Customer Reviews

Canon imageCLASS MF4270

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

set the mf4270 up USB on an XP machine to get all the scanning functions, took about 15 minutes. software is very basic but it all works. scanning, faxing and printing are all very, very fast. print is crisp. machine is really quiet in all modes. adf works well,just wish it had auto duplex scanning to match the duplex printing (2 sided original to 2 sided copy). machine goes to sleep in a few minutes but wakes up instantly. excellent machine, especially for the price. amazon's price on the 104 toner is
$12 cheaper than staple's.

When I saw the words "network Ready" I thought i hit the jackpot. That was until I read the manual and it said you can only scan with the USB port, not on the network connection. My piece of junk Brother mfc3820cn (the multi function machine I was replacing) was only $150 and that let me scan over the network.
OK, so the only other drawback I can find it wont duplex scan. Other than those two things this machine is awesome. fast, quiet, 10 seconds to first print, energy save, duplex printing, auto-doc feeder, laser, all for $250 you cant beat it, I checked.

Before purchasing this printer, I did a good deal of research looking at previous reviews and comps. I've have the unit now for about three weeks. So far, it has worked flawlessly. Believe what you read in the reviews. The messages that show in the display window are hard to see since it is not back-lighted. Then if you want to use the unit as a network printer, you will have to set up a static IP address for it in your router and in the printer's nic. Other than these two minor annoyances, this printer has functioned great. It copies, faxes, prints, and it is as fast as you would need it for a home office printer.

If you are using this machine with PCs, it is really a great machine that works exactly as advertised (At least with Windows XP). Some reviewers have complained that it does not scan over the network or to a USB memory stick... but those are not listed features. Here are some points:

- It was easy to set up for both network print/fax and USB print/scan/fax.
- As a pure copier (without using a computer), it works great.
- As a pure fax machine (without using a computer), it works well. I've only used this function occasionally though.
- The sheet feeder works well (see small issue with scanning below).
- The machine comes out of standby fast, and prints pretty fast for a home office printer.
- The print quality is great.
- The scan quality is good... but I am not highly demanding when it comes to scanners... I use it mostly for business use.
- I have a small issue with the scanner while using the sheet feeder... it seems to sometimes stretch the image slightly in an uneven way. This is not a big issue for business documents, and not an issue at all with the flatbed scanning. This also could just be due to not positioning the sheet feeder guides exactly right. However, for photos I will use the flatbed, not the sheet feeder.
- Overall, a great home office machine. It has not jammed on me once in a few months of use (albeit fairly light use)

Also, there have been complaints of it "freezing" in standby. This was happening to me as well, but Canon has released a firmware update that fixes the problem. I installed the update (which was pretty easy to do), and now I no longer have the "freezing" problem.

The one caveat in all of this, is that I think there are real issues with using this machine with a Mac. I do not have much Mac experience, but my girlfriend has a new Mac. I tried to install the driver from the Canon website, but when we tried to print something the printer beeped, then it took about a minute or two to print each page. The last page didn't even print. Perhaps it is an issue with a specific version of MAC OS, but I do not know enough about Macs to know.

The MF4270 had exactly the specs I wanted: all-in-one, duplex printing, and networked. Initially thought it was duplex scan and copy too, but I could live without it. But what would have been a great machine has been hampered by issues in networking, scanning/copying, and software. Notes: I do not use the fax feature. I have also owned it for eight months and have also upgraded the firmware. I use Windows XP on my computers.

Networking Issue 1 - Network autoconfiguration (DHCP) is advertised but it doesn't work. Prepare to set up IP, subnet, etc., manually.

Networking Issue 2 - After a few months of use, my print jobs began to fail, only to print hours later. Tech support's solution was to reset printer to factory specs. This fixed it but it doesn't preclude it from occurring again. I suspect that it was a printer memory/buffer issue, which is why a factory reset fixed it. Either way, a cause and permanent solution was not found. Additionally, I had to set up my network settings again because DHCP doesn't work (Networking Issue 1).

Networking Issue 3 - Print jobs should wake up the MF4270 from Energy Saver mode but it hardly ever does. The printer firmware upgrade was supposed to fix this but the behavior remains unchanged.

Scanning/Copying Issue 1 - Standard LTR sized documents have their borders cut off on all four sides. It's about 0.25 inch or less on each side, which usually doesn't matter. But for some important documents I had to copy, I had to go to Kinko's to copy them to the recipient's satisfaction.

Software Issue 1 - Scan driver installation failed on 2 of 4 computers I tried.

Software Issue 2 - On installation of printer, network scan for printer occasionally hangs the entire computer. Firewall was turned off as directed. Reset of printer and computers did eventually fix this. Annoying to have to hard reboot a computer during install though.

Still a capable machine 80% of the time. But if Networking Issue 2 occurs again and a permanent fix isn't found, I will be bumping this down to 1 or 2 stars.

Update: Networking Issue 2 occurred again a few months ago and I've been relying on the USB cable. I've been trying to get customer support to help me reset the printer again to factory specs, but this time they've been unwilling to do so during the call. Knocking this down to 1 star for being unreliable and for horrible customer service

I purchased this printer as a replacement for my office printer, which had died. I have a mix of PC and Mac systems. Despite the fact that the technical summary states that the printer is "Mac Compatible", this is only partially true - the scanning functions only work with PC's.

I returned this printer and purchased the Canon 4690 printer instead. That printer, which is more expensive, has a feature that will scan to a USB drive and/or email a scan. This means that Mac compatibility isn't an issue.

To be honest, this is more an issue of the Mac than anything else - it's hard to expect companies to support a product that only has 5% of the market. However, the review should be more clear in stating up-front what is not compatible or functioning in that environment.

I used to have a Dell printer and had many problems with it--especially with paper jams. Dell Service was horrible. I did a lot of research online before buying a new one. The Canon MF4270 is so much better than my Dell printer. It is faster, quieter and doesn't jam. I especially like the Energy Save feature. And when I called Canon Service for a technical question I received professional and courteous help quickly. I highly recommend this printer.

This device has great potential: it prints, copies, and duplexes well; the phone support is good. Unfortunately, poor software/firmware prevents it from living up to its potential:
Although there is a Stop button, stopping a print job is a multi-step process. Also, other buttons (e.g. 2-sided) do not apply to printing;
While there are Profiles that enable you to customize the printer for different tasks, some Profile settings, such as the Binding Location, are preserved only for the default profile;
Received FAXes cannot be moved to the computer for previewing, etc.;
There is no (Canon) software to use the scanner to copy to another printer, e.g., one with color (of course, one can scan to a file and then print the file);
It stops printing prematurely when toner is low (it prints perfectly when the cartridge is lifted enough to break contact and then reinserted);
When you scan to a jpeg file, you can't control the jpeg quality;
Also, driver updates can appear without release notes.
Canon Support has confirmed the above "features", and does not consider them bugs. (There are other issues, of course, such as limited MAC support, that other reviewers have pointed out.)

Love the printer, hate the toner cartridge. Great prints, quiet, small footprint. But, Canon specs 2000 pages at 5% coverage. Nobody in the real world averages 5% coverage. I'm averaging 600 pages from my cartridges. Unacceptable.

I purchased this printer for my home office, and it has definitely helped to complete more tasks in a timely manner. However, there are still a lot of kinks to be worked out that would cause me to think twice about making the same choice again. My biggest problem with the unit is that it frequently claims to have paper jams when in reality it does not. I have to walk over to the unit, lift the cover the cover, and like magic, the jam is gone. The software seems to work just fine, but you does lose some functionality with a Mac. Good printer, but you may want to keep searching.