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

You read it all over this machine is great in what it does. I sort of had beetr expectations on photo quality but still very acceptable especially if you use good photo paper. What really-really turns me off with this machine is that it does not allow use of generic ink cartridges. Even if you install a generic one it will not be able to print anything, not even by using colors from the ink tanks that are full. Each ink cartridge costs $15.00. I would not recommend this printer if you want to save money on the ink. Thus the 3 stars. I am going to sell it and try to find a most cost effective machine.

This printer is getting rave reviews from both PC Magazine and PC World. That said, there's a big problem with this printer that neither review mentions: namely, duplex black text printing from ALL applications produces inferior results than when duplexing is off--and uses colour ink to produce black text when printing in duplex mode. Consequently, until this issue is addressed, the MP530 is difficult for me to recommend.

Why? According to Canon technical support, the design flaw is by choice. But more on that later.


If I don't duplex print on fast mode, the text looks very good (the problem is duplex text printing). The print quality when duplex text printing looks dotty and washed out. If you turn duplexing off, the text print quality is vastly superior. The difference on fast mode when not duplex printing is quite astounding. Simply using duplex printing makes the text quality significantly worse on fast mode.


One might be inclined to believe bad quality from fast mode text printing isn't a big deal (except that the MP530 is quite capable of producing very good text quality even at fast mode--except when duplexing), but this problem also extends to standard printing when duplexing is enabled. That said, in standard mode the problem isn't as pronounced.


Basically the MP530 is using the colour inks to produce black text instead of the pigment black ink when printing text in duplex mode. I find this to be extremely bothersome. The problem exists when duplexing text in other printing quality modes, but it's most apparent or obvious when duplexing text on fast mode.


You won't find this issue listed in professional reviews from PCMagazine or PC World, simply because the reviewers probably didn't bother to check. For whatever reason, missing this issue is pretty sloppy.


If you want good text quality when duplex printing, it's best not to use this printer at all: you're using color ink instead of the black pigment ink--and the text looks vastly inferior as a result.


This is from Canon technical support:


"The unit was designed to print using "composite black" when duplexing. Composite black is created by using color inks. Unfortunately, we do not have answers as to why Canon USA made this decisions, these decisions are determined by the developers at Canon INC."


Absolutely brutal. Composite black text print is vastly inferior to the text print produced when using the black ink cartridge. Canon technical support is basically telling me that duplex black text printing on the MP830 is horrible by design. Oh, plus you have the added bonus of wasting color ink when printing inferior black text while duplexing.


Inexcusable


Upon inquiring further, this is the reason Canon technical support gives for using color ink to produce black text while duplex printing:


"Composite black is least likely to show through the other side of the document, which may occur when using black ink and printing on both sides of the paper. "


Then why can I print text on one side, flip the page over manually, print text on the other side, and not experience any issue with ink showing through to the other side? The text quality looks vastly superior when I do this instead of duplexing (I do not experience any issues).


It shouldn't be that difficult to allow a printer driver option to use the pigmented black ink with a longer drying time (because I've also been told by Canon pigmented black ink may smear when duplex priting) if that's what the customer would prefer, instead of inflicting poor text quality produced by color inks when duplex black text printing.


This issue is very easily reproduced:


Print text in fast mode with duplexing on. Then print text in fast mode with duplexing off.


Night and day


It's not just fast mode that's affected either; it's all print quality modes when duplex printing is enabled. More importantly, all customers have the added bonus (in addition to poor black text quality while duplexing) of wasting color ink when printing black text with the duplex printing option enabled.


Canon's response to this is that pigmented black ink will smear, bleed, or show through to the other side when duplex printing. Contrary to Canon's claim, I am not experiencing any issues when printing black text in standard mode on one side of cheap Britex Premier Multiusage paper (20 lb 92 bright . . . I paid less than a dollar for 500 sheets on sale), flipping the page over manually, and printing the other side again on standard. Regardless of whether I've tested using tons of different papers (and I admit I haven't), again, it shouldn't be that difficult to allow a printer driver option to use the pigmented black ink with a longer drying time if that's what the customer would prefer, instead of inflicting poor text quality produced by composite black (created by using color inks) when duplexing black text.


My 9 year old HP was dying, and my office said that they'd pay for an all-in-one for me. I reserached a lot and it was between this one, an HP (I had always owned HPs) or a Dell. And I selected this one because it has more nozzles for better picture printing for a great price of $158.



I am VERY happy with the unit. Packing was great; undamaged in transit. Instructions are clear enough, albeit not super. Menu system is also easy enough to use, but the 2-line LCD screen reminds me of my first fax machine 10 years ago. (The Dell had a full 5 line color screen.)



This Canon looks SLICK; very stylish. The front door automatically opens when it starts printing -- like a kid I will never get over how cool that is. It takes up paper as its printing, so it literally prints a page and then goes right to the next one (vice my HP would take up one page, finish printing a page and spit it out, then take up the next sheet, etc.). It's very quick and the fax and copy functions work with one button.



It's pretty quiet (there's an option for Nighttime printing which I guess makes it even quieter) but shakes the desk when it's moving! Paper cassette holds plenty of paper and the auto feed handler works great for the fax.



The unit is BIG, though. Maybe not bigger than others, but much bigger than my old printer. If you're a work-at-home guy like me, you should measure your area before bying any of these units.



I've already recommended this unit to two friends. I'm very pleased.

This is the third multifunction printer that I have owned and is by far the very best. Printing is sharp and clear even at "fast" print settings. The copy and scan functions produce clear, crisp results. The document feeder for Fax and Copy functions works very well, just like the "big" machines. The auto duplex function for printing and copying is the best I have seen on a printer in this price range. And dual sided copying and faxing saves time and is trouble free. The software setup was easy and troublefree. This is just a great value product and knocks the socks off the competitors.

It is big - but performs big!! Clear pictures - easy to use scan -- great value & quality

This is my first Canon printer and for the past three weeks, since I purchased,it has worked as expected. I have an all in one HP D135 that looks nicer, but has one single color cartridge that has to be replaced if just one color is low. The canon has separate cartridges and they are cheaper.

I've had this Canon MP530 for over a month and I am absolutely delighted. I bought it to replace an Epson Ink Jet printer, which was terribly prone to paper jams. This Canon does more that I expected (even faxes in color!)and operates easily. I like the features that don't rely on a computer - copy, fax -- and the dual paper sources. Generally I use plain b&w printing the most and this machine handles that quietly and efficiently, with very good quality printing. Color printing/copying is crisp and accurate. I don't print photos often but was pleased with the tests I did when learning to use the machine. Scanning was easy and the OCR software that came with it is way better than what I had tried previously. Fax works easily though I can't set it up with our answering service (not an answer machine - that works fine, but we have a live service and the MP530 hangs up after determining that it is not a fax call ... there may be a way around this but I haven't found it yet).

The directions for operating the machine are a bit complicated and there are lots of buttons and features on the MP530, but I figured it out in an hour or two (fairly experienced with computers and hardware).

Overall I am tickled with this all in one!!

I bought this printer for my mother and she loved it so I decided to buy me one and I love it. It is very easy to use and has all the features that I need. My pictures print out Excellently. I scan in a lot of photos and art work of my children and it scans in perfectly. It is fast, quiet and easy to use. It really is the best All-In-One printer that you can buy. I shopped around and Amazon was the least expensive and had free shipping.

Summary:
If your goal is to print pictures you can get faster/better printers. If your goal is true multifunction and cheap initial cost and low 'cost per page' -- this one is great and does pictures 'OK' too.


Pros:
* Cost per page back ink is on par with laser printer (at the time I purchased)
* Cost for the printer at Amazon was $50 off the price of anywhere else (at the time I purchased)
* Cost per page for color ink is cheaper than cost per page in black and white ink (got this info from a computer review magazine comparing multiple printers -- I can't find it online or I would put a link here -- sorry)
* Duplexing uses the cheaper color ink even if in black and white mode (I think this is because the color ink is designed to dry faster so it won't smear on the inner rollers when duplexing)
* I *think* draft mode also uses the cheaper color ink. (I think the more expensive black ink is reserved for the higher DPI needed for sharp text)
* paper tray keeps the dust off of your paper when not printing
* was able to get faxing working over VOIP (vonage - not officially supported but I did get it to work)

Cons:
* Couldn't get copy enlargement to work -- probably is my misunderstanding of how to use it.
* There are better printers out there for color photo printing (Info from same magazine article I mentioned above)
* This is a much larger unit than my last Canon printer which was just a printer and not a multifunction.
* Other reviewers have reported this printer will not attempt to print faxes or do other functions when you are low or out of ink -- be sure to keep spare ink cartridges handy.


Note: The little ink refill shops sell a refillable 'chipped' Cannon cartridge so if you really want to use refills you can. But as I mentioned above - cost per page rivals a laser printer so unless you are a publishing shop you will probably be happy with new Canon cartridges and won't have the worry of gumming up the works with inferior quality ink.



Details:
Someone who's opinion I respect suggested my getting a laser printer for cheap ink costs, but laser printers also eat energy with the heating drum and cost a lot more to begin with. This this inkjet printer has such affordable ink (even buying cartages new from Canon) that is is cheaper to use than most laser printers for black and white printing -- on top of that - color printing is cheaper than black and white printing? nice. When I refer to 'ink costs' I am referring to 'cost per page'. The second thing to note is the ink cartridges are individual so you don't have to buy some huge expensive cartridge when only one color has run low (The HP units I tried had the colors all in one cartridge)

I use VOIP (vonage) for my phone line over Verison FOIS -- I called vonage and had them break up the packets for my account as small as possible, then turned up the quality of line settings and then set the fax to lowest speed on the MP530 -- now I can send/receive faxes with this unit over VOIP.

I bought this one about 6 months ago through a great deal on amazon and have been using it with windows (Compaq laptop) and apple machines (Intel Mac Pro) The only issue I have right now when i place an item and choose 'copy' and then 'enlarge/reduce' and select 'fit to page' and 'OK' it does not change to 'auto' in the LCD window as the manual states it should.

I have had both HP and canon (and old matrix Epsons..) printers and the Canons never disappoint in quality and cost of ink.


Enjoy!

This is a great printer. It is easy to use and set up. Had an epson before and am greatly impressed with the quality of the prints from this printer. Definitly recommend.

This is a true multi function machine. Easy to use directly from the LCD menu or the computer. The feature I like the most is the dual paper ports. I keep letter paper in the top loader & photo paper in the front tray.
It has an auto feed slot for coppying or a fast scan but if you want higher rez just place the document/photo directly on the glass bed.
It's very quiet when printing & the color pictures are spectacular. The ink seems to be lasting a long time, even after printing 15, 5x7 photos it's still shows full.
Fax works great too.
Just plug it in, load the driver & go.

As this is a Canon product, I have no problem with the print quality. It's quite good. Why I took off a star was that I have a small greeting card company and self publish my cards and I had problems with feeding when using card stock. This is the second Canon printer I have purchased and I had the same problem with the more expensive MP850 as well. The cassette feed worked for about 100 sheets and the stopped and the rear feed did the same thing. I had to hand feed sheets into the rear feed and it took several tries on some of them. A bit frustrating. If you are looking to print a large quantity of photos at the highest quality, you are looking at a few minutes per page on an 8x10 print. Again, the prints look great. It is also a large machine, but you have to expect that with an all in one.

This is our third Canon multifunction, the previous two wore out - after less time that I would've liked (3yrs or so), but the reviews and features convinced me to try again with the Pixma 530. So far so good, the print quality is good and the scanning is great. I particularly like the included Omnipage OCR software, which works very well. I have two disappointments though: you cannot receive faxes directly to the computer (which our previous models would), and it cannot print directly onto a CD/DVD, contrary to a review I read. After some research it seems that the non-US version will do this but for some reason the feature is deleted in the US version, probably as a cost savings. One feature I like is the two paper feeds for printing - either from the usual cassette or from a sheet-feeder at the back. So I load fresh paper in the cassette and used paper in the sheet feeder and can print on either. Haven't had it long enough to comment on ink usage, although the tanks are relatively cheap (under $5 for 3rd party, about $15 for Canon).

I have had other printers but this is hands down the best yet. My photos are excellent, the OCR that comes with the printer is top drawer. I cannot find anything about it that I do not like.

The MP530 was easy to setup out of the box. Installation went smoothly with no problems on a Windows XP configuration. Print quality is good, scan quality is fair, photo printing is good, faxing was good until an ink tank error message appeared, then I was hosed. I didn't have an immediate ink tank replacement, and the printer wouldn't let me bypass the error message to send a fax, very frustrating. So be sure to keep plenty of expensive Canon ink tanks handy. They use chips, and apparently have them configured to stop after so many prints... so even if you swap the chip out on a compatible replacement cartridge, Canon's found a way to stay in your pocket. You'll nearly pay the price of the printer again after just two complete Canon ink tank (5 total) replacement purchases. If you want economical printing, go elsewhere.

Pros - easy setup, good quality prints
Cons - very expensive ink tanks that go fast

So far so good. We bought the Canon Pixma MP530 a couple months ago and we're very happy with it so far. We're not giving it 5 stars yet because we haven't owned it long enough to really judge the quality over the long haul.

We wanted a printer that could also scan, copy and fax while printing great pictures so we settled on the Canon Pixma MP530. Everything we've printed so far looks great. Text is clear and crisp. Pictures are vivid and ready to frame. In fact, we couldn't be happier with the quality of our photos. We love that there are two paper trays for different sized paper so no more pulling out letter sized paper to print something else on photo paper. The automatic document feeder makes making copies and scans of multiple pages really easy and fast. This printer can also be used as a fax machine but we haven't used that function yet.

This printer is quiet, efficient, and very easy to use. And it's been almost two months and we're still using the ink cartridges that came with the printer.

In short, we give the Canon Pixma MP530 a big thumbs up!

I purchased this all-in-one after my Epson CX5400 died - just stop spitting out ink, despite wasting money on new cartridges. I've owned Espons for my personal office use for several years, because I was so impressed with how well they work with printing photos. Unfortunately, the cheaper ink jets were extremely noisy and very slow. I read some reviews on the Canon printers and decided to take a shot. This is a true bargain, with fax, scanner, and printer. The quality of print is much better than my old Epson and the sound level is down at least 40 decibels - its very quiet. It is also considerably faster. I would estimate it is averaging 10 pages a minute (compared to about 2 or 3 with the Epson!). It is also quite stylish. I've used it for about a month and absolutely no troubles. I've only printed photos on plain paper (research papers with images), but I can see that this is doing a much better job than the CX5400. This is a very capable machine, and for the price, exceptional quality.

I have always been a Epson kind of guy. But I decided to go with Canon this time. I'm glad I did. Right out of the box this A-I-O is easy to use- printing, copying and scanning are straightforward and almost intuitive. Believe me, I'm no geek, but I have not had to use the Owner's manual once.

this is a great all in one printer. very easy to use and works great.
Doesnt put a bunch of unwanted software that takes over your printing task and computer like HP printers do.

I am very happy with this all in one machine. For a non-technically minded person, it was easy to set up and install. It prints very fast with clear graphics.

This all in one does a very good job on picture quality prints. I have had no complaints or any difficulties with the machine as of yet. If there is anything negative to say about this machine it would be the small ink tanks and the cost of replacements. All in all a good machine.

The pictures print great, just beautiful. The scanner works easily with good quality. The color copier is great as well.

Every function I have used works good. I do wish the black print would be a little more black (compared to my HP932c it is a bit gray). Otherwise everything works very well and is a pleasure to use.

I have had this printer about two months now. I have used it to scan, fax, copy and print photos as well as documents. It has been simple for me to figure out how to do all of these things, and I have been really happy with the final products. As other reviewers have mentioned, the photos it prints are not the best that can be had, but that is not the purpose of this device and I can't judge it down for that. And I would add that the prints it makes are superior to anything else I have used in this price range.
This printer is built well, it does a lot, and is a great value for the money. I would recommend it to any home user and most small businesses.

Excellent product with very easy setup using the included CD. The setup automatically allowed me to continue to use my existing printer plus the new PIXMA. I just click to choose which printer I wish to use - very easy! The copy and fax functions work very good without any problems.
I have not yet used the scan function but I don't expect any problems. The only thing I have a problem with is the LCD display is not lighting up. I have to turn a table light on to even read it! Canon's solution was to ship it to a Canon repair center (at my cost) and have it repaired!! The other choice was to return it in exchange for a refurbished unit. This is no way to treat a customer on a brand new purchase.

I bought this printer to replace an HP that I had worn out. We run a business from our home and our all-in-one has to stand up to lots of use. I am incredibly surprised at this Canon. The print quality is terrific, even on pictures. Ink usage is acceptable, and better than HP. Copy quality is very good. Scans come through very well. Set up was easy. The machine itself is very sturdy, user friendly from machine or computer. All in all, I would recommend this product over HP. I have used HP printers for years and it's safe to say I probably won't go back after having this Canon.

I have used it for bulk scan, fax, printing and copying (both colored and B&W) and I don't feel a need for a bigger more expensive product for my home office use. I now understand why this product never goes for a huge sale. Cheapest that I have seen it being $149 and it is worth every penny of it.

I shopped and read reviews until I thought I would go blind. Thank God I did because I finally settled on the Canon PIXMA MP530 Office All-In-One Photo Printer with Fax (0580B002)I am tickled pink. I only use for my private use but I recently had to scan and print all my doctor records from years of back problems, surgeries and pain clinics. I guess at least 1200 copies printed at least. It does use ink but they all do and why not get excellent copies. Only 1 complaint and it may be my fault. I have gone through all my color cartridges and have replaced both black cartridges 2 times already. I can understand the black, but I have printed almost all my printing in grayscale only. I have been looking for a new computer so I must have printed more copies of those with color than I realized. But still, all in all I would advise this machine even for an office. The scanning is great and the copies are clear and neat.It was easy to set up and easy to learn how to use, just follow the directions and you will be an expert in 2 or 3 hours of actual use. Just be sure you copy and print on grayscale if you do not need dark copies. I used the cheapest paper you can buy. You have complete control of the quality of the printing, scanning, and copying. You can make them as dark or as light as you want.No reply on fax I have not used it yet.


This printer does everything, and it does everything well which is really amazing. I love that there are two paper sources; I keep one stocked with good paper and one with scrap and there is a simple button to toggle between them. The menus are intuitive. It doesn't require any time to warm up like some other printers and copiers I've used. The borderless photos look good. It's somewhat large, but considering everything it does that's to be expected. I'm very happy with it.

Out of the box, the printer had an error message. By recycling the power on and off, I was able to get it working temporarily. Unfortunately, a week later, it is now dead with the message "check printer". I called Canon, who said that they couldn't fix it over the phone. I called their repair center in Berkeley, but they didn't know how to fix it or how to even get there with the broken freeway.

I have had this printer/fax/scanner for about 2 months now, and I LOVE it. I had a desktop scanner in the past that was SOOO SLOWWWW and was surprised how fast this scanner worked. At first I thought I had done something wrong because it scanned so fast.

I have also used the Fax feature a couple of times. I'm not a big faxer, but have been very satisifed with the faxes I have sent. In case you are wondering, you do not have to have a dedicated fax line for this. I have it plugged into my phone line and you just have to make sure no one is using the phone when you are faxing.

I was very impressed with the quality of the few photos I have printed. I do not like to print from home because it can suck up the ink, but it still does a good job.

The only thing I would say I wasn't crazy about is the size of the printer. It takes up a good portion of my desk. Make sure you have room for it.

All-in-All -- I'm more than satisfied with my purchase and would definitely recommend to someone looking for an All-in-One Machine.

Recently, the HP T45 Multifunction machine that I had relied on for many (7) years, began to make the death rattles and errors associated with imminent demise. Also, since it hasn't been made for many years, the ink cartridges were becoming a bit of a hassle to find - and, though findable on Ebay, etc, they tended to be old ones in their original packaging and not especially reliable. Therefore, it was time to find a new all-in-one for my home and small office use. I searched out professional reviews, compared features and prices and, of course, consulted with my fellow consumer reviewers. All said and done, I decided on this Canon Pixma MP530 and am pleased to report that, as of the first week or two, I am quite pleased with each of it's functions, printing, copying, scanning and FAXing and have found some fault in only four areas. They are 1) it is VERY noisy and shakes a bit as it operated; 2) the setup is more complex than I am used to and though I am not a novice, it took me almost an hour to get it fully set up and programmed, 3) the ink jet cartridges ARE expensive - though the quality of the printing - especially of photos - may make the additional expense well worth while and 4) the machine is large, weighing over 28 lbs. and measuring, with paper trays retracted, 18.4 (W) X 18.4(D)X10.4 inches (H.)

I can offer some initial impressions based on my experiences with each of it's features as well as the overall operation of the device that you may find of some help in making a good decision for yourself.

The Cost(s)
The machine, itself, is priced quite reasonably. At well under $200., it offers a nice range of features, is an attractive design (though admittedly rather large in both weight and dimension compared to HP machines with similar features). It comes with everything you need to set it up in the box except for the necessary USB2 cable - a deliberate omission I found particularly irritating as it is obviously intended to artificially lower the cost of the unit. Canon's responses to my questions about this were entirely `rote' and unsatisfactory. This is, I realize, an increasingly common practice - to not provide new cables with new printers. A marketing and public relations error, in my view, for most of the major manufacturers of printers and multifunction machines. So, nearly an hour into the set up, I found myself running out to a local store to buy the cable it requires to connect it to my computer. I got over it when I started to use the machine.
Frequently criticized for the expense of the ink jet cartridges (it holds a total of 5 of them - One large Black, one small one, and three colors ,Yellow, Majenta and Cyan) and will not operate (any of the functions) if any one of the cartridges is empty making back up ink supply a necessity rather than a convenience option. AMAZON offers competitive prices for the ink, as do many online resellers. As with all equipment, I would recommend that users avoid the temptation to save money by buying refilled/refurbished cartridges. Besides their intermittent reliability, they may both foul your machine as well as void the warrantee. The ink IS expensive, but, on the other hand, the quality is excellent and FAR surpasses my various HP experiences.

The Set Up
This is one of the more complicated set ups I have encountered. It requires both patience and time. However, the reasons for the complexities are logical and, ultimately, helpful. Unlike my old HP T45, there are MANY subsets of choices in setting up each of the functions. So, if you take the time to do it carefully, the machine will work exactly as you want it to. All default settings are not necessarily correct or desirable for all users! As I mentioned, it took me nearly an hour, including the time to research, in the included printed manual, what each setting actually controls and then altering ones I had misunderstood and set initially incorrectly. This is real life when setting up ANY reasonably complex piece of hardware and price notwithstanding, this PIXMA is that. Included in the box is a standard and clearly illustrated Quick Set-Up Guide which allows for a relatively quick and efficient set up - especially for users for whom the default settings are most appropriate.

Printing
By far, this is the feature I most often use. The actual speed of the printing, while somewhat faster than that which is posted, is slowed by the duplexing function - in and of itself, a lovely paper-saving feature. Set on the Standard setting, the print is quite clear and saves ink over using the more consuming high definition setting. I reserve the latter for documents being printed for sending out only.
A few common specs for comparison with other machines:
Printing resolution: 9600 X 2400 dpi. Max.
Print speed: Black: 15-29 ppm depending on setting
and needed resolution.
Color: 11-19 ppm
Print width: 8" (8.5" for borderless option)
Paper capacity: Two: One main drawer type holding about 100 pages of paper, and a rear auto-feed that holds another 75 or so.

Copying
Copy speed: Black & White - fast mode: approx 28cpm
Color - fast mode: approx 19cpm
Copy Capacity: 99 copies
Density adjustment: 9 levels from which to choose
Zoom: 25% to 400%

FAX
Modem speed(s): 2400 - 33600 bps
Transmission speed:B&W: About 3 secs. Per page at 33.6 Kbps
Color: About 1 min, 20 secs per page at
33.6 Kbps
Settings allow for: Automatic redialing
Distinctive Ring Pattern Detection
Remote reception by phone
Non-ring reception
Activity Report (after every 20
transactions.
Non-delivery report
TTI (Transmit Terminal Information)

Scanner
Flatbed, one page at a time OR auto-feed
Compatibility: TWAIN/WIA (Windows XP)
Not compliant with Windows VISTA
Scanning resolution: 1200 dpi X 2400dpi (optical)
19200 X 19200 dpi(enhanc)
Image processing: Halftones: 256 levels of gray
Color: 16,777,216 colors (but whose counting?!)

A PictBridge program is also included allowing for direct photo printing from a USB cable without requiring the use of the computer. I have not tried out this function yet, but am looking forward to it. I HAVE used all the others and they have worked flawlessly. It is nearly identical to the more expensive model MP580, but that it lacks 1) networkability and 2) card reading slots: two features I personally did not need or want.

So, for a large, inexpensive but well functioning all-in-one, it is a really good deal. It DOES shake, rattle and roll a bit - so I have mine set on a table next to the computer and desk rather than on the same table: no big compromise there as it does fit where I had the old HP mounted. From a former HP devotee to a Canon convert in one purchase. Check it out!






this item is fantastic! prints, faxes and copies beautifully. i still can't believe how cheap it is. my only beef is that when printing photos/colors, it prints a lot redder and pinker than how you scanned it, so you better learn to adjust it.

I am pleased with my purchase of this machine and I think it represents good value for the money. I really like the design of the machine (something I have never said of a office machine before) and its look and feel. I am impressed by the many thoughtful touches. Here are three that others have not pointed out:

(1) I live in a dusty climate and I am really grateful that you can close up almost all the entry ways into the machine and it still works. If the paper outlet tray is closed it will automatically open. There is a bottom tray for paper so you don't have to use the top loading tray.
(2) There are two seprate black ink holders, one for use in color printing and the other for regular printing.
(3) The machine coallates!
(4) You can use the copy function w/o you computer being on.


Having said this, the machine is not perfect.

(1) I was seriously bugged by the duplex feature on the machine. Whether scanning or copying you have to intervene to rotate the paper. In addition, it's slow. It takes three minutes to make each two sided page. If you do a lot of duplex copying or scanning this is not the right machine for you.

(2) The machine makes a lot of noise and worse it shakes the desk its on so badly that I cannot write while it is printing. I have a very study solid oak desk and this thing shakes it around!

These two complaints cause me to knock it down a star.

One point of confusion: the Amazon write-up states it comes with a two-year on-site warrenty but the paper manual states that it is only a one-year off-site warrenty. I don't know which is correct.

My overall impression is that this is a superior machine for home use or a microbusiness that has no significant needs out of the ordinary. But it is not intended to be a workhorse or have all the bells and whistles.




This product was everything that it says that it is. It does everything and the ink takes forever to run out. The only thing that I will mention is that buy the 4 ink cartridge and the large ink cartride that comes seperate. The black large cartridge runs out first and must be replaced then the printer uses the small well. I tried to bypass this and it didn't work. It is worth it to have it in our home. Great for pics, copies, printing and the fax is good also.

I am always very skeptical when buying new computer related items but this Pixma All-In-One is GREAT! Photos are as good as, or better than, the ones I get from my little PictureMate and I think it is great too! The options for sizes are wonderful with this printer and functions are easy to use. It is fast, quiet and print is clear and crisp. I printed 7 calendars at Christmas time with half page full color photos on each page plus many many pages of plain text before any of the color tanks that came with the machine even started to flash low ink warnings. We had no trouble getting the FAX options to work, although we don't use it for faxes, at least we know it's there if we need it, so that wasn't even a concern for us. The only bad thing I can say is, as I read in at least one review before I purchased this, it does sometimes bump us offline when we turn it on AFTER we are already in a program or on a web page. It does not ALWAYS do it but it is a small annoyance when it happens, especially if you are buying online and want to print a confirmation page. If you can remember to turn the Pixma on before you turn on your computer, or at least before you go online or start your project you won't have that irritation. This is such a small annoyance for us and we are so pleased with the overall performance of this machine that we would still buy it again. Although the ink tanks appear to be non-refillable you can still refill them...but...it says in the manual that when the ink is low on a refilled tank it will not recognize it and you will no longer get the blinking low ink warnings to alert you and if you run the tanks dry you will damage the print heads so if you are going to refill them, as we do, you will need to watch ink levels closely! Overall the Pixma MP530 is a great little copier/fax/printer/photo/ scanner. If not for the bumping offline problem I would have given it a 5 Star rating.

We love everything about this printer except the ink costs.

Built-in duplexing is great, dual paper feed is great, photo quality is great.

I've read that the per-page costs aren't high, but when they do finally run out, the inks will force us into bankruptcy.

Easy to set up it only took 20 minutes. Print quality is very good. It does everything I wanted in a All In One Printer to do.

Can anyone verify whether or not the two years is correct before I buy this? It is one year everywhere else...

The Canon PIXMA MP530 Printer/Copier/Scanner/Fax is pretty much everything I expected. Though all-in-ones typically must compromise in one of their functions, this one does pretty well. Things I like: it's very quiet, it does duplex in printing, and has good software support applications, though they take a lot space (100 MB?) and took a while to load. It is relatively big, but as compact as it could be for an all-in-one I think. Considering I was living without a printer for a month or so without much problem, it's amazing how much I've used all its functions because they are so easy to use both with my iMac and my PC laptop.

I like this printer, for

* fast printing.

* duplex printing (printing on both sides). Save lots of trees.



Before I buy I do my homework and this printer definitely delivers it's moneys worth and then some. I'm not supper savvy on the FAX part but I have been able to both receive and send faxes with relative ease. The scanner is wonderful and comes with some really good applications that convert scaned pages into text. The only but is that you should use windows to print photos. Because the cannon program just doesn't cut it in the photo department. The scanner does really beautiful copies of already printed photos. It's up to you what quality and how much hard drive space you want to use for the scanned photos. This is a wonderful printer and comes with the first cartiges of ink. But you will need to buy the large black one more often than the color ones. So my advice is buy extra and shop for them as well. Plus the samples are really small, 3x5 so if you plan on printing photos right away buy paper as well. Plus it does not come with the high speed cable. I had two already so I didn't need to buy one but you should keep this in mind.

The unit arrived well in advance of estimated arrival time and was easy to set up. I have used all phases except fax and color photos and so far I love it! Copies have been easy,crisp and fast as were all the tax forms I did recently for the whole family. Scanner is easy to use as well- unlike my previous standalone Microtec. I would highly recommend the unit based on my experience. The only downside is the cost of ink-I had to replace the black at $17.99 a pop but that seems to be the case with all major printer brands. The price was the best I found anywhere--$156 - no tax - and including shipping. [...].

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.

I've had this printer for about six months and I'm packing it up for return. Simply put, the problems outweight the plusses.
Pros: the duplex is great, reasonably fast, ink is easy to replace.
Cons: the "Feed Switch" which is supposed to direct printing to either the cassette or the auto sheet feeder often malfunctions, resulting in your printing on the wrong media. This can be darn expensive if you intended to print on plain white paper in the casette and the printer inexplicably eats expensive stationery loaded in the feeder. Envelope printing is terrible-- it smudges every envelope and puts black marks on the front edge; fax function works poorly, if at all; software is virtually useless-- especially compared to HPs. This printer also drinks ink.

I have had this printer for about one month and am very satisfied with it's performance and functionality. Set up was straight forward but a little lengthy, however this should not be difficult for most users. I use it as a shared printer on my wireless network with no problems. It's a lot of printer for the price ($156.00).

I color print less than the average user, but every other week the "out of ink" warning shows up on my screen. The more I'm forced to buy Canon's ink refills, the more I feed their bottom line.

I bought into the "rave reviews" here and spent $200. for this MP530. It's no bargain, it's a losing proposition with a massive appetite to devour its own costly ink tanks.

Canon products? Never ever again!!!

My Canon S520 gave up the ghost in Mid-February 2007; fortunately I was able to purchase the MP530 (because of its great reviews. Everything works, though I haven't yet used the fax. Generally the copier and scanner seem particularly slow to me, compared with the heavy-duty office machines I am accustomed to. Also, in some black and white print jobs the printing seems slow, compared to the S520. This may be because my computer is a Latitude C610, with USB 1.1 rather than USB 2.0 on board.

I began using the MP530 with the inks that shipped with the printer. It is now late March, 2007, and I have used up the black PGI 5-BK ink. The major printing load has been two sets of academic papers for two sessions of a seminar, at about 280 pages reduced to 140 pages of print, each seminar session. The printing is dense (like the texts). Still, I did not expect to run out of regular black ink in one month. That's 140 + 140 plus maybe 70 other pages, for 350 pages, instead of the 650 pages (at 5% coverage) that Canon promises for its ink.

That was the bad news. The good news is that although I started getting the ink-out signal (works just like my Canon S520) at the beginning of tonight's run of 140 pages of print, the ink lasted to within the last four pages of the last article, and then permitted pressing the OK button to continue printing to the end. Phew!

Also good news. The Canon printer does a really good job on these reduced xeroxed, and sometimes xeroxes of xeroxes, pages, so they are at least readable.

Also, Amazon has a DEAL on the black ink, and Amazon Prime will get it to me quickly.

I was thinking of a Fujitsu Scan Snap to reduce the paper in my home. But then I stumbled upon this printer, with the photo printing and scanning quality of the comparable PIXMA 600, but also with the auto-feed multi-page scanner. And the set-up on my iMac was a breeze - talk about plug and play!

Its footprint is a little bigger than I wanted, and there's no LCD display, but with two paper feed paths, several flash memory slots and a bluetooth option, this is truly a multi-function machine. I have an older Olympus camera that uses SmartMedia cards, and the HP printers have every slot except that one, but this printer accepts it. I shopped long and hard for a new printer, and this is the one I was looking for. It rocks!

I purchased the printer on Amazon.com for the price and scanning ability, not the photo printing. But I was also amazed at how well it printed photos as well. Easy to set up, easy to use, if you don't understand how to do something, read the manual once and you will never forget again. It scans exceptionally well and fast. The duplex scanner requires you to manually manipulate the paper by removing it from the outfeed table, rotating it 180 degrees and placing it back into the infeed table. No where in the description of the item on Amazon did it mention this, but once you know what to do, it's easy. It's so easy to use, I taught my 8 year old daughter how to scan and save to pdf files and she is currently scanning all my personal financial papers for me. Printer is awesome.

I bought this printer from amazon.com. Nicely arrived before scheduled time. Great photo printing. Copying is very cool, with features like both color or b/w. Really enjoying it.

Both side printing kind of works sometime.

These printers are great product for such a low price, because they planned to make money from the ink you buy. They have chips in their ink catridges to avoid you going after market catridges for refills.

If you do choose go after market catridges, changing the chip from old oem catridge into after market catridge is little bit harder.

But you will loose nice elegant feature, monitoring ink level functionality from the computer. And you have start monitoring ink level manually atleast once a each week.


The features are exiciting. I especially like the quality of photos it prints for the time being. The fax print-outs are excellent,compared to the plain paper fax I had. The product arrived on time and in very good condition. I am very satisfied.

I am enjoying my new printer. It does almost everything beautifully.(I haven't tested the fax function yet.) It did smudge the ink a bit when I printed a few envelopes. Otherwise, no complaints. Duplex printing is easy and is a real paper-saver. Color printing is excellent.
A printed manual is included, but it is unevenly produced, and not always helpful. There is only one page devoted to scanning, and I could find no instructions at all for envelope printing. Faxing, however, is covered in exhausting detail. Luckily Canon has a good web support for this machine, and once you've found it, bookmark it so you can revisit.
I would recommend this all-in-one for most any moderate-volume user.
Amazon's handling of my order was perfect, and their price was right too.

Well, soon as we got it out of the box,I didn't even want to set it up! Too big I thought! My hubby pleasantly convinced me to just give it a try. Maybe there's a reason it's bigger? Maybe you'll like it better, JUST try!
Okay! Well, the set up was a breeze! I have JUST returned 2 HP multifunctions,& was feeling printer-weary. The 1st one, just would NOT cooperate w/my Dell! Too many Tech calls, just to get the little printer/copy/scanner to work without HP Cue Errors! RETURNED! Tried the next HP up, think it was the Officejet 5610. Set up GREAT, but photowork was lacking? After using HP's for over a decade, I just did NOT want to "settle" when I need great photo/graphics quality. I'm also an Illustrator, and hope to utilize my printer for future work. Have worked over 2 decades w/Preschoolers, & illustrated the Reading Program, "The Secret Stories," and hope to create future works to help children begin reading. So this is a serious item for my small business. I turned to Consumer Reports. They're top multifunctions were Canon Pixmas! So, our Office Depot had this MP530 for $169, just 40. more than the little HP.
I MUST admit, I really had a SERIOUS negative reaction due to it's bulkiness. I TRIED to find faults! BUT>It printed incredibly FAST!! I CANNOT understand HOW it spits out 4X6's in under, what seems like 30 secs!! But it DOES!! AND>>these photos LOOK more like REAL photos than ANY other printer I've used! SO, I'm STILL in the 14 day phase where it can be returned AND am trying to test it to death! Scanning produced GREAT prints BUT, I need to learn how to view them better. HP was SO simple in that catagory. Canon's Scan Viewer seemed too small, not as crystal clear as I need. The paper feeder is GREAT! Love the ease of the back feed & how perfectly it aligns the letter sz/then push the tab & pop in the 4X6's=perfect handling. Next the FAX: I am TOTALLY confused! The "EASY set-up/Install" diagram left me crazy! User's Guide Book, WAY too techie & left me even more confused! I did succeed in sending a FAX! But, it interferes w/my phone line no matter which outlet I use in machine? So, I WILL be spending time this weekend, with Canon's Support Techs to hopefully help me.
PLEASE let me know IF Tech Support is good?
If so, I think I'm now scared to go back to HP, after witnessing the quality & speed of this machine! OH, thanks to my hubby, for helping me settle down & accept those extra inches it takes up on my desk. He was RIGHT!

Set up was easy. The Pixma does everything well. So far, one month, no problems. The copier capability alone, with its enlarge and reduce options, is worth the price. It is a bit noisy but so was my previous Canon printer. I have had very good success with Canon products, including the digital camera that I have had for four years.

the MP 530 is a good all around printer/scanner, it's a little slow but the quality of the print job is good ... but ink prices are ridiculous ... users need to protest this fact and complain loudly

I was tired of buying bad printers,so I tried this Canon.I've had it for a while,so I hope I can say it is an improvement over the HP's I've had.

I have used several multifunction machines before (all with fax function). All of them were HP until my last HP died after 2 years of minimum use (printing about 30 pages a week including faxes and scaning 5 pages a month). When I was researching for a new multifunction machine, one of my top criteria was cheaper consumables.

After researching many multifunction machines with fax that range from $150 to $900, I found Canon MP530 and after using it for a month, I am very impressed. I was open to buying a color laser but it seems the technology for color laser all-in-one hasn't matured yet. The reason for considering laser was the problem I had about dried ink cartridges. For my minimum usage, a laser machine wouldn't have the problem of clogged cartridges.

Printing is fast. The draft quality is better than my old HP. Quality in standard is very good and crisp. I rarely print brochure or pictures in-house, so I cannot comment on the highest printing quality on photo paper. For memos and basic color prints, it is excellent and the driver allows many special printing features that I didn't think of and have helped my productivity quite a bit. I saw a review complaining about the duplex printing, I haven't run into any problem with that so far.

The best part I like about this printer is the ink tank. Each color has its own ink tank, so I do not need to throw away the whole color cartridge just because it runs out of 1 color. The print heads are separate from the ink tanks, so I am not paying for the ink head each time I replace a cartridge. This shows on the ink tanks price compare to HP's ink cartridges.

The machine is well built and is not flimpsy like some of the HP's all-in-one in the similar price range. I like the tray opens automatically when it is printing, more a geek gadget and I love it. One complaint I have is the Sleep Mode, everytime a call comes in or when I use the phone that is attached to the machine, it comes out of sleep mode. I understand why it is doing that but I would prefer if the machine doesn't need to completely come out of sleep mode just to monitor the telephone line. At any case, it is better than my old HP which didn't even have sleep mode to conserve energy.

HP manual wasn't great but it was clear to me about how to set up the fax machine to the configuration I want. The Canon manual is better but I was confused about the fax machine different configurations. Tech support was fast and knowledgeable to help me with this issue.

Scanning isn't excellent compare to my dedicated scanner. However, it is not bad. I would say it is good in quality and for an all-in-one, I wasn't expecting it to be a professional grade Epson scanner.

In terms of software, I never like to use the printer's software. However, I do like the scanning software (MPNavigator) although I use Photoshop to scan images. The MPNavigator is easy to use and my office found it faster to use MPNavigator for basic scanning instead of going through Photoshop. In addition, I can't use Photoshop to do batch scanning.

Generally, I think this is the best inkjet all-in-one I have seen and the price is excellent for such a well-built machine. After using this machine, I wonder why I didn't buy Canon earlier and why others would pass this on for a HP or Brother.

Works great, well built, but I must say that it is 30-40% larger than my HP it replaces. I was really suprised at its size, but I hope there is something on the inside that makes up for it in the long run.

So far this unit works well and as described. The duplexer seems to work better with 24lb paper than with 20lb stuff. Document feeder works great as does the scanner. The two paper trays are an excellent touch and allow two different types paper if required. Ink cartridges are easily accessible and while they don't last as long as I would prefer, they give very adequate printing capability before requiring replacement. Color photos are very crisp and sharp. Unit operates with an Win XP at adequate speed. Printer utilities are excellent as is the included software to integrate all functions. Excellent experience to date with unit. Replacement cartridges are not yet widely available. Amazon has had best price on 2 of 3 orders placed.

Have only had this item for a week, but I love it so far. Compared to the HP all in one I have, this one is much better. It is more substantial, has more features, prints faster and you get much more for a great price. I paid only $160.00.

I highly recommend this printer.

The downside of a flexible system is complexity. It reminds me why I am a Mac rather than a PC user. Engineers (yes, I am one too) love geekiness. Simplicity is often not a consideration. The MP530 Office All-In-One Photo Printer with Fax is not easy to set up. This system works OK, but we still haven't figured out how to make it print full-sized, as opposed to half-sized micro-print, pages from the computer. Yesterday I decided that a phone call to tech-support was the only way. The manual seemed unable to help. Why oh why can they not make it simple with easy-to configure on-screen setup using the computer, not the All-In-One. Geeks!

This printer is great! It does everything as advertised. Considering nothing is perfect, the things this one doesn't do are more than made up for what it does do for the price. If you're looking for value AND quality stop looking ... this is it.



Very nice printer, output is crisp and clear on both text and line art. Extremely fast, much quicker than the HP All in One that it replaced.
I've had it about a month, I use it for business so I do a fair amount of printing and I haven't had to replace any of the ink cartridges yet so it seems to be pretty stingy on ink use. I'm extremely satisfied with this printer.

We haven't figured out how to use fax yet, but everything else has performed. Loooooooove the color photos. It's nicer than getting them printed professionally. I have printed photos to decorate our apartment and make cards for people and everyone loves them.

I can't say a lot about this printer as I have only had it a couple of days, but I did print out a 4x6 picture and a text document and made a couple of copies. I was very impressed with the quality of the photo (just as good as a photo-finishing lab) that I printed out on Canon's sample pack of Photo Paper Plus (glossy). The colors seemed to be accurate and there was absolutely no graininess that I could see in the picture.

I wasn't quite as impressed with the quality of the text document. Characters in the print were not very crisp in "standard" printing mode, but were pretty good in high quality mode (although still not as sharp as a laser printer).

The copies I made were pretty good in high image quality mode, but I had to adjust the exposure up a step or two to make the copy just as dark as the original. I also did a couple of B&W test scans, but those did not turn out as sharp as I expected (they did not appear to be 600dpi). I'll have to do a little more experimentation to find the ideal settings.

Even though I haven't had much experience with this printer yet, I would say that so far I am pretty pleased. The prints are pretty good, the printer appears to be well-made, and the front panel is nicely laid out. It's also fairly quiet (my former printer, a Brother HL-1040 laser, was very noisy). I'm looking forward to many years of use with this printer and am pleased to finally have a printer that can scan, copy, fax, and print beautiful photos. The automatic document feeder is a bonus, too.

One last thing: The printer is quite a bit larger than I had expected and it takes up a big portion of my desk space. Make sure you read the dimensions and realize how much space it's going to take up before you buy it.

**Update: I just found the secret to printing excellent quality B&W text documents. BUY GOOD QUALITY PAPER! I recently purchased some HP Color Inkjet paper and the print quality is much better than before (near laser-quality). I am very pleased with this printer's output now and would highly recommend it to anyone that is looking for a good All-in-One. If only Canon could make it a tad smaller... :)

This multi-fucntional printer works great. Print, scan, fax, copy for normal office needs all work as well as the large Xerox multi-fuctional machines at the office and you all know all well those machine works. The document feeder works good for letter size paper, but smaller size paper tends to occasionally cause problems if the paper guides are not set correctly. Also copying large legal size paper sometime causes problems, the machine sometime cuts off the image at letter size. But overall for a personal office use, it's excellent!!
Color document output is outstanding, colors are uniform and well saturated even on plain paper. Output on plain paper rivals most color laser printers, with no noticeable bleeding or banding.
I am a pretty serious photography guy, I have encountered some slight problems with color photo output. There're at least 5 color profiles that came with the printer driver but none of these have very well documented instruction on how and when to use each. So color matching a color photo is a guess and choose type of exercise. I found one of the color profile is good for color saturation but tend to be warm, while one of the other is more accurate on the color but have high dependency on the white intensity of the glossy paper used. However, for casual users, none of these would matter significantly for family photos once an appropriate profile is chosen (this takes a bit testing) or the default windows color matching is used. Canon should provide better instruction on what color match profile to use under what conditions. Again this is mostly for careful color matching concerns, considering this is a home office printer, the color photo output is outstanding to say the least. Once the correct color matching procedure is found, the output colors are very accurate. Printing speed on the glossy photo paper is rather slow.
A MAJOR advantage is the individual ink tank design, which are normally only available in professional ink jet printers from other manufacturers. Consumable waste is minimized in such an arrangement, which makes good economic sense for a home office.

I had just bought this printer Feb 14, 2007. I tried using the duplex (double -sided) printing. The duplex feeder is not working and is damaged. I had just contacted CANON & they said that I'm eligible for a warranty exchange but they will be sending me a REURBISHED unit. I do not know if it's the printer or if it's AMAZON. I bought an EPSON CX6400 2 yrs ago from AMAZON and just like this one, there was something wrong with the feeder and the same thing happened, they had to give me a refurbished unit. LAST TIME I WILL BE BUYING ANY PRINTERS FROM AMAZON....

Its a shame I put my prior printer to rest after purchasing this one....The printing speeds Black/Color are dreadful....and the scanned images are sub par.....I do appreciate the feeder options and have had no problem with ink levels yet...the decision is up to you...but I would pick a better product next time...

I have had the Canon 530 for a week now, & I love it. I sent back an HP C7180 because I had nothing but problems for the moment it arrived. HP Customer Support was HORRIBLE!!! and you could not understand them (support is in India).

I like the use of the function keys much better than the HP, all-in-all the Canon 530 seems to be made much better than the HP C7180. I paid $300 for the HP & only $156 for the Canon thru Amazon. Great printer at a great price.

DON'T HESITATE TO BUY THIS PRINTER!! IT IS WORTH EVERY PENNEY & SO IS CANON'S CUSTOMER SUPPORT, located in Virgina, USA.

I purchased the canon printer a few weeks ago and I love it. It's easy to use and it prints great pictures. I took alot of time and read alot of feedback on different all-in-one's and I'm glad I went with this one. I'm still using the original ink cartridges that came with it. That surprised me because they usually run out quick. It's also pretty quiet too.

Great value at a resonable price. Have owned Dell, Lexmark, HP, Brother, and Canon printers in the past. This is the fastest per page with high quality copies. The photos are first rate for a multi function unit. Excellent choice for the home office.

This multi-function printer/scanner/copier/FAX was an excellent buy at the price I received on Amazon.com. It's fast and gives a good output. I upgraded from an old HP-600 Officejet, and it's obvious that the tecnology has advanced. However, I'm getting low ink warnings after a short time use of the ink tanks - were they just partially filled ones supplied "free" with this low cost printer? Nevertheless. it's still a great value for well under $200!

Acceptance of the Canon Pixma MP530 all-in-one printer is dependent upon your needs. Some of the functions are a dream...and others will leave you with hair in the palm of your hand and a bare spot on the back of your head. Installation of the Canon software using a Dell PC with XP media edition was effortless and the print sample was perfect. Glad to see that Canon has put effort into ensuring that both instructions and software are well done. Score 1 point for Canon. Next, I reviewed all functions. First, I printed a shot of a young child in a pumpkin patch...with truly amazing results. This print is as good as ... if not better than any print received from a quick photo lab. Score 1+ point for the Canon. Next I reviewed the copy functions - and the Canon scored again. Both black&white and color scanned very quickly and the copy quality was great. Score again - give it 2 points - one for B&W aand 1 for color. Next, I checked the scan function. Where is Chuck Barris when you need him. Give the Canon a huge GONG. Following directions and using all possible options of the Canon installed software, I continuously receive error messages regarding communications of the scanner and PC. Funny - with my old Epson, I never received a single error message. Minus 1 point for Canon. Finally, FAX. Sending a single FAX page was also effortless and I was impressed. Next, sending a 12 page fax resulted in multiple jams of the auto document feeder. The feeder seems to try to feed multiple pages, resulting in an error message that the page is too long...due to the page +1/2 that it attempts to send from the paper jam. Finally, after attempting multiple times and having to reboot the printer, tried again and received an ink error that there were more than one black ink tank installed. Funny...this is right out of the box. When restaring the printer and reducing the number of fax pages to 5 the fax did function correctly. Overall, Minus 1 point for the Canon.

Overall impressions: For pure print quality, you simply can not beat this printer. The print quality is just plain stunning. However, as a multi-function printer for a small office / home office, you may have similar challenges that I had and want to either be productive and request a return/refund from Amazon or use a small sledge hammer on the Canon to work out your frustrations. In this case, while I have rated the printer a 3 overall - I would not recommend for those who require all of the functions of a true multi-function printer.

I've had this printer about a month and it's been great so far. I replaced an Epson with this Canon. I'm still getting used to it and haven't done much scanning but the printing and the faxing are great. It doesn't seem to suck the ink down like my Epson did. Very simply to operate too.

It is hard to find a printer that lists Windows Server 2003 as a compatible operating system. I tried some other brand printers and the drivers would refuse to install. Even though Canon support told me that this printer is not officially supported for Server 2003, I installed the drivers anyway - and it works perfect!

Nothing that Canon offer is true. the quality of the color is well below average, indeed very poor. the ink last for no more than some copies and the price of the cartridges are well above average. I can't describe all of the difficulties I have faced with this product. And if you have time, try to contact the customer service, an average waiting time of more than half and hour as a mimimum. And you never get the right answer. I am considering taking the product to the garbage. And for the price, almost $200 you can buy a laser printer that work better. Avoid this product!


Despite the scanner making a little to much noise,(not all the bad) everything else this little bugger offers is top notch. The best feature has got to be the clarity in the printing of color photographs. For the money I doubt that there is much out there that could meet the expectations of this Canon. Its easy to install new cartridges, prints quickly without problems, and has a fax! Although i do have some problems with my call waiting not working while the fax is connected, that is actually minor unless your faxing all day long. ***** Nice job Canon.

I had to replace an Epson printer and after much searching selected the CANON PIXMA MP530. I have a MAC system and the change over was relatively effortless. I just had to familiarize myself with everything.

I print a lot of pages (I do genealogy research at home) and I like to print a lot of pictures. I also use the copier and scanner frequently and it went fine. I liked how I can tell it to fit the page to the paper and it does it beautifully (they probably all do it but this one does it perfect). I have printed pictures on some other paper I had on had and they were pretty good and when I used the sample glossy photo paper I had the most beautiful photos. They really looked professional. I don't know yet how well the ink will last but so far so good. I am giving it a workout. It is a great printer and I am pleased with all its features (I don't use the fax).

I do know one thing and that is the next camera I will buy will be a Canon (I hope). The only drawback which is something I was aware of before buying the Canon printer is that it vibrates and I think the scanning may be a little slower than my Epson.

I had an excellent transaction with Amazon and my printer arrived when promised. Great way to shop.



I won't go on and on like the other reviews because I'd just be repeating the same information.
I print alot for biz purposes and have found this to be a great printer for my needs. The price was really right, I could not find one at any retail places (even on sale) for less than $50+ more plus gas.
Free shipping was a nice perk, and I had my new printer in less than a week not counting the weekend. No tax? COOL!
I'm not a "techno" person and I find it easy to operate. In fact it does so much more than my last printer I'm amazed. The quality of the prints is excellent, fast printing (for large quantities this is nice), and quiet operation in comparison to my old one which use to terrify my cats.
I haven't quite figured out the fax, but then I haven't taken the time to do so either (I work alot of hours).
I got a Canon camera for Xmas, and feel that this printer was a good choice as a compatible piece of equip. for photos. My other printer was a real pill in getting it to work properly in this way. Anyhow, I read the reviews here before I purchased and had the thing up and running in about an hour. Like I said, I'm not mechanically inclined so I am very happy. I find that the positive reviews here are accurate. I'm stickin' with Canon.

I have always been an HP printer type of guy and this is my first Cannon. I was a little apprehensive about getting this due to the lack of familiarity with Cannon brand. However, I shouldn't have been worried. The thing runs great and the printing and copies look good (I have not tested the fax yet). I am very happy with the purchase. It seems to be a excellent unit.

I like how the printer drops into a power saver mode when not in use for a while. The only thing that is missing on this printer is a dedicated network port. However, given the cost, I believe this printer gives the most bang-for-the-buck.

The only reason I gave 4 stars instead of 5 is due to the lack of network port. If this is not a big deal for you, than in my opinion, it is worth 5 stars.

This is my first Canon Printer. I am very pleased with it. It is quick and fairly quiet for printing. It is very versatile with many functions. The ink lasts and is fairly inexpensive. The scanning is easy, but not top quality. I do like the on-screen scanning directions. Faxing is very easy. My only complaints are primarily with the main paper tray. In order to access it you must close up the printed paper holder by removing all your work, then pull out the tray to refill it. I have not yet used all the functions, but currently I would recommend this machine to anyone with a small business or home usage.

For the past 15 years or so I've pretty much used HP or Epson printers. Over the years the print quality and features kept improving and the prices kept coming down, but the quality of the printers has also suffered.

When my HP died a few weeks ago (only 2 years old w/light useage) I went down to our local mega store to look at new models. The salesman showed me the most highly rated HP all in one. The features were good, but I just couldn't believe how cheap and plasticky the HP machines felt! I could literally pick it up with one hand, and the lid hinges were so cheap that I couldn't see how they'd last more than a few months. Disgusted, I asked about other models, and that's when he showed me the Canon line.

I must admit that Canon printers were prety much totally off my radar screen. But in looking at them closer, I was REALLY impressed with the build quality of the MP530. I also liked the individual ink cartridges (which are transparent so you can SEE if they're empty or not) and the low cost-per-page print costs compared to HP, epson, etc. Double-sided copies and high quality photo printing were just icing on the cake!

I just got the MP530 a few days ago, and so far I'm REALLY impressed--this may be the best printer I've ever had! Printed text files are razor sharp--you really have a hard time telling that it's not from a laser printer. The copy machine feature works great (two-sided copies are a little slow but one-sided are really, really fast!) I also like the document feed tray on top that auto-feeds the copier (or FAX) saving me time. I also really like that you can have two differant types of paper loaded at the same time (i.e. photo paper and plain white copier paper) and you can select the tray/paper with the click of a button.

The FAX machine works great--easy to set up and easy to use. Same thing for the scanner. While the resolution is high, I still wouldn't try to realistically scan negatives, slides, or photos and expect top-quality results, but hey, this unit sells for less than $200!!! Scaniing text and even photos into a PDF file is simple and fast.

Maybe one of the best features (that many other copier/printer companies DO NOT have) you can actually remove and replace the print head! The print heads on some inkjet printers will clog if they're not used regularly (Epson's are notorious for this) but if the heads can't be unplugged by the self-diagnostic program you basically have to throw the printer out because sending it in for a factory print head replacement will cost more than buying a new printer!

All in all I'm totally impressed with this Canon all-in-one and I HIGHLY recommend it to others!!


P.S. one of the print cartidges that come with printer was missing the locking tab needed to install it into to cartridge carrier--a quick phone call to Canon customer service (I actually spoke to a real American support person!) and a new cartridge is being sent out 2 day priority mail.

Copying & printing very good. But drivers have a bug in them that activate a
Adobe proxy process (apdproxy.exe) that will consume 100% of your Cpu. Canon
says it's not there problem. They will need to fix this. When are we going to see a hardware manufacturer accept responsibility for there hardware and drivers.

After reading the reviews in consumer reports I decided to purchase the Canon PIXMA MP530. I'm glad I did! It does everything well. I love the size and it's shape. It fits well on my desk, and now I can get rid of my other scanner and Fax machine :)

This printer and scanner works well. I am a little disappointed in the scanning/ocr software. Dell's read characters much better than this, and it was easier to use.

I bought this unit several months ago on sale for $150. It replaces two similar units including a HP 5505 and a Brother MFC3420c. This is more expensive than the other two, but it is well worth the difference. It is an excellent unit for home or a small office. ZDNET rates it a very respectable 7.7 out of 10. (Nothing they rate gets over an 8!) The main shortcomings are that it is not network-ready and it lacks media card slots. It does have a front port for connecting a digital camera. I have not connected the fax machine, but use it for a copier, scanner and printer, which I will discuss below:

SCANNING

I have just scanned in four volumes of legal reference materials with about 2000 pages. Using PaperPort 11 and scanning to PDF, and using the automatic sheet feed, I was able to scan nearly four pages per minute. This is similar to the Brother and significantly faster than the HP. Scanning quality in black and white is very good. ZDNET's testing indicates it scanned color documents at 5.22ppm, and copied at a rate of 3.83ppm. Colors scan a bit on the light side, but not bad. The driver contains corrections which I have not played with.

Canon says the sheet feeder on the scanner holds 30 pages. I was able to get it to handle more. The Brother had a tendency to crunch paper on input side. The HP's input tray holds only about 10 pages and output tray for the scanner was too shallow and it tended to crush paper as it fed out of the scanner. This has neither problem.

The Canon comes with Presto PageManager, which is used to scan, store, organize and drop and drag imaged to other programs. I didn't play with it much, and quickly went back to the similar PaperPort 11, because PaperPort appears to work better with PDF files.

COPYING:

Black and white is excellent. Color copies are very good. Dark colors come out a bit on the light side, and the copies are a bit grainy, but not bad. When copying, you can reduce or enlarge the copy.

PRINTING:

Here, the unit shines. One of the nicest features is the duplex printing. I work for attorneys and sometimes have to print two sided forms, so this comes in handy. It also has a front loading paper cassette and a rear loading paper sheet feed which is good for feeding envelopes, photo and other specialty paper. Both hold about 75 sheets.

ZDNET says "It printed text documents at a snappy 6.77 pages per minute, scanned black-and-white images at 5.64ppm." Even when printing "pleading paper," which has vertical lines from top to bottom, it has the same high printing speed. This is substantially faster than the HP or the Brother. In my opinion, black and white print quality is very good, with straight vertical lines being fairly straight with little wavyness. The letters do not bleed on regular copy paper. It isn't laser printer quality, but it is presentable. Color prints are a bit grainy, but look very good on glossy photo paper.

The printer uses five print cartridges including three color and two black. One black is for color prints, the other for text. The text cartridge is larger.

COST OF PRINTING:

Ink cartridges cost about $15. Canon estimates the cost of ink at about 2 to 3 cents a page. This seems about right.

CONCLUSION:

This unit is better in every department than the other inexpensive multifunction printers I have owned. As a final thought, it looks really nice. It makes a nice addition to my home office.


I was given a Canon 4-in-One for Christmas. Not even a month later I was already having problems --
the scanner had gone bad and needed to be replaced. I was told I could ship the printer back to Canon
(which is inconvenient). I then asked if there was a business in then my area that I
could take it to for repairs and I was told Advanced Business Systems.
I did my research into what machine would best serve my families needs before I requested this
particular model for a gift from my family. I am disappointed in the short time I was able to use it
before it broke down and then the frustration of trying to get it repaired and Returned.

After much review here at Amazon, I went with this Canon instead of my gut
feeling to buy a Hewlett-Packard. Installation was easy enough. After my first attempt at scanning something, the unit starts making this LOUD Knocking noise that would not stop until I turned it off, but would start noise right back up when turning back on! Contacted Canon--they said I had two choices--return unit to them and they would send me a REFURBISHED Unit! Or to take it to the nearest service center 40 miles away from me. I didn't like either option so luckily Amazon did an exchange.
Like some other people said, printer is slow to get started and it's loud. Scan quality is not very good so I just won't be doing any of that. Print quality seems good. I wanted an all-in-one so this will serve that purpose now that I have the fax options figured out. If I had to do all over again, I would still get a Hewlett-Packard.

Great machine, Has all the bells and whistles. The price was great also.
Just what I was looking for.

It was as easy as 1-2-3 to connect up to my iMAC. Print is fine, scanner is easy to use. I just now set up the fax and that was a bit of a hassle, but had everything to do with having DSL and an answering machine. It's a little on the noisy side when preparing to print. Beware that replacing all the print cartridges will set ya back around $75.

The quality of the print, scan and fax functions is great, especially given the price.
It has 2 paper feeders, and the lower one is enclosed, so you can leave photo paper in it with less worry about it drying out and curling.
If you plan to do any scanning using the auto-feeder, budget for a copy of PaperPort 11 - that way you can actually press the scan button and have a PDF generated. The Canon software is unbelievably bad at this - so bad that I would have returned the unit had I not found PaperPort.
The fax is very friendly - if you pick up any phone in the house and hear the fax tone, you just dial 25, and the machine picks up. (you have to then put it in fax mode before it'll actually print it.)
One irritant is that the voicemail light on my phones no longer clears when you listen to a message - something to do with the fax machine.
Overall, I'm very glad I bought it.

This is the first canon printer I have had - HP & Dell previously. I found the set up to be routine with one minor problem. I was receiving an error message of "inner door open" Door? What "door"? Oh, that little flap of plastic inside? Again, that may be because I am unfamiliar with canon design features. However, once the "door" was closed it printed beautifully. As expected for the price, the plastic seems lightweight almost flimsy, but I don't intend to go off road with it. I did find that the cover does not open very far, and it was the most difficult of all the printers we have had to install the ink. My husband, a big guy would have found it almost impossible. Other printer covers have opened ALL the way. This opens about 10" with the ink cartridges located in the back middle of the machine. I also thought the packaging on the ink cartridges was overdone. However, I will say again that the print quality is far better than any other printer I have had. I've heard some questionable reports on the print capacity for the ink cartridges and I will update this review in a few months. This machine is used for home office receiving approx 20+ pages of faxes a day with similiar printing volume. It does make a moderate grinding type of noise when starting up. Printing however is much quieter than previous printers I have had. I took 1 star off due to ink packaging and location of printer head.

This is a good printer, copier, fax. However the scanner features are very limited. I switched from a basic model HP and it had better software features regarding the scan options.

I thoroughly researched this product before buying and have been very happy with its performance, speed, versatility, & economic function. A great deal and well worth your money! It's the cheapest All-in-one Ink Jet out there for its performance, quality, and function. I highly recommend it!

Over the years I've had machines from Epson, HP and Lexmark.The most noticable quality difference between the Canon and the rest is the paper handling, HP is/was the worst. Maybe it's because my wife and I, she had an HP and I had a Lexmark, had so many problems with our recent All-In-One's that the Canon 530 is like seeing sun after a long, cloudy winter. The set up was easy to understand, the control panel is logical and the size is easy to accommodate in a home office. The quality of print is excellent (haven't used it for photos yet), but a little noisy. Having a paper tray, Canon calls it a "cassette", to hold a bulk amount of A4 or letter size paper means no more running out of paper when receiving several faxes when out of the office. Plus an additional external paper feed source makes those once in a while print jobs where a paper change is necessary (legal size or letterhead) quick and easy. The only functions I have not yet used are scanning and faxing to or from my laptop. I'm not sure what influenced my decision to buy this machine more. My brother has had the exact same machine for about a year with great reviews and he's very anal, or the great experience I've had with Canon printers in the past or the consistently good reviews by several sources on the internet. My final comment is for the money, and Amazon had the best price when I was looking, this machine will be tough to beat.

I am very happy with this AIO...had previously purchased a Dell 946AIO...could not get the scanner to work despite emails and phone calls to Dell support. I'm a big believer in things working "right out of the box" and the Dell was a disappointment. I sent it back and found the Canon Pixma MP530 at a FANTASTIC price and had it up and running within minutes of receiving it. It's a little larger than I wanted for my small home office, but the features are great, easy to use, and I'm really glad I found it!

Like most on this site I did intensive research in preparing to buy a multifunction to replace my HP officejet d135, of which I have two, home and office for about 5 years. Office one still going great, home one very persnickety. The Canons looked the best to me, and I chose this because, without a digital camera in my life, I couldn't justify the bells and whistles of the 800 series. In the two weeks I've had it I've been very pleased. It's almost spooky, like suddenly having Jeeves show up with a breakfast tray and pressed suit: the thing came out of the box ready to go; I've not looked at the instruction manual because it's intuitive enough; it's quiet, I've scanned and fooled with photos, faxed just fine, printed quickly and without problems. Loading the software was momentary, it seemed, compared to dealing with HP. I have not needed to call Canon for anything. I was put off by two things: all the talk about expense of the ink, and the lack of a great fax director program which is a real virtue of the HP software. Ultimately, though, the ease of use, and consequent peace of mind, is worth so much. I've figured out how to keep some fax programs on Word (I'm sure there's a cleverer way, I just don't know those things) and print them out with my fax when necessary. I'm very relieved to have the HP off my desk. And by the way, the machine is SMALLER than my HP officejet. I think this is a great bet for anyone with small to mid-range office needs. I appreciate all the previous reviews which led me here.

I'm a student, I recently got a computer, and the Canon was my follow up purchase. Great deal for the price I got it, perfect for my school activities and amateur photo hobbies. Prints decent 4x6 with the right programs, but wouldn't recommend printing from the default program that comes with the software. Ink and paper samples came with, ink has lasted but when it does run out I am concerned about the price of the 5 cartrige ink load. Easy set up, self explanatory use. Excellent scanning capabilities for its price and model, up to 600 dpi. Overall, very happy with purchase.

Previously I have owned a similar product made
by HP. It constantly had reliability problems,
and stopped working after two year light use.
The Canon is faster, cheaper, is more solid
and produces outstanding results. Save your
money and buy a Canon. You will be glad
that you selected a Canon, which wins on both
quality and price.


Great all-in-one for the home/home-office. The operator panel is well laid out and easy to use, multiple paper inputs, easy access to glass or internal. Ink cartridges are many, but easy and very friendly! Print speed is not blazing but not bad at all. Photo print qhality is quite good. Overall, just a nice package for scan, fax, copy, color print.

I bought this printer with faith in Cannon and from what other people have said. But, after using it a couple of months....the scanner broke. Luckily it was still under warrenty and I had it fixed. It was a pain not having it for several days, but since then however, it's been great. It prints beautifully and is user friendly. It's attractive and feels solidly made. I don't like the fact that the display window is so small and not lit...which makes it a little hard to see. All in all, except for the original problem, this printer serves all my purposes and more. Reasonable price for the quality and options.

The first printer received had a flaw (loud machine gun noise)that Canon could not fix with phone assistance. They wanted to replace it with a rebuilt printer which was not a option for me because I payed for a new printer. The second option was to take it to be repaired. I emailed amazon and they immediatly offered to replace it free of change. I have purchased items in the past from Amazon and will continue to do so in the future.

I am very pleased with my purchase of the Canon Pixma MP530. Though the settings for receiving faxes for me were a little tricky to set, the instruction manual is good and you really don't need it much, as the equipment has all the info on it. I like the space-saving and portablity of this unit. The price can't be beat, and since Canon makes awesome copiers-(my last one from 1996 is alive and well), I was willing to try another. If you're looking for a great, all-in-one for personal, or small, one person office, home office use, this is the copier for you!

After purchase I have used all of the features and have had no difficulty. The manual does not provide any information on the fax setup, but by following the screen prompts on the printer display I was able to figure out how to setup my telephone and name that would be sent. It was able to do two sided prints in the book mode. I would recommend this printer model to anyone who was looking for a good printer with fax and a copier for home use.

I gave the MP530 three stars because I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt. I fully expect it to be a fine quality printer considering the money and brand name, but that remains to be seen. I had a Canon Bubblejet I bought back in '96 and was terribly disappointed with it enough to keep me away from *all* Canon printers for a decade. Hopefully, the MP530 will not disappoint.

That said, let me skip the gravy/mashed potatoes and get straight to the meatloaf.

I'm running a Win2k SP3 box that has gone through quite a bit of upgrading, including having installed a USB 2.0 PCI card. I upgraded to 2.0 because my system came with version 1.1 and it's cheaper to upgrade than it is to run out and buy a new system.

Be advised that the Pixma MP530 does not function with a USB PCI card. You have to use the USB on your mobo, otherwise the printer just won't communicate with the system. Canon tech support explained that the printer expects a response from the system within a certain timeframe, and, well, with a USB PCI card, it takes longer for comms to inside the system to run along the channels on the mobo and the end result is that you get a printing error. To get around this issue, I had to use the USB on the mobo. Not happy about having to do that, however, I see no degrade in speed of sending the print job to the printer. You really only see how fast USB 2.0 is when transferring mp3 files to and from a player.

Secondly, and this was my biggest complaint - nowhere is it noted (or maybe I missed it somehow) but you don't find out that you have to buy a USB cable until after you get it home. I due diligenced my printer choices pretty comprehensively before I selected the MP530 and nowhere did I see it listed that you had to buy the USB cable. Like any other consumer, I just assumed it came with it. Wrong!

As to the rest of the functions on the MP530, I can't really find anything significant to complain about. Copies, scans and faxes satisfactorily. If you have a single voice line and want to keep the MP530 in receive fax mode, then you can do so if you get Distinctive Ring Service from your phone company. Just make sure you set it all up in the menu on the MP530 and from within the printer properties on the computer. You can also attach an old skool answering machine (Read: *not* voicemail from your phone co.) to the MP530 and it is smart enough to determine which is a voice call (because the answering machine picks up) versus what is a data (fax) call.

All in all, I'm happy with this item at the moment. Tech support is free for a year (be sure to register it on the website) and the tech support dpt is located in SE Virginia, so you get to speak to REAL LIVE AMERICANS, not mushmouthed Indians in Bangalore pretending to be named "Bob."

Unlike the other multi-function printer from the leading brand, whose acronymn should stand for Horrible Printers, this printer's parts haven't fallen off after several days use.
So far I am pleased with the rich features and the print/scan quality. I should've given it 4 stars as I have used it only about a month now. Need to see the durability of this product. Also it seems a bit noisy. But nothing that really bothers me. The startup time is a bit longer than the other brand. But again no big deal there.
The bottom line is durability and reliability which is yet to be seen.
If it is anything like other Canon products, I am sure to be a happy customer.

This is only the 2nd day that I've had and used the MP530 all-in-one machine. Haven't tried all the features it provides to date but certainly pleased with the easy installation and what it has shown me thus far. I'm hopeful that it will be as easy on ink as others report. I like the way the ink tanks go in and out of the printer.

The software install and setup was easy. The sytle of the machine is nice and not overwhelming. The print outs come out clear and very precise looking. I love the fax option. I have faxed numerous pages at once without a glitch. Would recommend.

I love the printer, fax, scanner and copier. It works better than I had hoped for and would buy another Canon anytime. I did have a problem initially. The first printer I received made a terrible grinding noise as the carriage moved. I called Canon, they set up an authorized dealer appointment. The lady there said "they all do that" and it there was no point in bringing it in. So I called Canon back, once more let them hear the noise over the phone. They sent out another MP530 ASAP that is perfect - sent the other one back on their dime. Canon was great.

I had been watching this product since it's roll out and could never find it in the stores. I finally purchased it when my XYZ brand of printer went wacko from my jump from Mac OS 9 to X.

The Canon scans, prints, and copies beautifully! I haven't tried faxing yet but I can't see that being any problem!

I'm very, very happy with the cost of the inks.. half the price of my XYZ... and the crispness of the photos! There were only 2 differences in this model and the 830... 830 does double sided and costs more than $100 more. Oh well! I'm happy!

I purchased this all-in-one printer/fax/copier/scanner to replace an older machine in our church office. It is much faster and a better quality printer than the church's older model all-in-one printer. The Church staff is very happy with the product. It is great for small office use. The church office also has a regular copier machine that they use for large volumes of printing such as Sunday bulletins so this all-in-one is not used for heavy duty copying.

Does everything as promised. Easy setup. I'm happy with the print/scan quality. One drawback: I only have one phone line so the machine is connected to that line. If I get a call while the machine is on, the machine thinks it is receiving a fax, and won't shut off, even if I push the power button. So I have to deal with it trying to receive a fax while I'm talking.

The only thing that hold this printer back from 5 stars is the fact that you have to use official Canon ink (they put the chip on the ink tanks). We all know selling ink is how everyone makes money on printers, but $11 per color is obscene. How about this, make a profit on your printer, and charge a reasonable amount for ink...

Printer is great deal.

i have loved this printer. it works great and the quality of the scanning and photocopying is excellent. i have not printed any pictures yet. my mom has a hp all in one and the quality of the scanning and photocopying is nowhere close to this one. downside: it does go through ink rather quickly. but, overall, i have been really happy with this printer.

I thought others might want to know that this printer doesn't come with a USB cable. So if you don't have an extra already, you'll need to purchase a USB A/USB B cable separately. Their documentation says that it should be "less than 10 ft./3m." (You'd think I'd have scads of these kicking around the house, but when I really needed one I ended up having to cannibalize my old printer!)
Also, I haven't been able to get this printer to work across my Airport Express wireless network. In fairness to Canon, I haven't talked to their tech support about this, but after a 1.75 hours on the phone with Applecare, I've given up trying.

Early review, had printer for a little over 30 days and ran about 500 sheets thru for copy, fax, and printing. No problems everything works good and good clarity.

The Canon PIXMA MP530 is an excellent all-in-one office machine. The basic features of printing, faxing, scanning and copying all work extremly well and produce top quality results utilizing the on machine controls. The print quality is especially impressive (what this review will focus on) with text and graphics on par with most laser printers. The photo quality is near, if not equal to, any automated photo lab. The controls of the printer are detailed and very complete offering experienced users (or those willing to learn) significant control over several aspects of printing.

This control is critical to printing photos because the standard settings print a shade or two darker than what is on screen. The dark prints are the only down side to the function of this machine and are the reason for the reduced "Star" rating. Because of the ability to correct the brightness setting in the printing preferences we rated this printer at 4 stars, actuality a bit low of a rating, 4 3/4 stars would be more accurate. Reading the manual and being able/familiar with the on machine controls and software based printing preferences are essential to utilizing this machine's capabilities. The software print controls are one of many features that make this a machine capable both in home and office office environments. Here are some of the features we have found very nice in our home use.

The MP530 features a five tank ink system which reduces ink replacement costs. If ink is purchased in the multi-packs it is very reasonable considering the longevity of the ink. We have printed several hundred text/graphic pages and around 10 full page 8.5"x10" glossy photos and the tanks are still above 50%. The integrated ADF is very useful if you have multi-page documents to copy or scan and works well. The duplexing function does a good job as well, saving us paper. The Scanning results are nice with good color, detail reproduction, and a quick interface. The Copying function operates well, though some of the adjustments (size, contrast etc.) are difficult to use unless the manual is read.

The key to this machine is to read the included manuals and to work through the well designed options menus to get what you want out of the machine. For the price, the features and performance are difficult to beat.


Easy set up. Printer is pretty fast compared to others I've had and the print quality is great. I was especially surprised with the quality of the photos I've printed since it's not touted as a photo printer. Awesome photo prints. Much better quality than my husband's 'photo printer'. I like the 2 paper sources and the tray holds lots of paper. Also like the fact that when you add ink, it automatically knows it and you don't have to tell it the ink is new and print a test page to align it. The only thing I haven't tried yet is the fax machine. I had trouble with it initially as I have an answer machine and in the middle of my phone calls it sounded like someone was trying to send a fax. Switching it to manual fixed that problem, but I have yet to actually send a fax. I'm sold on this Canon and wouldn't hesitate to purchase another one in the future.

Perfect for a home office, with an additional bonus of printing pretty good photos. Great Printer, Scanner and Fax.

The only issue I had was getting this to work with an older version of XP service pack 2. I had a 5 year old PC that had been patched, and repatched, with XP sp 2 updates. This caused the PC to not recognize the Canon drivers...even though I was previously using a Canon 8400F with no problems (Canon said the issue was the printer drivers).

As timing had it, I had to upgrade to a new PC anyways, and the drivers installed beautifully on the new machine...validating what Canon support had told me about XP patches. Very happy about this purchase. Was also looking at the MP830, but I just didn't need that much machine, or the display.

I am very satisfied with this printer. For a low price I have access to a reliable multi-function machine. Also it is very user friendly. I especially enjoy that I can also hook my digital camera directly to the printer to print quality pictures.

This is an excellent product, and is a bargain. I looked at personal/home office models from Canon and HP with automatic document feeders and this was the best. Obviously there are large expensive machines which are much faster than this - but you can't put them by your desk.

1. It looks good. It is fairly compact. When not in use the paper output tray and scanner and paper input trays can be closed up and put away. This is really important if you want something for your home office and you want something that looks good because you'll leave out, or is easy to hide way.

2. It seems to do a good job printing in black and white and color. I don't know how long the ink lasts.

3. It scans well - but I'm not a photographer, I scan primarily business documents, but everything else looks pretty good too. The scanner's Presto Page Manager 7 software package is excellent. You can put a stack of paper in the scanner's automated feeder and it will scan everything for you. It might take some time - but it does the job and you can do something else. You get a excellent package of software which you install on you PC that allows you to manipulate the files from the scanner. I could not figure out how to scan directly to PDF. However you can have the built in software turn your scan in to a compressed and uncompressed PDF. The compression makes the scan small enough to e-mail yet high quality. This is the key feature for me - for my work I needed a way to convert paper documents on demand into PDFs to send to people. One useful benefit for most people is that you can sign documents, scan them in, and then e-mail them and save them on your PC. You don't need to keep the paper file or use faxing. I need to OCR the PDFs sometime. Don't depend on the software package to do a perfect job - unless the document is very simple. It will a very very high percentage of the text though on forms. Get something like ABBYY Finereader to do the job if you're not satisfied - and even that isn't perfect. Another missing feature is that it doesn't do double sided scanning - I have to turn the pages over and scan them again and then organize the page so they're in the right order. It is possible I should have bought the MP830 - which is bigger and not as good looking.

I have not tested the fax features.

The all in one printer's built in menus and keys work really well too. Largely I control my printer from my PC.

It is easy to install and use. I'm pretty technical - but this is still straightforward I think.

It doesn't come with a USB - so order one from amazon. I got the Tripp Lite USB 2.0 Cable USBa/USBb Gold Connectors (10 FT) for $10 which work fine.

It is amazing you can get all of these features for so little. There are some features it would be nice to have - and I'd probably pay more for double sided scanning. But all the built in features work well, and it is a really nice package.

This thing is amazing, I got it for $164 with free shipping. We use it for making copies, scans and printing for homeschool. We love it, and it prints quality pics and duplexes. You can't go wrong with this one.

Love this all in one. I'm not one for combination products, but for a home office this is great. It is a good compromise of all the features. Scanner works great-the duplex is a dream for a machine of this price and category. The only weak point I can see is that, like most other all in ones, the photo printing is not as sharp as with a photo printer alone, though I would define the quality as "good" to "very good". This was not the primary purpose for the purpose of this machine, so for me it is perfect.

Pros: The setup was very straightforward - just follow the directions on the easy setup instructions included. The quality of printing - color and b&w - are both excellent. They are better than anything I have seen from HP recently. The copier, including the document feeder, work well. I have not used the scanner or fax capabilities, so I cannot comment on those. The ink tanks are holding up well after a couple of weeks of considerable use. Time will tell how long they last. Overall the printer feels and sounds like a quality printer. This is my first experience with non-HP printers. Right now, I would go with Canon again with no reservations.

Cons: The first printer I received was damaged from the factory. Something was evidently bent or out of alignment with the print head or runners that it glides on. The printer made loud noises when trying to align the cartridges and the print head got caught up where it could not be accessed. It appeared to be a factory defect and not something damaged in shipping. Canon tech-support was very helpful and Amazon exchanged the printer with no problem. Also the print quality seems to be less than optimal when doing automatic two-sided printing. I haven't figured that one out yet.

Overall, a good quality printer for the money.

I'm a technical kind of guy - been a programmer for 25 years, but this all-in-one confused the heck out of me. I actually had to read the manual to figure it out, and I still have to refer back to it all the time. However, once you figure it out, it's a great device!

Excellent, easy to use, easy to install. We have copied many pictures from the computer and also from photos and the results are excellent.
It's easy to copy, fax, etc.
I love the MP530

This all-in-one is perfect for the home where speed is not that important. It has all the do-dads and options, produces fine quality in all its functions and allows double-sided printing wiht ease. I have had it for several months now and am happy with it. OCR software is included and can be loaded seperate and apart from the Cannon software bundle. In fact, I did not even load much of the Cannon software. This is a decided advantage over some HP all-in-ones which I have used. They require the loading of a huge (mostly not-so necessary) software set to get the OCR capability.

I read all the reviews on every all in one available for purchase. The 530 was chosen and I paid $151.00 delivered from Amazon. This machine works perfectly and was a snap to set up and get operating. The only complaint I could possibly have is that the manual was a little confusing on making copies. I just ignored the manual, hit the copy button and received a perfect reproduction! This sucker is neat! Hard to believe that it only cost $151.00. Those that have given negative reviews must have received a lemon which is likely very rar