Canon PIXMA MX860 Wireless All-In-One office Printer

I am going to skip a long review and give you the bottom line: for my home and solo consulting practice, which is almost paperless, I have not found a better multifunction machine. Based on features alone this is an excellent machine; it's ease of use and functionality are incredible for such a low price. When considering the performance at the MX860's price and Canon is way ahead of the competition.I got my first Canon multifunction bundled with a laptop purchase (almost free after rebate) and because of the price and no experience with Canon I had low/no expectations. The MX860 is my second Canon multifunction machine. (I also have a Canon portable scanner that I take to client sites -- also excellent.) I use my MX 860 heavily for scanning, and moderately for copying and printing. It is excellent for scanning (I upgraded to get the feeder), especially when used in combination with Adobe Acrobat. Copying is equally good. The printing is a little slow; the machine not for volume printing. The extra paper source is great for letterhead and using the back side of paper for drafts. I don't use the fax feature, nor have I used the wireless.The ink cartridges are smallish and the machine does seem to use ink quickly, but this sense may just be due to the small cartridges.I have checked out other vendor's multifunction machines in detail (including HP -- which builds excellent machines of all kinds) and, take my word for it, none come close to the elegance of the hardware and software. I don't use other Canon equipment, so maybe this is consistent with their other hardware.By the way this review is written after using my first Canon for 2-3 years, the portable for a year, and the current one for ~six months. I know the Canon multifunction and the competition and, for the volume of work I described above, this machine is the best choice.I would not have bothered to come back to this site to write this review if I wasn't very impressed. I read many of the reviews below before buying this machine. Some of the complaints are appear to me to be the result of buying the wrong machine for an individual's need, or a failure to read the documentation carefully or at all.Oops, this ended up being a long review.Good luck!

Updated Review after 11 months of use:I've owned this printer for 11 months now and it is completely unreliable. I experience the following problems:- Printer jams 90% of the time when printing duplex (which was one of the best features, but now I don't bother with it);- Printer jams 50% of the time during normal non-duplex use (I receive an error message "5100 Printer error has occured. Turn off power then back on again...");- After 95% of the print jobs the printer errors and requires to be turned off with the same 5100 error message as above.- I cannot use the "fast print" setting because the pages print so distorted they are illegible. Moreover, the printer usually jams. Even on higher print quality settings the pages are extremely distorted at least 50% of the time.- Software is not provided for wireless use with Windows 7. I found the update on Canon's website and it does not work, so I need to plug the computer into the USB to print. (Certainly defeats the purpose of buying a wireless printer.)My original review written after a few weeks of use remains below. I note that my positive review of the wireless setup was for Windows XP, which I ran on my old computer. I now have Windows 7 on my new computer and tried to use the software CD that came with the product, which did not have the drivers for Windows 7. I obviously think this printer is a waste of money. Rather than make Canon rich from buying its ink, I'm going to buy a new printer. I guess it is back to HP for me.I am now convinced that PPM should be broadly defined to include printer loading time after buying this printer. I have owned this Cannon for a few months now and it probably goes on the list of the "worst printers I have ever owned". There are two significant issues. First, it takes an unusually long time for the printer to start printing. This is not a wireless issue, because the delay is the same if plugged-in with USB. It also doesn't matter if I am printing 1 page or 50 pages. Even if you insert a copy job, the printer appears to have a long conversation with itself before starting the job. I haven't timed it but I would guess the wait time for any job to start is 15-30 seconds. (If you don't think that is a long time, any other printer would be 10 pages into the job.) Once printing, the printer speed is decent, but waiting for 1 minute for any action to start is frustrating and a waste of time.Second big issue is with scanning multiple pages. I still cannot figure out how to make it work consistently. I get a repeated message to reload docs and push the go button. Sometimes I can get it to work, but usually I just give up.I am also disappointed with the life span for the ink. It seems to run out much quicker than my other prior printers. The ink cartridges are small and the result is quickly running out of ink.There are a few positives. First, it was relatively easily to connect to my wireless network. The paper door also opens automatically when it starts to print, so it saves me trips up the stairs. Also, the option to print double sided saves a lot of paper and money.I would not recommend this printer to anyone.