Canon MultiPASS C530 - Printer - color - ink-jet - Legal - 720 dpi x 360 dpi - up to 4 ppm - capacity: 100 sheets - Parallel - AC 120 V

by Canon

Product Details

Product Manual [12.89mb PDF]

• ASIN: B00001X5DE
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

The Canon MultiPass C530 combines the functions of a color printer, fax machine, convenience color copier, and PC scanner at an almost irresistible price. The C530 is best suited to home use because of its modest performance ratings. Printing is rated at up to 2 pages per minute (ppm), and the copier function can make black-and-white copies at up to 3.1 copies per minute (cpm). Color copies range from three to nine minutes per page, depending on resolution settings.

Setup is almost as easy as plugging in a traditional ink-jet printer. We connected the C530 to our test PC with a bidirectional parallel cable, inserted the ink cartridges, and plugged in our phone line. The unit offers three RJ-11 phone jacks for line, telephone, and an answering machine. We loaded the ink cartridges by placing the color and black ink tanks into the print head, dropping the head in place, locking it in place with the blue lever, and pressing the cartridge key, which is exposed only while the cover is open.

This Canon model comes with a number of individual software elements. There are separate printer and fax drivers for outputting jobs from the PC. In addition, the C530 includes Status Monitor, which displays job status and error conditions; Send Fax Manager, which lets you monitor scheduled fax jobs; MultiPass Toolbar, which provides a customized interface to common tasks; and Desktop Manager, a flexible interface that lets you manage your scanned documents and pass them to applications through drag and drop. This multitiered combination of driver software caused us some problems during our testing. On one of our test systems, we got an initialization error every time we printed, even though the print jobs always came out fine.

Two key strengths of this unit are its stand-alone fax and copy capabilities and its application software bundle. The C530 includes a complete fax control panel with 12 one-touch dial buttons and a number of software programs for a well-rounded small- or home-office solution. The MultiPass C530 isn't really cut out for a high-volume environment, but it is a flexible solution for a home office. --Stephen W. Plain

Pros:

• Stand-alone color copying and faxing
• Copies, scans, faxes, and prints
• Broad software bundle

Cons:

• Slow printing and scanning
• Limited scanning resolution

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Changed my mind, June 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Canon MultiPASS C530 - Printer - color - ink-jet - Legal - 720 dpi x 360 dpi - up to 4 ppm - capacity: 100 sheets - Parallel - AC 120 V (Electronics)

I actually went into the stores looking for a fax machineexpecting to spend about $150. when i saw this at [the offered price], i realized i hit the jackpot. its so nice and small and the cover closes up to hide the buttons for a better look. my print quality was exceptional even though the dpi is only 720x360. in reading about Canon's Drop Modulation technology, i can see how they do it with minimal dpi. black quality is perfect and there are NO paper missfeeds at all. it seems as though it will copy just about anything and that makes me happy. i havent had any worries about this machine and Canon has answered all my questions about the different things i can do with it. Thank you so much Canon for making a great product. Now my fax machine does 4 other things as well! Awesome.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Buy for the Money, January 27, 2002

By 

Timberwolf "KJ" (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canon MultiPASS C530 - Printer - color - ink-jet - Legal - 720 dpi x 360 dpi - up to 4 ppm - capacity: 100 sheets - Parallel - AC 120 V (Electronics)

I purchased my Canon Multipass C530 in October of 2000. I paid $199.99 for and it came with a $55 mail in rebate. I consider it to be a very good buy. It is still working very well with one minor quirk that I have learned to live with. If you are using it with a computer that has a Win based modem it sometimes fails to initialize on startup. This problem is easily bypassed by shutting the power off to the unit (unplugging it) and then plugging it back in.

I also found out the hard way that the unit must be kept plugged in. I had the unit plugged into a powerstrip with the rest of my computer. I would shut off the power to everything when I turned off my computer. I couldn't understand why I was going through ink cartridges so quickly, so I called Canon support. After talking with two techs we figured out why I was having this problem. Power must remain supplied to the unit in order to put the carriage in a home position which seals off the ink cartridge so it doesn't dry out. After pointing out the fact that this was one major point that they forgot to mention in the manual they were very apologitic and sent me 2 new ink tanks free of charge.

I have used this unit for everything and have been very pleased with the quality of prints you are able to obtain with it. Grant it they are not the 1200 dpi resolution that you would get with some more expensive units but they are good enough to print out fairly decent color photographs. Quality paper makes a big difference! I have printed out business brochures which turned out fantastic on the higher quality paper.

I have been doing a LOT of scanning photographs for a family photo video that I am putting together. It does a good job of scanning these pictures but if you run one through the scanner feed more than four or five times you will start to notice light track lines across these pictures (even if you keep your feed rollers clean). Because of this I am currently shopping for a flatbed multifunction unit - Canon makes one called the multipass F50 which is also a multifunction unit but has no rollars to leave track marks on my pictures. This is quite a bit more expensive though so if you can get by with only scanning a picture a couple times the C530 might still be a good choice for you.

The fax speed is great with the G3 technology you can scan a page in about three seconds and with the error reporting feature turned on you will know right away if you fax has been sent or received properly.

The printer has a built in nozzle cleaning feature which can clean out clogged nozzles with just the touch of a couple buttons. Since I have been keeping the unit plugged in the nozzles stay fairly clean and my ink tanks last pretty long.

Don't be expecting a speed demon with this machine it is not a high speed printer - full color photos take a few minutes. Just remember that this isn't a $300 machine and you can't have everything for almost nothing and you will be happy with it. All in all for the money I would say that this unit is definitly a good buy.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pure crap, January 28, 2006

By 

elfguy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canon MultiPASS C530 - Printer - color - ink-jet - Legal - 720 dpi x 360 dpi - up to 4 ppm - capacity: 100 sheets - Parallel - AC 120 V (Electronics)

I've had this printer for a few years now and it is nothing but trouble. First, regardless of what version of Windows I use, the Canon software always has tons of troubles to find the printer. At random points Windows will try to reinstall the driver and fail. Then when inside the Canon programs, the printer stops working at random points. The cartriges will go dry inside a month if not printing on a regular basis, it's completely ridiculous. Stay away from multipass printers.