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E. Campisi “extrabooksalbany” (Baldwin, NY United States) –

  

  

I waited to try all four features of this printer before reviewing it – document printing, scanning, photo printing, and photocopying. Generally, this printer is a beauty, both looks-wise and operationally. There is a pop up screen with a very bright menu that also displays photos. You are supposed to be able to edit them right there, but I didn’t actually try that feature of this printer. The sleek, shiny, black rounded body has very cool back-lit buttons for all the functions right on the top. You can also control them from the computer. I found myself going back and forth between both, for both everyday functionality and the set up.

I have to say a REALLY great feature about this printer, which I didn’t expect to love as much as I do, is the wireless printing capability. You don’t have to keep this printer anywhere near your computer, just an outlet. If you have a laptop and like to use it in front of the TV, you will absolutely love the freedom it provides.

I would rate all of the individual features rate highly except the document printing. Here’s my review of the features from best to relatively worst:

1. Photo printing – prints either directly from your card (no computer needed technically). You can print up to 600 dpi with this. The photos are crisp and clear, and color is accurate. The only thing I didn’t like was the extremely rudimentary photo editing software. It is easy to use, yes, but it doesn’t do much. If you want to retouch your photos, use either Photoshop or one of the free pieces of software. I like Picasa even. That may be simple, but it’s better than this. Smaller printer paper loads from the back of the machine. Regular paper goes in a drawer in the front, which I really liked.

2. Photocopying – I find it’s a relief to have a photocopier for the occasional document that needs photocopying. Here you’ll have a color copier too. The colors also rendered accurately here.

3. Scanning – I tried a document and photos (you can scan your signature and then cut and paste it into letters, btw, which is a nice touch if you’re sending out cover letters online). It did a great job on all kinds of documents, as well as my signature. Remember though that you can only print at 600 dpi with this machine, which may be a deal killer for a handful of people. The photo scanning wasn’t quite up to the quality of the photo printing however. I scanned in a photo of my mom, and boosted the contrast slightly. The picture came out warmer and less detailed than the original photo. You can correct this on Photoshop, but in my opinion you shouldn’t have to. Again, I was a little stymied by the fact that the photo editing software was so rudimentary – but if you have different software you should be able to work this out.

4. Document printing – this printer comes with two black cartridges – one is much larger than the other one and is just for printing. I have a small laser printer and am spoiled by it, so that is the caveat. First, the documents print out very slowly. It takes a while to prepare itself to print, and then when it does start to print, it’s pretty slow. That was actually the only thing that disappointed me about this printer. The document quality is very good, but in my opinion doesn’t reach the near-laser quality that some of the HP printers do. Considering this is an all-in-one, you can’t kill it for that issue. However, because of that and the slowness I wouldn’t recommend this printer to anyone who regularly does things like college term papers, or other things where you print out large documents on a regular basis — the lack of speed would drive you crazy. I also liked my resume better on the laser printer, naturally. But the slowness and lack of laser-like crispness are what killed one of the stars on this rating. There was a cool thing about printing though – the front door automatically pops open when the printer starts. I liked that.

I would say that this is an excellent printer for people who want really good photo printing, need scanning and photocopying capability, which are also good, but don’t have large print jobs on a regular basis. The user interface and the beauty of the thing itself make it a complete pleasure to operate. Never thought I’d be saying that about a piece of electronic equipment. The ink cartridges are kind of small, so that’s another consideration unless you can find a good, cheap dealer on E-bay.

Installation – this is one where you have to be ready. Plug and play this is not. You have to load the printer head, the printer cartridges, and keep going back and forth between the computer and printer screen (which gives you directions) to set it up, no matter what the directions say. Give yourself an hour, because it may not go that smoothly. I actually had no problems – already had a wireless router and didn’t have to go through what some others have, but it was…

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John P. Thiel “John T.” (Astoria, Queens, New York City) –

  

  

  

We (my wife and I) printed up a photo which we already had in a frame because we wanted to send it to someone and were absolutely astounded by the quality difference which came out of this printer versus the professionally produced ones from the photo counter at CVS we had been using before. The photos from this printer are bright and true to the colors, contrast, and brightness of the actual subjects we shot–our pet rabbit of 11 years in this case who died last November. The Canon prints aren’t just slightly better, they are very obviously better.

But just to make sure we weren’t fooling ourselves, we then printed the photo again on the cheapest grade photo paper, and again on plain (multipurpose) paper. There was no notable quality difference in the images coming out of the Canon on these three types of paper, and they all far outshined the prints from the photo counter.

So then we printed again, using the same make and model of photo paper on both the PIXMA MG8120 and our other Canon printer, the MP495 (which costs only about $79 compared to the MG8120 which sells for just under $300). While the image quality in terms of sharpness was better than the MP495 on both the MG8120 (of course) and the Kodak system used at the photo counter of the drug store, the lower price MP495 prints were still brighter and truer to color than the photo counter prints.

OK, so now the question is, is it worth it to buy the MG8120 over the MP495? It depends on what you’re into. If you’re really into photography or even just an avid snapshot photographer, then absolutely you should get the higher priced MG8120 featured on this page; but if you want prints which are still excellent–and I mean ‘excellent’–at an incredible bargain price, then get the MP495. Both are Canon PIXMA printers, and they both blow away getting your photos done at the drug store, or Wal-Mart, or wherever it is you’ve been comparatively wasting your money on professional photo printing until now.

We have since reprinted every single digital photo in the house and they are all shockingly beautiful–like going from analogue TV to 1080p Hi-Definition.

OTHER FEATURES: Of course, the MG8120 also has a lot of features it’s lower price cousin does not such as: a preview and system screen and ports for various kinds of input devices and cords most notably. You don’t need your computer to print with the MP8120.

It’s also multilingual–including Japanese, Chinese, and Korean (which have completely different writing systems of their own), but also a lot of languages you don’t usually find options for on electronics devices like Croatian and Polish.

Add that this printer also has a paper tray included in the bottom, whereas paper has to be fed in the back of the MP495.

BOTTOM LINE: If you’re buying a printer for school, then get the MP495 which will far exceed your needs for an incredibly low price; but if you’re running a small business or you’re some other kind of heavy user of a wireless printer/scanner or you’re really into photography, then you should treat yourself to the MP8120–which is still a remarkable deal for all that it does at the high level of quality it delivers.

Either choice will have you never going to an outside source for your printing needs again.

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Vesta Irene (the Pacific Northwest) –

  

Let me start out by saying what’s not good about this all in one printer. The tray only holds fifty copies or so. You can only print one envelope at a time. And my aging HP all in one prints faster.

The above being said, I love this printer. The photos are absolutely gorgeous. The colors are eye popping, every bit as good as you’d get if you were looking at photos developed from film. I can’t praise the quality enough. Canon has built a true gem here.

Wireless, who cares? Slow printing, who cares? Anyway, it’s not that slow, besides I have a laser printer for printing text. I don’t even care that it’s a beautiful looking piece of electronic kit. It could be ugly as all get out and I’d love it to death. Results, really, that’s all that matters in the end.

As a bonus, this all in one excels as a scanner, is very quiet, accepts compact flash so you can print without going to your computer, doesn’t jam (at least I haven’t experienced one yet) and it looks like something Darth Vader would own.

So, yes there are a few negs with this printer, but holy moly, the pictures are so darned wonderful looking, so true to life. I’ll say it again, results, that’s what matters with a photo printer and this one delivers in spades.

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