Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon PIXMA MP540 Printer

Having checked this item out in a well known high street photography shop,where I was told it's print quality was identical to the more expensive MP610 and very similar to the even more pricey MP630, the only real difference seems to be that it lacks Wi-fi connectivity and has a smaller control panel and screen.I looked it up on amazon and found it for £10 less than the High Street price.
I ordered it on Friday night and it arrived first thing Tuesday morning.
It was really easy to set up both for stand alone use and hard wired to my PC.Within an hour of taking it out of the box I was photocopying ,scanning and printing pictures from my PC files.Excellent results even on cheap glossy paper.Haven't had time to print anything off a memory card yet but I expect the process will be just as easy as the rest of the systems and the results will be just as good .
All in all a great piece of kit for anyone who wants a scanner/copier/printer/photolab at a sensible price.

I am absolutely gob smacked by the quality of this printer. I have been using HP or Epson printers for the last 10 years and although they were good, they always had the same issues. Mainly it was the ink quality; forever drying out and causing streaky prints, which is for home printer that is not used every day, a very common occurrence.

I have had this for a while now and the print quality is still great; no streaky prints. The set up was easy too, with simple instructions. 5 print cartridges and one print head to install; I liked the little red lights that came on when you successfully plugged in each cartridge; only minor complaint was there were plenty of taped up parts which you need to remove before you even think about installing the print cartridges, but then again, there are a lot of delicate parts to protect in transist. All in all though, the quality of build, quality of print, speed and quietness is superb.

And then of course there is the scanner, which is more than capable. I have scanned in text documents and photos, just to see how it all works, and the quality is fantastic compared to my dedicated (if slightly old) scanner, and it is very quick too.

Thoroughly recommend the combined 3 in one printer.

(Update after 3 months - still no streaky prints and same print cartridges being used)

I searched many web sites and shops for a printer that would give me good quality pictures, scan documents, print homework tasks and photocopy. I wanted something that was quiet in operation, reasonable in ink use and all for less than £75 if possible. This model was the one I finally settled on and it has been fantastic. It was incredibly easy to set up with software that loaded onto Vista effortlessly. Each new thing we have learned how to do has very simple easy to follow instructions and I haven't had to buy a new printer cartridge yet despite having printed many photos. We are truly delighted with this printer.

The Canon MP540 fits easily into our £80 budget and manages to offer the best compromise for the money. The unit has the appearance and build quality that you would associate with a much more expensive product. It is the only unit of the three tested that has a proper TFT LCD display, even though it's quite small. Pop the screen up and you reveal a neat looking control panel, with a very Canon-esque control wheel, though in practice I felt this was very fiddly to use. Unusually, there is a paper tray that fits under the unit, as well as the usual top-loader at the back. In general, plain paper goes underneath and photo paper loads, by default, from the top.

Print quality is pretty good, with maybe a small criticism of a lack of saturation in some prints, but they easily out-rank the other units tested this month. Photo print s speed is not bad either, with an A4 borderless sheet emerging in under four minutes.

There are no complaints about the scanner, either, which again easily out-paced the opposition and produced good colour and sharp detail.

Printer Max. Dots Per Inch (Dpi): Up To 9600 X 2400 dpi
No. Inks/Colours: 5 Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, Pigmented Black (Single Ink Tanks)
Ink Type: Dye-Based Colour And Black Inks, Pigment Black (Plain Paper Printing)
Scanner Max Resolution: Up To 2400 X 4800dpi
Scanner Type: Contact Image Sensor (CIS)
Scanner Sheet Feeder?: No
Fax Facility: No
Copier Facility: Colour And Mono
Memory Card Types Supported: CF I&II, CF Microdrive, SD/SDHC/MMC, Sony Memory Stick Pro, Sony Memory Stick Duo
LCD Screen: Colour TFT Display
Dimensions: 450 x 366 x 157mm
Weight: 7.8kg

A very neat printer that does a few things well

PROS

GENERAL
Good looking machine
Sturdy construction. Good quality plastics
Easy to use consel
2 paper trays great asset

PRINTING
fast print speed
quiet printing
Good quality documents, b/w or colour

SCANNING
Excellent quality
fast and quiet

COPYING
Excellent quality
Fast and quiet

CONS

No fax
Photo printing OK only. All inkjets are only average. Tends to be cheaper and better going to shop like jessops

Lots of paper when opening packet leading you on wild goose chase of how to set up. IGNORE THEM ALL AND GO STRAIGHT TO SET UP MANAUAL IN PLASTIC BAG. You will save a lot of time