Canon Pixma MP470 Photo All-In-One Inkjet Printer (2177B002)
See it at Amazon.com for $69.99Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First (4 out of 5)Fantastic All In One for home and school
The MP470 is a superb value at under $90 and is a very flexible tool. It has excellent text output, decent photo output and a useful scanner/copier.
* Easy to set up and use
* Great for home and school
* There are better choices for business and photograhpy
* A little noisy
Seriously, the text output is fantastic. I'm back in college and have had to print out over 1000 pages of PDF's for my classes this quarter. My workhorse 4-yr old Canon i860 printer was fast and could use cheap non-OEM inks but it often made for very hard reading which wasn't worthwhile. This quality of the MP470's text on plain paper rivals that of the HP 5000-series Laserjets at work.
I seem to average a little over 220 pages of text (which includes images) from the CL40 black ink cartridge. That's nearly 9¢ per page, which is not spectacular. For general use I prefer printers which use two cartridges (one black, the other tricolor) as opposed to 4,5, or 6+. It may cost a little more but it's so much easier to keep track of spare cartridges you will inevitably have to keep on hand.
The LCD is easy to read and the media card slots are handy but as someone who uses Photoshop to at least sharpen the images I print, the card slots aren't used much at all.
The scanner is OK, not great but not bad. Documents scan and print clearly, photo's are OK. I have a Canoscan 8400 and it's much faster and accurate but it cost twice as much as the MP470. I think for school and household use, the scanner is fine. For serious photo scanning, a dedicated scanner will be much better.
My one criticism of this printer is the noise. Not as loud as dot-matrix but it's louder than any printer I've used, including the MP160 (which my partner uses for her work). There is a quiet mode with a timer, so you can make the printer quieter (and slower) during certain hours of the day.
I have a certain disdain for all inkjet printer manufacturers for adopting the "Gillette" model; sell the product near cost and earn the profit on the consumables. Not only is this deceptive model for the purchaser of a printer but I think it encourages waste by making many printers 'disposable' compared to the cost of ink. My 2¢... Having said that, Canon seems to be the best of the bunch right now. Due to their design, Epson has head-clogging issues and higher per-page output cost. HP has very lightfast ink but their non-business models always have paper handling issues. Lexmark is undistinguished (and Dell inkjets are just Lexmark printers that have no Mac compatibility).
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(2 out of 5)Disappointed
Canon Pixma MP470 Photo All-In-One Inkjet Printer (2177B002)
After reading the rave review in one of the leading computer magazines I was anxious to try the MP470. The magazine raved about the outstanding scan results attained by this equipment. Since my primary need was to scan photographs this sounded like the one for me. The MP470 is an excellent printer and produces great results, but its scanning capability is not good. Perhaps my unit was flawed since the results I obtained were poor. I tried various adjustment to improve the clarity but to no avail. I have returned the unit to Amazon and purchased another brand.
(5 out of 5)Great Printer Cheap Price. Best bang for the buck.
This is an excellent printer for those of you who will only use it occasionally. It has fast printing & the print quality is excellent. If you plan to scan only once in a while this will do the job. If you are a heavy scan feature user look for a printer more specific for that. I use this to print directions, some pictures, boarding passes & to make scanned PDF documents. It has worked great for my needs. If you are a heavy duty printer user I would suggest one of the higher end Pixma models.
(4 out of 5)Great all-in-one
Canon Pixma MP-470 all-in-one (copy, print, scan) is mac compatible... a huge plus! Lots of great features..copy, scan, print, card reader, lcd display. Took about 10 minutes to set up and start using. A wonderful machine at a great price.
Prints photos quickly and quality is just as good as prints from the store. A note of caution... let glossy prints 'dry' before stacking them or they'll stick together & ruin the finish on the photo paper!
Scanner produces quality results. Scanning software included is easy to use.
Camera card reader is also very convenient & eliminates the need to physically attach the camera to the computer. Reader allows you to print directly from the card, or save the picture files onto your computer.
Only a couple cons...Unit is slightly larger than average & takes up extra space on my desk, but the design is attractive and goes well with any décor. Also color cartridge runs out pretty quickly if you're printing lots of pictures.
Overall I would recommend this unit for the quality results it produces & the low price.
(5 out of 5)WOW!
Okay, so I had 2 all-in-ones, both HP's, in the past. Both of them lost their ability to scan and copy, so the all-in-one became a one-in-one. HP's customer service dept. claimed that they had corrected the problem on their newer products, but wouldn't/couldn't refund or exchange these 2 broken ones. I hesitated on the Canon for that reason, but after seeing the reviews and witnessing what it could do, I have to admit that I am IMPRESSED!
The first thing I printed was a color photo from a file on regular paper, regular quality and it is sharp, yet the colors are beautiful and it was instantly dry - a perk for the home user! The second thing I printed was a scanned black and white photo (at an impressive 1200 dpi) on glossy Kodak photo paper and it looks like the professional photo I scanned! I was able to make wallets from a 5x7 and no one would ever detect that I did it from home.
I did print some black text on regular paper and the quality is just about laser.
I am SOLD! I highly recommend this for your photos, flyers, invites or anything that you print from home and people will think you had them professionally copied.
The style of the machine is sophisticated and sharp and the BEST THING IS - there are no buttons for my 2 year old to push!!! Until he finds the door for the LED, but that hasn't happened just yet. ;)