Martyn Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 I did something the other day that shocked myself. I bought a new printer. It was a strange experience, having owned a cracking Hewlett Packard DeskJet 720c way back into my childhood. Before the HP 720c, I had an old Epson dot matrix printer which supported colour ribbons, which really is going back to the dark ages. My 720c is a great printer, and performs more than competently at general printing. However, the fact that I wanted to print out some high quality photos of great nights out with friends for my wall, placed my printing needs beyond the capacity of my 720c, and inspired me to look into buying a new printer. After a lot of research; including reading various reviews and catching up on the new technologies in printers these days, I decided to plump for a Canon PIXMA MP610. The MP610 does, well...everything, except for perhaps cooking your food. It is a scanner, a copier, it prints from a memory card or you can plug your camera straight in, it prints on CD's/DVD's, it has 6.2cm TFT display with a scroll wheel, oh and impressively it is also a printer as well! When I received the printer my first impression, judging by the box, was that it is bloody massive. And so it turned out to be, but what could I expect seeing as what it incorporates? When I opened the box I was basically overwhelmed, A3 "quick start" sheets jumped out of me from every direction. The Canon PIXMA MP610 is probably the most complicated piece of hardware I have ever seen. It took a good hour to put together and setup before I could actually print something off, but what a heavenly moment that was when I printed off a test photo! The "Quick Start Guide" that came with the MP610 should have been more aptly named the "Slow Start Guide" (I'm a funny man aren't I?). The guide itself consisted of incomprehensible pictures which confused me rather than helped me, so I don't know how your average retard would cope setting the printer up. It was quite fun setting the printer up, and I love doing stuff like that. The MP610 is certainly a cracking piece of machinery, and resembles a rocket ship when you stick your head inside it (probably not advisable), the lights from the ink cartridges glowing up at you really amused me at least and I love them! So, once the printer was completely put together and had done its poxy little 13 minute calibration and after I had installed the drivers, I was ready to print. Admittedly, the hour long setup was considerably more than I was used to, seeing as the HP 720c was more or less plug and play, but I was hoping that the time and money I invested would be worth it. I was right. Everything about the MP610 is top class. You can photocopy anything you want in a matter of seconds, and scanning anything takes just as long as well. Maybe I have low standards though, seeing as the last scanner I had (an old Mustek), used to take a good few minutes a good few years ago. It is not just the copying and scanning though, it is the features which each of them offer. When you copy something, you get the chance to enlarge or reduce it, or get rid of the black border that other photocopies have and lots more. Similarly, scanning a document allows you to automatically save it as a .pdf, as well as offering you a multitude of other options. You can even scan old photos in, have the printer automatically fix the image up, and then print them out again. The interface of the Canon PIXMA MP610 is great, and is a new experience to me. Being able to control the printer without a computer is a really useful feature, and it also allows you to photocopy documents or pictures straight off. The TFT screen is controlled using a scroll wheel, much similar to how an iPod is controlled. The main home screen has several icons such as “Copy”, “Scan” and “Memory Card”, which rotate in a circular path when you use the scroll wheel to bring an icon into focus to select. Although the MP610 is big, or bloody massive might be a more accurate description, it does incorporate several space saving features. When you are not using the printer, everything fits together like a jigsaw to save valuable space. Conversely, when the printer is in use, the TFT screen folds upright, as does the rear paper tray, and the bit where the printed document comes out (does it have a name?), folds downwards automatically. I have to say, I am a lazy git so I do like the fact that the MP610 can store an abundance of paper. It has two paper trays, one that is underneath the printer and holds well...quite a lot of paper, and another that folds up at the back of the printer. The MP610 also offers the ability to switch between the two paper trays, and I imagine that would come in particularly useful for me when I want to switch between normal paper and photo paper quickly and efficiently. I am hoping that the MP610 will not suck up a lot of ink. I am only a poor student after all. One of the reasons I chose the MP610 over its cheaper Canon counterparts was because of the fact it offered individual transparent ink cartridges for each colour (there are five in total), and as such I can make sure all the ink is fully used before replacing the cartridge. From what I have read on the net the MP610 is also a more economical printer than the likes of the cheaper Canon PIXMA MP210. As you would expect, the general printing quality of the MP610 is flawless. Now, as I mentioned earlier, one of the reasons I bought a new printer was so that I could print photo quality images of some digital photographs I have in order to brighten up my room when I go back to University. At the moment, I've not got any photo paper so I have not tried to print out a photo on top quality settings, and to be fair, there are a lot of niggly different options the MP610 offers for perfect photo printing. I am looking forward to printing on some good photo paper when it decides to drop through my letter box, and to be honest, I don't expect the Canon PIXMA MP610 will disappoint me one bit. What a printer! Thanks for reading. I posted this to my blog originally UnknownLogic.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliot B. Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 The MP510 had many problems, including the rollers packing up after a few months. I hope the MP610 doesn't have the same problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daninku Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 I have an MP500, and I simply love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boeing 787 Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 Great printer and it's a breeze to setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raider360 Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Very nice review (Y) I have a Canon one as well, but it's a laser printer. I've had a bad experience with my previous ink-jet HP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
invaderzim_2004 Posted September 4, 2008 Share Posted September 4, 2008 I have a PIXMA too-but a 2004 single function one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konstanov Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 Have a MX700, have had no problems with it whatsoever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krpano Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 Nice review mate. I have one Canon printer too, and i can say for sure its the best priter i had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houlty Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 I bought this printer a few weeks ago and didn't even spot this review. As far as i'm concerned its the best printer i've had yet (after an ok Lexmark and crap HP). I'm using it a mac though, and one thing i would say is that photo quality seems to be fractionally better when printing directly from memory card using the printers buttons, than it does when going through the mac (all max. settings). Strange... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightCrawler. Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 I think I might buy this soon. Looks like a proper piece of kit, at least much better than the MP210. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niktheguru Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 One thing to bear in mind if anyone is interested in getting this printer is that the MP series of printers can have problems with certain USB hubs. I bought one of these for my girlfriend and she had no problems. I also bought one for my parents and it was working flawlessly on their xp system. They recently upgraded to vista and it just didn't like the usb connection to the motherboard. It would recognise it but stop printing after 2 swipes of the print head and then say there was an error with the job. Countless phone calls to dell and canon ensued with no real resolution (all other USB devices were working fine). I then installed a usb card into the computer and connected the printer to that and hey presto no problems. Its a recognised "problem" the MP drivers have with certain USB hubs. So beware.....but once fully working this is one hell of a printer, have always rated canon printers as top quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacey Posted November 1, 2008 Share Posted November 1, 2008 i got this printer too. thumbs up. i don't print too many colour photos though. notes for school Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[B00] Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 I have a pixma ip4500 as i want to print on dvd's compared to the epson r265 it uses a lot less ink and i love canon kit anyway... a friend has the 610 which i set up for her as an mfd i was suprised how easy it was to use :) certainly didnt take me an hour to setup and like the ip4500 it has lighted cartridges which is very funky ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyn Posted March 22, 2009 Author Share Posted March 22, 2009 7 months after I purchased the printer my ink levels are still at around 50%, after moderate use. Cracking stuff (Y) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanManIt Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Fantastic review Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiEMOS Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 great review, I'm looking for a printer now, maybe i'll get this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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