I've had a canon mp950 for about a month now. It's the second photo
printer I've had (my other was a 4 year old canon bjc-8200) so I don't
have too much to compare it with, but here are my opinions:
Pros:
- Photo quality is great: I've printed on Canon Photo Paper Plus
Glossy and the pictures look like film. They are smug free. Even after
dipping them in water they discolor, but don't smudge.
- Many input options and good computer-free usage: There are many
options for getting your photos to the printer (usb from computer, usb
from camera, 4 types of memory cards, and scanning film or negs). None
but the usb from computer requires a computer. From a memory card, you
can print out a contact sheet of all the photos on it (or a subset of
them). The printout has bubbles for indicating which ones you want and
how many etc. (like an SAT test). You fill in the bubbles indicating
what you want, then you scan the sheet out back into the printer. Then
it prints out the photos you chose on photo paper to your
specifications. No computer needed. It's awesome!
- Fast and loud or slow and quiet: Normally, the printer is pretty
loud compared with my old one. It's mostly paper-loading noises, I
think. But it's a lot faster than my old one. There is a setting in the
driver (and I think it's settable from the printer itself too) which
quiets the printer down at the cost of speed. It really works.
- Text printing and copying looks great too.
- Dual paper trays are great.
- Duplexing of even photos. It's a little slow, but it works. I
haven't tried 2-sided photos and probably won't.
Cons:
- The scanner works fine, but I wish it had an IR light or whatever
for removing scratches, dust and fuzz. I've scanned 2 or 3 rolls of
35mm negs and it was easier than I was expecting (I had heard horror
stories), but you could see lint and stuff on the scanned images. I
understand that some dedicated scanners (even cheap ones) take an extra
pass with an IR light and can remove these things some how in
conjunction with software (ICE?). I wish the mp950 had it.
- When photo paper comes from the cartridge tray (which is enclosed),
the prints have horizontal lines which you can only see from an angle
(roller marks?). These don't show up when the photo paper is loaded in
the auto sheet feeder, but my inclination is to load photo paper into
the enclosed tray.
- It's a little big for my taste.
- It's a little expensive for my taste (I originally paid $430, but
got Amazon to give me $60 bucks back since they've lowered the price to
$370!).
Overall, I'm very pleased with it. I got it for it's all-in-one
capabilities leaning towards photo printing and it definitely fits the
bill.
Also, here's a review I saw since I bought it:
http://msn.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,124254,00.asp
I hope this helps,
Josh
