Amazing printer - works great with Mac OSX Lion & airprint
This is an awesome printer that has everything I'm looking for in a printer at a great price point when you can get it on sale (which it is currently). This printer works perfectly right out of the box, I was able to quickly join it to my wireless-n network (only works with 2.4ghz by the way) and my Lion-enabled Macbook Pro quickly discovered the printer and downloaded and installed the driver. The only thing you will need a USB cable for is firmware updates. Out of the box, the printer does have an older firmware, and if you want to be able to Airprint from your iPhone or iPad you need to update the firmware. Once you do the firmware, which is a quick and easy process, you can easily print from your iPhone or iPad, as long as they are on the same wireless network as the printer, they will auto discover it and you can print right to the printer! Look Ma! No Wires!! One thing to note about this printer, when you hook up the USB cable and do the firmware upgrade, for some reason after you unplug the cable, the Mac doesn't go back to using it wirelessly, I had to go into printers, remove it, and then add it back in. No biggie, it quickly found it on the network and re-added it - no driver installing or downloading required.
I am a DJ so I needed the CD Printing so I can make professional demos for prospective clients, and it works perfectly. It comes with software that lets you print CD's. The software is pretty basic and doesn't have a lot of templates, but it gets the job done, and I was able to quickly print out onto a printable CD-R. A few things to note here. One reviewer complained about lining up the tray. The slot for the tray fits the tray perfect, so you don't have to worry about that. There's a little line in the slot, and a line on the tray. You do need to make sure they line up perfectly or it will print the label a little high or a little low depending on how you line it up. I think with practice you'll probably be a pro after a couple of tries, but I don't think the reviewer is very fair in saying that it's a huge drawback to the cd printing, I was able to print a label that was only about 1/4" too high on my first try.
Photo printing is flawless. The printer came with two 5 packs of 4x5 photo paper. I was able to easily print a photo from iPhoto that looked pretty good. I'm not a professional photographer so I can't give you an accurate review of the actual picture quality, but it was impressive enough that I feel I could use it to make gifts for family and friends during the holidays.
One drawback I've found is if you don't use the printer often, it does take a long time to print the first page. I think this is common for most ink jet printers, it has to go through some priming/cleaning/etc of the print head before it prints the first page out after a long period of inactivity. I'm only speaking to photos, I think black and white text print outs are a little faster on first print then pictures are.
Another pro about this printer is that when you're not using it, it's completely sealed. The front of the printer closes, which keeps all the dust bunnies out! And the coolest thing of all is that the lid automatically opens whenever you print something. The printer is also "eco friendly" which means that it has auto power off functionality. I have it set to 15 minutes and it shuts off when I'm not using it. I do have to manually power it back on when I print, but I like the idea of saving electricity so it's no biggie.
Other cool stuff I've found, you can print a copy of cd labels right from the printer without using a computer. You just take the CD you want to copy (i.e. a movie or an audio cd) and put it on the scanner and it will scan the CD cover and print it right on the printable CD-R without having to use the computer!
Like most reviewers have said, the paper tray is pretty small so it doesn't hold a lot of paper, but that helps to keep the printer compact. It doesn't take up a lot of space, it fits perfectly on top of my Container Store Elfa file drawer. I like though how the paper tray is a REAL tray that slides out so you can fill it back up with papers. A lot of the other brands just have a place to "slide" the paper in, and not an actual tray.
This printer is great, you'll be happy you made the switch from all those other brands. I had an HP Photosmart before this, and it died after less then 2 years of using it (wouldn't even power on even though the power supply was good). HP wouldn't even give me the time of day, they tried to sell me a cheap replacement printer as part of their "trade up" program, that cost more then this Canon one and had half the features