Canon MX850

...- this is my second Canon all in one, its here to replace the slightly older MP750 as I do a lot of wireless laptop work and wanted a printer with network printing. I bought this 2 weeks ago and these are my thoughts and experiences so far:

The initial setup is quite easy, the printer comes with a big A3 sheet with idiot pictures and text making the install easy enough. Its a little time consuming though as it takes a while to initialise ...
...its own.

After the machine installation comes the software installation - this was a breeze for USB - install, plug-in and job done. To get it on the network was an entirely different story, I'm technically savvy (I work in IT) but this took just over a day of fiddling to achieve. Two massive tips here. 1) Ditch the supplied CD and download the software from the website as its had several revisions! 2) Perform the firmware update using ... more

Ok to start a little background - this is my second Canon all in one, its here to replace the slightly older MP750 as I do a lot of wireless laptop work and wanted a printer with network printing. I bought this 2 weeks ago and these are my thoughts and experiences so far:

The initial setup is quite easy, the printer comes with a big A3 sheet with idiot pictures and text making the install easy enough. Its a little time consuming though as it takes a while to initialise - mainly because this printer aligns the print head on its own.

After the machine installation comes the software installation - this was a breeze for USB - install, plug-in and job done. To get it on the network was an entirely different story, I'm technically savvy (I work in IT) but this took just over a day of fiddling to achieve. Two massive tips here. 1) Ditch the supplied CD and download the software from the website as its had several revisions! 2) Perform the firmware update using USB before doing the network side of things. If you encounter "A port is not installed, please install a port" message (or Japglish) its because the install has failed to tell you to restart your computer - do this and it carries on and all is well.

(When networking) For those used to picking the printer from a list or to simply manually assigning its IP port to the driver beware - Each machine needs to have the setup run on it as it uses canon's only port for printing and a small tray app for remote scanning. This in itself is fine but I encountered the same problems on all 4 machines I installed this on which was a little annoying to say the least... anyway:

Initial start-up time is reasonably slow from OFF, that said this being a fax printer it wouldn't normally be turned off - just allowed to turn itself into standby in which case its ready for printing in about 10 seconds.

The on screen display makes using the printer a bit of a doddle, it has adjustment for angle but sadly not contrast although it is good enough from factory anyway. The button layout and general ease of use is improved from the MP750 substantially.

Print quality is exceptional, both for speed and results - I could ramble on here about it but to say you shouldn't be disappointed will suffice I think. CD/DVD printing is still just as easy as before but a huge plus over the old one is that the MX850 has a storage slot for the CD tray (beneath the main paper drawer) when its not in use.

It has two paper "cassettes" so can store photo paper and A4 at the same time (or other sizes) and uses 5 inks so you don't have the typical problem of one colour in the "colour" cartridge running out before the others do. A slight negative is that the cartridges are chipped meaning its harder (but not impossible) to find compatible replacements.

Another big plus is the inclusion of a memory card reader - even handier is the fact that this becomes a mapped network drive and can therefore be seen and accessed by everyone on the network.

Size wise its a couple of CM wider then the MP, about the same depth and about 5 CM shorter.

I have no real need for the scanner side of it but I have tested it and it scans as well as expected, again over the network. Fax works well.

One thing that's not mentioned much is the ability to setup and configure the basics of the printer via a webpage (Simply type the IP into your web browser) which is easier then the smaller screen.

All in all I am extremely pleased with it, after the tedious network setup it now works extremely well on my network - printing via a Belkin wireless network router from two wired PC's and two wireless laptops. 

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