Customer Reviews

Canon Pixma MP470 Photo All-In-One Inkjet Printer (2177B002)

5 star:		(73)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

The MP470 is a superb value at under $90 and is a very flexible tool. It has excellent text output, decent photo output and a useful scanner/copier.

* Easy to set up and use
* Great for home and school
* There are better choices for business and photograhpy
* A little noisy

Seriously, the text output is fantastic. I'm back in college and have had to print out over 1000 pages of PDF's for my classes this quarter. My workhorse 4-yr old Canon i860 printer was fast and could use cheap non-OEM inks but it often made for very hard reading which wasn't worthwhile. This quality of the MP470's text on plain paper rivals that of the HP 5000-series Laserjets at work.

I seem to average a little over 220 pages of text (which includes images) from the CL40 black ink cartridge. That's nearly 9˘ per page, which is not spectacular. For general use I prefer printers which use two cartridges (one black, the other tricolor) as opposed to 4,5, or 6+. It may cost a little more but it's so much easier to keep track of spare cartridges you will inevitably have to keep on hand.

The LCD is easy to read and the media card slots are handy but as someone who uses Photoshop to at least sharpen the images I print, the card slots aren't used much at all.

The scanner is OK, not great but not bad. Documents scan and print clearly, photo's are OK. I have a Canoscan 8400 and it's much faster and accurate but it cost twice as much as the MP470. I think for school and household use, the scanner is fine. For serious photo scanning, a dedicated scanner will be much better.

My one criticism of this printer is the noise. Not as loud as dot-matrix but it's louder than any printer I've used, including the MP160 (which my partner uses for her work). There is a quiet mode with a timer, so you can make the printer quieter (and slower) during certain hours of the day.

I have a certain disdain for all inkjet printer manufacturers for adopting the "Gillette" model; sell the product near cost and earn the profit on the consumables. Not only is this deceptive model for the purchaser of a printer but I think it encourages waste by making many printers 'disposable' compared to the cost of ink. My 2˘... Having said that, Canon seems to be the best of the bunch right now. Due to their design, Epson has head-clogging issues and higher per-page output cost. HP has very lightfast ink but their non-business models always have paper handling issues. Lexmark is undistinguished (and Dell inkjets are just Lexmark printers that have no Mac compatibility).

.

This is an excellent printer for those of you who will only use it occasionally. It has fast printing & the print quality is excellent. If you plan to scan only once in a while this will do the job. If you are a heavy scan feature user look for a printer more specific for that. I use this to print directions, some pictures, boarding passes & to make scanned PDF documents. It has worked great for my needs. If you are a heavy duty printer user I would suggest one of the higher end Pixma models.

Canon Pixma MP470 Photo All-In-One Inkjet Printer (2177B002)
After reading the rave review in one of the leading computer magazines I was anxious to try the MP470. The magazine raved about the outstanding scan results attained by this equipment. Since my primary need was to scan photographs this sounded like the one for me. The MP470 is an excellent printer and produces great results, but its scanning capability is not good. Perhaps my unit was flawed since the results I obtained were poor. I tried various adjustment to improve the clarity but to no avail. I have returned the unit to Amazon and purchased another brand.

I don't have much to add to what others have said about this printer. It truly isn't as good as a $400 unit, but remember it costs under a hundred bucks, and for that price it is a Very good printer. A few things to watch out for, though. First, in common with a number of other Canon consumer printers, the paper feed is not very good. Specifically, there is no tray. You mount the paper almost vertically in the back, where it is held up by a retractable support. The feed is combination of gravity and internal mechanism. Mounting of the paper is critical, or it will feed slightly at an angle which will be noticeable on your output. Certainly not a show-stopper, but just keep in mind you need to be precise in how you put the paper in. Second, you are guaranteed to break that support I mentioned if you aren't particularly careful. The paper still feeds OK if you do, but then paper mounting is even more critical and you may have to load less sheets at when you refill. Finally, it takes the printer a while to get itself ready, especially if it was powered up recently. Once it gets going it's plenty fast, but it isn't uncommon for that first page to take 15 seconds to come out, and I have actually seen it take almost 60 seconds to start after the job is sent (all were B&W, short text only), which can be annoying on short documents. Once it gets going, though, print quality is outstanding for the price.

UPDATE:

In the above review I talked about the sensitivity of the paper feed and that support in the back that can break quickly. After having used the printer for five months, the output quality remains excellent. However, the paper feed has become a bit more sensitive (and the support did break), so while it's still a good printer, the annoyance factor is up a bit. Also, still unable to figure out why sometimes it prints instantly and sometimes you have to wait 25 seconds for the first page to start (even same document on different days). While I'm not so upset that I would dump the unit, this does wear on you at times, so be aware. Still, it's only 90 bucks...

Okay, so I had 2 all-in-ones, both HP's, in the past. Both of them lost their ability to scan and copy, so the all-in-one became a one-in-one. HP's customer service dept. claimed that they had corrected the problem on their newer products, but wouldn't/couldn't refund or exchange these 2 broken ones. I hesitated on the Canon for that reason, but after seeing the reviews and witnessing what it could do, I have to admit that I am IMPRESSED!

The first thing I printed was a color photo from a file on regular paper, regular quality and it is sharp, yet the colors are beautiful and it was instantly dry - a perk for the home user! The second thing I printed was a scanned black and white photo (at an impressive 1200 dpi) on glossy Kodak photo paper and it looks like the professional photo I scanned! I was able to make wallets from a 5x7 and no one would ever detect that I did it from home.

I did print some black text on regular paper and the quality is just about laser.

I am SOLD! I highly recommend this for your photos, flyers, invites or anything that you print from home and people will think you had them professionally copied.

The style of the machine is sophisticated and sharp and the BEST THING IS - there are no buttons for my 2 year old to push!!! Until he finds the door for the LED, but that hasn't happened just yet. ;)

Canon Pixma MP-470 all-in-one (copy, print, scan) is mac compatible... a huge plus! Lots of great features..copy, scan, print, card reader, lcd display. Took about 10 minutes to set up and start using. A wonderful machine at a great price.

Prints photos quickly and quality is just as good as prints from the store. A note of caution... let glossy prints 'dry' before stacking them or they'll stick together & ruin the finish on the photo paper!

Scanner produces quality results. Scanning software included is easy to use.

Camera card reader is also very convenient & eliminates the need to physically attach the camera to the computer. Reader allows you to print directly from the card, or save the picture files onto your computer.

Only a couple cons...Unit is slightly larger than average & takes up extra space on my desk, but the design is attractive and goes well with any décor. Also color cartridge runs out pretty quickly if you're printing lots of pictures.

Overall I would recommend this unit for the quality results it produces & the low price.

IGNORE BELOW: just like my last Canon, this one broke too, right in the middle of my Christmas calendars. This time, like many other people have experienced, I suspect that the paper feed rollers are broken. I keep getting Service Error Code 5100. I am NOT buying another Canon. It may only be $50 bucks but the ink is $50 bucks a pop and a printer should last more than 250 pages and 11 months.


I'm usually a big Canon fan - I've had two Canon Powershot cameras that are great and I still have an MP730 that works well - just not the best quality. In October 2006, I got the IP4300 printer for $99 and loved it - printed better qaulity than MP730 and it was faster. I still use MP730 to scan and copy.

The IP4300 printed many photos and 20 personalized calendars on it as well as the usual simple text documents. However, yesterday, in the middle of printing one of my calendars that I give as Christmas gifts, the IP4300 SUDDENLY DIED. As I now read on Amazon, others have had trouble with the Canon ink cartridges simply not registering and the printer not reading them after just a simple routine refill. I was really disappointed and not at all happy with Canon. So...

I decided to try an HP4260, even tho I dislike the HP printers we use at work. I ended returning the HP4260 to Staples within an hour. The HP installation appeared to go well, but whenever I tried to change any setting in the printer options, the printer would not recognize anything but the default settings. Also, the HP4260 would not work properly with two software programs that I use the most.

I began to appreciate the Canon IP4300 and MP730 that installed flawlessly and worked with all programs right out of the box so I decided to give the MP470 a try - it's the same price as IP4300 and it also scans and copies.

So far so good - worked flawlessly right out of the box with all programs. The instructions are much better than HP's and I LOVE the little flip up screen. The ink cartridges are different on this printer than on the IP4300, so hopefully, I won't be buying a new printer in a year. This printer is also pretty lightweight and a small footprint for what you get. I have no idea how long the ink will last, but the cartidges are at least a little less expensive than the IP4300.

So far, the only con to this printer is it's a little slow in printing color 8x10 pages. I haven't even tried glossy quality photos yet. I don't think the quality is any better at all than the iP4300 - maybe a little worse actually. But, it's the same price as last year's IP4300 and even tho it's noticably slower, it's really not that bothersome at all.

I usually update in 2-3 months so time will tell, eh!

Got this for my kid going off to college, who had no problems with setup on a Mac - works perfectly - even had to print out 140 pages of text & images (this premier college did not have enough copies of an out of print textbook!)- printer handled it with ease - scan and copy functions used a bit, but again simple and quick.

I just purchased a Hewlitt Packard laptop with Vista and needed a new printer because HP refuses to make a patch to make old printers compatible with Vista.

I purchased another HP printer first and it was terrible--couldn't get cartridges in and when I finally did, print quality was unacceptable.

So I returned HP and bought this Canon printer. Fabulous. Cartridges went in easily. Best of all, razor sharp printing.

In addition, this is Energy Star rated. I keep all my equipment plugged into a power strip. When I turn power strip on, printer remains off until I turn it on. Brilliant way to save energy!

Author of award winning book, Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify and Energize Your Life, Your Home and Your Planet

if your color cartridge is out of ink on a Canon MP470 printer and all you want to do is print BLACK, and your printer says replace color ink cartridge. All you have to do to continue printing in black is first go to the printer settings. click start>control panel> Printer/fax>, select your printer and right click>select Properties>, select Maintance Tab, select ink cartidge setting, select black ink only. Next go back and select GENERAL TAB> then look down and click Printing Preference. Select Plain Paper and click OK.
Lastly go to your printer "MP470 canon Printer". You should see on your little LCD telling you to replace your color ink cartridge..."whatever"! Do this lastly... press and hold the stop/reset key for about 5 seconds or more and the LCD screen will change, and on your monitor a prompt will come up. You should be now set to just print in BLACK! I hope this helps because its tax time and no time for BS! Good LUCK!!!