I recently purchased (read: I bought this a while ago but only now have had a chance to use it.) a Canon MP530 all in one printer/scanner/fax/copier. Here are my first thoughts.

First of all, I had to choose between the MP530 and the MP830. Both have similar features (two paper trays, auto document feeder for scanning) so I will only discuss those where they differ. Criteria for comparison. 1) Speed. Both were about the same speed for printing and scanning. The 830 was a little faster on color, but I don't print color much, so it was negligible. 2) Photoprinting. Both are PictBridge devices. The 830 has memory card slots and a color LCD for navigation and selection. On the 530, you have to print a proof sheet to choose from. I do most of my photo stuff from iPhoto, so this too was negligible. 3) Price. The MP530 was a full $90.00 cheaper than the 830. Not only that, but I found it for $149.99 at Fry's, so Staple's gave me the difference plus 10% which amounted to just over $32.00. So, in the end, the 530 was a full $120 cheaper than the 830.

The damn thing is fast! It is by far the fastest ink jet printer I have ever owned. (I've only owned three including the MP530, so that may not be saying much.) I was able to print a five page document of pretty dense text in just under fifteen seconds.

Duplex printing rawx. I have never had a printer that would print duplex automatically and this is just brilliant. I expected it to print both sides at once (I don't know why; copy machines don't even do that.) but it prints one side and then hangs on to it to feed it back through.

The scanner is fast and the ADF works very well. I had an assignment for my marketing class that involved clipping out magazine ads. I have become sort of AR about keeping records of the stuff I turn in, and usually those records are electronic copies in PDF form. The magazine ads were hard copy. So, I scanned them in and added them to the PDF of my response to the questions using CombinePDFs. The process was simple and easy.

Those are the main features that I have given a go. Before my full review, here are the things I need to explore: fax (Not sure how, though, as I don't have a phone line at home.), the included OCR software (I would be ecstatic to find one that works reliably.), duplex scanning/copying.

The only regret that I have with the MP530 is that I can't get it to print over Airport Extreme Base Station's USB port. iFelix lists the MP500 and the MP830 as working for wireless printing, but not the 530. This is the only thing making me wish I had bought the 830 instead. But maybe the wireless printing thing will be a good excuse to get one of those tasty new iMacs. Yeah right. Then, you would all receive invitations to my funeral after my wife killed me. Hope you enjoyed this first look at the Canon MP530.