Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon Pixma MP500 Photo All-in-One with LCD Viewer

I bought this printer as a result of reading previous reviews here. I have found it quite excellent.

Some points I am particularly pleased with:

1. Low ink use: I have just printed out 140 copies of a multi-coloured A4 size map for my son's wedding invitation - using the ink cartridges supplied with the printer. No problems at all - i.e. the ink cartridges provided with the new printer must be full. (Not always the case).
2. The duplexing (= printed double sided) unit is easy to use and remarkably quick. I have not had this facility before and it is a delight.
3. The controls are easy to understand - although it would have been nice to have a hard copy of the instructions rather than just an on-line version.
4. Agreed that the two paper trays are very helpful - I keep A4 in one and A5 in the other: easy to switch between the two.
5. 'Photocopying' is fast and good quality - also very easy to use.
6. Build quality seems excellent and the printer runs very quietly.

I have not used it yet for printing out photos so cannot comment on this facility.

Generally, impossible to fault and I am delighted with it.

I bought this with some trepidation as I've always had HP kit, and this seemed too good to be true - a scanner, printer, copier and media card reader all for just over £100. I needn't have worried, it's a seriously nice piece of kit, with excellent print and scan quality. The software integrates beautifully with Windows, providing the ability to scan directly to file, email or PDF. It also seems well screwed together and has solid paper handling (even duplex). The only downside I can think of is the super shiny black plastic finish which shows every finger print and spec of dust!

Excellent.
Got the printer out of the box and went thru' the instructions.
The Pixma is bigger than I expected, but a similar size to the last HP 'all in one'. This could be an issue for some.
I have WIN98SE. Loaded the software from CD, Photo Editor, Photo Printer, Printer Manager; all worked first time. You will need a USB A to B printer cable.
Copies fine. Scanned a document into a text file using the OCR software, then into WORD; again fine. Printed a photo 4"x6"; print quality is excellent with the Canon paper.
Here's a tip. Before I ordered, I used the Canon website to get sample prints of a photo I uploaded to the website. I got samples using the Pixma MP500 and Pixma MP 170. Both are very good. Check the quality before you buy! Pick a photo with lots of detail to do the comparison. Takes a few days for the prints to come thru' the post, then make your mind up.
I still have to use the camera bridge and card input and the CD label printer, but so far I am very pleased with the printer, it gives me a copier, a scanner, and A1 photo prints; well done Canon.

We decided to try the MP500 well what can I say, it's all we want and if anything it's a bit more than we want.
The prints are fast and the quality is good, the makers must understand that all we want is a printer that produces good quality prints and is delivered quickly.
If you need a good printer go down the Cannon MP500 route you wont regret it.

I searched around for a replacement to my Epson printer that had simply stopped working a couple of days ago. Whereas the Epson was so noisy (it used to chug and splutter every time you asked it to print something!), the Canon MP500 is unbelievably quiet. Here are some of the benefits:
1. It's extremely easy to set up. Within half an hour of unpacking the printer, I was testing it out by printing a JPEG image to the printer (using one of the free applications that come with the printer).
2. The print quality is simply outstanding.
3. As mentioned in other reviews, the benefit of having separate cartridges for all of the ink colours cannot be over-estimated; many times I have had to change the colour cartridge on the Epson, even though it was only one out of the three inks in the cartridge that was running low.
4. The 'copy' function is excellent - I will never have to run down the the high street again to use the photocopier in the newsagents.
I am extremely pleased with my purchase.