Customer Reviews

Canon imageCLASS MF4150 Laser Duplex P/s/c/f 21PPM Adf

5 star:		(124)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

I recently purchased this printer in an effort to free up more space in my home office. I replaced my laser printer, scanner and fax with this single compact unit and couldn't be happier. As others have mentioned, the duplex printing feature is a MAJOR plus in my opinion - a feature that they've seemed to include as a "freebie" and adds major points over competitors. The quick start guide was really simple and I was up and running in a matter of minutes.

A super quiet machine when not in use (thanks to the Energy Saving feature), I've used the printing features and the results are timely, crisp, clean pages with seemingly excellent paper handling (no jams so far). It's got many more print options (2 on 1 page, 4 on 2 pages which is really 4 on 1 with the duplex option) and a ton of other cool features and capabilities that aren't listed in the product description. I have sent and received faxes without a problem. Copying is just like using the larger machines: just lift the cover or use the document feeder to copy originals. I haven't scanned anything yet, so I can't comment on that particular functionality, but the manual mentions scanning to PDF which is what I really need and like.

Size is truly relative - It is a bit larger (height and width) than my old laser printer (a Samsung); but does 4 times more work and its footprint is definitely smaller than the three units I replaced!

For less than $200 with free shipping, it's solved my space problems and exceeded my expectations regarding functionality and quality. A great deal, imo. I highly recommend!!

Awesome:
1. Very quiet.
2. Goes in to hibernate quickly to save energy and bursts back to life instantly when needed.
3. Great print quality.
4. Does it all (except for color)including fax, copy, scan, and duplex printing.
5. Duplex printing saves a lot of resources (paper and money).
6. Most of the settings and buttons are user friendly.
Not so awesome:
1. The manual that comes with it is nice and easy to read and use, but skips too many "advanced features". For advanced features you must look at the online .pdf guides.
2. Even with the advanced guide, it is not immediately obvious to me how to set up the machine so it will screen calls as phone or fax. It wants to answer all calls as a fax machine. I need to experiment more with the available (but confusing) settings that should fix this.

I like having a do it all printer but also realized I no longer need or want color. Here's why:
1. Printing photos at home is not what the marketing would like us to believe. Sending photos to Kodak or Shutterfly (or any online photo printer) is cheaper, of better quality, and of more archival quality than printing at home. It also offers more choices of print size and paper quality and so forth. It's just not quite as fast. Email the photos in and have them in a few days or a week at most.
2. Color inkjet printers do not work well long enough. They frustrate me as contributing too greatly to our throw away society. It is cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy ink, print heads and other needed repairs that come up after a year or two of use.

This Canon is great and it is unreal that it lists at such a low price for the quality and functions you get.

I bought this printer after I found that 1) fewer and fewer places carry toner for my Samsung SF-555P Multi-function printer and 2) I really need duplex printing. This Canon machine is one of the few, if not only, product out there right now with dupex *and* multifunction built into a single monochrome laser unit.

This is a brand new model as of Novermber 2006. I had bought and returned a HP Laserjet 3055 multi-function unit, after I found that it does not have duplex built-in. I almost bought a dupex laser printer from brother, HL-5250DN, for about the same amount of money (~$200).

This Canon unit has energy saver feature so it is very quiet when not in use. I liked the printer driver. It is easy to use and uses the same type of user interface as the one found in my Canon i860 ink printer. And, yes, it has duplex printing!!!!

Since I have only had the printer for a week, I have not used it extensively but evrything seems to work well. Its footprint is bigger than my old samsung unit but still relatively small, despite it has a cover and an automatic feeder for copying. I like how it does not have a built-in phone; I can always hook up a cheap phone if I wanted to. A built-in phone would make the unit less pleasing to the eye. It is a very pretty machine (boy, am I a geek). I like how I can now pull up the cover, set down a store receipt and copy with a push of a single button.

The only downside is that once the starter toner is all used up, a regular replacement toner is good for 2000 pages, as opposed to 3000 pages, which is what other manufacturers typically rate their replacement toners for. But I think even with a 3000 page toner, I replaced toners once every other year so this shouldn't be too big a deal.

I am all set for the next year's tax filing. Bring it on!

I spent less than $250 and all I have to do to scan to PDF is:
1. Put originals on Auto Document Feeder
2. Press the SCAN button
3. Press the Start button
My multi-page searchable and selectable PDF opens in Adobe Acrobat Reader. Wow! Amazon sells less capable machines that can only scan to PDF in black and white only and without a flat bed scanner for $450-650 making this the best bargain on the planet. I admit I had to play with the driver settings in the Canon Toolbox to get the settings I want (scan to PDF, not JPG, grayscale, not color...) but I didn't have to read the manual and the thing is incredibly intuitive to use. I can't believe how fast it scans the documents. The ADF just sucks them right in like an industrial machine. I tried a new HP at Staples for $200 and it took forever to micro-feed the page in the ADF inching its way very slowly.

I did notice that even though the PDF looks nearly perfect, when I copy and paste into a text file some of the letters may be missing, especially if the original is italics, a funny font, or right near a graphic. Not a big deal for me but might be if you are a contract lawyer. I did NOT install the freebie third party software and I did not try the OCR setting in the Canon Toolbox so for all I know it's easily resolved using one of those two options. I don't care enough to find out. The scans are also skewed ever so slightly sideways when fed through the ADF. This is not enough of an issue if you're trying to share documents or submit receipts and if you need art and publishing grade scanning you probably want a dedicated scanner anyway.

The Canon driver and Toolbox is all you need. I'm not a fan of freebie teaser software that comes bundled with printers and is a challenge to uninstall. The Canon CD gives you the Custom option to not install programs you don't want. Thank you Canon!

Set up was relatively fast. I slowed myself down by reading the entire quick start guide first since this is my first laser printer and I didn't feel like screwing anything up. The only thing the install program does not do for you is set the "Canon MF4100 Series UFRII LT" as your default printer. I figured that out on my own when I clicked print and the computer wanted to print to the old printer that I had already removed. Right-click on the "Canon MF4100 Series UFRII LT" in "Printers and Faxes" and choose "Set as Default Printer" to resolve that issue. I've also tested 2 sided printing and it works like a charm.

2 sided copying:
One reviewer complained that this machine does not do 2 sided copying. I still have yet to read the manual but all I did was push the "COPY" button, then the "2-Sided" button then "Collate/2 on 1" button, put two papers on the ADF and pressed Start. One double-sided copy of both originals came out just as I expected. For all I know I pushed one button too many but it still did what I expected it to do.

This thing is seriously feature-laden. There are a lot of buttons on the control panel that are clearly labeled and look intuitive and while I probably should check out the manual to get a clue as to what are the many things it can do, the truth is I have no intention of ever reading the manual. For printing documents, scanning and 2-sided copying I didn't have to ready any instructions and those are the features I will use most. I can't believe how many features they packed in at this price point and that the ones I need actually work fast and reliably.

For one person or a small office of up to 4 people I think this canon is all you need. I would not want a group of 100 users slamming on this thing. It does not look designed for that. I suspect that's why it costs $250 and not 3 times more. An industrial machine would have a tougher paper tray that could withstand careless slamming and a rock solid output/paper catch instead of a plastic tabs sticking out. Not that it's a flimsy or weak looking plastic tab. It feels solid. But it's not a large workgroup machine. A large workgroup machine would also be rated for printing tens of thousands more pages per month than this thing probably is. I rarely print more than 100 pages per month and for me this is fine.

While I can tell it's not meant to support a group of 100 users and the printing volume that comes with that, I do NOT feel that the Canon looks fragile or poorly constructed. It looks like it should give me years of trouble free use. I have yet to see anything else in this price range with these features. Good job, Canon.

I picked this up for the front desk at my wife's orthodontic practice, where space is severely restricted. The essential requirements were: a flatbed scanner (not sheet-fed), ADF, good laser printing speed and quality, and all in as small a package as possible. This unit delivers beautifully on all fronts, and delivers some very nice bonuses to boot, such as automatic duplexing (including printing from the computer and 2-1 copying, but not 2-2 copying). The only thing missing that would have been nice is an Ethernet interface, but this is readily solved with printer sharing (not for scanning over the network, but you can send faxes this way).

Plus:

* Very fast time to first page, even from sleep mode. The warm up time is virtually zero, unlike my Dell 1600n, which seems to take forever to get cranked up (the Dell does, however, have a slightly faster ADF and network attachment).

* Very compact - probably as small as you can get for a device with this specific feature set. NOTE: for legal paper output, the print tray winds up protruding significantly from the normal footprint; again, not something most people will use, and it's nice that you have the option without purchasing an extra paper tray.

* Nice quality for text and simple graphics printing. Not as good for complex greyscale, but that's not what it's used for.

* Scans to PDF via the standalone control application

* Flexible copy options

* Automatic duplexing printer (not scanner)

* Very competent fax

* Easy-to-understand front panel buttons (e.g., much more intuitive and functional that the Dell 1600n I have for comparison)


So-So:

* Paper handling is fine, but the manual feed entrance is placed directly on top of the paper tray cover, making it somewhat hard to access and adjust, and not well-suited for placement below desk level (we have ours under the desk, which makes manual feed setup a pain).

* Some of the less-used setup options, especially for the fax, can only be done at the front panel, not from the PC control panel, which would be much easier and faster to use.

* The ADF paper support sticks up at a 45-degree angle, making the overall height of the unit more than in needs to be, especially since it's so compact overall. An ADF design that feeds paper from closer to horizontal would have been nice.

* Somewhat small toner capacity, but not really a liability for use in an office that minimizes paper production. Usually, small toner capacity is associated with slow speed, which is not the case here.


Minus:

* Really nothing so far. Time will tell as to durability.

I bought this printer to replace an aging HP inkjet all-in-one. Like many others I was tired of buying expensive ink cartridges. Since I was very pleased with my Canon Pixma ip6000D photo printer, I thought I'd try this multi-function laser device.

I work from home in a mixed environment... 2 Macs and 2 Windows boxes. Canon advertised compatibility with both (granted mac's can't scan). I share the printer across all the computers through my wireless network and a D-link DP-310G wireless print server.

Turns out that this printer won't work with any other print server but an Axis 1650. First, these print servers are nearly the cost of the printer. Second, they are wired only. So for wireless capability, I'd need to add an access point in addition to the custom print server. And (surprise, surprise) the Axis 1650 doesn't work with Macs.

On the Windows side, I could get it to print through my existing print server... occasionally. After sending the print job, I'd have to walk over to the printer and turn it off / on. Then it would print. Otherwise, no luck. I couldn't even get that far on the Macs. Apparently the culprit is the Canon Advanced Printing Technology (CAPT). It's a proprietary language which is why you need the custom server.

It's a shame because I really like the device. It's small, quiet, prints well and the on-device controls are straightforward.

Should have done my homework.

I bought this machine 2 weeks ago, after returning the Brother 7820. The Canon MF4150 is the perfect all-in-one machine for a home office. It does everything: faxing, copying, printing (including automatic duplex) and scanning. I like that it allows scanning straight to PDF. It's fairly quiet when it functions, although it uses enough power to cause some flickering of lights. I can overlook that because everything else about the machine is excellent; the print quality is great and it prints very quickly. The automatic feed works perfectly. The machine is very small and compact, too.

The manual contains basic information, and you have to rely on the CD-ROM to reference advanced features of the machine---and there are a LOT of features! It is truly amazing that you can buy a machine with so many features for this price! I am very happy with the Canon MF4150 and would recommend it to anyone looking for a black and white laser all-in-one.

I bought the Canon 4150 to replace an aging HP LaserJet 5L laser printer and an older and lower end HP Scanjet scanner. I could not be happier, especially considering the price. The printing speed is fantastic, the scanning works well. Duplex printing is a huge plus. Since this printer only has one USB port (no parallel ports), I found it useful to buy an external USB switch for connecting to more than one computer.

The integrated software on the HP was much better, despite being nearly 10 years old, but the HP also cost much more.

If you are in the market for a monochrome, multi-function laser printer, you should seriously consider this. Good price (<$200), and free shipping (at least at the time I bought it).

I really like this printer in theory -- but am returning it, for two reasons. First, the good: it prints well, and does everything it says it will do well, is nicely designed, etc.

Now, the bad.

First, it won't work with an Airport Express print router (even just as a printer). The Brother MFC I need to replace would do so, and I guess I'm going to have to go back to Brother. (I didn't expect it to allow scanning wirelessly -- that entails data upstream rather than downstream -- but printing it should have been able to do. I've confirmed with Canon, however, that it will not work.)

Second, as others have said, I cannot get it to print duplex on a Mac. (It will duplex from my WinXP computer, but not from my Mac.) Really frustrating, as the Mac print driver has an option for duplex printing -- but it is always grayed out.

I looked around for a while before I got this one and for what it is this is a great machine. I am a student who prints a whole lot (ream of paper just last month) and got very tired of replacing ink cartriges so I went with laser and love it. The starter toner lasted me about a month and a half (filled paper tray 3x) but some of it was pictures so that used a little more toner. There is a toner save mode whell see how that works out. It copies very quickly, prints on both sides automatically; the print is very clear and crisp, replacing the toner is easy ($68) or so and I cant think of a single negative about this thing.

copies: quickly 2 sided if you feed it back in auto document feeder works great.
Prints: perfect no compliants if you dont need to print in color this is what you need-- search around and try to find another autoduplex printer for about $200 dont think you will at least not laser.
someone else had a problem with the auto document feeder guide sticking up; when not using it take it off; it is very simple to do, when you need it put it back-- simple dont know why its like that but for everyting else this thing does who cares?

someone else said there is no outfeed guide-- yes there is it pulls out from the center of the tray and goes right back in.

In short it is what I need and works great set up is easy; the driver is a little confusing but play with it, you'll figure it out pretty quickly.
the top tilts back and will accommodate books easily (copy from glass)
a great machine for home / office / or student worth the money-- the toner is a little steep but remember other brands make you buy a drum in addition to the toner and this one includes the drum so every time you change the toner you change the drum... I was spending about $70 on black ink jet cartriges every semester and $20 on color so I have no complaints about the toner cost I figure about one or two a year for me and no "align the printhead---HP INK JET" hassle

hope someone found this helpful--- it is a great monochrome laser (no color) give it a chance it looks and works just like the big ones.