Canon Pixma MP280
Verified4 reviews
Great printer for occasional printing – I don't use much my printer but every time I use this Canon Pixma MP280, I am happy with the results. It can scan, photocopy and print. Reliable printer. Good connectivity with computer. Very reasonably priced. Only downside is the price of cartridges. I recommend this Canon printer
Canon Pixma 280 – I bought a Canon to replace a Canon that stopped working with a service error message that I was unable to find what the number meant. It was very cheap but I used all the ink within 2 weeks and found the replacement cartridges cost more than the printer. According to canon-cee.com a PG512 cartridge prints 401 pages = about 9 cents per page. I couldn't find compatible cartridges. I now have a Brother which costs about half a cent per page with a compatible cartridge. Canon do not sell printers; they sell ink. Cheap Cost of ink, and cartridges with chips that cannot be reset.
Very good for a bargain basement printer – I replaced my old Canon bubblejet with a Lexmark.... BAD choice. The Lexmark was a nightmare and had all sorts of problems with paper jams and failure to print.The cartriges were rediculous in price also. I repalced this with a Canon MP280. The cartidges are reasonable in price and the paper doesnt jam and it prints perfectly. It is a bit unsettling with the noise it makes when it first fires up as the printer head seems to do a couple of passes before it actually grabs the paper and starts printing. Other than that, no problems and I would highly recommend this as a good quality "cheapy" Print quality and reliability ( so far) Noisy on start up. No automatic "on" when you want to print direct from the PC, the printer has to be switched on. The old Lexmark I had prevoiusly would turn itself on if a signal was received from the PC to print something. A minor point of inconvenience only
Spoke too soon, and jinxed my printer. Something went "crack" the other day whilst printing and a bit of plastic fell out when I tipped it over. Its lasted 4 years. Not bad for the amount of printing its done. Needless to say , ive bought another Canon. an MG2560. El cheapo at $45. It works fine but the new software that comes with it isn't as straightforward to use as the old program. Too many options and alternatives. All I need it for is to print whats on screen and do the occasional scan and save to PDF. Otherwise, all good.
Great scan/printer for it's price range – I have had gone through a couple of printers throughout the years, and I'm happy to say this is my second Canon Printer. (My first Canon was a 1997 model). I had a HP printer in the lounge room which was accidentally broken when my family moved houses. We ended up buying a Lexmark printer.. to this day is rubbish (Expensive ink cartridges, slow start up, slow print, just rubbish).
From what I have experienced, Canon printers have been very reliable and most ink cartridges can be refilled (third party refillers).
I use this printer regularly and so far I have been quite impressed by the quality. I have scanned photos and even printed photos using a 4x6 glossy photo paper. Although the colour of the printed photo is a little brighter (contrast) than if you printed photos at a store (which uses lazer printers), the quality is great.
I have noticed you can buy re-fill kits for the ink cartridges. The cost for a genuine black cartridge is $30 AU, and a black refill is $10 for 2x refills. Although some people recommend only using genuine parts and don't recommend refilling cartridges - I can say it saves money if you're on budget.
When you power on the printer, it takes about 30 seconds to 'warm up'.
When you scan something, it takes about 10seconds or so.
Printing is fast, but takes about 5-10 seconds to start printing (depending on what 'readiness' the printer is when you click print).
The printer is black and is very stylish. Reliable, inexpensive, energy efficient, great quality printing, great quality scans USB cable (printer to computer) is not provided. If you are upgrading printers, keep the USB cable from the old printer.
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Well, its January 2015 and ive still got the Canon MP280. Still working perfectly. Printing was sometimes a bit smudged but ive found that the roller wheels were covered in crap. I cleaned all the crud off and its printing as new again. Highly recommend this model or any Canon to any prospective buyer. The ink cartridges can vary by huge $$ amounts. Most printer sales Businesses I have used in past years have told me that the big money is in cartridges not the printers themselves. I believe it. Ive seen printers for sale at less than a cartridge price! The printers all come with cartridges that last 20 pages if you are lucky, then you have to race out and buy new ones. The Canon cartridges , I use have varied from $22 for a small black only to $35.00 for the same size. I now buy from a local Dealer who has the bigger cartridges at $39.00 which last me about 4 months.