Accessories

Do not purchase this printer!!
After only a few months of light use, constantly having trouble with printer recognizing ink cartridges. Worse of all, even if one of the six cartridges does not "register" properly with the printer, the printer is locked in an error mode and cannot print even in B & W. Do yourself a favor, look at one of the other brands!

Software & User Interface are Great
Like many people who have used printers for decades, I've used a lot of brands but have used many more HP printers than other brands. The problem with HP is that they make good machinery but their software and interfaces suck. To me, when I'm dealing with HP, it feels like I'm back to DOS or an early version of Windows. I've been working with computers as part of my job since 1980 and have used most of the brands of Windows & DOS, many versions of Apple's OS, and even a little UNIX/LINUX. So I have used a great many printers/scanners/etc.

The Canon software feels much more Mac-like. And that's all I'll say about that. Mac users will know what I mean instantly. Better yet, the buttons, color display, and menu on the 850 itself are laid out well, very intuitive, and do the job very well. Overall, the software and hardware interfaces are way beyond what I expect for the price, way better than any HP equivalent, and probably at least as good as any other brand.

The hardware itself? I have not found anything I don't like. I like having a front and rear tray for paper, the USB port on the front, the exit tray opening on it's own from a closed position when outputting paper, it's general quality, and it's heftiness. This is not light machine meant to wear out soon.

Can't say how it is for consumables. But the output is at least as good as what I expect for a printer of this type. The bottom line for me, though, is that it does what it is supposed to and it is very easy to make it do that job, both from the computer and by using only the button interface.

Good SOHO all-in-one for light to moderate use - needs some space though!
This is the first printer I have bought in 7 years, after experience with a Lexmark Z32 (very old), and a HP Laserjet 6P. I have experience with numerous Xerox Document Centers and HP Color Lasers in my work environment. I found this with a $50 off list at Canon's US online store, and for about $200 (free shipping, NJ sales tax), in my opinion, the Canon MX850 all-in-one is an excellent buy.

I have, thus far, used the Print, Scan, and Copy features (not a fax user, so cannot assess). I am extremely happy with the results. Outstanding print quality for a bubblejet printer and photo printing quality with pro paper is simply superlative. For photos I use a Canon EOS-20D 8.2MP camera and shoot at full resolution, so up to 8x10, the printer is fantastic - in my limited experience, it is at least as good as, or better than many Wal-mart and Costco print locations.

For professional quality non-photo documents, I still prefer the Xerox Phaser 8650 (way out of my budget!) or high end HP Color laserjets, but for my home use, shared between 4 machines, this printer fills the need very nicely, thank you.

The way it is set up in my home, the rear tray is a little hard to reach but the front load cassette comes in really handy. Using slightly heavier and brighter paper helps - I use a 98 bright, 24 lb and 28lb paper acid-free and lignin free paper, and results are very good. For photo printing, I prefer the Canon Photo Paper Pro over the Canon Photo Glossy II. Colors render crisply, the lines are clear and fine, and duplex printing is also reasonably quick.

Network connectivity rules! It is connected by CAT-5 cable to my wireless router, and the 3 computers at home can print easily to the MX850.

One strange thing about setting it up for network use - you MUST use a USB cable to initially set it up using one of the computers. Once that is done, you can connect it to the network and things work fine. I saw some reviews about difficulties with this step, but in my experience, I followed the user manual and in setting up 3 laptops and 1 desktop, I had no issues.

What this also means, is, I can print wirelessly to this printer as long as my laptop is on our home network, connected by wire or wirelessly to my home router. So I don't know why a number of printers advertise wireless and add a little more to the price - I guess for users who don't use a wireless router at home or want to avoid cables.

Scanning is okay, not terrific, but this has an Auto Document feeder helps scan a group of papers into any computer on the network. The fact that the printer lists the machines available and no machine based intervention or initiation is required is really useful to me. Also, the included software is very nice, and allows me to edit the scans, combine them into a PDF, and several other features. But one cautionary note - while scanning from the glass (called the "platen" on the MX850), the MX850 is a little noisy - not like my earlier HP Scanner.

I am very impressed with the Copy capability as well. The auto document feeder and duplex (2 sided) copying bring near-office type capability to my home. Print quality is okay, and I like way the color copies render.

Two other things I like about the Canon MX850 are 1) the card slots which include a larger Compact flash slot for my EOS 20D memory card - this allows simple cropping and printing directly from the card. 2) the card can be used even as a network drive, or a small backup device - that's pretty nice.

Don't know much about the fax capability, I am not a heavy user, but pretty sure things will work well.

Aesthetics - buttons are good, with good tactile feedback, and the user interface is good. The color LCD is excellent, and the machine, while a bit bulky (has a square, fairly large desk top footprint), the ADF folds down when not in use, the rear tray folds into the printer and the front document output tray ALSO closes when not in use - and automatically opens - I LOVE this feature. The card slots are hidden behind a small plastic door in front, and the Pictbridge (camera-direct printing) interface is on the front as well, in a small recessed port. Overall, wonderfully contained and prevents dust accumulation, even though the auto document feeder makes it a little large.

Make no mistake, though: if you have a space constraint, this is NOT the multifunction for you. If you can sacrifice a few features like the Auto document feeder, you can get super compact printers (at a higher cost per page to print). This printer has a fairly low cost per page to print, and ink is rated to last a long time. Let's see - I have had this for only about 2 months.

In summary - I highly recommend the Canon MX850 for anyone who needs a nice all-in-one (and has some space - it's a bit bulky), has multiple computers on a network that need to print to this printer (we have 4 and a router), needs to print high quality photos occasionally (we have 2 kids :) and has an occasional need to scan, fax and copy more than one double-sided document at a time.

A very Good Printer for the Intermediate to Advanced User
This is a very well-engineered printer. I took back my HP 7700 for this one, and I think it was a good decision.

First, the negatives. Don' try to install the software pieces separately, just spend a few minutes reading the manual, and do the Easy Install. Otherwise, you are bound to have some trouble.

Also, the network setup pieces is a little counter-intuitive. You need to hook up your printer via USB first, then tell it that you want to access the printer via the network. That is why you need to read the manual, it is a little confusing.

The printer menus are also a little confusing, they are very nested, and also show options depending on what buttons are pressed on the machine itself (there are COPY, SCAN, FAX, etc., buttons). Once you get used to that, it comes pretty quick.

So I would say the setup is a little time consuming, and if you have a friend or a neighbor who is more tech savvy than you, I think you should call in some favors and ask them to help you out.

But the really, really sweet part of this printer is to just watch it work! To hear the scanner and printer motors, to just sit in AMAZEMENT as this beautiful little piece of Japanese engineering performs its multifunction miracles. In contrast to listening and watching in horror as my old HP printer clunked and whirred and just about tore itself apart just to spit out a couple of pages.

I am wasting a lot more time than I should just figuring out new things for this printer to do, just to see how the heck it is done. It is fun.

I recommend thls printer highly.

Great Printer
If you are looking for a great printer that will not break the bank the Pixma M850 is for you. Although it is a monster, weighing a little over 35 pounds, it has great printing, scanning, and copying quality. You can look over the others technical reviews to get an idea of its technical qualities. This is a great all around printer.