Barry K. Nathan - ProductWiki

Barry K. Nathan updated 3 products

Barry K. Nathan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:38:51 -0400

1. updated HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless - July 2, 2009 at 11:38 am

new pro/con: Can conveniently scan to a network file server
new pro/con: scanning via ADF is limited to 300dpi
new pro/con: has a web interface with lots of functionality; it can even estimate future ink usage based on the past
new pro/con: scanner is fast
new pro/con: automatic document feeder frequently chews/destroys input pages (as opposed to skipping pages or halting) when it misfeeds

2. updated Canon PIXMA MX330 - July 2, 2009 at 11:38 am

new pro/con: Can conveniently scan to a USB drive
new pro/con: Borderless printing on plain paper is unacceptably faint
disagreed: "Duplex printing on plain paper is unacceptably faint"
new pro/con: Single-slded printing on plain paper is very sharp and only slightly less dark than HP inkjets
new pro/con: Duplex printing on plain paper is unacceptably faint
new pro/con: Even the "XL" ink is expensive
new pro/con: Can scan at 600 dpi from ADF (unlike some competition, such as HP OfficeJet Pro 8500)
new pro/con: Received fax quality is very good and is nicely dark (not somewhat faint like the Canon Pixma MP530)
new pro/con: Scanner is very slow
new pro/con: Automatic document feeder is a bit slow
new pro/con: Automatic document feeder consistently feeds paper well
untapped as "want it"
tapped as "have it"

3. updated Canon PIXMA MP530 - July 2, 2009 at 11:21 am

agreed: "Simple to use, single push button black and white or color copies "
new pro/con: Some people (especially non-nerds) find the fax functionality to be user-hostile
agreed: "Excellent build quality "

Barry K. Nathan commented on Canon PIXMA MX330

Barry K. Nathan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:36:05 -0400

July 2, 2009 at 11:36 am

""Duplex printing on plain paper is unacceptably faint" was a mistake -- I meant to say "Borderless" and by the time I realized my mistake, it was too late for me to edit it. The MX330 uses a design like a typical HP DeskJet, where the print heads are incorporated into the cartridges, rather than the usual Canon design (also used by HP OfficeJet Pro) where the print heads install into the printer separately from the ink cartridges. The cost of the ink is pretty much the only thing that keeps me from clicking "love it". FWIW I have done printing, copying and scanning, as well as faxing, but I mainly use it as a fax machine."

Barry K. Nathan updated Canon PIXMA MX330

Barry K. Nathan — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:10:02 -0400

June 20, 2009 at 10:10 am

tapped as "want it"

Barry K. Nathan commented on HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless

Barry K. Nathan — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:44:58 -0400

June 20, 2009 at 9:44 am

"My basic opinion of the OfficeJet Pro 8500 wireless, based on the different functions: Scanning: Haven't tried yet. Copying: Seems good, but it's too soon for me to issue a verdict either way. Printing: Fantastic! Perhaps it's not the best choice if quality is everything and speed/time is not an object, but if speed is even the tiniest consideration, this is a fantastic choice -- compared to, say, some Canon inkjets (like the Pixma MP530, which I also have), it's a subtle quality loss for a severalfold speed increase. I've seen this printer exceed 23 PPM on actual color print jobs. Faxing: Terrible for more than light usage. The automatic document feeder and fax-modem both present problems here. In terms of frustration and wasted time/effort, the two problems compound each other; either one alone wouldn't be an absolute killer. I guess it's OK for light or emergency-only use."

Barry K. Nathan updated 3 products

Barry K. Nathan — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:36:54 -0400

1. updated HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless - June 19, 2009 at 9:36 am

new pro/con: Speed is simply ridiculous. Draft quality is much closer to normal on this printer than on most inkjets, so the speed is actually usable in real life.
disagreed: "slower printer than it claims to be"
tapped as "love it"

2. updated Canon PIXMA MP530 - June 19, 2009 at 9:13 am

tapped as "love it"
new pro/con: The quality of photos printed on plain paper is really bad. The colors are vastly less accurate on plain paper than on photo paper. For plain paper photos, even ancient HP inkjets will beat it.
new pro/con: The quality of photos printed on photo paper is just simply amazing.
new pro/con: Quality of copies is very good
agreed: "5 print cartridges "
agreed: "Fast printing "
agreed: "Now available for an excellent price. $60-70 "

3. updated Lexmark X5650 found Yale's review helpful - June 19, 2009 at 8:52 am

Barry K. Nathan updated 2 products

Barry K. Nathan — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:38:53 -0400

1. updated Brother HL-4070CDW - June 19, 2009 at 7:38 am

new pro/con: Very easy to set up printer (especially in Mac Leopard, Linux, Windows 7).
new pro/con: Fine lines in monochrome printouts somehow look artificially faint/thin
new pro/con: Status LCD is hard to read if the printer is on a high table or surface (the tilt range is not sufficient to fully adjust it for this scenario).
new pro/con: Printed pages tend to curl a bit at the top and bottom edges
new pro/con: When printing black text in color mode, sometimes adds red fringes around black characters (especially, but not exclusively, when using PostScript emulation)
new pro/con: Very heavy
new pro/con: On some occasions (especially when page is covered with lots of gray near the margins), splatters unwanted yellow or magenta streaks on printout
new pro/con: Easy to monitor printer status through its built-in Web interface
new pro/con: Wide variety of interfaces (wireless, Ethernet, USB, even parallel port).
new pro/con: Emits very smelly exhaust when printing
new pro/con: Output is sharp for black-and-white printing (but I mean pure black and pure white, with no shades of gray)
new pro/con: Can print vaguely plausible colors, or grays that are not brownish-magenta, but cannot print both on the same page (or in the same print job for that matter).

2. updated HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless - June 19, 2009 at 7:19 am

new pro/con: When powered on, emits a high-pitched hissing noise

Barry K. Nathan updated 3 products

Barry K. Nathan — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:31:51 -0400

1. updated Brother HL-4070CDW - June 19, 2009 at 6:31 am

new pro/con: Has automatic duplexing
new pro/con: Has perhaps the most perfect and bulletproof paper feed mechanism to ever grace a printer
new pro/con: PostScript and PCL6 emulations work well
new pro/con: Letters of colored (or gray) text are surrounded by tiny dots, making them look very fuzzy
new pro/con: Direct printing of PDF files from a USB stick sometimes prints (deterministic) gibberish, wasting toner and ink
new pro/con: Direct printing from USB stick is unbelievably slow
new pro/con: Probably the fastest color laser of this size
new pro/con: Colored (other than pure black) text is surrounded by teensy dots, so it looks almost inkjet-fuzzy
new pro/con: Can easily use a garden-variety laptop SODIMM to expand the memory
new pro/con: Small for a color laser
new pro/con: Both fast and small (as color lasers go)
new pro/con: Small for a color laser of this speed
new pro/con: Toner is relatively cheap (per page)

2. updated Canon PIXMA MP530 - June 19, 2009 at 6:03 am

new pro/con: Very sharp plain-paper output for an inkjet (probably sharper than some color lasers, but ever so slightly worse than a competent B&W laser).
new pro/con: On plain paper, blacks are not as deep/dark as on HP inkjets or B&W lasers. (Some people barely notice, others find it to be a showstopper.) Affects received faxes much more severely than printouts or copies.
new pro/con: ADF often misfeeds any paper which previously contained any staples
tapped as "have it"
agreed: "Output tray automatically opens when printing starts "
agreed: "Has an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) for automatically scanning a series of pages "
agreed: "Duplex printing "
agreed: "Doesn't include USB cable in box. Must purchase separately "
agreed: "No network port "

3. updated HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless - June 19, 2009 at 5:47 am

new pro/con: has Ethernet, wireless, and USB interfaces
tapped as "have it"
new pro/con: Fax modem often flakes with Error 420 unless I reduce speed from 33.6Kbps to 14.4Kbps (on an ISDN line where non-HP machines work at 33.6Kbps without incident).
new pro/con: Automatic document feeder misfeeds paper too often
agreed: "good print quality"
agreed: "large print cartridges"
agreed: "affordable"
agreed: "wireless connection allows users to place printer anywhere within wireless network range - not tied to a host PC or router"
agreed: "multifunction - print, scan, fax or copy"
agreed: "nicer colour photo reproduction than a colour laser"
agreed: "cheaper to use than a colour laser printer"
agreed: "automatic double sided printing"
agreed: "touchscreen interface"
agreed: "double sided printing takes a very long time due to ink drying delay"
disagreed: "touchscreen is unresponsive and a hassle to use"
disagreed: "no Ethernet (for those who don't use wireless this is an issue)"

Barry K. Nathan joined the site

Barry K. Nathan — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:32:24 -0400

June 19, 2009 at 5:32 am