Deal o' the Day

Amazon's Deal of the Day today is this Canon PIXMA MG6220 Wireless Inkjet Photo All-In-One Printer for half price—only sixty bucks.

Of course, like a shelter pet, care and feeding will be ongoing.

Mike

UPDATE 10:19 a.m.: Sold out, alas. A deal on an Epson Artisan 4x6" printer starts in a couple of hours...check the Gold Box page for that, at 11:00 Pacific Time.

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Comments

[David A. Goldfarb]

Very tempting as a backup/supplement to my temperamental HP B9180 (like when I recently couldn't print a straightforward document, because I'd run out of yellow ink, which wasn't even needed for the document), but the HP is happier when it's running regularly, so better not to divide the labor between two printers.

Posted to facebook with the TOP affiliate link, though, since I know a couple of people who might be in the market for a printer.

[MarkB]

And to think, my old (6+ years) Canon Pixma decided to die last week... fortuitous timing!

[Yuda]

Fair warning: this printer has a reputation for being an ink hog. I don't have one myself, so I can't say for sure. But make sure you do your homework before buying.

[Mike Johnston]

Yes, I didn't do any "homework"--I just pass along the "deals of the Day" when they're photography-related is all. Just in the spirit of FYI, not as a personal recommendation. Unless so stated.

Mike

[John Allen]

I have been considering the European equivalent of this printer - the Pixma MG6250 - as a possible replacement for my ageing Pixma IP4500, so it would be very interesting if any TOP readers could comment on the MG62XX printers. They have an extra grey ink among their 6 inks, so in theory they could be better at B&W printing.

Also, there's an interesting general issue here for TOP readers. Some are obviously willing to invest heavily in high-end printers - Epson R3000, Pixma Pro, etc - but others like me are looking for something reasonably good but not that good. Unfortunately there is some evidence that mid-range printers with good photo quality are a bit of a dying breed, and some models which look good in their specifications are coming in for heavy criticism from purchasers complaining of problems ranging from very heavy ink usage to frequent paper feed problems.

Should I just bite the bullet and accept that I have to spend $500-$1000 to get a printer for photographs, or is there some middle way that I have overlooked?

[Ed]

Sold out, but an Epson Artisan 837 starts at 11:00AM PDT today. No price announced yet.

[John Camp]

Hmm...the Canon Pixmas...I have the MX882, which I use while I live in temporary quarters as my house is being remodeled. It has the strange characteristic of apparently using all the colored inks even when you never print in color. I use the machine almost exclusively for printing manuscripts in black-and-white. Yet, the colored ink tanks are now showing as empty. Is it possible that the ink simply evaporated, or that some colored ink is mixed in with the black and white? Complete, but expensive, mystery, should I decide someday that I need to replace the colored ink tanks (but I won't, because I never use color ink...unless, of course, they only sell the ink in five-packs, which, now that I think of it, is possible.) It's interesting that this post should come up today, because I was trying to print out a manuscript last night, and the black ink tank dried up with little warning. But...the Pixma has TWO black ink tanks, one pigment, and one dye. Unhappily, it turns out that you can't switch between them. I didn't care whether my document was printed with pigment or dye, but it turns out it doesn't matter whether I care or not, you can't switch, and Canon says so right there on the Internet. And here's something else interesting. Perhaps there's a way to change this around, and I just haven't found it, but the Pixma prints pages face-up. So, when you put in a document, it prints the last page first, and piles the other pages on top. That means that if you have a series of documents (like chapters), you have to print the last one first...and if you run out of ink, as I did last night, you have only the end of your document, rather than the beginning, so if you wish to edit it, you really can't, because in editing, you want to read from start to finish, because there may be things in the beginning that will affect things toward the end...if that makes sense.

On a brighter note, I have used the Pixma's scanner capability, and it works fine. On the more depressive side again, I will be cleaning out my savings account this morning to go down to the office supply store to invest in more ink. There's a reason they give these machines away, just as there's a reason that heroin is so cheap the first few hits.

[robert e]

"A deal on an Epson Artisan 4x6" printer starts in a couple of hours"

Actually, the 11AM deal Epson Artisan 837 is a letter/A4 size six-ink WiFi printer (though it will print as small as 6x4). It's more or less equivalent to the Canon 6220, though more photo-centric (the Canon has a pigment black for documents and a grey ink for B&W photos, while the Epson's all-dye Claria inks have more colors and are better rated for color-fastness.)

[Lefty]

I know the printer is sold out, but do you think they've got any more disembodied arms left?

[Robin P]

AFAIK those who claim that Canons are "ink hogs" turn off the power except when printing.
Best to let the printer run its own standby regime so it has less excuse to run the ink shedding noisy routine it goes through when starting up from "cold".
(Probably applies to Epsons too but I have no experience with them)