Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon Pixma MP500 Photo All-in-One with LCD Viewer
Canon Pixma MP500 Photo All-in-One with LCD Viewer
Average Customer Rating
(4.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
Forget the rest, choose CANON
(5 out of 5) by Amazon Customer on Feb 23, 2006I bought the CANON PIXMA MP500 after spending huge money buying the best all in one printer with scanner from HP and Epson. They are still quite good but they don’t last more than 2 years in continuous uses. I’m a newspaper editor and good quality, speed and price are very important.
At the end of the day, EPSON and HP might be cheaper, but in the long term, they cost more money than CANON and may not last what you expected
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent All in One soloution
(5 out of 5) by Mrs. Marie A. Ryan on Sep 13, 2006ordered this after having used epsons before, and after reading many reviews on this product, all features are excellent just as i hoped. [...]
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Buy!
(5 out of 5) by S. Duncan on Oct 24, 2006 (UK)This is quite simply the best printer I have owned. It is excellent value and the quality is outstanding. Fortunately it is easy to use as its one failing is the documentation. As a professional technical author, I am baffled as to the reason for the online help design. I'm also a bit wary of the supplied software, but decided that it wasn't necessary anyway.
Whatever I may think of the documentation or the software however, the printer is wonderful.
Whatever I may think of the documentation or the software however, the printer is wonderful.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Brilliant
(5 out of 5) by Will on Jun 4, 2006 (Essex, UK)Love the printer, looks stylish and print quality on text, graphics and photos is superb. The scan/copy isn't exactly the best quality but does the job.
The only downside are, as mentioned, its a dust magnet. And also the LCD screen is very easily scratched. I look after my stuff and have had the printer for about a month or two now and for some reason the display attracts scratches as much as the unit attracts dust! I wish these things would come with a scratch resistant label thing you could stick on...
Great printer though.
The only downside are, as mentioned, its a dust magnet. And also the LCD screen is very easily scratched. I look after my stuff and have had the printer for about a month or two now and for some reason the display attracts scratches as much as the unit attracts dust! I wish these things would come with a scratch resistant label thing you could stick on...
Great printer though.
48 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
True of all modern Canon printers
(1 out of 5) by Lucy on Oct 4, 2006 (Scotland)I would not buy a new Canon printer. I have been told by Canon that all modern Canon printers - with a print head separate to the cartridges - are based on this design. Do a web search for info on fixing printers to see how common this fault is...
Firstly the print head will fail after a while, up to a few years depending on how often you use it - this is a user replaceable part which costs about £50 to replace (depending on model etc) - but remember you are saving on the cartridges...and there are lots of methods on the web to extend the print head's life. Canon recommends using repeated `deep head cleaning' on the printer before replacing the print head -avoid this because of the more serious problem with these machines. Better just to try printing pages of junk using genuine canon ink.
Every time the head is cleaned (frequently - when you turn the printer on, during use and when `deep head cleaning') you use some ink - this ink goes onto the waste ink absorber pad. This is basically some absorbent material in the base of the printer. You cannot access this without taking the whole printer to pieces, the printer keeps track of how many times ink goes onto the pad.
After a while it will decide that this pad is full and needs to be replaced. The printer will no longer work and show an error message. This pad can only be replaced by a Canon service centre...basically it is cheaper to buy a new printer. If you look around on the web or can get hold of a Canon service manual (again available for download on the web) you will be able to reset the value and continue to use the printer BUT you do risk ink leaking out of the bottom of the printer (and may damage the purge unit). Probably best not to reset more than once. The `purge unit' is the part that sucks ink into the absorber pad - and I guess that the tube feeding into the pad gets blocked with ink.
Canon are more than aware of the design fault - I would guess it would be pretty simple to design the units so that the ink pads are user replaceable (a flap on the base) and the reset is in user manual but for some reason(!)Canon haven't done this.
If you want a printer that is brilliant for a few years but them will basically need replacing - go for the modern Canons...
(I've learned this from experience I did lots of deep head cleaning before replacing my print head (£40) and then immediately running into the waste ink pad problem - before I had found the info about the reset - I actually took mine, a Smartbase MP360 to pieces and the pad was pretty full -I washed it and put it back and reset but I'm pretty sure my purge unit has failed - it will be cheaper to get a new printer (not a Canon) then invest any more money in this one...)
Firstly the print head will fail after a while, up to a few years depending on how often you use it - this is a user replaceable part which costs about £50 to replace (depending on model etc) - but remember you are saving on the cartridges...and there are lots of methods on the web to extend the print head's life. Canon recommends using repeated `deep head cleaning' on the printer before replacing the print head -avoid this because of the more serious problem with these machines. Better just to try printing pages of junk using genuine canon ink.
Every time the head is cleaned (frequently - when you turn the printer on, during use and when `deep head cleaning') you use some ink - this ink goes onto the waste ink absorber pad. This is basically some absorbent material in the base of the printer. You cannot access this without taking the whole printer to pieces, the printer keeps track of how many times ink goes onto the pad.
After a while it will decide that this pad is full and needs to be replaced. The printer will no longer work and show an error message. This pad can only be replaced by a Canon service centre...basically it is cheaper to buy a new printer. If you look around on the web or can get hold of a Canon service manual (again available for download on the web) you will be able to reset the value and continue to use the printer BUT you do risk ink leaking out of the bottom of the printer (and may damage the purge unit). Probably best not to reset more than once. The `purge unit' is the part that sucks ink into the absorber pad - and I guess that the tube feeding into the pad gets blocked with ink.
Canon are more than aware of the design fault - I would guess it would be pretty simple to design the units so that the ink pads are user replaceable (a flap on the base) and the reset is in user manual but for some reason(!)Canon haven't done this.
If you want a printer that is brilliant for a few years but them will basically need replacing - go for the modern Canons...
(I've learned this from experience I did lots of deep head cleaning before replacing my print head (£40) and then immediately running into the waste ink pad problem - before I had found the info about the reset - I actually took mine, a Smartbase MP360 to pieces and the pad was pretty full -I washed it and put it back and reset but I'm pretty sure my purge unit has failed - it will be cheaper to get a new printer (not a Canon) then invest any more money in this one...)