance hit.
