Customer Reviews

Canon MultiPass MP730 Multifunction

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have owned a Canon MultiPASS MP730 since mid-May, and can offer the following review.

I have used a number of multifunction machines, both inkjet and laser, and I think this is one of the best available on the market right now. I had been planning to purchase one for home use for over a year, but kept waiting to see if Canon was going to introduce an MFP based on the i850 printer engine (which the MP730 is). As soon as I saw this model on Canon's website in early May, I began checking online reseller sites daily. I purchased it from the first (reputable) vendor that showed available inventory.

I won't go into all the features of the unit, but here's what I really like about the MP730:

- Separate ink cartridges for each color - no wasted ink
- Extremely fast print speeds in all modes (draft, normal, best)
- Very reliable paper handling - no jams so far (I've printed about 500 pages to date)
- Very reliable document feeder paper handling - only one jam so far, and that was because the original was too slick and too small

- Extraordinary photo printing quality, particularly for a non-dedicated photo printer. Photos printed on the MP730 rival those output on our Canon S9000 (considered by many to be one of the best inkjet photo printers) and Canon S800 printers.

- It is a true multi-function unit. I have used other MFPs that don't multi-task at all (like the HP LaserJet 3200, which can't print or scan while it's receiving a fax). Our MP730 has had not had any trouble printing and faxing or printing and scanning at the same time.

What I don't like:

- Automatic document feeder (ADF) speed is not a fast as I'd like. It takes about 6-8 seconds to scan in a page of text at 200 dpi. That's not too bad, actually, but I've used a Brother MFP (MFC-8600) that took only 2-3 seconds to scan at that resolution. Unless you are going to routinely batch-scan hundreds of documents, this shouldn't be a problem.

- The size of the photos on the contact sheet are too small. This function is used to print out some or all of the photos on a memory card (CF, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, MMC, SD - it reads them all with the built-in card reader on the front). The thumbnail prints are about 5/8" x 3/4" (1.5cm x 2cm) and are fine for general identification, but not for critical comparisons. For some, this won't be a problem, especially if you like getting 70 contact prints on a letter-sized sheet of paper.

- No automatic duplexing accessory option. This is understandable, given the location of the paper tray, but it would still be a nice feature, and it is offered on the OJ7xxx series (the MP730's only real competition when comparing their feature sets). The print driver does allow for manual duplexing, however.

- The footprint is a little larger than I'd like, as its depth is almost 23", mainly due to the paper tray on the rear. But I consider that a small trade-off for the increased paper feed reliability.

Another reason for finally purchasing an MFP was because our old HP DeskJet 722C (five years old) has decided to stop printing yellow. We used it for all our general-purpose printing and use the Canon S9000 and S800 strictly for photo output (my wife has a small home studio photography business). An added bonus from the MP730 is its phenomenal photo quality (for a 4-color printer, most dedicated photo printers are 6-color). Although a trained eye could possibly tell the difference in the prints, I doubt any of my wife's clients could. That allows us to use the MP730 as a back-up photo printer in the event she has a large order or if we run out of ink (not likely, but the S800/S9000 and MP730 take different ink tanks). Of course, photo output is superior on Canon's own photo papers, but we have had great performance from all of our printers on Ilford Galerie Classic and Smooth (gloss and pearl finishes), as well as Red River Ultra/Polar satin and gloss.

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I have owned my MP730 for 3 months as of this writing. Previously I owned a canon 600 and 6000 color printers.
I like the ideal of having one machine to handle many tasks. Photo quality is good on plain paper and excellent on photo papers. Print: It printed well from draft to letter quality. Copy: I really like the one button copy function.The document feeder worked well for me be it a single or multiple pages. Scan: The scaning was fast and went off without a hitch to file or working documents. Fax: The super g3 faxing is amazing. I faxed a 16 page document in the ADF in about 3 minutes.

As you can tell I really like canon printers. The reason is because they are well made and have been reliable for me. The biggest plus that really stands out to me is the individual ink tanks. Over the course of time you will literaly save hundreds of dollars by "ONLY REPLACING THE CARTRIDGE THAT IS EMPTY." Printing can be pretty expensive when you are tossing out $35-$40 cartridges when you are only out of one color.

Overall I give the MP730 high marks fo the usual Canon Quality

This is my second Canon color inkjet. The first is just a printer, but based on my positive experience wiht that, I was confident in buying a Canon this time around as well. That confidence was reinforced with the MP730.

In a nutshell, the positives are:

- Surprisingly quick printing for an injet, even in color. Faster than the laser from just a few years ago that it replaces

- Excellent print quality -- tested it with color photos at full size and it's outstanding

- Very slick design... small footprint on the desk and looks good too.

- Both a flatbed AND fed copier -- this is very cool. I prefer to use the feeder most of the time (which is what my old multifunction had), but sometimes, if I'm copying a book or something, I wish I had a flatbed. This does both, again in a very compact size.

- Great Canon software and utilities for printing and other tasks

- Individually replaceable ink cartridges (saves money).

Just an outstanding unit -- I would have expected it to cost 2-3x it's price point.

The only downside, and this is a downside of inkjets generally, not the Canon specifically, is that ink is expensive and runs out faster than you think. Over the course of a couple years owning it, the cost of ink will likely outpace the cost of the printer itself.

But if you're deciding among multifunction units and among inkjets, this is a very good pick.

I purchased the MP730 5 days ago and I am more than satisfied with it. I have been an engineer by trade for 35 years and can tell good engineering when I see it: this thing is engineered well. It has a solid, tight feel, that could only have been produced by a solid, tight engineering organization.

Here are the features that I like about the printer:

- User replaceable printhead ($47 from Canon... I checked). Unlike Epson where your printhead must be sent in and replaced (at considerable expense) by Epson. Or HP where you must buy a new printhead whenever you buy a new ink cartridge.

- Separate tanks for the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Unlike HP multifunction printers which seem to have all the colors in a single cartridge. This means if you use up all your yellow, you can just replace the yellow cartridge.

- Automatic document feeder: that way you don't smudge up the flatbed glass with finger prints when doing copies and scans.

- Reads my camera's memory card: Becomes another lettered disk.

Installation and setup was clearly explained in the setup guide. I am using Windows XP. There were no gotcha's or snags whatsoever. The manual warns you to turn off your anti-virus software. I turned off all startup programs in my system tray.

When I made black and white copies, my wife could not tell the difference between the original and the copy. In fact, I think the copy looked better. I have sent and received faxes with the MP730 and this function works flawless as well.

The printer is a little deep (23 inches) compared to HP's multifunctions. But HP had so many complaints on the software installation that I didn't care about the extra depth.

Before I bought the printer, I contacted customer support to see if the printhead was user replaceable and the price. My experience with customer support confirmed what others have said: it was courteous and knowledgeable.

Epson has the ability to scan negatives with its multifunctions but because complaints of Epson head clogging and the head not being user replaceable, I favored the Canon.

For a home/office, you can't go wrong with this printer.

My precocious 2-year old killed my beloved Canon S900 by pulling it off the desk and then standing on it over the holidays. With desk space shrinking, I searched for a replacement that could also relieve additional space from small roving arms (read as scanner, printer and digital media reader).

I landed on the MultiPass MP730 based on my positive experience with other Canon products. Although it's not noted in the installation materials, I had to daisy-chain my unit, but it led to no problems whatsoever (phone line from wall to internal pc modem, out of modem to MultiPass printer, out of MultiPass printer to telephone hand set).

In no random order, here are my initial findings after three weeks of use:

a.) Individual Ink Tanks are awesome (here with a double-capacity black tank and single capacity cyan, magenta and yellow). They ARE the money saving feature they're cracked up to be (why oh why oh why didn't Canon use the same 6-series cartridges as their awesome S900 and ixxx series printers?) The tanks are hard to get to in the guts of the machine (under the scanning platen) but I think it makes for a quieter unit.

b.) Plain paper printing - Awesome! Fast! Good Color! Black and white speed is commendable, color a little slower.

c.) Photos - high quality paper - Excellent. It could never really rival the Canon S900 with it's additional photo cyan and photo magenta cartridges but the results are stunning even to the discerning eye. (I've pretty much abandoned printing quantities of photos at home. It's too easy to upload to a service and have them delivered to your door - one of the reasons I migrated to a multifunction machine rather than a new high-end photo printer). The results really are surprisingly good for the occassional photo for grandma.

d.) Digital media reader - works just like my SanDisk reader except it's tucked conveniently into the printer body. It's always "hot" and appears on the list of system drives in Windows Explorer. Fast! The little thumbnail generator (of what's on the card) is cute but not worth much (who leaves photo's on their compactflash cards???). They're too small to discern photo quality anyway.

e.) Copying - Black and white is fast enough to warrant a "Wow!". Color is a little slower but with excellent quality. To me, this is one of the most valuable features of this machine.

f.) Faxing - I've only faxed twice, but both were flawless using the automatic document feeder. The progress status of your fax operation is mysteriously cryptic on the LCD however.

g.) Scanning - At least as good as my Canon D660u scanner on pages, pictures, documents and color output. Works smoothly and flawlessly, if not a little slowly.

The true power and benefit of this machine is the ability to perform many of the above functions while your PC is powered off. I also tried the machine at "multi-tasking" color copying while uploading photos and no problems were noted. Some might consider the footprint large, but with the scanning bed sideways (perpendicular) to the paper path, I find it fits the desk a whole lot better than the prior flatbed scanner did (and is out of the reach of 2-year olds).

It seems solidly built and the control panel layout is logical and easy to use. One negative is that I've experienced a few erratic problems while using the included utility "Canon Easy WebPrint" which attaches to your browser's header bar. I would recommend NOT installing this utility software until the bugs are worked out. Setup and documentation were logical and easy.

Why would Canon NOT include a USB cable with the printer????

Based on my early experiences, I would highly recommend this machine. It's worth the few extra bucks to get Canon quality.

Well, folks...like many of you have stated, I am also a "weirdo" about doing thorough searches for the best prices and equipment. And like one of the other reviewers stated, "The Canon MP 730 was voted the top multi-function printer in PC world". The latter was one of the reasons for my purchase, as well as the overwhelmingly great reviews of this product on MANY websites. (PC World, E-Pinions, Pricegrabber, etc...).

Well, let's talk about the printer.

Looks:

First-off, it's a pretty cool color. All my PC equipment is either black, or black & gray (22" Viewsonic monitor, Logitech Elite keyboard, PC tower, Cisco SOHO 91 firewall, Logitech MX700 wireless mouse), so it fits-in very nicely with my other things. As for the styling...well...it's a super-slick looking beast!! It's a little big, but, "HEY"...what do you expect? It's able to do a variety of different functions, which includes having an "auto document feeder" on top, a scanner with a lift-up lid, and a nice-sized tray that can hold up to 150 sheets of plain paper. (And the tray even has a clear cover to enclose/protect the sheets of paper). Pretty cool! And with all those functions, you'd expect it to have a little size. If it DIDN'T - and it had all the above functions - it would be pretty flimsy and cheaply built.

Stability:

I have to say I was pretty impressed. It's a solid little beast. According to the manual, it weighs-in at a hefty 24 pounds. And I have to say, that if it was not as heavy, then it would be "rockin-and-a-rattlin" when it printed and scanned. But since it has some nice mass, it does none of the latter. Actually, I was initially kind of worried about this, as I had read a comment on it's shaking. But I'm convinced that the writer must have placed it on a flimsy table in order for them to comment on it shaking. As far as I'm concerned, it DOES NOT rattle at all, and it's very solid.

Print quality:

I believe the print quality on the MP730 is awesome!! I had this baby up and running in about 20 minutes (drivers loaded, and everything) - and was printing photo-quality pictures with ease! I had a few extra sheets of glossy Kodak photo paper on hand - and I was REALLY impressed. It is such an improvement over my funky Epson Stylus printer. No comparison!! As a matter of fact, everyone said to get either an HP printer (known for their exceptional printer motors), or an upper-level Canon printer. (Which is equal to the HP motors, but with MUCH BETTER print quality). So I jumped on the Canon MP 730. Even when printing a color photo onto PLAIN PAPER, it was exceptional!! It looked soooooo good. The only thing which was kind of sloppy, was a facimile (fax message) I received. It was really blurry around the edges of the letters. But I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with my printer, as it probably came from the SENDING fax machine. (As a matter of fact, I'm about 99.9% sure about that).

Faxing:

I think this baby also excels in the faxing department. You can design your own "Fax Transmittal Form" (using MS Word, or MS Excel), and send a facimile using your PC after you fill out the form. How's that for "super-cool-neato-stuff"?? You can even customize it to auto-receive faxes, print logs of faxes, or even decide how many times you would like to try resending a facimile if it doesn't go through the first time. (Even the time it will wait before each retry).

Closing notes:

And very lastly, get the USB2 printer cable before purchasing the printer. (The printer DOES NOT come with the needed USB2 cable). Otherwise you'll have to wait the unbearable 1.5 hours to run and get one from the store before you can use your new toy. And DON'T go to Circuit City, Best Buys, or any store to get this cable. (Unless you can find one at a decent price). Circuit City charged me $24.00 for this USB2 cable....which I later found on E-Bay for .99 cents. (Ninty-nine cents, plus $3.00 for shipping = $4.00 shipped to your door). Of course I took advantage or their "return policy" and got my money back for their over-charged USB2 cable.

Overall, Amazon.com had the cheapest price on this printer ($255.00 shipped to my door), and I received it in two or three days. Which in my book equals a "VERY SATISFIED CUSTOMER"!!

I hope this helped someone.

In Christ: Raymond

I purchased a MP730 2 months ago to replace the trusty HP Deskjet 722C that I'd used for the last 5 years. This unit quickly produces excellent B&W copies and computer print-outs. The scanning software is easy to use and has lots of features. I've used it to scan color photos into the computer and to save pieces of paper as PDF files. My Mom has no trouble sending faxes with it. I would definitely buy this all over again.

The MP730 received the PC Magazine Editor's Choice award in the Nov. 25, 2003 issue.

I've just set up the printer today, so this is my initial impression after playing with it.

I love it! It is a bit larger than I expected, mainly because angled paper tray at rear makes it take up a lot of depth (22.5 inches). Text output is OUTSTANDING and fast (up to 22ppm), but like all things in life, it comes with a small but noticable compromise. Although the photos are quite stunning, any areas with dark black have droplets that are visible (only if you look closely) but otherwise the image is stunning and very sharp. For professional quality photo output I would recommend a dedicated photo printer (check out Canon i950)but note that it is not optimized for text (I believe it prints text around 2 pages per minute. Also, if you do intensive document scanning, it seems a bit slow when using the document tray on top. There is also quite a bit of annoying beeping going on (pushing buttons, completed faxes, that I hope I can turn off...)

If you want a home office beast of burden that can handle a variety of tasks with very high quality results, this is it!

Helpful notes:
1. If it makes funny clicking noises and the phone you plug into it does not always work, and your faxes just stall with continuous beeping, switch the phone lines in back...oops!
2. If you are upgrading from an older printer, you will need to purchase a USB 2.0 cable (not included)

OK, my own rule is that you should always take overenthusiastic reviews with a grain of salt. But I can't help but be superhappy about this thing. I had two HP printers previously, which each performed OK for about 6 months before I encountered the same problems (printing out streams of gunk, difficulty getting it to print if there was a paper jam, etc.). I blamed the manufacturer, so I decided to get a multifunction from Canon. I cannot vouch for Canon's other products, but this is a home run. I have had it for about 7 weeks now, and it runs like a dream.
* Printer: Ok, it takes a couple seconds to warm up, but once it gets printing, it is super quick. The speed on the fastest setting (draft, grayscale) is amazing.
* Photo Printer: I printed out a family photo and hung it on the wall (I used matte paper), and it looks great. I am very happy with the detail and coloration in the picture.
* Copier: I love the feeder, and it works great. It copies super quick, and no problems.
* Scanner: Have used the scanner a few times (Presto Pagemaker is the software that comes with it), and it is great. Just push the copy button, the software automatically comes up on your computer, and you click "scan". And you are done!
For me, printers have always been the bane of my existence. (You know that's true when you have gotten into shouting matches with your printer.) The problem with most printers is that they work when you don't need them, and they fail when you do need them. But this one works all the time, and always quickly and without problems. It is as easy and one-touch as multifunctions get, and the software has proven to be valuable. I really couldn't be happier. Hope you find the same joy I did.

I must say this machine is much more than I had hoped for from a multifunction. The Canon MultiPass MP730 does it all, and more importantly, does it all very well.

Printing:
This is a very fast printer. I've seen a few printers with similar speed ratings, but this is definitely one of the faster ones. Print quality is awesome for an inkjet printer. It prints photos almost as good as some of the photo printers. It allows printing of borderless photos and prints them directly from the compactflash card without using a PC.

Scanning:
Reasonably fast. Amazing quality.

Copying:
Copying is fast and good quality, but takes longer if you use the auto-document feeder (ADF). Color copies have really good color reproduction.

Faxing:
Again, very fast using the flatbed, but slower with the ADF. Of course, with the ADF, you don't have to stand around waiting for the fax to complete individual pages. I've sent many faxes between my work and home office and they've come out as good as any. Allows both PC-faxing and standalone faxing.

Accompanying software:
The drivers are very stable and have some pretty nifty features, such as addition of watermarks.

There are separate cartridges for all colors and so there is no wastage of ink. Cartridges are quite cheap too compared to some other companies such as Lexmark.

Annoyances:
- Paper tray is at the back, so printing envelopes is hard.
- No automatic duplexer available, although driver supports manual duplexing. (Admittedly, this is not so bad considering the price range, but HP sells a duplexer for OfficeJet 6110, so...)

All in all, this is definitely a steal for the price it's selling for.