Canon Image Class MF8170c

by Carlo Miguel
(Philippines)

I run a small travel agency and I bought a Canon Image Class MF8170c in the hopes that it will improve the efficiency around my office. It was quite enticing to buy this Canon model since everybody here said it was a color laser All in One printer at only $1,009 and it was a bargain.

At first, I was impressed because installation didn’t take much time. One of my staff managed to install the printer, fax, and scanner drivers on our Windows XP system by just clicking the button for OK. It was while working on the connection for the network that our problems began. My staff expected something like the usual network installation routines, but this one required us to change settings in the LCD-based menus and it was quite confusing. To make sure that we were doing the right thing, we had to call Canon for help.

That is just one and I’ve got a list of the things that made me dislike this machine:

1. It doesn’t have a power switch except for the Energy Saver which takes time because we have to wait for it’s setting to kick in. Only then will a push of the Energy Saver button put the printer in a sleep mode. How I overlooked this feature is beyond me.

2. It has very limited paper handling since there is no extra paper tray. Actually, this one really doesn’t matter because the printer couldn’t print fast enough anyway. It takes longer to print compared to our old HP. This Canon model can only produce 7.7ppm for black and white text prints and 3.4ppm for color graphics.

3. We can only scan documents over a USB connection and never when it’s working on a network. Only the fax can work over the network, but who cares for fax very much nowadays? One nice thing I can say about it though, is that its scan outputs are excellent. It registered all the details well and with quite a high rate for accuracy.

4. It tends to be noisy while running the first page.

Well I can be fair and write some good things about it, like the good but not so great quality of prints, photos, and scans. These are actually expected from printers, but for its $1,009 price, I can get the same positive attributes for a lesser price and fewer disappointments.

In fact, I sent it back and had it replaced with a multi-function HP Color LaserJet 2820; I had to pay extra but at least the office is more efficient now as I had hoped it would be with Canon Image Class MF8170c.