Customer Reviews

Canon imageCLASS D320 Personal Digital Copier and Printer

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I must admit, the first review posted here on the D320 made me a little nervous. My experience is quite different, and after several months of ownership I am quite pleased.

I'll give a point by point rebuttle to the initial review, as that's the only point of reference (so far):

1) Yes, pick up a USB cable,

2) Printer driver installation on Win98 essentially required no user intervention. With WinXP however, I do seem to recall having to muck with it more, but I'm hazy on the details now,

3) I have printed scores of multi-page documents, many over 15 pages without any problems whatsoever. I've had no spills or jams of any kind,

4) I have not seen any "paper-curl" problems whatsoever,

5) I leave the paper cassette lid/manual-feed slot in place at all times as I have no problem with it. For doing many two-sided copies, it is indeed easier to place the copies back into the paper cassette. But that's my experience with any copier I've used.

6) Making two-sided copies is easy and as efficient as I expected. I've simply experienced no problems.

7) I've experienced no copier caused misalignments. If my copies have been crooked, it was because I set them on the glass improperly.

I am very happy with this unit. It copies as I expect it to, and prints just the same: quickly and without event. It's been able to properly print from all Windoze applications I've thrown at it, and ones many users may not even be using, such as Ghostscript, Acrobat, SecureCRT, PAF, and all image viewing software I've tried. And I've got several machines networked together (Win98 and WinXP) that can all print to the D320 fine using printer sharing.

BTW, the D320 comes with a full, 3500 page toner cartridge too, not a starter unit as with some printers/copiers.

I bought the Canon ImageClass D320 for our church. The need was for approximately 60 double-sided sheets each Sunday. We'd use the printer to print text directly from MS Word, and the copier was needed for any miscellaneous items (i.e. hymns not found in the hymnal). The Canon ImageClass D320 appeared to be powerful yet economical enough for this setting.

Since we've used this printer/copier over a year now, here is some real-life feedback:

(1) YOU WILL NEED TO BUY A USB CABLE.

(2) Driver installation auto-detection was smooth on Windows 98. However, auto-detection on Windows 2000 is non-existent. I had to point it to the .INF files myself. Not for the novice.

(3) Don't print/copy more than 15 sheets at a time. The output tray will either spill-out or jam up if you do more. Initially, I expected the output to dump into a tray off to the side. Instead, it's designed to end up directly under the scanner engine (see dark area in photo above).

(4) The heat of the print engine vents into the output tray making the copies "curl" as you pull them out. Not good if you need double-sided copies.

(5) Along with the paper cassette, it comes with a manual-feed slot which is great for one-offs, but poor if you need to do a lot of double-sided printing. We leave ours off permanently.

(6) Double-sided printing - Because of (4), the paper is curled which makes it not stack well, nor feed well for the reverse printing. Either the paper feeds crookedly, or more than one sheet "grabs" at a time. Our solution is to physically hold down the sheets except for the one to be grabbed next. Not good if you have to deal with (3) at the same time.

(7) Copying - We had problems with crooked copies, no matter how straight on the glass you put the document. We had a service plan, so this was subsequently fixed.

In general, I feel the Canon is good for single-sided report printing and non-critical photocopying (like tax documents, etc.), but not up to true SOHO tasks. Take a good look around before you decide to purchase this item.

Similar to previous reviewers, I was a bit hesitant to purchase this printer...but my old HP-1100A was on its last leg (it had served well over its 8 year life) and I truly needed a new small office laser printer pronto...and could not pass up the Amazon delivered price of $209 minus the Canon $150 rebate. In essence, this D320 was purchased for less than the cost of a new print cartridge.

The printer software installed seamlessly, and all printer functions work admirably with my XP Pro OS.

I love the feature of not having to replace a drum separate from a cartridge, and also appreciate the ability to fill my own cartridges - which I have been doing on my HP-1100A, and even older LaserJet III, for many years. Bottom line is extremely low printing cost.

I am a bit disappointed that the Canon D320 cannot print onto different size papers or envelopes without physically changing paper size on the printer's keypad. Annoying if one wishes to print a single envelope, but not an issue if printing many copies of a specific paper size.

Printing quality is outstanding, as is copy ability. The previous comments about alignment appear to have some validity. While my printer prints perfectly 95% of the time, that is to state that I do occasionally get maligned copies and/or prints.

All in all, for the price I paid, I am very satisfied. Had I paid full price for this unit, I would be a bit dismayed. I'm beginning to believe low end laser printers have gone the way of kitchen toasters...in that it is almost impossible to buy a truly perfect one, despite laser printers (like toasters!) having been mostly perfected in the past. My old HP LaserJet III and 1100A NEVER maligned print, could print on all mediums without physically changing settings, and did so at less than $0.02 per page.

Easy to use, full featured copier offers excellent copy quality along with a wide variety of features (stock thru-put, speed, copy by-pass, etc.) This is exceeded by it's capabilities as a full featured PRINTER, with a "robust" print driver allowing for printing features usually associated with expensive software!. This unit coupled with a Linksys wireless G print driver provides a "one stop" low cost solution for laser printing in a "SOHO" network!

I was looking for a small portable copier for special events at work and came across this unit. It was so great that I bought one for home too. The only negative thing I can say about it is getting too hot, when you print or copy more than 50 pages at a time. Other than that I find it a great product for small office or home use.

This is an excellent copier. Amazon handled the purchase perfectly. Copier is easy to use and reasonably fast, but....

My main concern with this product is its lack of compatibility in printer mode with the Apple Mac system. Canon does not even provide a driver for any Mac for this unit. No reason is given for this remarkable omission. At the very least Canon should make clear in the advertised specifications that this printer/copier is not a Mac compatible printer and that Canon has no plans for providing Mac support.

Ignoring the Apple market is a huge mistake for Canon and must be a significant disappointment for many purchasers of this unit. It certainly is for me.

as a Mac user I was highly upset when I found out that Cannon doesn't support Mac.

I bought this machine for use in my home music studio. I teach private music lessons and find that I'm regularly needing to photocopy music for a student to use as a rehearsal copy. (No copyright violations here!) I've got the machine connected to my Windows laptop computer (running XP) and I don't recall having any difficulty installing the drivers at all. This machine has performed flawlessly as a printer and as a copier and, for the price, it's a very good deal.

I didn't want a printer; I needed a low-volume copier. This fit the bill perfectly.

It turns on instantly after being in energy-save mode, copies as fast as it says, makes extremely nice copies, is easy to clear jams, and does copy (manually) on both sides of the paper.

I doubt it would be great for high-volume use (the toner would probably be too expensive, though still less than a service contract on a higher-priced copy machine), but I installed it in our math department workroom and it has performed wonderfully.

How does it work as a printer? Can't say ... I didn't connect it that way. We use it only as a copier.

I recommend it highly!

I got this product about a week ago and setup was simple. Once setup, I printed and it was too light to see. So, I copied an item and it was still too light. After sometime of messing with the printer, I ended up calling Canon support. The guy had me do several things among resetting to factory default. Proceeded to tell me it needed to be taken to their service center (90 miles away) or they would replace it with a refurbished one. Was very disappointed that they didn't want to send out a new one!