Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon PIXMA MX850 Multi Function Printer

Working from home (mostly), I needed to replace my HP G85 all-in-one fax/copier/scanner and opted for the Canon PIXMA MX850. I just assumed that rather like my HP, I would be able to put a bundle of documents into the Canon and leave it to fax on its own. Not so! It will only feed one page at a time! The scan function is good and print quality above average but beware the ink cartridges! This machine uses 5 ink cartridges - 3 colours and 2 blacks (why?) and as always, not cheap! I had to replace the smaller of the black cartridges after 3 weeks. The instructions are difficult to follow and do not necessarily correlate with the machine itself. I've had some frustrating experiences with printing from the PC. For example, the printer might tell the PC that the rear cartridge is out of paper - it doesn't have one!. All in all, I am disappointed with my all-in-one!

Canon PIXMA MX850 Multi Function Printer

Let me start by stating I am a traditional HP printer advocate. Recently, however, growing issues with drivers and problems with Vista compatibility left me with a need to find a solid performing replacement for my non-Vista compatible HP1100d business ink jet printer.

I wanted a machine that offered the separate print heads and ink wells, provided good quality scanning and printing and duplexing which is very important for my business as I generate printed user guides for training purposes and maintenance files for the web sites I design.

Since I work in a small home office, I also wanted the ability to fax and use the machine as a photocopier when necessary.

I did the usual rounds and found this Canon product; I have to say it has not disappointed.

Set-up was reasonable and the included ethernet connectivity for networking made it possible to share the unit with my office pc, wireless connected laptop and home pc.

The separate print heads and ink wells mean reasonably good cost per page to print while the dedicated black and grey cartridges offer cost effective mono printing and ensure good reproduction of photos.

The duplexer works well and the wait time, necessary to give the ink time to dry between prints, does not bother me and is comparable to the HP inkjet. The added bonus of duplex copying just adds even further value to this already well priced unit.

The automatic document feeder works well and any copying and faxing using this has been excellent with pages feeding correctly.

Scanning is sharp enough for my needs although I have not yet tested a high resolution image.

Controls are well laid out with key functions having easily identifiable buttons. The built in LCD screen and pictbridge support make it easy to print photos and files from a digital camera and the memory card slots support the most common types in current use, CF SD, MMC and MS.

The included software works well and the Solution Menu provides a user friendly interface.

The unit does have a sizeable footprint but sits easily on top of my standard three drawer filing cabinet with plenty of space for the output tray to open fully. A neat touch is the automatic opening of the output tray when a print, or, copy is started.

The only possible gripe is the paper tray which is, by comparison to the rest of the unit, a little flimsy. This should not deter you though as the unit is well worth serious consideration.

Overall I am very pleased with this purchase and the feature set just makes the unit excellent value for money.

I would recommend this to any home, or, home office user.

I selected this printer based on a Which? review and have not been dissapointed. It was straightforward to set up with our main PC and also with our laptops wirelessly. It is smart looking and although quite large fits in the pull out area of our office suite designed for printers (just!).
The print quality is better than our last Epson photo R200 printer and it is fast. The ability to photo copy is an extra that we now couldn't imagine doing without. No more scanning in, saving and printing out docs. The scanner is brilliant too. I can scan whole documents into one PDF file with ease.
I haven't tried the fax function yet but I'm sure it will become invaluable one day.

I purchased this printer after quite a bit of research as my previous all in one had worked well for many years and I was concerned that I would have problems setting it up.

In the event it was much easier than I thought. I am in the 65+ age group and I did not want too many fiddley things in dark recesses. I had not inserted a print head previously and I had 5 cartridges this time instead of just two.

However, everything went well. Printing both single and double sided works great. Printing directly on to DVDs is fine provided you have the correct surface , as any DVD will not do, you will just get a mess.

So far I have not been able to send a fax. I don't know why, possible I am missing some thing very basic.

Scans very well, which was not always the case with my old printer.


All in all a good purchase. Worth the money.

My first printer was a Canon and I thought I would never buy another. Over the last ten years I have used four multi function HP Officejet machines, and I bought this MX850 to replace the HP7310 which I still use as the second printer. I print and photocopy a lot and this is about 40,000 copies for a year.
My prints are on cheap paper and draft quality. The HP7310 was very fast but it gives a lot of paper jam, paper size not recognize, and slow down after printing abot 30 copies. Most of the plastic bits(Paper outlet, Top paper feeder) broke away after about six moth.

So compare to the above, MX850 is slow but has no parts that can break away. Installing the software was easy and the ethernet printing is very good too. To my understanding the scanning quality is not very good. Photo printing is excelent and better than my Epson RX620. I use duplex with booklet printing which gives slow but exceptional quality. If you need to copy a page of a thick book it will surly give copies with smudged margines. I have not used this for faxing and can't coment on it. I also can't coment on ink as I use a continues ink system.

I can recomend this to any small and medium offic who need a lot of copying and printing. this does not slow down due to the amount of work load.

I will buy this again.