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All in One Printers for home use

N

NeilHK

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 21, 2007
7
0
I've decided to bite the bullet and buy a printer/scanner/fax/copier.

But which one is best for a Mac (Power Book 15")?

I don't want anything too big and I want something that doesn't demand a doctorate in quantum physics to set up.

It should also print via airport.

I'm leaning towards a Canon MP530 but all advice appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
I have the MP500 and love it - easy to use, fast and great quality (for home use that is).
 
I've got an HP Photosmart 6180. It has built-in wi-fi, and does all the basic functions. It works great with my Macbook and the four PC's in my house.

The one downside is it's an HP, so ink costs an arm and a leg.
 
itsme92 said:
I've got an HP Photosmart 6180. It has built-in wi-fi, and does all the basic functions. It works great with my Macbook and the four PC's in my house.

The one downside is it's an HP, so ink costs an arm and a leg.
Click to expand...

in the US, the office supply store Staples offers $3 off a new ink purchase when you return 1 HP ink cartridge. you can get as many as three $3 rebates on a current purchase (i.e., the most you can get off is $9). this is what i do to help keep the cost of my HP ink down.

to the OP: i have a PSC 3210 which i like but it doesn't have a fax or wireless capability. it's older brother PSC 3310 does have those things and is very nice (my aunt and uncle have one). i'm partial to HP printers/all-in-ones but i also endorse Canon and Brother. i've not had good luck with Epson or Lexmark.
 
Although HP ink cartridges seem expensive, research how much ink that you buy ends up on the paper. HP is the most efficient on the planet, delivering 80-90% of the ink you purchase to the printed page. Others, like Brother, Canon and, especially Epson are as low as 20%!!

Generally, the less you print the lower the efficiency because of the service routines used to "wake up" cartridges that are not used frequently use a lot of ink to spit or prime the nozzles. All cartridges are serviced regularly, less frequently used ones are serviced more intensely.

Do your homework on real world printing costs (not manufacturers claims) and you will find HP to be a pretty good bargain.
 
Ok, I stand corrected. HP doesn't seem to be much more expensive in real-world costs.

Another thing, I've owned three HP printers over the past 10 years, and I've got nothing but praise for them.

Go for the Photosmart 6180. You won't be disapointed.
 
If you want something built like a tank: Hewlett Packard. I have been given two used HP 812C's and have scrubbed them in the kitchen sink. Now they are in like new condition and both work marvelously. :)
 
i would go with canon all the way. HP, Epson aren't as great as they seem and like you all say, ink is a killer. You can buy canon ink online for $2 for one cartridge. Some have 4 or 5 cartridges, but you can't compare 10-15 dollars expensive when you compare it to the HP. I just don't like it when you can buy a new hp printer with the ink for the same price as the ink. I enjoy the duplex printing feature on the canon also. This is a good feature if you print a lot of word documents. It pulls the paper back in and then prints on the back side of the page.
 
diamond3 said:
You can buy canon ink online for $2 for one cartridge.
Click to expand...

I argue that this is false. You may be able to by ink for use in canon for $2, but make no mistake about it, it is not canon ink. It is probably some contaminated swill of water and food coloring that may or may not plug up your printhead and void your warranty. You pay for what you get.

Do some math on this, too. With 4 cartridges at $8-10 for each Canon color, and the HP at $15 for three colors, $19 for black, how is the canon cheaper? Oh, and more pages come out of the HP in real-world printing (but not according the the manufacturers' continuous printing based claims, that is what the YMMV claims are for).
 
SRSound said:
I have the MP500 and love it - easy to use, fast and great quality (for home use that is).
Click to expand...


I always wanted one- I have heard nothing but fantastic things about that machine. Never did understand why it was discontinued so fast, though.

I currently have a Samsung scx-4200 laser all-in-one. Love it! yeah, it doesn't do color, but it's fast as hell, small(ish), and does everything I need.

Some day down the line I will pick up the MP500 or it;s newer version.
 
The MP530 is the one with the 30 page sheet feeder, right? It looks a good deal.

I've not seen anything on the reliability of it but I've had really good service from my higher end Canon printer and I was considering the MP530 to replace my clogged Epson CX6400, which was otherwise good.

Epson, unfortunately, makes printers that are best used daily. When I stopped using mine at least once a week, it became clogged. My Canon doesn't have a problem with clogging and HP puts the print head in the ink cartridge so that you don't have a problem with clogging but with the higher price of the cartridges.
 
Patronus said:
I argue that this is false. You may be able to by ink for use in canon for $2, but make no mistake about it, it is not canon ink. It is probably some contaminated swill of water and food coloring that may or may not plug up your printhead and void your warranty. You pay for what you get.

Do some math on this, too. With 4 cartridges at $8-10 for each Canon color, and the HP at $15 for three colors, $19 for black, how is the canon cheaper? Oh, and more pages come out of the HP in real-world printing (but not according the the manufacturers' continuous printing based claims, that is what the YMMV claims are for).
Click to expand...

First of all, i believe that water serving as ink wouldn't work to well. I have used this ink for a while (replaced 4x-5x) and have never had a printhead problem. On the hp, well that's a different story. I am just expressing my opinion here that I have had more problems with hp than with canon. The quality of the $2 ink seems identical to the original ink, so for me I guess I was smart enough to get more than what I paid for.

On that whole math part, if you reread my post you will see that I said they were $2 for a cartridge thus validating my point that 4, 5, 8, or 15 are cheaper then the $15 for tri-color and $19 for black. You can check my math on that one if you want. Anyways, where is the website that shows the comparison of pages printed on a cartridge that shows hp, canon, epson, etc. I am just curious.

Aside from this, the thing that gets me on the low-end printers is when the ink can sometimes cost more then the printer.
 
I have to advise you to steer clear of HP products. I bought one of those print scan copy models from them about 18 months ago and the installation software only supported OS9! In fact, I still don't have it scanning. Go with somebody who actually supports macs.
 
Greetings,
need to revive this thread, and ask for help on 2 fronts.

Front one, occassional printing for my mom and Front two, scanning.

Not big on HP, have had a bad history there. I have a cannon for my work PC , while it works pretty well I haven't messed with trying to scan or plugged it into my Macs.

This MFP will be directly plugged into an eMac, need to scan and print without added software (I never need to scan and really have no idea if Macs are any good at it, or have built-in ability).

Mom is using 10.3.9 and we really don't want to upgrade to 10.4. She is turning 74 this spring and don't need to add alot of new stuff.

Thanks for the help. I really need to get this printer fast, so quick answers are great. She has my 10yr old PSC 750 that does nothing but tie up the processor.
 
Nice to see you back, stubeeef. :)

What is your budget? I have a Canon PIXMA MP810 and love it.

BTW, I think you'll need to install drivers for scanning.
 
jsw said:
Nice to see you back, stubeeef. :)

What is your budget? I have a Canon PIXMA MP810 and love it.

BTW, I think you'll need to install drivers for scanning.
Click to expand...

Thanks, been hugely busy.
Budget is no problem, under $300 ok if possible, not really a hurdle.
I love my cannon, but the hp software on my moms eMac has been GawdAwful!!!
I was thinking of the 830, looked pretty nice.
Do you scan much or at all? How has the software been? Are you using 10.3 or 10.4?
African or European?:p
 
stubeeef said:
Thanks, been hugely busy.
Budget is no problem, under $300 ok if possible, not really a hurdle.
I love my cannon, but the hp software on my moms eMac has been GawdAwful!!!
I was thinking of the 830, looked pretty nice.
Do you scan much or at all? How has the software been? Are you using 10.3 or 10.4?
African or European?:p
Click to expand...
African. :D

Scanning works well under 10.4; don't know about 10.3 (geez, man, that was almost two years ago....). Canon's software installed easily; no issues.
 
jsw said:
African. :D

Scanning works well under 10.4; don't know about 10.3 (geez, man, that was almost two years ago....).
Click to expand...

I use the "only good Star Trek movies were the odd number ones" principal and will upgrade from 10.3 to 10.5 when it comes out.
Guess I will go with the Canon 830 today.
 
stubeeef said:
I use the "only good Star Trek movies were the odd number ones" principal and will upgrade from 10.3 to 10.5 when it comes out.
Guess I will go with the Canon 830 today.
Click to expand...
FYI, you can almost always download the software drivers for any of the printers, so you could do that first, make sure it installs OK, and then get the printer if there are no problems. :)
 
jsw said:
FYI, you can almost always download the software drivers for any of the printers, so you could do that first, make sure it installs OK, and then get the printer if there are no problems. :)
Click to expand...

Great idea!
The updated software for my 10yr old HP PSC 750 did nothing but keep trying to contact HP! Activitly monitor had it stuck at 94% and when we tried to do anything we got beachball.
So I will do that! Thanks for that idea, too busy anymore to think straight!
 
i just bought a brother mfc-440n and it works great with both my macbook and wife's pc..$150

mfc440cn_all.jpg
 
New Kodak's have LOWEST INK COST

Look at the new Kodak Multifunctions: they have received outstanding reviews AND their ink costs are FAR LOWER than HP, Epson, Brother.

Mac World just reviewed these.
 
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