Customer Reviews

Canon imageCLASS D480 Laser All-in-One Printer (2711B054AA)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This device is basically identical to the MF4370dn which is heavily (and positively) reviewed. As near as I can tell there are three differences between the two units:

1) The D480 is beige, the MF4370 black
2) The D480 has am improved document feeder
3) The D480 has more complete duplexing than the MF4370.

I was actually alerted to #3 by an Amazon review. You can put a stack of two-sided documents into the feeder and produce a set of two-sided duplicates. According to the Amazon reviewer the MF4370 will take two-sided docs in the feeder but can only produce single-sided docs in response.

I haven't tried this with a thick stack of documents but onesie/twosie stuff seems to work great, at least with plain copy paper. I tried duplex-copying a mortgage statement printed on thick paper and the feeder choked on it.

Copying is fast, quiet and sharp. I'm delighted by it, actually. Duplexing is really simple. Manually scanning two different sheets onto one two-sided document or just copying a two-sided document are both very easy. The biggest limitation is the size of the platen. I didn't think I'd even notice this but if you're used to throwing down a book or something of a full-size copy machine you'll feel a bit cramped. If you want to scan oversized stuff you're of out of luck, but that's true of every machine in this price range.

The D480 seems to be a perfectly capable printer and supports full duplexing right from software. I do most of my printing to an HP 3600dn and don't see that changing except for printing music, where duplexing will be really nice to have. Network printing was really easy to set up.

Scanning is where this device falls a bit flat, and that's due almost entirely to the software, not the hardware. Even thought it has a Vista logo on the box it still relies on TWAIN drivers so it doesn't integrate with "Scanners and Cameras" under Vista. The software they ship to scan with is hokey but seems to work. I guess I can hope that Canon will ship updated drivers but I won't hold my breath. I am a little peeved at MSFT for letting Canon put a Vista logo on the box.

Network scanning is a joke on this device (same as with MF4370). The process for doing this is just stupid, and the file transfer is ungodly slow. I was hoping to just pop some docs into the ADF and press a button and have them show up but you can't really do it in the backgrond and the file transfer times are godawful slow. This is partly due to the size of the data but not completely - it's REALLY REALLY SLOW. To give you an idea it took something like a minute or two to transfer an 88KB image. That's KILOBYTES. I think the scanner must send a raw dump over the network which is processed on the host machine. In any case, it's tricky to set up and basically unusable. Note to Canon: "Scan to USB Flash Drive" would be a far better feature.

On the bright side there is support for scanning several pages from the ADF into a single (or multiple) PDFs. There is some sort of OCR software but I haven't tried to use it yet. We hope to scan bills and whatnot and toss the originals - I guess I'll see how well that works out.

I haven't tried the faxing capability. Having a halfway decent ADF will be a godsend for sending contracts or NDAs around, but I'll probably rely more on scanning to PDF than actually faxing. I never receive faxes - I use online services like eFax.

Finally I have to ding the awful documentation. It's really quite bad - I had to call tech support to try to figure out network scanning and found out that even though I didn't want to use USB scanning I still had to do a USB install. Oops. If you want to do anything non-trivial you're going to be experimenting and cursing a bit. Canon's tech support was actually quite good, but better docs would have saved them the cost of the call.

So, as the title says, the hardware is quite good for $250 but the software side is a little lacking. Even though I poo-poo the device a lot I am pretty pleased with it. Based on what I've seen so far I can recommend it for SOHO use if network scanning or tight Vista integration is not going to be a high-priority item for you. I wouldn't recommend using it as a primary departmental printer because the input tray is dinky, but I don't think you'll find a better device under $500.

Warning: LONG review ahead - prepare for detour if not seeking the details on this tour! You've been warned. :-)

The decision to go with this Canon D480 all-in-one printer was a gamble for me. My previous printer was a Canon color all-in-one ink jet unit (MP360 ) that died prematurely and went to an early grave after barely 3 years of very lite use. I was really concerned about buying another Canon device or ink jet model. The root cause for failure on the MP360 was it's uncorrectable ink pump/head issue, so I opted to return to the B&W toner cartridge models. I learned that no matter how easy it might be to take off a few cover panels, these Canon's are NOT designed for easy service and repair (even with my tech background). No wonder they try to charge $$$ if you consider getting one fixed instead of replacing it. They don't want to fix 'em either! HA

I need the capability for an occasional fax and scan in addition to the obvious printing. Deciding not to buy the individual components, I reviewed all the multi-function units I could find. Unless I was willing to shell out some serious $$$ and buy a business model, my choices all hovered in the $300-500 range. This model might be ok for a small or home office (SOHO), but the plastic materials and strength of the components are NOT like those found on previous devices. With any type of heavy use, I can NOT see this model standing up to any bumps or long term wear. For example, this unit has a flimsy tab that extends at the end of the output tray (necessary to use or the papers end up on the floor) and one little bump could break it right off. The ADF and scan cover on top feels like it was made as lightly and cheaply as possible. You'll have to treat this unit easily and carefully or it probably won't hold up. It might be a move to reduce weight and material costs, but it borders on the overdone effort. Sadly, many/most of the models in this price range have the same anemic disease of reduction.

So far, printing output has been of a decent quality, as expected for a toner model, including the handy duplex/2-sided feature. Definitely not publishing grade or quality but ok for internal business/office use or at home. I'm still on my "starter" cartridge (why couldn't they just put a full cartridge in when shipping?!) after a few months of lite printing. Power-up from a cold start is quick and just a little noisy for around 10 seconds. Wake-up is also quick when tossing over a print request. The unit is not very quiet, but can be tolerated if the duty cycle is short.

In order to use the web-access features for checking the settings, you need to install the TCP/IP-Networked connection. If you use the USB connection, you won't get this functionality (I've installed both USB and TCP/IP connections on my system). Even though I downloaded all the latest patches and software from Canon's site, I didn't need to update the firmware as it arrived with the latest version available. Supposedly this fixes the bug for setting a default mode (copy vs. fax vs. scan) for those printing over a network. I didn't find the included software to be great, user-friendly, or with helpful features, but your mileage may vary. You won't be missing out on much if not installed at all. Others have noted issues (confirmed) with an indexing feature in one of the programs (takes forever on app startup, best to avoid).

I've have problems with the very temperamental faxing capability as well as the volume control when attempting to fax. Even though there are settings to turn down the volume, the choices do NOT make a difference. Either the speaker is on at a very loud volume (maybe useful for troubleshooting, but annoying for anyone nearby) or muted. My previous Canon didn't have nearly the issues when sending and using a voip (vonage's version) connection for a phone line. However, if you run an Internet search, you'll find that for most people now using a G3-mode fax unit on voip, it is gamble. Sometimes it's going to work if you drop down the speed to transmit at 9600 baud and turn off ECM (error correction), and many times it will not work at all when trying to send. For being able to handle an analog quality connection and all the "within spec" (ITU, T-38 spec) noise in doing so, I find this unit just isn't cutting it on voip. I called Canon's tech support and reached a helpful and courteous person in the afternoon. Another call to Canon's tech support in the early evening left me disappointed with the attitude and help received - so 50% grade, not so good (but typical). To be fair, it's not all Canon's issues when dealing with phone connections. However, it looks like I'm stuck with a less-than-acceptable grade for these issues.

Scanning worked for basic 8.5x11 sheets, but I ran into problems initially with the set-up and configuration of the software to receive scans. It would not automagically configure in Windows as it didn't want to recognize the supported device. Oddly enough I didn't receive an error when the software was installed the first time. The software's testing feature confirmed the communication was not working. Deleting the software and rediscovering the device again was necessary before I could install and use the software to take in a scan. Scan quality at 300 dpi was a bit poor, but no surprise there. I think the whole scanning feature also dropped in quality from the previous model. *sigh* I didn't test it much and realize others have put it to more rigorous use and also found a few other concerns.

Reading the user manual left me seeking additional sources for answers. I even installed and tried the more inclusive "e-manual" on my computer. I was still left wondering about a few things, and thus my calls to tech support. Documentation is written in understandable English, but don't expect any detailed explanations whatsoever. The same goes for the unit's limited display window. Most features and setting seem to be randomly organized, but able to be hunted down if you take the time to search. A "secret" feature that wasn't mentioned anywhere in the documentation was reached by pressing the " menu " key followed by the " # " key. It's an extended listing and group of advanced settings. Be careful what you change in here or you may find yourself talking with a grouchy tech support person @ Canon for poor-quality help.

By the way, I inquired and was told there is NO command or button to reset your device back to defaults or to erase all your personal information in the unit. Today's electronic devices, not just computers, use chips and drives to store or cache your data and use logs. My fax log shows all the numbers I've attempted to send to (and most in failure!). It supposedly rolls over after the 60th fax, but no way to clear the log. I was told to leave the unit unplugged for "a couple hours" to possibly erase all settings (??!!??). I haven't tried it yet or proved this to be correct. Keep this in mind should you be considering giving this unit back, selling it, or giving it away - your info may be still inside. This is a known and documented security issue for today's intelligent, data-handling products, so keep it in mind. Contact the manufacturers for info and procedures for clearing a device to protect yourself. It might be an "all or nothing" wipe, so apparently Canon wasn't concerned about your time in set-up or your privacy/data protection either. Shame!

A huge rebate was available at the time I purchased this model at it's discounted "sale" pricing. It is a JOKE that this product is passed off as a $1,000+ MSRP unit and then discounted heavily for it's "normal" retail/sale price. This model may have a lot of features (as all-in-one printers all do!), but no way would I put it in that category or ranking of a $1000+ machine.

The unit works for now, but I would reconsider if I had to do it again. Definitely not the worst choice, but room for improvement.

My scanner & laser printer wouldn't work with my new Windows Vista 64-bit operating system. I loved my laser printer because the toner seemed to last a very long time compared to my photo printer. So I looked for a laser multifunction. Canon is rated best in most printer reviews. But I also wanted one that was networkable so that I could print from my laptop without having to turn on my desktop computer.

Well, I've had the D480 over 2 months and I really like it. It's like having an office copier, laser printer and scanner next to my desk. (I have not used the fax function so can't report on it.) For all it does, it does not have a large footprint and space is limited for me. It comes alive and copies or prints very quickly. Everything I have printed and scanned has been very clean and professional document quality. The duplex copy, print & scan is a real plus, and I have a bunch of files that I want to scan into electronic format. Paper handling has been perfect. I am very happy with its perforance.

Only problems I had was with documentation. 1)Network Configuration was unclear and incomplete. After repeated efforts, I called Canon support. They were excellent, spoke English, were not in a rush to get me off the line, and knew exactly how to walk be through the network installation. That support is worth a lot these days. By the way, the rest of the documentation was good. 2) Scanning Software is minimalist when scanning on a network configuration and the documentation was unclear. It works but is bare bones. (The unit can be hooked up directly to a PC with a USB cable and the software for that kind of configuration seemed more robust and user friendly.) Maybe I'll purchase a separate software package for scanning.

Bottom Line: I am very happy with this purchase in spite of the documentation and software, especially since I got it for $285 through a Amazon reseller versus the $400 list.

I have owned this printer for about a week. I bought a Brother MFC7840W which for various reasons I returned, and I will explain all of that below.

First, the things I like about this printer.
- It is quiet. The Brother had a very loud fan which ran just about all the time. I do not even think the Canon has a fan. It has a hibernate mode which pulls 3 watts of electricity, which is quite good. By default it goes into sleep mode in 5 minutes.
- The Brother dimmed the lights when it worked, the Canon does not.
- The display is easy to read at any hight, the Brother required you to be about 5-4 to read it and I am 6-2. I had to squat.
- The pages come out only slightly distorted, better than the Brother, but not as good as the 10 year old HP I am getting rid of. Then again, the $5000 HP printer we have at work distorts the paper about the same.
- Paper feeding and duplex mode work fine and that is a nice feature.
- Less flimsy than the Brother but I have to admit I paid almost twice as much.
- Controls are reasonably easy to use, scan and fax are not difficult.

Things I do not like:
- Software is rough and not especially pleasant to use, the Brother was better in that regard. No way to control the machine from the computer (other than scanning) unless you do so through the network. I do have a home network but I have the machine connected with USB, so the web-based control program cannot be used.
- There is an issue with paper alignment that some have mentioned, the Brother did not have this problem. Sure enough, it is not exactly parallel with the edge but this can be fine tuned by shifting the paper in the tray and worst case, a strip or two of tape in the right place would shift the paper supply and fix that problem.
- Even though it is not too flimsy, the paper tray is, and it is bothersome.
- Some paper distortion
- I have been able to use the fax in bound and out, but I am unable to set it up and have it co-exist with my answering machine which is what I wouuld really like. According to the directions, this can be done, but you have to hang the answer machine off the printer which is not especially convenient.

Overall I would say a machine like this is doing a lot, and there are a lot of potential down sides. Compromises have to be made. All things considered I like this unit a lot and even considering the extra cost I am glad I bought it.

Canon released its new network scan driver and application for D480 few days ago. It says support network scan on D480 with Windows 7 64-bit. The scanner driver is TWAIN32 driver, so only 32 bit third party application can use this driver through TWAIN api. Anyway, Canon Network Scan Utility ScanGear works with TWAIN driver. You should be able to scan something through network with your Windows 7 64-bit OS now. It is a good news for me at least.


I bought a new computer in my home which has Windows 7 64bit OS. I download D480 Windows 7 64bit driver from Canon web site for my new computer. I can print over network on D480 with Windows 7 64bit computer, but the new 64bit driver readme file says it does not support Canon's network scan application. I asked Canon technical support about when 64bit Windows 7 network scan application will be ready, they told me they don't have plan for that yet. Windows 7 64 bit OS must use USB port to scan. But network scan still support on Windows 7 32bit OS.

Thus, anyone who has Windows 7 64bit version OS and considering buy this device must very careful. You may loss a big convenience during scan operation.

Double-sided printing seems to be about twice as fast as my high-end HP business inkjet (which I still use for color printing and photos).

Paper handling is perfect. Double-sided feeder for fax, scan, and copy. Double-sided output. The manual feed tray works well -- I can load 10 sheets of legal paper and they feed perfectly (legal is single-sided only).

Excellent print quality: choice of toner save draft, final, CAD for line drawings, photo, graphics, etc.

USB Scanning is excellent, even the software, once I understood how to use it. The scanner has many options: color/b&w, resolution, file type and file name, file save location. Thus, you click on the Toolbox, make the necessary choices, close the toolbox, select Scan on the printer, insert the document in the feeder, and press start. If you want all of you scans to go to the same folder and have the same properties, you can set a default and each successive scan will have a filename like scan0001, scan0002, etc. I have no complaints about scanning.

Fax is flawless and you can create a fax number directory on the computer and access it from the machine.

Also, this machine sounds good. It makes little clucking sounds as it goes about its business. The paper handling sounds competent and not stressed. It is a pleasant device to sit near.

Canon technical support has been excellent and I have called them several times. They are in the U.S. and very helpful.

BTW, for really low cost printing, I refill the cartridges with bulk toner. It is easy and in some ways more convenient than ordering cartridges and recycling used ones more frequently.

A multifunction is so much simpler than separate fax, copier, printer.

If you do significant network scanning this is not the model for you. If not, this unit is great. The D480 brings office quality copying to the home environment. Solidly built with good copy features, it works fast performs well. Works in Windows 7 and prints fast in network mode.

Network scanning is a weakness because the Canon software does not install a scanner driver and does not fully do the job. Plus, the manual is perplexing. You need additional software (but one such product, XnView, fortunately, is free). Open XnView, insert document and press "scan" on the D480, then "acquire" rather than "acquire from scanner" in Xn View. Use this order because network scan mode only gives about 30 seconds to make the connection to the PC.

If you scan a lot to PDF you might prefer a model which uses a scanner driver. For occasional scanning, you will like the additional features in this method. I don't find scanning slow compared to other network models. Why Canon does not bundle software is a mystery, though.

Overall I give the product high marks but I paid below the $350 retail price and at that price other models have to be considered.

I got this printer yesterday. After one day, I really appreciate the frustration from those users complaining its bundled software and manual. Frankly, I learned more from the reviews in Amazon and Canon websites than from the manual.

Copying using this printer is the easiest thing to set up. Plug in power and you get a pretty decent copier. Network printing is not that bad either. Just install the most recent driver downloaded from Canon website, you will get a very decent network printer. However, setting up the network scanning is really painful, it took me almost one day to get it right. Here is how to make it work. Download the latest MF4370/D480/MF7470/7480/MF8450/9100 Color Network ScanGear Ver.2.61 for Windows XP/Server 2003/Vista/Server 2008/Windows 7 (64bit) from Canon website and install this color network ScanGear software. Then download and install XnView suggested by other users. Open the installed XnView software and click file menu and choose Acquire only. Then the Color Network ScanGear window will start and allows you scan from the D-480 device. The scan speed through the network is not that slow as complained by some other users. I am pretty happy about the scan quality.

Oh, another thing, be sure to install the firmware V072 update software, this will eliminate the automatic switching back from Scan to Copy mode. After all these efforts, I am satisfied about this device. However, I think Canon should update their bundled software and manual to make the installation of such a good machine easier.

Pros:
- Small. (Considering what it can do)
- Automatic duplexing
- Automatic document feeder with auto flip (can scan both side of paper automatically)
- Very fast printing (Printing starts in 2 to 3 sec from power save mode)
- Network Printing

Cons:
- A little pricy (but I got it really cheap after rebate :) )
- Automatic duplexing does not work with a Legal size paper.
- Network admin password can only be numbers

I got this printer for it's automatic duplexing and network printing feature.
Automatic duplexing works flawlessly and fast. However, it is unable to duplex print legal size paper. I rarely use legal paper, but this could be a problem for some businesses.
Automatic document feeder can flip paper automatically, allowing copying 2 sided document to 2 sided copy without fliping the document manually.
Printing speed was also pretty fast. It only takes 2 to 3 secondes to start printing from power save mode.

Paper tray can only take 250 sheets as many other small laser printers. Wish it would take 500 sheets so I can put whole ream into the tray.

Overall I really like this printer.

I think that the other reviews are pretty thorough, so I won't get too deep into the features or use of this multifunction device. It is relatively easy to set up over the network, and now our entire office can fax or scan from our pc's easily. Very cool!

However, there is one major point that is not mentioned in the other reviews. The scanner cannot scan to grayscale using adobe pro, any of the included software, or several scanning programs we had installed on a network computer. Your only options are black and white or full color. (well I found some software that would let me *choose* grayscale jpeg, but I still ended up with a color jpeg). Anyone who has scanned piles of documents probably knows the shortcomings of black and white. Anything other than solid black simply does not scan well at all. Images look terrible, hand-written notes or sketches are poor, and any kind of gray (or color) feature is either going to show up as white or intermittent black dots. Likewise, frequent scanners know that color documents take up much more space on the hard drive than grayscale (and therefore are slower to back up, email, etc.) If you are planning on using this to back up tons of documents, you may want to look elsewhere for a scanner with grayscale.

It may be possible to use software to convert color pdf's to grayscale, and you can certainly scan to jpegs and print to pdf, but any such options that I am aware of require several manual steps. It would be a time-consuming process and easy way to get documents mixed up and saved incorrectly.

One additional complaint on the machine. I take graduate engineering classes online and have to scan and email my homework. When I ran it through the scanner, some of the pencil lead was deposited onto a roller and subsequently put back on the top of each page. While trying to get good scanned results, the gray strip got darker with each page. The scanning software made a mess of the light gray strip when it tried to compress it which made my handwriting in that area very difficult to read.

I had a lot of hope for this little device, but it looks like I will continue to use our other scanner to scan my homework (it is a Canon MF6500 - no networking or faxing but a better printer and scanner). We will likely send this machine back and continue to look for a decent network multifunction device. We are working on solving the problem though (my boss is on the phone with customer support now), and if we end up finding a solution I will update my review.

**UPDATE** We just spoke to customer service. They said that the network scanning is limited to 300dpi, and does in fact have no grayscale. However, if you use the USB cable you can have full-featured scanning including full 600dpi and grayscale. Hardly seems reasonable that the network scanning is limited in such a way even though the device has the capability (I can understand the dpi limiting I guess but no grayscale??) If you are looking for a *full function* network scanner look elsewhere. But if you don't mind always using the host PC to scan, or don't need full-res or grayscale options, this device may be fine for you. I think ours is going back...