I would like to give the Canon Pixma mg8120 and solid 5-star rating for the photo printing alone. I just got this printer yesterday. It was on sale for [...] with free shipping. What a deal!
The set-up was well-documented and easy. The only glitch I ran into was an error message on the LCD display that said the "inner door" was open and I needed to close it. It took me several minutes of messing around to bumble into this thingy inside that I pulled down and then pulled back up--a lever of some sort. That was the "inner door" and that fixed the problem. Someone else asked what the inner door was for. I'm asking the same question. It's not a big deal and I'm not complaining. I just included this experience in case someone else runs into the same glitch. Don't panic. It's fixable.
The machine is solid and quiet and not as heavy as I thought it was going to be. And it is beautiful. Not that I care. But it's a nice perk. My HP 6988 shakes all over the place when it prints, but I thought it was pretty quiet until I got the Canon, which hums along very pleasingly and steadily.
I'm an artist and I make prints and cards from my original paintings. I'm fussy beyond the telling. I want my collectors to have the best quality artwork. Even my Canon Pixma Pro 9500 MkII cannot print on simple card stock like this printer can. The images are just gorgeous. I haven't tested it with fine art paper yet, but that's not as big a test as doing bright, accurate, detailed images on plain ol' card stock. Beautiful.
The document quality is so-so. I wanted to be totally in love with the Canon 8120, I was so excited to get it. But all my HP's have printed text that is sharper and blacker at every setting. The HIGH setting on the Canon prints nicely, although just a tad less sharp than the HP. And who wants to spend a fortune on ink by printing at the highest setting all the time? However the duplex feature works very well. On the HP the duplexer is attached at the back and this is the second HP on which the duplexer shakes loose during printing, causing paper jams if you don't snap it back in.
The scanner is okay. It did a respectable job on some dusty old slides. In fact it provided very good resolution, which I punched up in Photoshop. However in copying and scanning regular photos or artwork, it looses detail and the colors are not as accurate as I would like. To be fair, I need to practice with it and learn what tweaks will get the best results. I think my Epson 4180 does a better job, but we'll see with time. I'm still glad to have a nice scanner with the printer. And please keep in mind that I want copies and scans of my artwork to be PERFECT! So, for most purposes the scanner is good enough.
All in all, I really like this machine. It's worth what I paid for it for it's photo printing alone. But honestly, I would not have been pleased to pay the full list price considering the not-so-perfect text quality in standard mode. I will continue to use my HP for printing documents. As for the scanner, it is pretty nice. I think I just need to learn to use it better. And as I tweak things in Photoshop all the time, that isn't a problem for me. Canon PIXMA MG8120 Wireless Inkjet Photo All-In-One Printer (4504B002)
PROS: The print quality is great both for photos and normal paper documents. It prints very fast and I like the duplex printing. The scanner is also excellent. The scanned images are absolutely incredible in detail and color. And it scans fast. Installation was very easy and so far I haven't had any problems with wireless printing. Works every time.
CONS: I can only think of one right now. This printer drinks ink like there's no tomorrow. I don't really print that much (since I bought this printer maybe 150 pages and about 5 photos) and the cartridges are almost empty. Now I have to admit the cartridges are very small and not so pricey. So time will tell if the cost for ink is higher than normal or not. I think it'll take a year before I can actually judge this by comparing how much I paid for ink per year before and how much I'm paying now.
SUMMARY: I love this printer, it works flawlessly and delivers excellent print and scan quality. But ink consumption seems very high.
I will keep this review short. There are others who will give more thorough reviews. I just felt compelled to add to the 5-star reviews out there after spending the first few hours with my new PIXMA MG8120. I bought this to be a photo printer for my photography side business. What I didn't expect was: wonderful wireless integration into both Mac and Windows; simple wireless setup; easy scan to network; the ability to print all kinds of templates directly from the printer menu such as red/blue-lined handwriting paper (great for my 1st grader) and graph paper; absolutely stunning, amazing, jaw-dropping 4x6 photos; and the list goes on. I also own a low-end Canon laser MFD and didn't enjoy all of these benefits. Didn't entirely know what I was missing. I'll keep the laser for my quick/cheap black & white printing needs, but this printer is my new best friend.
They only thing "negative" might be that it is a bit bigger than I was expecting, and it's a bit heavy, but those aren't things I'm worried about. I wouldn't consider the printer overly portable, but it's not intended to be.
I have no idea how it is on ink consumption. I worked as a developer for a printer company many a year ago and have shied away from inkjets after I lost access to my employee-priced inks. I don't expect this printer to be cheap to operate as a typical consumer, but I accepted that going in. - Wireless Printer - Multifunction Printer - All In One Printer - All-in-one'
Detail Products
Detail Reviews
Click here for more information
