Canon ImageCLASS MF4350d Laser All-in-One Printer

I chose this printer after spending a lot of time researching the alternatives. My wife and I work in a small home office and wanted a reasonably priced laser printer all-in-one to replace our ancient flatbed scanner and inkjet which was costing us a mint in ink costs. (We still have the inkjet for the occasional color print need, such as a greeting card, but rarely use it now). We also wanted the photocopy capability.We've had the printer about a month and so far we are pleased. It prints fast and clean. We have not had problems with pages coming through crooked reported by a couple others. The 2-sided printing is great! The scan function is easy to use. The copier function is simple as well. We have not tried any of the advanced features yet, or the fax. One feature we miss from the inkjet is the ability to load multiple envelopes (another reason we kept the inkjet) but that is true of all the laser all-in-ones we looked at in this price range. It would also be nice to have a network printer, but we chose to save a little money since we only have three computers that use the printer on our home office network.Setup: The printer is physically connected by USB cable to a Windows Vista (32bit) desktop system. Therefore, the desktop is the print server system. Installing drivers and software was straight forward for the print server system. I then needed to install drivers for two client systems, a Windows Vista 64-bit notebook and a Windows 7 64-bit notebook computer, so these systems can access the printer via the network. Due to previous experience with a Canon inkjet in the same network configuration, I was able to install the drivers for this printer without much trouble. However, it does require a few more steps.First you have to download the 64bit drivers for Vista. The 64bit driver has to be installed first on the printer server (in this case, the Vista 32-bit desktop system). However, you can't just run the EXE file because it will tell you it is only for a 64bit system and then it stops. You have to extract the drivers EXE file to a folder using an unzip program like the free 7-Zip. Then open the printer properties, Sharing tab, and use the Additional Drivers button to select the 64bit driver and browse to find the proper driver file in the folder mentioned above where the files were extracted. After installing the drivers, go back to the Sharing tab, and make sure the "Share this printer" check box is checked and note the name of the shared printer.For the Vista 64bit system, all that remains to be done is to add a printer (chose network printer) and select the printer shared above.For the Windows 7 64bit system, an additional step is required. Download and install the Windows 7 64bit drivers (MF4350_MFDrivers_Win_x64_us_EN-7 (Win7 x64) for Canon MF4350d laser printer), then add a printer and select the printer shared above.Power note: A couple years ago, we had a laser printer that caused the house lights to dim every time we printed. I was concerned we would have the same issue with a new printer, but I am pleased to report that is not happening with this Canon model.Support: One reason I chose the Canon model is for their technical support. I've had other Canon products (inkjet printers and digital cameras) and have found their support to be responsive and helpful.

Getting this printer is like stealing. I bought this printer from Amazon for $150 including free shipping and thought it might be pretty good but it far exceeded my expectations. First, the speed is unbelievable for a printer in this class. It takes 15 seconds to get a first copy from a cold start and a whooping 20 pages per minute thereafter. The two sided printing speed is even more impressive. I timed a first copy 2 sided print at 16 seconds. Not sure what repeated 2 sided prints are but they are FAST. Next, the paper tray holds plenty of paper unlike inkjet printers. Not sure but around 130 to 150 sheets of 20# paper. The ADF works great with copies. And, alothough some have noted that the print quality is a little wavy, I notice none of this, very satisfied with it. Handles envelopes very well also. Installation of SW was very easy. Note that this model printer does not connect directly to an ethernet network. What I do is gain access to the printer via my computer connections to my network with the printer connected via a USB to my primary computer which I leave on all the time. Prior to getting this printer, I had a separate scanner, small home Xerox copier, FAX machine and an HP 990C inkjet printer. Since then I have thrown all those out and just use the MF4350d (regained much needed desk space) and when I need a color print, which is rarely, I go to one of my other computers which has a color inkjet printer connected to it. I have not tried the FAX funtion yet but I would see no reason why it should not be OK. The scanning function is fine but lacks sophisticated adjustments such as gamma, etc. I would have liked the scan SW to have included some form of OCR program but it does not. I have read in the manual where some models may include OCR SW. Finally, the cost of operation IS stealing! From what I read, a toner cartridge can print about 2,000 pages. I bought an after market replacment toner cartridge for $20 which in itself is unbelievable. Anyway, that works out to one cent per page. Try beating that with an inkjet printer at ten times the cost. Don't be misled to think this printer can be used as a high volume office printer but the overall quality looks good to me, especially in a home/small office environment.

The printer was easy to setup. Load the software on your computer, plug the printer in and it works. I do wish they had better and clear instructions to putting the toner cartridge in, but once you figure it out it's real easy. Loading paper is also very easy. It is bigger than an average medium printer. But it is not large.The only difficulty is that since it has a lot of different functions, reading the manual is a must. The printer is quite fast, the duplex functions works well. Print copies are great looking. It did not come with a USB cable, but they are easy and super cheap to buy and since I already had one it is really not a reason to give this printer bad marks. Copier worked well. Have not used the scanner since I don't need it yet.Found great toner cartridges on Amazon for $48 dollars, which is cheap. Color would be a great option in any printer but the expense of color ink cartridges is rather outrageous. I am glad it is just black and white printer. Printer at work cost $250 per cartridge. The quality looks good but of course time will tell. This is exactly what I needed for my small business. I did not experience the negatives of other reviewers.