Reaction after 2 days - how to dispose of it - and return to the HP despite its tiresome support service?
Told I have a statutory right to return to the seller....
... but not much fun to exercise it therefore I do not recommend Canon Pixma MP610.

This is a mixed review, of my now almost usless Canon PIXMA MP610. It was inexpensive from Pixmania and worked well from 09/08 till 09/09, producing superb colour photos quickly. I would have scored it 5 stars for each and I did recommend it. Then the paper feeding began to stray - just a degree or two crooked, the same with both paper paths, not too bad for our uncritical text but a nuisance with photos. We put up with it. But this month magenta has stopped working, despite extensive head cleaning and replacement of that colour, almost full, with a new one. Canon says, "replace the print head but we can't promise anything". This would cost much more than the s/h printer is worth so it's thanks, Canon, but I'm off to HP because my previous HP lasted 8 years and never had a blockage. I have used the same brand of alternative ink in both the HP and the Canon. Others also have the same problem - I've found them advertising on ebay but failing to sell their faulty MP610s If you buy one, use only Canon ink, I suppose. Good luck John Speight

Simply the first printer I have ever had (and I've had a few) that works first time every time...I wouldn't dream of trying anything else - Ok the cartridges may be a tad expensive (you can get a full set for £20 - if you shop around on the net)but it's a small price to pay for the life-shortening stress I have had from my previous printers (HP and Epson included)- If you don't mind £20 for the cartridges, the Canon PIXMA MP610 will be one of the best buys you will make !

The Canon PIXMA MP610 is a well designed and reasonably compact unit. Paper cassette or rack feed. and double sided Text printing is high qulaity, and colour prints are clear with little or no bleeding. Photos are OK, but ink takes forever to dry on glossy paper.
Unit has some clever features such as dust ingress protection and auto output tray dropdown when printing
Scan quality is pretty good and easy to use.
Copier works well, but is a bit slow
A tad expensive, but a lot better than the Epson we had previously

I love the Canon PIXMA. I make hand crafted greeting cards and it meets all my needs. I have the same issues with cartridge costs but have found until now that getting them refilled and re-chipped in one of the high street cartridge ink shops has been the cheapest way to go. I have heard from a friend who has one, that a continuous feed inking system is even cheaper, so I'm going to try that and will come back and let you know.

This is serious. If a cartridge runs out the whole machine grinds to a halt. I had to do a lot of turning it off and on again just to get it to scan. Once a cartridge starts flashing, unless you have a new one in that colour handy, you won ' t be printing. I print a lot so I thought I would invest in another system. You can easily purchase these things over the net but they won ' t work with this printer, as I found out much too late. The technicians at canon have designed this little machine so that such a system won't fit into the enclosed plastic housing. I swept the net and found another company that sold me refillable cartridges. I got to work with the razor and soldering iron (no I ' m not joking) and fitted the old chips onto the new cartridges. topped them up with ink and.....no chance. The printer keeps saying they are empty. So I bought another set of damm expensive new chipped cartridges and when they emptied (at the speed of light I should add), I swapped the chips over to the refillable cartridges. Nothing. Wouldn ' t print. I have scoured the net for someone who can break this deadlock but the few systems that are written up on the web don ' t seem to have any effect on my MAC or printer. Today I received a chip rosette and tried that. Obviously the clever team at canon think their customers should either buy original canon cartridges or at least OEM ones for a few quid cheaper, but they definitely want to continue the practice of filling up landfills with empty cartridges. I have got issues with this mentality and I may be forced to get rid of a 6 month old printer cos I can ' t have something quite so materialistic in my home. It might just be that I ' ve been thwarted in my attempt to beat the system. I had an Epson for years that would accept any ink you threw at it but it didn't work with my new Mac. I miss it now. The new boy is too pricey for me to run and may be looking for a new home shortly. All my students are photographers and designers and they all have issues with the price of cartridges.