Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon Pixma MP830 Office All-In-One Inkjet Printer (0583B002)

I've been waiting for this printer to come out for quite some time. I previously used Canon's MP730 and completely loved it. This new version adds several great features, and after a few days of playing around with it, it has lived up to my high expectations.

The MP830 is a bit shorter and wider than Canon's previous all-in-ones, and it looks a bit more "classy" with a black-on-black keypad and a color LCD screen. There are two paper trays: the main tray is an upright tray in the rear, and a pull-out tray is located on the bottom of the machine. My old 730 had a plastic cover that protected the paper in the vertical tray from dust, and that cover is no longer included. I live is a dusty area, and if the paper gets a layer of dust on it, that dust can collect on and clog the print head. To remedy this, I've decided to use the smaller pull out tray as my primary paper tray (you can select the primary paper tray with a button on the keypad).

This printer uses Canon's new "8" series inks. While these are top-of-the-line inks (UV resistant, pigment/dye system), they are considerably more expensive than the 3 or 6 series inks used my many of Canons previous printers. Also, each ink cartridge has a small computer chip attached to it which makes obtaining remanufactured or generic cartridges difficult. At the moment you cannot find generic ink for this printer, and various websites advise against refilling these cartridges as they ink density is different from the previous inks, and doing so might wreck your printhead. So if you were used to paying $3/cartridge for generic canon cartridges, you might have to raise your ink budget for a while (currently, cartridges are about $14 each, and there are five of them in this printer).

This printer has duplex printing and scanning, meaning that it can scan/print both sides of a sheet. At some point, I was led to believe that the scanner was able to scan both sides *at the same time*, but that is actually not the case. After a piece of paper is scanned through the auto document feeder, it is sucked back in, flipped around and re-scanned. This adds considerable time to your scanning tasks. If you are pressed for time, it is actually faster to scan in "manual duplex" where you scan the front sides of pages, then manually the pages over and re-scan the back sides. However, if you want to hit the scan button and walk away, the auto-duplex does its job well. The same issue exists for duplex printing--it works, but it takes more time than if you had manually duplexed the pages.

The fax is a fax. It works fine, and some test color-faxes I sent came out well.

The copier also works well, and the duplexers allow you to make two-sided to two-sided copies, but as I said before, this takes some time.

The scanner does a great job with photos and documents. It is considerably faster than earlier models, thanks in part to the USB 2.0 interface and new scan sensor. Also, the updated scanning software is a significant improvment over previous versions.

I've printed out some photos and they are of amazing quality, which is what I expect from Canon printers. However, because of the cost of the inks, I will not be printing photos very often. The text is a bit light for my taste (the black is more like a very dark grey).

All in all, this is a great printer/scanner/fax/copier and I am very happy with it.

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Note: Unfortunately, the memory card slots on the printer do not allow for USB2.0 transfer to the comptuer. If you need to move lots of data from a memory card to your desktop, use a dedicated card-reader; using the slots on this printer takes way too long.

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ADDED 5/9/06: After having this machine for just over a month, I have to say it runs through ink way too fast. My ink status lists several cartridges as only 25% full, and is warning me that two of my colors are "almost empty." I print 90% black text, 9% color documents (web pages, rebate forms, etc), and only about 1% photos (I have only printed 2 4x6 photos since I purchased the printer). My previous Canon printers sipped ink, this machine chugs it, and at $14/cartridge, that is unacceptable. (Especially becuase the print quality isn't much better than previous printers.)

I've owned this printer now for 2 months, having purchased it after my 2 year old Canon MP730 broke down. While I love the design and print quality of both printers, somehow Canon has managed to significantly increase the amount of ink you have to purchase on the newer model. For example, I've now replaced the large black cartridge [...] 4 times in 2 months. On the MP730, I doubt I replaced the regular size black cartridge [...] more than once every 3 months or so. I've actually never written an online review like this before, but have been so frustrated with the time and expense of replacing ink cartridges I felt compelled to warn other potential buyers. I personally will be looking for another printer for everyday use, and relegating this one to photos. This printer deserves 5 stars on quality and 1 star on ink useage.

I've had this machine for about a week now, I had to replace my HP 7310 (see me review of the HP 7310). Took me about 2 hrs to set it up, that includes disconnecting and uninstalling my 7310. Set up was pretty straight forward, for instructions all I needed were the fold out instructions that came with the machine, I read the booklet later. Software install went without a hitch, everything was ready to go.

Faxing features are most important to me in a MFD machine. While it's true this machine may not have all the features I would like to see in a device, I think I can live with and over come some of the limitations, which I'll try to explain. Most important to me is the reliability to send and especially receive faxes. I have an answering machine hooked up to this device also. So far I have faxed several times to this machine and it has caught everyone of them, unlike my 7310 which was hit & miss when receiving faxes even when it was brand new. This machine so far feeds 1 sheet at a time thru the ADF, again unlike my 7310 which would feed 2 or 3 pages at a time thru the ADF, and I don't have to babysit this machine to make sure it's doing what it supposed to do.

You can fax directly from the ADF or the scanner, you don't have to save then fax, the 830 will send it right away. You can fax with this machine from your PC if the PC program you're using has a print function, such as MS Word, when you're asked for a printer choose "830 fax" instead of "830 series printer", during installtion both printer icons will be loaded onto your computer, the 830 series printer is my default printer, but the 830 fax can be choosen when faxing a document. The 830 software doesn't offer cover pages (least not that I've found so far) but programs such as Word do have cover pages. Another thing it does I very much like is when you send a fax, it prints out the confirmation at the top along with an image of about the 1st 1/2 page of what you faxed. This is good when having to prove you actually faxed something and what you faxed. Alot of programs just print out that you faxed something and no image of what you faxed.

Some features it doesn't have that I would like to see integrated into the 830 software would be, coverpages, ability to set up a fax to be sent at a later time, storing into files faxes that have been sent and received for possible later review, the ability to fax any file from your PC thru the 830 (not only from programs that have print functions), ability to group fax thru the PC, you can group fax from the machine but not thru the PC. But again I think I can live with some of these limitations. Booklet says machine has a memory for sent and received faxes, still trying to figure out how faxes get into memory.

This is a good looking, clean looking machine. The 2 paper loading feature is nice, you could have 1 type of paper in the front loader and another in the back loader, and change with the hit of a button. If the front door is closed and you print something, it will open automatically.

If is faster at printing than my 7310, and the 7310 was pretty quick. The print could be a little blacker than it is, but totally acceptable. As far as machine go, it is pretty quiet. I do alot of work late at nite when the family is sleeping, the 7310 was noisy, the 830 I don't worry about the possiblity of waking people up.

The scanning feature is pretty quick also, and photo printing is excellent, it prints photo's better than my HP 1215 photo printer, and the HP1215 is no slouch at photo quality. It does a pretty good/fast job at making copies, the duplex feature is very nice, little slow, but if you want 2 sided copies then you'll just have to wait, but single sided copies are pretty quick.

I haven't had time yet to do a deep dive into the bundled software that came with this machine, they do look promising, such as "easy photo", "omni ocr", "page manager."

As time goes on, I will probably update this review, I hope with only good to say, but in the meantime I am very happy with the purchase. When I crossed HP off my list of possible purchases, man that really narrowed down the field, so far I think I can say thank you Canon, (hope I can still say that next year).

8/27/07 - Had this machine over a year now and it does everything it was designed to do very very well. No breakdowns, no software snafu's, works great. I said it does everything it was designed to do very vell, unfortunately it wasn't designed very well to handle managing of faxes, it doesn't save faxes electronically receiving or sending, you must have your answering maching connected directly to the 830, in other words you can't have your 830 in one room and your answering maching in another, you won't receive faxes. You can't send a delayed fax, you can't broadcast fax. This machine is extremely weak in the fax department, so if you are heavy into managing faxes you should look elsewhere.

I have owned HP and Epson all in ones. After my HP died, I researched quite a bit, and decided on the Canon MP830. I have owned canon products in the past and have been very happy, and when Amazon offered this printer for 249.99, free shipping, I couldn't pass it up. Set up was very easy and the software very good. It only took about 40 minutes to get up and running. I knew when I bought it that it did not come with a USB 2.0 cable so I bought one to have on hand when the printer arrived. Contrary to one of the reviews here, I have no problem faxing "from the glass," without using my computer.

The print speed is excellent, and the automatic document feeder a big plus! I have tried all of the features and I am very happy with the fax and print. I am a little less enthusiastic about the copy and scan. I would have to say that these features are adequate, not great. My discontent is based on the fact that the scans and copies are a little off when it comes to the color of the original. I have searched the manual and cannot find if there is a way to calibrate the color for scans and copies. I noticed that particularly with gold, the scan and fax aren't able to reproduce the color accurately. Overall it is acceptable, but like I said, not great, hence the four star rating, instead of five stars.

As far as printing and faxing, this machine is really fantastic, and I have printed several photos that have turned out perfect. Black text is sharp for an inkjet, and color printing is accurate and fast! Faxing is problem free and a breeze with the ADF for multiple pages. BTW, this machine is capable of printing a 2 sided document from 2 one sided originals, or a 2 sided original. Very nice.

Pros: Price, speed, ease of use and friendly software. Sharp black text, and great color photo printing.

Cons: No USB cable. Color calibration for copy and scan.

First Impressions: I've only owned it for a week, and its positive aspects have been mentioned in previous reviews, but here is what I find missing with the MP830:

I have been wanting to convert all of my gas receipts, bills and business cards I collect from others and assorted papers into digital files on my computer.I bought the 830 because it had an automatic document feeder/scanner combination, and the highly rated photo-qualtiy printer was a nice addition.

Once you own the machine and get the manual you find out 2 important things 1) Scanning from the Automatic Document Feeder will not yield as good results as individually placing items on the scanner (boo!) and 2) Forget about feeding in all sorts of small bills and business cards - the ADF won't respond unless its a relatively large piece of paper. (Another Boo!)

If you want a nice scanner/photo printer/copier then this is a nice one. If you want all of your documents, large and small, converted to digital files, you might want to look at the Fujitsu Snapscan 500, which can handle business cards fed into its ADF.

I will agree with a previous reviewer that having to physically turn on the printer when needed is annoying, compared to many which will come to life when a document needs printing.

As another reviewer stated, I also find it annoying that this machine cannot scan a legal size document.

Maybe I haven't figured it out yet, but from what I can tell of the Canon scanning software for the PC, it does not seem to have a lighness/darkeness adjustment which comes in very handy when copying from receipts that have different intensities of printing on them(e.g. a cash register receipt that is readable to the naked eye, but the ink is very faint).

I was happy to have the memory card reader built into the machine when I wanted a quick photo printed. Excellent!

This machine does have an enormous number of spiffy options and features when it comes to copying documents and printing photos. One example would be that you can print a plain paper "proof sheet" containing many photos, select the ones you want with a dark pencil, scan the proof sheet and the Canon will print only the selected photos. Another would be the copier's ability to fit 2 documents on the same side of a piece of paper.