"Best" Canon printer models?

[GrantCee]

Here's a question for people to chew on and would help relative Canon newbies like me: what Canon printer models, past or present, represent the best the company has made?

Let's hear your favorite(s) in any or all of these categories:
- General text/graphics printers (typical home office use, occasional photos)
- Dedicated photo printers
- All-in-one machines (printers with scanners attached.)

Of course, "best" without parameters is a useless term, so consider these factors when naming your "best":
- Ease of refilling cartridges
- Print quality
- Construction quality (durability and longevity)

 

[palombian]

...
- Ease of refilling cartridges
- Print quality
- Construction quality (durability and longevity)

Without any doubt the first factor is declining, and maybe the third too.
But since no printer lives forever, and replacement print heads become unavailable, the best strategy IMO is to focus on printers of 1, 2, maximum 3 generations back.

So for the consumer dye Pixma's the models with 550/551, 525/526 and 520/521 carts.
All have 5 or 6 carts, essentially the same print engine and produce very good text and photo quality, some have a scanner/copier/ADF as a bonus.
Speed is average at best.

Canon never had outstanding office inkjets, but the Maxify series are a good step forward.

For the A3+ photo printers the pigment Pro-10, PRO 9500, dye Pro-100 and PRO 9000.

 

[bryan9]

In my experience, the IP4200 is the most bullet-proof and reliable Canon printer. I had a lot of problems with later models. After realizing this, I bought a supply of them... I still have a couple of new ones in storage.

 

[rodbam]

I will have to say the Pro9500 because it prints very nice fade free prints & doesn't seem to clog much & is so easy to refill.

 

[wilko]

For me it the best ever has to be the IP4500. Easy refilling, chip resetter etc. However, time moves on and we we all want AIOs with Wifi & cloud printing etc. and the MG range takes some beating. No resetter but CLi551 carts are available for 50p each on Ebay. Refillable carts can also be got. Not as sturdy as older models but still the best printers out there

 

[mswannie]

The MG range may be good but mine, the MG 3650 has stopped connecting via wireless and I can't figure out how to fix it because I can't connect to my iPad.

 

[palombian]

I have the MG8250, the first with cloud connectivity. No problem with iPhone and Android.
CCD film scanner, and with 6 colors a very good dye photo printer.
Together with the resettable 525/526 carts maybe the best MG ever.

PS: you need to connect the printer to your home wifi, no idea how to do this on the MG3650 without LCD screen

 

[mswannie]

I got it in October and I connected it to my iPad wirelessly without a problem using the app from Canon. But suddenly a week ago it stopped connecting. It also connected wirelessly to my laptop running Ubuntu and that also stopped. I get the message 'the printer is not connected' I have tried switching off wireless using the buttons as user guide suggests but it doesn't work. I can print if I connect with a cable to the laptop but I can't print from the iPad. I think it is going back...