Canon PIXMA MX860

by John J.

After about a decade, I was finally able to buy myself a new printer in the form of Canon PIXMA MX860 Wireless AIO Printer. I really don't know how it happened that printers all of a sudden became multifunctional and affordable.

Actually, all that I found out about the latest in printers took me by surprise. Multifunction included photo printing capabilities and the outputs are almost quite professional looking. I was so engrossed in lab research and field work for years that I never really had time find out that printers have become so agreeably different.

Here are some of the wonderful things my Canon PIXMA MX860 Wireless AIO Printer have. It is quite a far cry from my old Canon Personal Copier PC310, which does not do much but copy of course.

Auto Document Feeder- Aside from being able to print, copy, scan and fax, I can just load the documents to be processed with the Auto Document Feeder. I have been so used to paper jams that I was expecting the feeder to get into trouble any minute. The absence of paper jams and the machine working smoothly on its own by just loading the documents to be printed or scanned made me feel relaxed with the printing process.

The Auto-Duplex Printing was also very convenient because I proceeded with the printing tasks and I was doing nothing but watch how the machine automatically allows both sides of the paper to be printed. I used to do double sided printing with my old personal copier but I used to wait for the ink to dry before. This Canon PIXMA MX860 seems to be intelligent enough to wait for the first side to dry before starting on the other side. Although the process slowed down a bit, I'm not one to complain because it's still faster if I were to do it manually. Besides, it took away my worries about the possibility that the page will have smear marks.

Auto Image Fix- One other thing I couldn't get enough of, is Canon PIXMA MX860's photo printing capability. I never thought that the advent of digital cameras will make it possible for the user to print their own photos and even PC-less at that. I guess most of the user knows about that, and it's the quality of the photo prints they would be interested in. Still I cannot imagine anyone complaining about the quality of the photos since the AIO printer has another of its automatic features. The Auto Image Fix which takes care of brightening up dark images. Actually, this was not even possible during the old film photography. Now photo printing is not only economical but also superb.

Dual Paper Tray- Even the Dual Paper Tray feed is also very convenient since I don't have to remove the paper feed just to accommodate the stock paper for the photo printing process. There are two trays. one in front and another in the rear.

Ink Usage- Now there were those who tried to discourage me from buying this new printer because of the ink usage. The inks do not seep in as I was being convinced too believe. Actually, ink consumption varied and will depend on the document being printed. Naturally it took more ink when I started printing photos. I know this for a fact because everything is on automatic I was able to observe and monitor ink usage. Naturally if you don't want your ink to deplete rapidly then don't use the printer for photo printing. As for me, I find it reasonable and practical because professional photo labs will consume as much and charge you even higher.

I guess all other features and how they worked to produce quality text prints is just standard by any printers today. I haven't tried FAX though so not much to say about that; most of my friend don't use fax machines anymore. Coming from an old Canon Personal Copier PC310 user, everything about this Canon PIXMA MX860 is simply excellent.

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