Tony wrote:
Michael Johnson wrote:
Rich, N9DKO wrote:
many thanks for your post, michael. my primary concern with any
inkjet are the nozzles on the print head becoming fouled or clogged
due to infrequent use. when that happened with my ancient DeskJet 500
i was only partially successful in cleaning them...most of the time i
had to toss the cart and replace it with another. being able to
refill the carts for $1 wouldn't seem to matter if the nozzle heads
become clogged. what are your experiences with this?
I haven't had many issues with the head clogging on any of our Canon
inkjet printers. Just making a color print once a week should keep it
running fine. Also, the Canon printers don't have a head in the print
cartridge like many HP printers. The head is separate and easily
replaced by the user.

and many thanks to the other posters for their thoughts as well. it
seems i need to adjust my thinking about a MF printer.

i don't print all that many photos anyway and for those that i do i've
been uploading the digital images to walgreens or CVS or bringing in a
CD-R to them for printing. that's worked out pretty well.

gary, you suggested that i farm out the task of scanning my slides and
negative and maybe that's a good thought. i have a ton of old slides
but i rarely shoot film of any sort these days. barry, you suggested
a stand-alone scanner such as the SJ5490C and i see your point but i'm
trying to reduce the amount of hardware i have, not add to it.

so if i take photo printing and slide/negative scanning off the table
i'd still be looking for a multi-function device for scanning
documents and copying. and since i'm still concerned with ink nozzles
drying up and clogging maybe a B&W MF laser would be a better choice.
any thoughts along those lines?

73,
rich, n9dko

On Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:42:06 -0400, Michael Johnson
wrote:

My advice is to get a multifunction device such as a Canon MP830. It
will do everything you need and then some. Photo print quality is
excellent, it has an excellent scanner and the 35 page document feeder
is great for scanning multiple pages. The software that comes with it
allows you to scan large numbers of pages (even two sided pages) and
save them as a single PDF file. I find this one of the most useful
features of my Canon MP780 (the MP830's predecessor). It will also send
and receive faxes make copies in black and white and color. It prints
and copies in duplex (two sided) and has two paper feeds. Also, you can
refill the cartridges in the MP830 with very little effort for about $1
each. Overall, it is one of the best multifunction printers on the
market, IMO.

For clarification, some Canon printers do have the printhead built into the
cartridge. Best to check before you buy, depending on your preferences.

Not the one I recommended.