Jack-of-all trades and master of most: a competent home printer, September 26, 2010

By 

Jojoleb “jojoleb” (Pittsburgh, PA United States) – See all my reviews

  

  

Pros:

Effortless set up, even for WiFi

Excellent print and photographic quality

High quality scanning

Faster than older Canon inkjet printers

Slick interface/modern design

Buffed up Canon software

Front loading paper tray

Excellent customer support (see addendum)

Cons:

Memory card reader on WiFi works for Windows but not for Mac

Slow wireless ‘upload’ from printer

Shiny exterior picks up fingerprints

Completely redesigned ink cartridges means that you are stuck with expensive, proprietary

ones, at least for the time being

No continuous document feed

Long install time for proprietary software

Canon software is much better, but still a little slow and clunky

No printer functions will work (including scanning) if there is a missing or malfunctioning ink cartridge

The PIXMA MG6120 is one of Cannon’s newest line of printers. It is long on features and really is an excellent, all around printer for home use. It was easy to set up using the supplied CD and worked without a hitch on WiFi immediately on set up. The text printing on normal paper is excellent and the photographic reproduction is nearly photo-lab comparable.

Note: I am using the printer on an Apple iMac with a 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (for the truly savvy, this is a 17″ MA590LL/A, late 2007 model). I am running OS X 10.6.4 on the Mac side and Windows 7 home edition on Bootcamp. The printer that I am comparing this model to, is my old Canon MX310[Canon Pixma MX310 Office All-in-One Inkjet Printer (2184B002)], bought from Amazon circa 2007.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX:

The printer is packaged with a quick start up guide, network trouble shooting guide, a starter pack of 6 ink cartridges, power cord, paper for print head alignment, and sample pack of 4 X 6 Canon Plus Glossy II photo paper. Extricating the printer from its box was par for the course, with the usual removal of protective wrapping and unsticking of orange tape.

The printer itself weighs in at 20 lbs, so it is somewhat more hefty than it looks and it is by no means petite at 18.6 x 14.5 x 6.9 inches. It sports a small view screen and innovative touch panel that functioned smoothly. It has a pleasing, modern design, and a glossy finish that really looks cool at first, but is a real magnet for fingerprints.

SET UP:

You hardly need a manual to tell you what to do, as the printer really tells you what to do itself once you turn it on. The carriage centers as you open the device and placing the print head in place is easy. The ink cartridges are color coded and fit in place easily. There is a thick, black cartridge that can only fit in one space, but the color cartridges are otherwise identical. They will fit into each other’s slots, but there is a guide on the print head that makes placement a no brainer. As each cartridge is equipped with its own microchip, my guess is that the printer would inform you of any errors in placement. Not wanting to mess up the color printing for the first runs, I stuck with the program and didn’t let the machine prime the ink tanks while placed in the wrong slots. Once closed, the machine quickly cleans the print heads and then prompts you to place the photographic paper in the back loading slot for print head alignment. A few minutes later, this is done. Plain paper can then be loaded in the front cassette or in the rear loading slot, and you’re off to the races.

WARNING!: A word about the ink tanks–these are a brand new style. This means that it will be some time before refurbished or third party cartridges are available for use. Although brand new Canon ink cartridges are likely to function the best, other options do significantly decrease the price per page and not everyone needs 100% full quality prints or an archival photo that will not fade in `300 years.’ You can get an idea of ink prices here: Canon PGI-225 BK/ CLI-226 C,M,Y 4 Pack Value Pack (4530B008); Canon CLI-226 Gray Ink Tank (4550B001). Note that at the time that I am writing this there is no value pack that covers all of the MG6120 inks together. Unlike other Canon photo printers you will need the PGI-225 black and FOUR CLI-226 cartridges (C,M,Y, and GRAY). At present prices, refilling the ink tanks twice would cost about as much as buying a brand new MG6120 at Amazon’s sale price. To my knowledge, no 3rd party refill kits or…

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Excellent photo printer, scanner, copier. Easy to use once set up. Excellent results., October 27, 2010

This is a really great all in one printer and things couldn’t have gone easier.

The longest part of setting this printer up was waiting while the software installed. That aside this is a great printer, scanner, and copier. Photo prints are store quality. Setup was a breeze. I had started reading the instructions but soon realized they weren’t needed as the printer walks you through the setup. Setting up the wireless feature was a breeze and installing the print cartridges easy. It prints photos and documents perfectly and scans very quickly at a fantastic resolution.

The controls are easy to understand and the software is easy to use.

Some of the pluses:

Sleek and nifty interface.

Easy wireless setup.

Very easy to use.

Easy to install print cartridges.

Touchscreen LCD.

Decent wireless speeds.

Photo quality is realistic and beautiful.

Print quality is excellent.

Scans at very high resolution.

Scans and prints quickly.

6 tanks of ink for perfect photographic reproduction.

A couple of negatives:

Software takes a while to load. Especially on multiple machines.

Piano black exterior begs for fingerprints and dust.

The printer is a bit on the large size.

It has 6 tanks of ink to replace.

There are two things I don’t like about this printer. The first relatively minor irk is the black piano finish which I don’t mind too much because I won’t be touching the printer much if at all possible. Its going to be a dust magnet though. The second is financial and that is the very reason the color photos look so good. It uses 6 tanks of ink and so far you can only get them manufactured from Canon. The cost of the ink could become a roadblock if you intend on printing a lot of pictures, which is one of the major draws of this printer. Granted it is an excellent scanner too.

The only reason I rated it a 4 is mainly due to the replacement ink costs and because the cartridges are small. I use a color laser printer for everyday use and those cartridges last forever with frequent printing. I’ll be using this Canon primarily for photographs and that’s why I’m afraid of the potential ink costs. I have not printed enough pictures yet to get a “picture” of how quickly I’ll be going through the ink. Replacing all cartridges twice is just about the same as the cost of the new printer with all the ink. I am not entirely sure on this suspicion since all I’ve been using the last 2 years is a color laser-jet so I will update you on my ink usage with this printer doing photos only in the future.

In a very perverse way it kind of almost makes sense to upgrade printers sooner than constantly replacing ink doesn’t it?

This works flawlessly for me using Windows Vista and 7 – hooked via wireless to 3 computers around the house all in different rooms.

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 Comments (2)

Great quality all-in-one, September 26, 2010

By 

Michael (Fairfax County, Virginia) – See all my reviews

  

This is a great machine. The print quality is superb. I compared it to an HP8500 and it beat it hands down in print quality.

Set up was fairly straightforward. I tried the wireless feature and it was easy to configure my settings but when it came time to connect my laptop to it I couldn’t find the printer. I assume I needed to load the CD drivers, etc. on my laptop as the instructions say to do, which I did not want to do.

This to me should not be the case. My Mac connects to all kinds of other printers and finds the drivers it needs. Anyway, I connected the printer to my desktop (not the laptop I was mentioning) with the USB cord and it went fine. No problems at all.

I really like the display that pops up and guides you through whatever you are doing. Depending on your job various options/buttons light up on the cover which is really neat. So what you can see are only the things available for your job. Very nice.

A major complaint I have is that the startup manual is so confusing. Rather than keep the languages separated, they chose to split the page for English and I assume Spanish. It became very confusing. This really slowed me down. But it wasn’t the printer’s weakness, but the person who made that decision.

Another issue I have is that the paper cassette doesn’t hold a lot of paper. No big deal if it sits next to your computer. But if you are using the wireless option from another floor in your home, well that could become a hassle.

All in all, this is a great machine and is performing very well. The print quality and speed are superb.

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