Pixma MP780 Photo All-In-One Printer, Print/Copy/Scan/Fax
1 Awesome and versatile
Dual input for paper and either more paper or envelopes, a scanner bed, an autofeed for scanning or faxing or copying, individual ink cartridges that are about ten bucks for color and less than twenty for black, standalone fax, and Canon-quality color prints. What more can one ask for? This is the best. Bye-bye, Lexmark.
2 Easy to use, quiet.
I bought this Canon for my home. Much better than HP all-in-one that I use in my office. Much quietter and easier to use. I'm replacing HP with this Canon for my office now.
3 Great all arounder
I read all the reviews out there before I bought the MP780. Yes, the scanner is a bit weak, the color and photo quality are not at the level of true photo printer... but it's a great all arounder for everyday tasks.
Great
- Text print: sharp and fast
- Sanning: good for text and B/W; color is a bit washed
- Space saving
- Ink consumption is very respectable and the ink is relatively cheap vs HP and Lexmark
- Great price for the feature sets versus Epson and HP
- Dual side print and auto feeder are standard feature
Not so Good
- Software are not integrated- you need which sotfware does what
- Faxing is cumbersome - multiple steps to go through
- Mechanical not as strudy as HP - output tray door can't be closed on second day
- Scanner is only average for color reproduction
4 Excellent print quality and function for the price.
Excellent print quality and number of functions for the price, purchased for about $260.
Pros:
1. space-saving: i consolidated a huge flatbed scanner, color injet, b&W laser copier/fax/printer into this one machine. Saved soooo much space AND got rid of all the extra cables.
2. Aesthetically pleasing: looks pretty damn sleek and nice!
3. ADF: love the automatic feeder. convenient AND saves time. however, it does feed a bit crooked (see below).
4. Print quality: excellent photo printing. I recently printed a 8.5x11 color photo and the quality was very good. previously i was using a canon S520 (which was a consumer report best buy about a year ago), and this printer is a notable upgrade in quality.
5. Scanner quality is also good.
6. Speed: Fast USB 2.0 connection. Both b&w and color text printing are very quick, comparable to laser. Color photo printing is understandably a bit slower. Scanner speed is also fairly good (Previously, i was using the HP5470). When printing multiple or double sided pages, there is a slight delay between pages. The reason being that the printer waits for the previous page to dry before putting down the next page on top of it...very considerate.
7. Compatibility: have NO problems so far with windows XP. (Incompatibility was one of the reason i ditched my Brother office machine and HP scanner.)
Cons:
1. crooked feeder: if you care about your documents being completely straight, got to do it yourself and open the damn lid.
2. Not network capable: can only connect to my main computer and accesses it through that computer acting as server. Can't find any network adapters that could connect it directly to my home network since this is a multifunction machine.
3. though space-saving, it is slightly bulky. If you are looking for something truely slim and compact, check out the HP's line of multifunction machines.
4. no usb 2.0 cable included in box, cheapo.
5. only accepts canon direct printing (ie. from digital cam.) Not a big deal for me since i have canon powershot, which incidently i highly recommend, at least in terms of picture quality.
5 Which Canon Multifunction is right for you?
First off, if you're in the market for a printer, you can't go wrong with a Canon. Canon printers consistently beat out the competition in independent tests for print quality. Their items are elegant, well designed, and most importantly, ink is affordable.
We all know the razor and blade scheme: sell the printer below cost and make it up with pricey cartridges. Canon, however, saves you a lot of money by including the print head with the printer and not on each cartridge. Because of this, genuine Canon cartridges can be had for around $12, while 3rd party cartridges, which many claim work just as well, can be found for as low as $2.
If you've already decided on a Canon multifunction, lets see which model is right for you. Canon's current market list is as follows:
MP130 - New model, and the most affordable yet.
Copy/Print/Scan
18ppm black, 13ppm color
2 ink tanks
No auto sheet feeder!
Card slots
MP390 - Has a fax, About half the cost of the MP7xx's.
Copy/Print/SCan/Fax
18ppm black, 12 ppm color
2 ink tanks
card slots
MP750 - Older model - exactly the same as mp780 but no fax.
Copy/Print/Scan
25ppm black, 17 ppm color
5 ink tanks
Built in Duplexing
MP760 - New Model - geared towards photo enthusiasts.
Copy/Print/Scan + Special Photo Features
25ppm black, 17 ppm color
5 ink tanks
No auto sheet feeder!
Built in Duplexing
*Unique photo features:
2.5 inch lcd screen
Built in film adapter for 35mm slides or negatives
can print directly from negatives
Card slots
MP780 - Does it all except for the mp760 photo features.
Copy/Print/Scan/Fax
25ppm black, 17 ppm color
5 ink tanks
Built in Duplexing
Now, let's look more closely at some key differences between these models:
*Fax: The first thing you should do is decide if you need a fax or not. If you do, you should choose between the MP780 or the MP390. If not, don't rule those two out just yet, they may have have other features you can't live without.
*Note: There is NO auto fax/telephone switching on these models if you wish to use the same line for faxes and voice calls.
*Number of ink tanks: The next important thing you should look at is whether you want to be able to replace each color individually or not. The MP750, MP760 and MP780 all have 5 individual ink tanks (photo black, black, cyan, yellow, magenta), while the MP130 and MP390 have only 2 (black and tricolor). The cost of each cartridge is about the same, but you will waste some leftover ink by throwing out the MP130 or MP390's color cartridge when just one color runs out.
*Photo printing: If you're planning on printing a lot of photos, you should probably go with an mp7xx. These have a superior print head, as well as the 5 separate ink tanks. The MP760 is especially noteable with all the features Canon has added specifically for photos. These come at a price however, as the MP760 does not share the auto sheet feeder of its MP750 and MP780 cousins, or the fax of the 780.
*However - If you plan on printing directly from memory cards, beware! The mp750 and mp780 do not have card slots! The 2 cheaper models and the mp760 do.
*Auto sheet feeder: The mp130 and mp760 do NOT have an auto sheet feeder. All 3 of the others do. An auto sheet feeder is very useful when doing a lot of scanning or faxing.
*Duplexing: The mp7xx models each have built in duplexing.
*Size: The mp7xx models weigh around 30 pounds and are quite big. The MP390 is a smaller, and weighs 18 pounds. The mp130 has a tiny footprint for a multifunction printer, and weighs 14 pounds.
Some features that all of Canon's current MFPs share:
*Copying: Each of these models has a copy function, and all have the same resolution (600x600 black, 1200x1200 color).
*USB 2.0 connection
*Pictbridge direct photo printing support
*All 5 models are great looking and will complement almost any decor.
My recommendations:
If you want a great price on an excellent printer and don't need a fax: MP130
If price is an issue but you still need a fax: MP390
If you can afford an MP700 series and don't need a fax, card slots, or the MP760's photo features: MP750
If you need its exclusive photo features (but no fax or auto sheet feeder): MP760
If you can afford an MP700 series and need a fax (but no card slots and none of the MP760s photo features): MP780
6 Don't get this model if you do a lot of scanning
I am thinking of returning my unit, here is why. The scanner is very slow. My old Canon MP 730 scanned about 3 times faster. I scan a lot of documents to PDF. I called Canon tech support and they were very nice but could not help me improve the scanner speed. The tech support rep did confirm that the MP780 was slower than the older MP 730. Canon really went backwards by having their new model be about 3 times slower than their previous model. I was hoping thr MP 780 would be a better version of the MP 730 but it is not. Someone at Canon made a very poor decision regarding the scanner for the MP 780.
7 Fax
There is 'NO' Auto Fax/Tel Switching for receiving fax and voice calls on a single phone line. Unfortunately, this is one of the most import features that I need.
8 Fax Using VoIP Tip
I recommend the Canon MP780 provided you can get along with USB and no networking. The product is otherwise well featured and has performs according to specs.
If you are faxing using a VoIP line and getting errors using the default settings, set your transmit and receive data rates lower. I use 9600 because its reliable albeit slow.
I find the user interface, for any non-simple tasks, to be below average and counter-intuitive. I agree with other posters that sections of the manual are incomplete. The internet needs the ability for users to directly comment and enhance manuals.
Wish there was a model with (wireless) networking.
9 Very Nice
Something about me: Don't read the manual cover to cover, use it as a reference.
Re: this product: I had to refer to the manual once, related to it's fax functionality. This speaks to the product's functionality and ease of use (if you are not new to PC's and printers).
Nice multifunction printer, good quality, great price, everything works as advertised.
Negatives:
Manual could be more descriptive about the built in Fax switch and functions. Currently I have it set to the Answering machine mode (because it's connected to this unit) and not kick in for 20 seconds (if I leave it to default of 15 seconds it obviously always kicks in and the caller hears the annoying fax tone). Thus far I have not been able to configure this thing to only pick up if there's a fax and leave it alone if it doesn't detect a tone (as I said earlier, it tries to connect to everyone as a fax machine). Maybe I misunderstood as to how a fax switch should work. Perhaps someone else has a suggestion else it's a call to technical support for me. I have also tried auto switch, manual switch.
Printed directly from my Powershot SD300 via USB and it worked fine. Connecting via PC and then printing to the printer obviously gives you more flexibility and control over your pics. So to me, DirectPrint (HP, Canon...) is a marketing gimmick but one never knows, it might come in handy one day if my PC is dead or something.
I picked this printer over HP because of the following:
a). Individual ink tanks. HP did not have this choice in this price range.
b). My old HP deskjet would just disconnect when it wanted. Wanted to try something else.
c). I bought a Canon Powershot camera with this, for what it's worth. Qualified for a rebate. Think HP was offering something similar at the time but I wasn't interested in an HP camera, let's get serious here.
d). Canon to me has better software and drivers packaging
However, the CD that was included had newer manuals (PDF's) than on Canon's website (weird and a first one for me). So, don't automatically assume that the driver on the website is newer.
Overall - 4.5 stars. Do your homework on the fax functionality if that is the primary function you desire. Great printer.
- SH -
10 Best multi function I have had in 5 years,production is up
I have had a xerox,and last year I went through 3 hp's. Forget the HP,NG. This machine came and it does everyting I need. I figured if it did not work at least I could make nice photo copies on my down time. Well this machine is so great,I have a small Mortgage comany, I send about 25 faxes a day and make about 30 copies and print about 15 pages off the computer a day. This machine uses very little ink! YEA!!!The machine gives me a conformation of everyfax,(a picture of the cover sheat) Great. The copies are perfect.It has a great teck,support,people are easy to understand(no India),don't have to give all you numbers to get a teck,they answer right away and gives you the answer 1,2,3,.There is just a little start up book,the rest of the book is online.I have to go and print the whole book,this I think is the only draw back,It has many features that I have not had time too look up yet.Too busy,It scans,copies faxes both in legal and8.5X11.I use only legal.Get this machin you won't be sorry.I Pray it lasts.
11 Good!
We have been using it for more than a month now and the printer/scanner/fax is very good. Our only problem is the way it interacts with the PC its connected to, Canon does a much better job on other printers which we have owned before. The included software could have been better.
12 Great printer/copier/scanner/fax
I've had this machine for about a month so far, and it is fantastic. The duplex printing (while not very fast) is a great feature that helps save paper. I've used the fax several times, and it's smart enough to wait for my answering machine to pickup and then receive a fax. Overall, I'm very satisfied with this product.
13 ink smears if you touch a black and white page
I switched from a 7-year-old laser printer to this machine. The print quality is comparable but if you touch a freshly printed black and white page from the Canon the ink will smear. I tried using this as a FAX machine but it was never able to transmit successfully, probably because I have a Vonage voice-over-IP phone and the available quality is not high enough.
14 Excellent color; won't work as Mac rendezvous printer
This is one of the best multi-function inkjet printers out there -- great color, scanning, etc. It works great with my Macs, BUT it will not work as a rendezvous printer. I.e. you can't connect it to Airport Extreme or Airport Express and then locate it wirelessly. (The only workaround is if you have one stationary Mac where from which you can share this printer.) Canon's support on this issue is non-existent, so if you're a Mac user, beware.
15 Just A Dude
I'm not much for writting so it will be short all the positive reviews say it all. I have used this product for about three weeks for photo printing and text.
16 Awesome Multi-function Photo Printer!!!
This printer is packed with features and is very user-friendly. It was easy to install and we were printing high quality photos in minutes. We could not tell any difference from a photo lab, especially on canon photo paper. Some neat features are dual sided printing, dual paper trays, and 5 individual ink tanks for high quality printing as well as ink conservation. This printer is also very very fast. I highly recommend this unit!
17 short review - good product
I was getting by ok with a recent HP middle of the line printer and a cheap scanner to scan/print and copy, and faxing using my pc/modem and Windows Fax software. I've been meaning to buy an all-in-one, but after reading the reviews of various brands, I saw that just about every product out there seemed to have at least 1 weakness. I'm not finding any weaknesses with this machine.
Keep your expectations reasonable though. You will find standalone scanners, printers, copiers, fax machines that do the individual jobs better than this Canon all-in-one. But if you are limited by space and cost and have to go with an all-in-one, this is the one to buy.
18 Great all in one printer
I just recieved this baby after waiting several months on back order. Wow! worth the wait. Streamline modern look. Lots of packaging to remove, but includding all the unpacking time I had it up and running in about 1/2 hr. Prints crisp color and b&w prints in about 3 seconds a page. Not a laser, but good enough for home, and hey how many office laser printers can fax, scan, print and copy for under $400.00? Lots of great software that pretty much installs itself for mac or PC. Added software for web printing made easy. Prints exactly what's on the page colors and all with one icon that shows up next to brouser. Great for home office. Comes with all includding fax cable. All you need is a USB cable and paper.
19 Great All-In-One... but the auto document feeder needs work
This is a very good all-in-one device but not perfect. There are plent of glowing reviews to be read, so I'll just touch on a few things that I did not see in the other reviews.
One of the main reasons I bought the Canon MP780 was for the auto document feeder.
Unfortunately the auto document feeder (ADF) was not up quite up to my expectations. Scans and copies made using the ADF tended to come out a little crooked. Not horribly, but enough to make a document look unprofessional.The ADF also added considerable weight to the scanner lid, making it necessary for the user to be extra careful when lowering the lid or risk having it come crashing down.
The scanner also does not scan both sides of the document. You have to flip the documents over and then rescan. The MP780 includes software that allows you to convert your scanned documents to Adobe Acrobat. When scanning a stack of document you end up with thumbnails of the documents that you can then select and convert to an Adobe Acrobat file. This worked easy enough, but I could find no way to re-order the pages before converting to Adobe. So, if you scanned one side of a stack of documents then flipped them over and scanned the other side. You would end up with a Adobe Acrobat file with the pages out of order (and crooked). Unless you own a full copy of Adobe Acrobat you would not be able to correct this.
Also note that the paper is pulled through the ADF and then is redirected over the scanner head. Heavyweight paper cannot be scanned.
I thought seriously about keeping the MP780, as the other features seem to work great. The scanner is fairly quick (not nearly as fast as they claim) and the printer is quiet and seemed to work great (I liked the Canon Pixma printer so much I am going to toss my noisy, ink-jet clogging Epson and buy a Canon.) The dual paper import was nice also. However, I just could not live with the ADF. I considered just not using the ADF, but that left me using a flat bed scanner with one bulky and heavy lid. I reluctantly packed this unit up and took it back to Staples today.
Don't get me wrong, this is a great All-In-One. If you have limited space and don't want to purchase a printer, scanner, and fax machine separately (or could care less about a few crooked scans) the Canon MP780 is the one for you.
Pros:
All-In-One.
Good scans (without ADF).
Nice prints.
Make copies or fax with the computer off.
Dual printer paper input.
Replacement ink cartridges are inexpensive.
Auto door on the printer is neat.
Cons:
Crooked scans when using the ADF.
Heavy scanner lid (due to ADF).
Bulky.
Less than perfect software.
No memory card slots.
Come on Canon, how much would it cost you to include a USB cable?
Note: I have since purchased a Fujitsu SnapScan scanner which does a great job of scanning documents (both sides at once) and includes a full copy of Adobe Acrobat 6.0. This one-trick pony is expensive though, costing more than Canon MP780.
20 Very Smooth for the cost
I was the proud owner of a Canon Multipass F50 but I retired it to move up to the MP780. So far a good decision. Though not as fancy wancy as comparative HP models the individual inkjet cartridges is reason enough to go with this model. Picture printing is outstanding and compared to my F50 it is as quiet as a church mouse. The style is very cool and matches my decor perfectly. Overall the MP780 is a good solid multi-machine at a good price.
21 Best all in one printer at the moment
I hope that HP feels the pressure from Canon's MP780. I've had HPs and have to say that I've had nothing but trouble with HP. As soon as I read some reviews about the MP780 I tried to get it. Guess what, sold out everywhere except for online retailers. So I bought one from Office Max via nwa.com worldperks miles. (3 miles/dollar spent +200bonus miles=1100 frequent flyer miles) I am just impressed with the quality, ease of use, and size of the machine. I'll never buy HP or Lexmark again. The Epsons were nice also but did not come with a feeder to copy and I don't think that it can fax. For the same price as the Epson rx600, any consumer would pick the MP780.
22 Impressive performance at an affordable price
I'm very impressed with the quality and performance of the Canon PIXMA MP780 All-In-One Photo Printer.
It was very easy to setup and install. Within about 20 minutes of receiving the printer, I had it up and running. The photos from my digital camera printed with vibrant colors and had lots of detail. Text from my documents was sharp and clean. The scanner produced quality scans fast. The fax portion of the printer is feature rich for its price range.
In all, I'm very pleased with the Canon PIXMA MP780.
23 probably the best Multi Function so far but its not perfect
After owning a Brother MFC (garbage) and a HP D145 (a work horse but mediocre print quality) I decided to upgrade to the Canon MP780. What caught my eyes was the double sided feature that until now was exclusive only to HP machines.
Print quality is excellent as the MP780 is basically a Pixma photo printer. The borderless feature is great. It accepts paper from two (2) sources. From the back, in almost a straight path which allows you to print on heavy card stock, and from a cassette. This is a rather big plus.
BUT the MP780 that is sold in North America is crippled because the ones that are sold in Europe and Asia can also print directly on CDs/DVDs. I looked inside the machine and I believe that mechanically the machine should be able to print on a CD (even though the special CD tray is not provided it would be easy to make one) but the driver does not come with this option (I tried using a UK driver but it recognized that I have a US machine). Maybe a creative programmer can un-cripple the drivers? That would be awesome!
Scanning is good, not the fastest in the world but acceptable with good quality.
Copying, which is a factor of scanning, is also good in quality and descent in speed (but I've seen faster scanners)
One small issue is that black copying in draft (fast) mode produces a faded result. I suspect this is because the unit is using the dye-based black cartridge as opposed to the pigmented black cartridge (this machine has 2 black carts) . Since I am a refiller of carts, I plan to refill both black cartridges with pigmented ink which I believe will significantly improve the faded look.
For non-refillers simply copy in normal quality and you'll get excellent results.
Faxing is fast and beats my HP D145.
This is a multi function with emphasis on the multi, and can multi task where possible. For example, while faxing you can also make a copy or print etc, while my HP D145 can't chew and walk at the same time.
The only other significant issue with this unit (other the crippled direct CD printing) is the software. It is short of acceptable.
For example you cannot setup the fax from your PC. You have to use the machine and the tiny LCD display to set it up. Because the LCD is small instead of using full terms they have codes for everything and one ends up getting lost in menus and submenus with weird codes and terms. The question is why? Why can't I set the darn thing from my PC? Also when faxing from the PC the address book is paltry and does not provide an option for a cover page or to look at faxes I already sent.
Hopefully someone from Canon will read this and maybe will decide to write better software. It's not too late just release an update.
Canon includes additional software to browse and print photos and documents but I don't use it.
Finally it does not have flash memory slots. It does have a USB slot in the front but it is only compatible with Pict-Bridge cameras. Regular USB devices cannot be connected. Thumbs down to Canon for being proprietary.
Best of all the price is surprisingly low especially for all the features.
All in all I would give it 4 1/2 stars, but I gave it a 5 since Amazon does not have 1/2 stars.
24 Sweet all-in-one printer, slow duplexing
This is a great printer for the money. I loved my Canon i850 and the new Pixma print engine is a worthy successor.
Let me get to my gripe, though. One reason I bought this printer was automatic duplex printing. The good news is that using 24lb inkjet paper at default print quality, the ink does not bleed through at all, even with color printing, which is an improvement over the i850. The bad news is that automatic duplexing is extremely slow. I did not time it but I would say it takes about a minute per sheet at normal quality, vastly slower than single sided printing.
I still consider this a 5 star printer, but I thought this information could be useful to prospective buyers.
25 Canon MP780 Review
We simply love this thing. We had been looking for a all-in-one for a long time. Late last year, we settled on the Canon MP730, only to find out that it had been taken out of production. Then we saw pictures and stats for the MP780 on Canon's website. Well, after several months of waiting (due to production issues I believe), we finally got ours a few weeks ago. It is amazing in every way. First, it really looks neat. Like another reviewer mentioned, the automatic door for the paper is kind of neat (I just wish it would close when the printer goes into sleep). Scanning and printing quality is fantastic. The document feeder is a godsend (nice for scanning stacks of documents). And to top it all off, the machine really feels solid. Not like some of those creaky models by other manufacturers. I really recommend this printer.
26 Canon MP780 Review - by Allen @ HTMLCenter.com
Ok - I got this printer last weekend - it is simply amazing... the photos print in mere seconds and look just as stunning as from any photo developer. The duplexing is great. The automatic front door is way cool. It appears that the 3BLACK ink is missing in the box.
If you want the best AIO printer on the market, this is the one to get.
-- Allen
http://www.htmlcenter.com
