4 in 1 printer. Any good?

lilibeth

fwor wrote: »

Lilibeth - unless you absolutely have to have a wireless network interface, the MP610 looks to be better value than the MP600r.

It's slightly faster and has twice the scanner resolution (though admittedly most people will never use it at max setting), and costs £30 less at just over £100 from Ebuyer.

It has all of the usual features such as printing directly from memory card, and copying without a PC connected, plus you can print wirelessly directly from mobile phones (and probably laptops, though I've not actually tried that) via infra red!

I absolutely agree with all your points and I had hummed and harred (sic) for the past month because of exactly the reasons you have given. And the reason I chose it in the end was the wifi. The wifi I cannot do without.
It's not for a business or anything and I probably wont use the scanner much anyway.
My only concern with the scanner is how well it will handle foreign fonts.

Norman-B

Excuse my ignorance but does the MP610 have Fax facility?

I have just seen it's a 3 in 1 printer.

Do I really need a fax? If I scan a Doc', can I send it to a Fax? If this is a silly question, just blame my age!

lilibeth

Norman-B wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance but does the MP610 have Fax facility?

I have just seen it's a 3 in 1 printer.

No it doesn't.
If you want fax functionality as well in the Canon ones then these are the models
that do
Mx7600@£230 ish
Mx850 @ £175 ish
Mx700 @ £120 ish
Mx310 @ £57-100+
Mx300 @ £50 ish

They all print scan copy and fax.

What features are must haves for you and what's your budget?

Norman-B

lilibeth, thanks for your reply. I want to free up some desk space, so I need to rid myself of my large Brother phone and fax machine. I also need a colour printer (I have a B&W laser). Budget, £100 or less if possible.

fwor

Sorry Norman-B, I missed the fax bit, but as Lilibeth pointed out, the MX range all have fax facilities.

When I was looking I considered that range, but - as with wireless networking - you seem to pay quite a bit extra to get the fax part. In my case I send and receive so few faxes that the fax facility built into Windows is good enough, and costs nothing extra!

If you don't use a fax much it's probably not worth it. If you have a recent version of Windows, just set up and use the fax under "printers and faxes".

Norman-B

fwor wrote: »

Sorry Norman-B, I missed the fax bit, but as Lilibeth pointed out, the MX range all have fax facilities.

When I was looking I considered that range, but - as with wireless networking - you seem to pay quite a bit extra to get the fax part. In my case I send and receive so few faxes that the fax facility built into Windows is good enough, and costs nothing extra!


If you don't use a fax much it's probably not worth it. If you have a recent version of Windows, just set up and use the fax under "printers and faxes".

fwor, thanks for this info. Can you please explain a little more about how I can use the PC to send a fax? I only use the fax about twice a month.
Thanks

lilibeth

Norman-B wrote: »

lilibeth, thanks for your reply. I want to free up some desk space, so I need to rid myself of my large Brother phone and fax machine. I also need a colour printer (I have a B&W laser). Budget, £100 or less if possible.

Yeah you did actually mention fax in your first post so my initial suggestions were a bit.... well .. unhelpful . Sorry:embarasse

If you have a look here you can tick the boxes for the mx 300 and mx310, mx700 and click on compare and canon give you a very detailed side by side comparison. (it won't let me link direct to the comparison page).
http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Multifunctionals/Inkjet/index.asp#

Ignore the recommended prices Cannon give. The price guides I gave in the above post were more accurate.


Re Faxing if you are using it once a month I wouldn't bother with a fax I would use internet based faxing. The faxes are sent from your email and arrive in your email. You sign up with an internet fax service. Costs @5 squid a month for a basic service all in if the volume you send and recieve is low.
There was a really cheap one but I can't think of the name. You get a designated fax number for free so long as you send or recieve one fax a month. I'll google and come back.

P.S This explains a bit how it works
http://www.computerarticles.co.uk/Online+Fax+Machine+.html

fwor

Yes - it takes a while to get your head around how it works (or it did for me!).

The Windows Fax facility uses your printer to do the scanning and printing part, and uses a good old-fashioned dial-up modem card to pretend to be a fax machine on the phone line. If you don't have a dial-up modem in your PC they are very cheap now.

The fax appears to be a printer within programs like Word, so you create your fax in Word and "print" it to the fax.

It sounds a bit weird, but it works well - I used to use it a lot, but have little need now.

[edit: should also mention that there are a few online fax services that you can use to send and receive faxes via email. I've never used them, but others here have recommended some in the recent past]

diamond_dave

Just bought the Canon Pixma MP210 PSC from PC world - the one with £15.00 cashback. Pc World matched a price from Amazon + 10 % discount brought the price down to £25.10, so with the 15 quid back from Canon the machine will have cost me £10.10!! Cartridges are not too expensive.