Customer Reviews

Canon Multipass MP C555 Color Bubble Jet Printer, Fax, Copier, and Scanner

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

 

 

I'm tempted to give this baby 5 stars, primarily because it exceeds expectations. First of all, it's practically half the price of any other manufacturer's competing model as well as half the size and weight. Secondly, the print quality should satisfy all but the most demanding tastes--even the color is more brilliant and and less grainy than what I'm getting from an Epson 740 at fast speed. The only drawback I've discovered so far with the Canon is the slowness, especially when printing color. If this were my only printer, I'd probably lose patience with the 2 ppm speed. And (...) the machine does not appear to be rugged enough to stand up to constant, heavy use. I suspect that few printers can match the "indestructibility" of an HP.

The Canon line of multifunction printers presents quite a challenge to the consumer trying to sort them out. The current models are the models ending in 5--the C545, C555, and C755. The "C" models ending in 0 are no longer being manufactured. The "F" flatbed models are the newest machines. The C755 is incompatible with Mac platforms, and I've had better success matching the C555 with my iMac than the C545, which uses a USB conversion device in the cable rather than in the machine itself. Windows users, on the other hand, will probably find the C755, with its faster printing, sharper resolution and steep discount from retail, the better value. The F models are faster and sharper yet, but at a significantly higher cost.

If you're purchasing a Multipass as a 2nd machine, or planning to use it sparingly, the C555 could still be the best bet, especially given its light weight and compact dimensions. Thus far I'm using it primarily as a stand-alone unit, and it does the jobs I'd formerly assigned to separate copy and fax machines--more efficiently, economically, and easily. Despite the comments of some other users, the black printing is among the most economical of any printer. And the individual tanks, especially by "clone" makers, can be picked up for peanuts from dealers all over the internet. Incredibly, for the price of a single Epson cartridge, I can purchase 10 Canon-compatible ink tanks! In other words, don't be too quick to believe some of the negative reviews of these "low-end" Canon machines.

I wanted to find a place to trash this product and after some months I have finally found it. Don't buy this piece of poorly designed, cheap, pathetic excuse for a (. . .)device.

First of all I got this thing because I did not want to spend a lot and for (. . .)it seemed a very good deal. Two mistakes: 1. You get what you pay for (. . .) and 2. Don't judge a printer from the box cover.

First of all the included driver did not work with Win2k, so they FORCE U 2 DOWNLOAD A 42MEG DRIVER!!!! DAH! I live outside of the US, we don't have T1s like rabbits running around!

The printer did not work with USB! The drivers would not even install without a paralell printer cable! Legacy free systems are out of the picture!

When you do get the thing going, the driver is so heavy it takes an eternity to load on every logon! Then there is that burdersome icon flashing when the thing is not connected. CANON: There are some of us with laptops! We don't have the thing hooked up all the time! And you get all this anoying messages everytime the thing decides to fart. It is really that anoying.

Finally, the quality is horrendous. I printed a template of my company stationary letter and I could not send it. The blue was purple and it looked like I sprayed the ink on the paper! I really could not believe I had got this piece of trash. And I have consumed at least 3 cartridges in two months with almost no output! I compared the ink consumption to a HP k60 I have on another office, and the HP so far has not required change despite the fact that I works at least 5 times more!

Don't buy this printer from it looks. And from my experience, don't buy it at all!

Three days after installing I find that it will copy quite well tho the color is not spectacular. Trying to get it to print from PC screen is a severe problem. When it works, and that has been about 25% of the time the quality is very good and the fact that it is slow doesn't bother me. Downloading suggested drivers to cure a problem where it refuses to print because of errors has not helped. If I was more courageous I'd return it for credit but will probably keep it as a copying device.

This product has serious software issues, and Canon does not have any support for troubleshooting. I've had numerousproblems with this product. My Win2K recently crashed horribly, and a computer technician told me it was likely to due this printer's software. The printer/fax itself is good but the software that "drives" the printer is frought with problems.

An important note to Windows 2000 users: YOU CANNOT REMOVE THE SOFTWARE (DRIVER) ONCE YOU'VE INSTALLED IT!!! Trust me, the Windows "Add/Remove Programs" cannot remove Canon's program as it should -- the Canon files are constantly "in use" and thus cannot be deleted. The only way to get rid of it is to wipe out your hard drive and start over with a new Windows O/S.

A friend reinforced my poor perception of Canon's software, as he told me the software for his Canon digital camera nearly ruined his computer. PLEASE, do yourself a favor and buy another brand - I will myself. Don't risk your operating system with Canon's poor software.

I have tried and tried for the pass few weeks to get my c555 to perform the advertised functions i,e,. print/fax and scan properly, with out going thru a long drawn out process. I have it set up as sugested by the set up option. But each time i turned on my computerit does connect and request the c555 status bar. I have yet to print from my cpu as it should. one fax from Canon service automation department. Tried to call to get help as it is rquested when having trouble getting it to work right. As of yet have not received the technical support promised thru Canon advertisement and registry program.

This printer yes, does fax, print color & black and white very clearly and easily with lots of memory for storage but has severe problems. To start with, you hafeta have the annoying mulitpass software on in order to print (which my Epson & HP doesn't require). The printing is excuatingly slow. However the big problem is that althought this thing is cheap the cartherages for this simply doesn't last and I have to change them for like about every 2 to 4 weeks or so (I use it moderately) which simply suddenly made the printer expensive because carthridges cost about 8 dollars each (color ones cost about 3 to 4 bucks extra. Just one final note, the wheels that rotate the paper around are falling off in my printer, and I have counted of if only 6 more fall off my printer will be useless. So overall this is nice pritner if you print something in color once every month and its absolutly nesccary to do that or just use it as a fax machine (although it would be cheaper just to get a plain fax machine). But if you need to print color & black and white a lot get some other color printer.

I purchased this machine in Sept 2001 and it gave me headache after headache. I had problems installing it. The ink cartridges were tiny and needed to be replaced often. The printer died and Canon's support suggested that I needed a new BC-21e print head/cartridge combo. At $50, I think not!!!! I've seen brand new printers advertised for this price. I prefer to put the money toward a better printer. I also will never consider another all in one machine again. When the printer died, I lost my copier and my fax machine as well.

The support canon offers is non existant. For that reason alone I would not suggest you run out and buy anything they offer. The driver never works. Every time I boot up I get the same old message that it could not load? Yet I can print?? The printing is acceptable. Canon should have stuck with the stand alone copier business. Dont buy the name if you plan to use it with a pc.

To call the provided software and drivers problematic is actually an understatement. This is my second Canon multifunction device; I should have learned from the first. I have more freezes and failures from this software than all other installed programs combined. Buyer beware - you will most likely want to kick yourself for buying this product.

I read the reviews above and find myself at variance with the opinions. I didnt have *any* problems installing the printer and getting it to work (print, fax, scan or copy) I realize the quality is not the greatest in either printing or scanning, but then for less than $150, I guess this is the best you can get. All in all, I have absolutely no problems with the printer, it installed easily, runs fine, uses paper, and ink, but then since it prints I would assume that it would use ink and paper :-)