17 out of 17 people found this review helpful.
Solid All In One for Home/Office
Date of Review: Aug 23, 2006
The Bottom Line: Very good unit and a great value.
Purchased this unit to replace a Brother 4750 fax/copier/printer and an HP Deskjet 895CSE. Spent a lot of time looking at reviews and found that even equipment that was highly rated by professional reviewers often had negative reviews from consumers. I have come to the conclusion that in many instances consumer problems originate with improper setup. Documentation can be frustrating to read to boot. The Pixma 530 is so new that I couldn't find any reviews but Staples has a 14 day return policy and I decided to take a chance. I took me about a half hour to get the unit up and running using the quick reference guide. The next day I spent another half hour referring to the user manual and configuring the unit to the setting to what I wanted.
This unit is smaller than many others but still takes up a fair amount of space. This is a full function color machine with an automatic document feeder. The top of the scanner lifts up so you can copy of scan larger items. Canon claims the printer can produce up to 29 pages of a text per minute. I haven't timed it but if you really need that kind of speed go for a good laser printer. Scanned documents and photos are considerably slower. I don't find the print speed, whatever it may be, to be an issue for home/office use.
The print quality is excellent for text or faxes. Color printing is very good. Canon ink costs are reasonable compared to other manufacturers.
There is one paper tray that holds 150 sheets and a rear slot that holds another 50 sheets standing up. You can push a button to switch between sources.
One of the features I was interested in is that you can scan documents into your computer and create pdf files which can be attached to emails. This means that you can send better looking documents to anyone, even if they don't have a fax machine. This can save on phone bills.
I have only had this unit for a few days and have not used any feature more than once or twice. So far I am quite satisfied. I paid full price - $199 at Staples and was looking at an HP7310 which is about $150 more. For the money, the Canon Pixma 530 is a very good buy that should be more than adequate for most users.
