I'm one unhappy customer.
I've had several laser printers before this one, and it's adequate in terms of its functions. However, the Canon seems to have created a business model that enables them to make most of their profits from the sale of replacement toner cartridges. In the past, I've gotten around this by buying a cartridge refill kit: you melt a hole in the side of the cartridge with a special tool, refill the cartridge with (much less expensive) toner, tape over the hole and you're on your way.
In this game of countermeasures and counter-countermeasures, Canon has now installed a counter chip in its cartridges. At a certain number of copies, the machine gives you an out-of-toner message AND JUST QUITS! No warning and no "light" copies to get you by.
When I attempted to refill the black cartridge, I discovered two things. First, it was more than half-full when the chip decided that it needed to be replaced. I'll control myself and refrain from disclosing my emotional reaction when I realized how much toner I was forced to throw away.
The second thing was that when I refilled the cartridge I expected, perhaps naively, that the cutoff device would sense that the cartridge was now full. OK, so maybe I was dropped on my head shortly after birth.
Some investigation has revealed that the chips are encrypted, such that third-party manufacturers haven't yet been able to create reasonably priced substitute cartridges or replacement chips to defeat the copy cut-off.
The bottom line is that I'm stuck paying on the order of $90 for each of four cartridges, three color and one black. The manufacturing cost for these cartridges is about $15. The company can make nothing on the actual machine and because of the rip-off profits on the consumable cartridges, finds the overall product line immensely profitable.
I've considered dropping this printer from the roof of my house, but it's so heavy that I'd have to set up a pulley rig.
Needless to say, I will be very careful when I replace this printer to make sure that I can refill the cartridges myself in the next brand that I buy.
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11/30/10 Update: I replaced the black toner cartridge only 2 months ago, and with fairly light usage, the display reports that the black cartridge's toner is low! The cartridge is half-full or more. However, the counter chip has caused the machine to stop printing AT ALL. No way around it.
Worse, When I print in B&W or color, the edges of the pages are smeared with reddish & yellowish colors. It's bad enough that it's making the copies hard to read. I use the printer at home and sometimes print documents to carry with me for later reading. Ugh!
The machine is out of warrantee, so I will have to pay for any repairs. Since estimates tell me that the cost of repair is a sizeable fraction of the cost of a new machine, I'm getting rid of it.
I'm planning to ship it back to Canon with a letter telling them two things.
1. I will never buy any other canon product.
2. They may keep the machine since to me, it's now a big, ugly, heavy, expensive paperweight. Canon Color imageCLASS MF8350Cdn All-in-One Printer (3555B001AA)
The features of this printer are awesome for the price, and I would highly recommend it. I purchased this product on sale for $569. I was also seriously considering the Brother DCP-9045CDN, which has slightly lower ink prices (with their high capacity cartridges), but I'm pretty sure that I won't regret sticking with the Canon brand. After purchasing several Canon products (including this one), I have a lot of respect for Canon's consistent product quality, customer service, features, and value.
This is my first home laser printer. I'm quite pleased to finally graduate from the world of inkjets: no more slow printing, annoying print head cleaning cycles, frequent cartridge replacement, or tedious management of print settings to save every drop of ink! The cost per page is about the same, but the reliability is so much better!
Some features that I really appreciate include:
1) Reliability: This printer always _just works_ when I need it to. Beats even the best inkjet printer out there. For my usage level, I fully expect to do zero maintenance or cartridge replacement within the next 2.5 years!
2) Speed: Wow, this thing makes quick work of any job!
3) All the little things that Canon gets right. Just one example: the print driver can automatically detect whether to use color or B&W mode...something I've always wanted a print driver to do for me!
The only notably missing features are:
1) The automatic document feeder only supports single-sided scanning/copying. So doing double-sided scan/copy requires manually flipping the stack and passing it through again.
2) No built in wireless.
3) Photo quality, while very good for a 600dpi consumer laser, is not competitive with inkjet-based photo printers. I still use this printer for many photos and am happy with the results, but I keep a second inkjet photo printer on the side for times when I really care about photo quality (i.e. scrapbooking, etc).
Although those features would be nice additions, I'm still very happy with what this machine can do for the price.
BTW, Canon's own online store had the best prices I could find for cartridges for this printer, with free shipping. - Color Laser Printer - Network Printer - Multifunction Printer'
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