Canon Pixma MP500 Photo All-in-One with LCD Viewer

Important to me was ongoing ink costs - though I only use this printer for home use (and a few work items - when I need to make a deadline and time is tight !) I was constantly annoyed by the ink costs of my previous Lexmark all-in-one. Lexmark and Brother machines were therefore not for me. This left Canon, Epson and HP. HP machines always seem to produce good quality and I was considering the HP PSC 2355 for a long time (a close runner-up). But again ink costs and by using my Dads 2355 eventually put me off (I found the LCD positioned towards the back of the printer meant I kept having to lean over it and the paper-feed rollers had a bad squeak). Epson always seems to have cheap ink - but none of their all-in-ones really appealed to me (dont know if it was their aesthetics or what - sorry a weak reason to discount them I know). This left Canon. The MP170 was tempting with its card reader and very reasonable price but the extra features of the MP500 won me over.

Some points to note:

Superb looking bit of kit (ok looks don't give you better printing but its nice to know you're hard earnt cash has bought something classy)!
Printing (text and photos), scanning and copying are all superb - so much better than any printer I have had and if you can spot any faults in its printing with you're naked eye, you must be related to superman! (I have not yet used the CD printing function or pict-bridge support functions).
Two paper trays are an excellent idea - I keep 6x4 photo-paper permanently stored in the lower tray and A4 in the auto-feeder - only takes a push of a button to tell the printer which paper to choose.
Card reader only reads data - just annoying when you could select all files after downloading/printing them to clear your card and can't (ok you can do this from you're camera afterwards, etc...). Also I had a problem with SD cards - I have to push the card in the slot just far enough but not all the way in or it will not read it. Weird - a fault with my machine ?
Paper output tray - very easy to leave up to save dust getting inside but very easy to forget to open it !! But when you press the button and it softly ejects itself down......lovely....!
LCD screen - nice but a little small. I have to confess I use my monitor more often which suprises me as I thought I would find this really useful. But it is very clear, colourful, positioned nicely at the front, tiltable and easy to use.

In summary,

Quite a large printer but it looks stunning
Easy to set up with good software
Card reader is great to have
LCD screen is a nice touch (but did I REALLY need it and is it too small ?)
Dual paper trays - a joy
Build quality is superb
Printing very quite
Five ink system - and ink is cheap
Buttons on the front easy to use (including ability to edit photos from the LCD screen)
Would I buy it with hind-sight ? Yes.
Would I recommend it to a friend ? Yes.

A last point/tip - ordering this printer from Amazon (as you should as at the time of writing its the cheapest place) means the printer actually comes from Pixmania (a large, quality company who delivered the printer within 48 hours).

The copy and scan features work well, simply lift the lid, place document and press one button for black & white copy or another for colour - simplicity itself. Copying is very handy for the occasional times you want to keep a copy of a document for safe keeping or everyday use.

Perhaps the jewel in the crown is the LCD screen and memory card support, so you can quickly print images from cameras (Infra-red port for camera mobiles too) without having to download to computer first - extremely useful. The screen also makes the printer independant of the computer, so you can change things around without having to boot up the computer every time.

In summary, the cost of "all-in-one" printers has come down, whilst quality has gone up. They are extremely useful, neat solutions for the home. If you want perfect A4 photo-prints using specialist inks then look elsewhere. If you want an all round package that will meet the need of the family or home office, copy a signed contract before you send it back, scan in a nice photo from a friend that they want back etc. then you won't go far wrong with the MP 500.