Which All-in-one printer

Hi all,

Every time I asked a question here, people have been so helpful - so therefore I'm trying my luck again, but this time not only photo oriented, but hope that people will still help

I'm searching for an AIO printer in the $1-200 range that will print, scan and copy - it should produce some decent prints of photos in b/w color, but not high-end, since I have an Epson R1800. Also documents should come out crisp and sharp. Also the scanner should be pretty good.

I know this might fall a little out of category, but I've been trying to search online for some time now and I mainly find conflicting information on which I should go for!

I really hope you can help and have personal experiences with different AIO printers.

Thank you so much in advance.

Good question. I am looking also and so far I like the canon mp990. I like the epson artisan 810 but it doesn't do negatives or slides like the canon. The canon has an extra grey cartridge for black and white - max photo size on either of these is 8 x 10.

I am very happy with my Epson CX8400. I don't recall the price, but I know its a ton better than I expected. I bought it the day after moving, and I had a 2 month wait on my furniture to be shipped overseas to me. I needed a scanner bad, so I picked it up to hold me over. I ended up giving my other (HP) AIO to a friend and keeping the cheaper Epson.

I use the Canon MX860, All features perform well and it's wireless.

I was in the market for a new printer last week and ended up with the CANON PIXMA MP 640. Not very expensive and i could only find good reviews on it. Seems like there's something negative to say about just every printer in the lower price range, only negative comment about this one is the ink usage wich i can't comment on as iv'e only had it for 1 week.
It prints very good pictures and is wireless so you can set it up anywhere in your home or office. If you're on windows 7 don't use the cd from the box but download the latest from the Canon website.

I just ordered the canon mp990 from b+h photo $140.00 free shipping. I will let you know when it is set up and running (maybe next weekend) how it works out. I did not want to get into the major printers; just wanted something for the family and for me to print some 8x10 for fun. Anything larger and I will try mpix on metallic paper one of these days.

Erik1974 wrote in post #10680907
I was in the market for a new printer last week and ended up with the CANON PIXMA MP 640. Not very expensive and i could only find good reviews on it. Seems like there's something negative to say about just every printer in the lower price range, only negative comment about this one is the ink usage wich i can't comment on as iv'e only had it for 1 week.
It prints very good pictures and is wireless so you can set it up anywhere in your home or office. If you're on windows 7 don't use the cd from the box but download the latest from the Canon website.

Hi Erik.
I think I might be in the market for a printer, so I wonder if you can answer a question about the printer driver. I've been trying to print a 4x4 on 4x6 paper, and my Canon printer's driver won't do it. If I insist on borderless, it stretches the image to 4x6 (which is very attractive, of course!). But if I let it choose bordered, then of course it isn't 4x4 anymore because of the border. And of course the same thing applies if I try to print 8x?? on 8x10 paper. (I checked with Canon support and they verified that it won't do what I want.)

It really irks me that I can't choose an image size that will easily fit on the paper. Could you possibly let me know if the driver for your new printer is the same? It's not necessary to actually make the print to find out, it should show up in the preview or whatever that particular driver calls it.
Thanks very much. (Hope you're enjoying your new toy!)

Hi John,

I just did a test and if i uncheck fit picture to frame in the first screen i can send the 4x4 print to the printer just fine (borderless that is). Did you uncheck it?

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Hi Erik.
My driver is different from yours. In my driver the option to fit the picture to the frame isn't a stand-alone option; when you choose borderless you automatically "unchoose" "fit the picture to the frame." (Which is a real dumb way to do it!) Your printer obviously has a better driver than mine, which is what I was hoping for. (I'd hate to think that all Canon printer drivers were as bad as mine!)

So thanks a lot for checking that for me, I really appreciate it.
John

I have an HP Photosmart C7280 (wireless printer, copier, scanner, fax). I'm not sure that it's made anymore, and I recall that I paid around $250 (slightly higher than your budgeted amount). I've been very satisfied with the quality of color 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10 prints that I have made using the HP premium plus papers. Negatives: (1) B&W prints don't seem that good (color cast issues); (2) really uses up the ink fast if you print at the highest quality; (3) ordinary print quality for text documents is good enough (not as good as the quality of color photos); (4) bloated software.

ncjohn wrote in post #10720032
Hi Erik.
My driver is different from yours. In my driver the option to fit the picture to the frame isn't a stand-alone option; when you choose borderless you automatically "unchoose" "fit the picture to the frame." (Which is a real dumb way to do it!) Your printer obviously has a better driver than mine, which is what I was hoping for. (I'd hate to think that all Canon printer drivers were as bad as mine!)

So thanks a lot for checking that for me, I really appreciate it.
John

Be aware that it could also be a operating system issue, i am using windows 7, i don't know if the drivers for other operating systems are any different.

Hi all,

Thanks for the comments so far. I completely agree that all printers have pros and cons, but I just looking for something that will give a good compromise. Good print quality in both "high" and "normal" mode and then some decent scanning. I'm not sure whether to go for Epson, HP or Canon...

Erik1974 wrote in post #10721003
Be aware that it could also be a operating system issue, i am using windows 7, i don't know if the drivers for other operating systems are any different.

No, I have Win7 as well as WinXP, and it's the same with both. I would really expect that to be the case; they're not going to change features in a given driver just to make it work with different systems.

Thanks again.

The MP 990 is a really nice printer/Scanner. It is my second color printer the first being a HP D 7360, which worked very well.
The Canon seems to print better, cleaner if you will. I did have one print with a very dark background where you could faintly see
dots from the pulling gear, but no-one else seemed to notice it on the print. Also I failed to realize when i bought the 990 ,but
it does come with a negative adapter for scanning, which is stowed in the scanner lid.

Also,I would like to add that the Included software was easily installed and worked well.
This printer supports printing/scanning directly via memory cards or flash cards, as well as
USB or WirelessNetworking.

I got mine on sale for $100 (Canon's MRP was $300) if I remember correctly.
Personally I would definitely recommend it.

Ben

So far the MP 990 I have is printing some nice 8 x 10's; colors are matching what is on my screen nicely. Ink usage is no more or less than any other ink jet I have ever owned; disappears before your very eyes.