Customer Reviews

Canon PIXMA MP500 All-In-One Photo Printer, Copier, and Scanner

5 star:		(105)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

This printer is great!! I got this printer about two months ago, paid $150 from amazon, and I've had very few complaints. It truly is a great printer, and exceeded my expectations. I was hesitant at first to get this printer because I wasn't actually able to find it in stores (not available at the major electronic stores), and didn't have a chance to test it out ahead of time. Trust me on this though, it really is great!

PROS:
Simple to set up
Excellent print quality
Great software (easy to use)
Memory slots
Great color LCD display
Print on both sides of the paper without having to do any work!!
2 paper feeders (comes in handy...automatically switches when one is out)
Very quick
Cheap Cartridges (around $12 per color)
5-cartridge printer (when one color runs out, you don't have to replace the whole cartridge, just the one that is out)
Extremely easy to install cartridges (lights inside the printer tell you whether it is installed properly or not)
Easy to scan and copy
Quiet (once it has "warmed up"
EXCELLENT VALUE (beats most of the $300-400 printers)


CONS:
a bit BIG and clunky
no fax
takes a while to "warm up" (once it warms up...its FAST)

This is by far the best printer I have ever used. The only concern I would have is that if you don't have much space, you might be in trouble, but that would be the case with almost any other all in one (this is a little bigger than normal though). I already had a fax, so the fact it didn't have that feature wasn't a big letdown, but if you have to have a fax, I would still go with Canon (cheapest cartridges and great quality). When you turn the printer on, or if you haven't used it in a while, it will make wierd noises (I guess its "warming up"?) for 20-30 seconds, but then its good to go for a while.

I would definitely suggest this printer to anyone looking for a great multifunction printer, especially if on a budget.

I have had many printers and multifunction printers but this one has to be the best of the lot. It is easy to set up and the photo prints I have printed have had the best colors and no blurring what so ever of the lines. There are two paper trays so I keep photo paper in one and plain paper in the other so I do not have to physically get up and change out the paper. The MP500 has a smaller footprint than other multifunction printers which saves space. You can connect your camera directly to the printer or insert the camera memory card or print from your computer. This is a wonderful product and Canon knows what people want and need with a reasonable price.

I am very impressed. I have had my printer for about a week and have enjoyed every moment. I have found it easy to use and the picture editing software is good.

PRO'S: 8 1/2 x 11 pictures are perfect! Colors are bright and vivid and extremely CLEAR! No grainy ink dots or lines.

Fast (but not a speed demon)

Ink was easy to install (click in place and a light comes on to let you know that the cartridge is installed properly).

The 2.5 inch viewing screen angles so that I can see the image on the screen even when the lamp is right above me. No glare.

The menu was easy to use. I thought it was very easy to set up for my personal preferences.

CON'S: This thing is extremely large. I have a printing drawer built into my computer desk and the MP500 would not fit into the space. Made my other all-in-one look like a baby. I had to make room for a smaller table on wheels in the corner to put this baby on and purchase a longer USB cable ($25).

USB cable is not included (most printers do not include this item).

Shiny and black make this beauty a dust magnet and shows every fingerprint.

Anyway, the cons would not prevent me from purchasing this item. I searched forever before deciding on it. I didn't think the price was bad at all for what you get. The print resolutions up to 9,600 x 2,400 dpi color and 600 x 600 dpi black are what pushed me to buy it. I'm not disappointed.

A button must be pushed to open the slot where the paper comes out. I am finally getting used to opening it before trying to print. Pushing the button will become a habit before long and I won't think much of it but it has annoyed me a little.

I bought the Canon Powershot S2 before Christmas and I think the two items truly compliment each other. I've taken amazing pictures of the moon that show craters in great detail (I'm not a very good photographer and I'm still getting impressive results) and the MP500 prints each picture beautifully. This is a winner!

I agree with all the positive reviews I have found here (except for statements about "small footprint on the desk" - this thing is rather large) and only want to add one comment. This printer gets amazing mileage from its ink cartridges. Yes, they are quite inexpensive (hooray!), but I want to emphasize that they also last a very long time. My family uses this printer on a daily basis (we don't print many photos, I must admit) and I am only now replacing some of the color inkwells for the first time, after nearly six months of use! I have replaced the main black cartridge (there is one for text, one for color printing) once already - but that is once in six months!

I purchased the Pixma MP500 a few months ago and left it in the box as I wanted to buy a "real nice" scanner of another brand instead. Well, the real nice scanner (over $400)was a great disappointment. Today, because my old HP printer was out of ink, I decided to break the Pixma out of the box. I didn't expect too much. I tried some scans of color documents. I nearly fell out of my chair. They were 3x faster and 10x better than the expensive scanner. True to color, nice and crisp....every single one. I'm also very pleased with the intuitive, easy-to-use software. I can't think of any improvement I would make other than a legal size bed. The printer was also very quick and again, true to color. Anyway, I'm sold!! Can't wait to use the other features, particularly in conjunction with my Canon camera. If it was possible I would rate this product 10 stars.

Wow, I can't say enough about this printer. I've tried Lexmark, HP, Dell, and now my second Canon - and THIS THING BEATS all.

PROS: It exceeds all my expectations - automatic 2 sided printing, card reader, super fast printing, AMAZING PHOTO printing... and the list goes on. Maximum DPI is 9600 X 2400. I just printed a photo that is better than most of our professional photos. I love the 2 paper trays - I put my 8.5 x 11's in one tray and 4 x 6 photos in the other. No need to switch back and forth. AND FOR 145.74!!!!! WITH FREE SHIPPING!!! I haven't been able to find it cheaper anywhere - anywhere online, any store, or even on Ebay. I'm returning my HP1510 that I was also trying out from bestbuy. THIS THING IS GREAT!!

CONS: It's big - but I like it like that - I have no need to save space.

This printer is really amazing for the price. Paper is feeded thru the top auto feeder or a lower cassete tray. I've used the software coming with this printer to print my own photos. The quality after using the correct settings (optimization) is amazing. Pictures using glossy photo paper gave me pictures looking like photo lab copies.
Independent ink cartridges. Should I say more?
It allows for bluetooth interface (optional) and also embedded infrared interface. I've been able to print directly from my PDA (Palm).
Not as some of the reviews mention, size, kind of paper used,and quality can all be changed and saved. You can create your own defaults.
Paper cassete tray looks fragile but supports normal handling pretty well.
2.5" LCD color display give you a good view of your pictures (loaded from memory card reader discreetly located behind a door in the right side of the printer). Print photo directly from your memory card.
Reason to complain? None at this point.
The user guide is the ideal complement to show you all you can get from this printer. Sorry Epson, my last printer stopped printing with no reason and with very light and short time use. I'm really happy coming back to Canon.
Unless you got a defective printer, be sure to read your user guide and explore all the capabilities of this printer, the performance exceeded my expectation.
The printer is a little bit bigger than most of the printers in the same range, not a problem to me.
Installation in an XP environment happened as a brise, no flaws.
Duplex! I love that. You can use it when printing from your PC or as a stand alone copier. It also allows for special copies: Copy two or four full page documents onto to a single page, or repeating the same page several times. You can pick how many horizontal and vertical repeats you want.
Bordless copies.
Nice design.
Thanks for all previous reviews on this printer. They were the reason I decided to buy it and I'm really happy with my decision.
There is much more. Check it for yourself.

Much research led me to the PIXMA MP series. I primarily needed a scanner and a decent photo printer. What I've gotten is one of the best scanners I've ever used and an excellent photo printer! I have printed photos that had details I didn't even see on the computer but came through with beautiful clarity, even with photos using a great deal of black. When buying, I didn't even realize that 4x6 borderless printing was a feature, and its become one of my favorite things. It is also the first printer I've ever used where printing envelopes wasn't a pain.

I would definetly recommend this printer!

I've been using this for 5 months now and I LOVE THIS PRINTER! It is a TRUE All-In-One. The Epsons and HPs have been redesigned as photo printers with a couple of scan and copy features so they can masquerade them as all-in-ones. But this Canon does it ALL with great features - dual paper feeds (cassette tray and sheet feed), printed user guide booklet (rather than those other companies which only give you an inconvenient CD), double-sided printing (how cool is that!), double-sized black ink cartridge and many copy features including incremental reduce/enlarge. All the other photo "all-in-ones" we looked at had virtually eliminated all but the most basic copy features. A million thanks to Canon for not sacrificing the advanced copy features! We also appreciate Canon's 800 customer service support line with polite, helpful, readily accessible representatives. What a change this has been from years using Epson with their surly customer service reps, unimaginative product features and problematic print heads which were forever clogging and running wasteful cleaning cycles.

I use my all-in-one daily for a mix of home and business use - letters, contracts, fliers, graphics, invitations, business cards, copying myriad types of documents, scanning and of course photos. Cheap long-lasting cartridges, too, that let you use them until they're completely empty, unlike my previous Epson which forced you to change out when they were low but not empty. Can't say enough good things about this product...

I recently bought this printer from Amazon, generally like it, but it has one problem: when I have not used printer for a time (1 - 7 days, this problem more likely & severe the longer it has been) colors are often very bad, eg no red at all, sometimes no red and no yellow, on first page or 2 that I print. After 1-2 pages everything works fine until printer is unused for another few-day period. This problem always leaves me the choice of reprinting 1 or 2 pages (spending precious time and draining expensive ink) or accepting a lousy looking printout. Note there may be a fix out there, I am too lazy/busy to hunt it down. And if you are running this printer long and hard, on a daily basis, you will probably not experience this problem. But if you use printer only for small and occasional jobs (say a 4 page job 3 times a week) I think this printer is a bad choice, you can probably get more dependable quality from a less expensive printer.