Customer Reviews

Canon MultiPASS F50 Flatbed Multifunction

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

 

 

An excellent printer, lots of great features for the money, although a few minor quirks. I was considering some other flatbed all-in-one's from HP, Brother, Lexmark, etc, and am using this to replace separate older HP all-in-one and Canon scanner units. Some reasons I chose this unit include combination of ability to copy 8x14 legal (auto-doc feeder only), individual color cartridges (cheaper and environmentally more friendly), high speed color fax w/270pg memory, 2400x1200 color print resolution (useful for digital photos), 30pg auto-doc feeder, direct hi-res color copies (1200x1200), 25-400% copy enlarge/reduce, and print speed.

Setup was easy - quite a few steps to unwrap packing tapes and other setup, but fairly dummy-proof both hardware and software. Performance is excellent in many ways for basic printing, copying, scanning and fax. In the 1200dpi direct color copying mode, even does a respectable job copying direct to glossy photo paper. Doc feeder is smooth, no jams so far. Note that 8x14 legal scans work fine, but are through the doc feeder only, which runs them through a small separate 1"-wide scan area - the plate glass accepts up to letter and A4 sizes (the doc is wrong on this suggesting 8x14 glass copies, but a note on the canon web site corrects this). The unit is a good healthy size, but not overly huge. It vibrates back and forth a bit during inkjet printing sweeps, but a good solid base will help. There is also a plastic cover over the paper tray, a nice touch to keep dirt/dust off the paper supply.

On the down side, the docs are well written for basic functions, but very poor for most advanced features. Many technical terms are not defined (eg: most fax tx/rcv settings) or not documented beyond just mentioning them by name. There is no single section or roadmap for all of the on-printer menus and most menu settings are not in the index either, so you have to jump around the pages by eye. The color/quality/paper settings in the print setup, while flexible, have little documentation in terms of what they really do (eg: difference between photo/glossyphoto/photofilm paper type settings). I'm still working on trying to compensate a bit for correct skin tones from my Fuji digital camera, which tends to favor red more than I'd like - although shots from another digital camera came out fine. Another nit: the max scan resolution I've seen is 600x600, so I'm not sure where the claimed 600x1200 settings come from. Finally, 17c/12b ppm copying and printing speeds are not what I'm seeing for highest resolution settings, these numbers must be for either lowest resolution, or multiple page copy speeds.

All that aside, I'm very happy with the unit, it copies and prints great high-resolution pictures in reasonable speeds, and is nicely priced.

I purchased this MFD for a number of reasons. I wanted to replace our old home office copier and fax. They were starting to show their age, lacked more advanced features, were energy inefficient, and were taking up way too much counter space. When the office scanner finally died, I decided to take the plunge with one of these multi-functional dohickies.
I read all the reviews I could find, checked all the specs and, despite the couple of dissappointed reviews posted here, decided to try the Canon because it seemed to fit the requirement list--in particular the need for both flatbed and sheet fed capabilities.
I wasn't as concerned about being able to fax directly from the computer or being able to use the thing as a printer--that was just gravy that I didn't really expect to work that well.
When the Canon arrived, I was aprehensive. How many days would it take me to get the thing set up? Would I really have to send it back because it was defective.
I unpacked the machine, read the quick start guide and started unpacking and setting it up. I was sending and receiving faxes as well as making copies about 30 minutes after I opened the
box!
I did read the manual in order to set up the fax machine id--the header at the top of the fax that identifies the sender and the fax number from which the fax was sent. The rest of the features were intuitive enough for me to figure out how to do without checking the manual, i.e. the faxing and copying.
The color copy with default settings created a very crisp, accurate print. As I former print production manager, I know whereof I speak.
After this initial success, I decided to cross my fingures and attemp to load the Canon software on my workstation running Windows 98 (upgrade is pending). Again, I followed the quick start instructions.
No crashes, no glitches. Everything installed without so much as an error message. Faxing from my computer is painless and scanning into Photoshop very easy! I even loaded the OCR software. I've had problems with this software conflicting with my system in the past and I have had to uninstall it, but the version provided on the disk doesn't cause that problem. Again, no problems--OCR works like a charm!
Maybe because I've been used to older technology, the Canon's features, in particular it's scanning, feels very quick. So far, I have no complaints whatsoever and would highly recommend the F50 to anyone.

I am still finding this hard to believe, but this machine does not work on a Windows network. I had the printer hooked up to a Windows XP desktop, with network connections to another Windows XP notebook, and a Windows 98 desktop. Both of the attached computers setup the printer fine, but any job sent to it would only print after I re-booted the computer hooked directly to the printer.

I then confirmed with Canon support via both e-mail and telephone that the printer is not supported on a Windows network. This makes it worthless to me, as I need a printer that all 3 computers could use.

It is frustrating to find a printer such as this that is highly rated (Consumer Reports, CNET), but nowhere did I see it mentioned that it had this problem. Given the number of homes that have more than one computer now, I would think the reviews would be sure to mention such a short-coming.

This is an excellent product. The print quality is nearly as good as the Epson photo printers, and individual ink tanks, which are fairly priced, will keep the operating costs low. The software is solid, but drivers must be "running" in order for the printer to work. This is not Windows standard, and can result in some misunderstanding by novice computer users. Canon probably thought they were making it easier by including a required application to run the printer, but despite this annoyance, the product is terrific.

I bought this to use in my back office. I'm a busy doctor and the 20-minute setup according the color poster couldn't have been easier to follow. The printer worked GREAT right out of the box. It's fast. The included software runs easily but also offers options (like adjusting ink color levels manually)that allow you to be a little creative if you like. It's fast (great when we run out of a form unexpectedly). I love being able to scan a document to fax, type in the name and fax number of the recipient, add a few lines for the cover sheet, and have the computer take care of the rest. Did I mention it's fast? I plan to replace all three of my employees' printers with this machine!

Scanner does not work over 600 dpi due to conflict with XP.
Customer service says they are working on it but don't know when they will have a driver. Therefore, if you have XP, you can't really scan phots.

Fax is so-so and program software is confusing.

Everything else works fine except for one. If the printer is hooked up to a computer running Windows XP, other computers on the local network will NOT be able to print to it. Canon admits to the problem, yet have no plan to fix it. A darn shame for this otherwise fine device.

Examples. Has occasionally fed paper crooked, but that was almost always due to paper misalignment or paper irregularities (smoothness, folds, waviness). That's just an inconvenience. When it happens, I just print again, being more careful with paper supply. Not too bad considering 98% of the paper used is "used" single side printouts. Just using the other side for draft doc purposes. Paper costs are near 0. Of course, paper frugality is independent of printer used.

Generally feeds great all the time, fast and smooth. And yes, from time-to-time the Canon printers do go thru a lengthy and a bit noisy cleaning cycle. This usually happens shortly after being used after long periods of inactivity. If it keeps the printhead from degrading, then that's good. Again, generally if we use ours even a little bit and leave it turned on, those cleaning cycles are minimal. It generally tries to perform those during periods of inactivity a short while AFTER we've completed a print job. And it's not bad at all when you consider how QUIETLY it does all this high quality printing so quickly.

Some reviews score this unit a bit lower for having a bit larger footprint than some other competative units. The footprint is not a problem for us. Yes, it takes more space than the old S-600 did alone. But we got rid of a scanner, and gained other functionality to boot. It's not really that big.

I share our MFP F-50 off my dual boot WinXP/Linux box. It works just fine when running in either/both OS(es). Sorry, I haven't had the XP problems other report. Maybe the fact that I try to keep up to date on system software and driver updates has helped me avoid such problems.

Other positives observed. Ink usage isn't too bad, better than others. And the ink replacement cost is MUCH better than competition. And better yet, tanks are easily refilled to save even more $, but I use only the highest quality re-ink kit I could find. There are a number of inks that can mess these inkjets up. Very easy access and replacement of ink tanks. I won't use all the subjective descriptions ... let's just say it has Excellent print quality, period. We're very happy with all forms of printed image quality. Seems to be the same excellent printer engine as we had in our previous Cannon S-600. Printer driver: good options, easy to use, stable. Very fast printing, while still doing quality output. Scanning for fax and copying is pretty quick. The auto-sheet feeder is very handy for us, esp. for oversize items (like those long printer tape rebates) The shared fax psuedo-printer works great. Any use on our LAN can send a print job to the fax on this unit just like printing a document. Handy. It's not always practical to fax from within the PC, so it's also very handy to be able to just drop in some papers and let it run that way. We don't need one of those so-called photo printers. A very small part of what we print is photos, and when it is, this unit does a great job, esp. with glossy paper.

Printer drivers install and work fine on Win XP and Win ME machines, drivers that came boxed with printer on CD, and newer ones downloaded from Canon.

Haven't needed any human tech support yet. Good indication of product quality and web site. No data for human tech support quality.

Weaknesses: on our unit, when doing detailed photo scans, minor streaks come out in image in the direction of the scan motion. I suspect a flaw in the scan CCD array. This is a minor issue for us. We rarely scan photos these days now we have digital camera and camcorder. And the streaks don't show in other more common scan tasks, like faxes, B&W copies, etc. If I have too, I have been able to clean the pics up acceptably well in PaintShop Pro. And our friends and family say they wouldn't even notice the streaks if we hadn't pointed them out. Still, I expect no streaks or other flaws in a scan. Probably an isolated case. LCD display contrast on our unit is not real good. Would help if it was adjustable. The front panel LCD menu system is a fairly awkward to navigate.

I suspect one of the newer Canon multipass' is a replacement to this model, and I also suspect they would perform comparably, perhaps even better.

All considered, give it a 5/5. Same in general for the comparable Canon printers, 5/5. The Canon's really seem the be the best value printers out there, optimal balance of feature and price trade-offs. I shopped, researched, and tested a lot over past few years on this topic. Used the S-600 all through 2002, and have used this F-50 since September 2002 (Had an HP 870 before. It was great in it's day, but is/was no longer any comparison to printers these days).

There's proably more I could think of, but that should be enough for now.

... It was very easy to assemble and install. I particularly liked the small size as it fits right on my shelf where my old fax machine was. Compared to other units this was a real plus for me. The one draw back I have found is that printing envelops in a major pain! You have to remove the paper from the try, change paper thickness settings and load envelops. In my old HP I could just set an envelop on top of the existing paper and go. Other than that, so far so good. I love it!

Software was cumbersome. Great print quality. After three years of relatively light duty, the unit is completely kaput. Trashed scanner motor and printhead. I suppose three years is OK life out of a printer, but I'd hoped for more from Canon.