Canon MG7520 Wireless All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer with Scanner, Copier, and Cloud Printing - Black | Ideal for Home Office, Small Business & Remote Work

Pros:Compact sizeWell builtGreat output quality, especially photosLots of useful features including printing directly on printable discs (more on that in a minute)Cons:Significant learning curve for some featuresSomewhat slowInk can get expensive with 6 cartridges to keep up withRelatively small capacity paper traysThis is a really good machine, especially considering its price point. I was dubious about a machine that can do all of the things this machine can do for about $100. I suppose, like virtually all printers, this hardware is sold at less than it costs to manufacture because of the revenue stream Canon counts on, selling ink at anywhere from just shy of $2,000.00 to over $9,000.00 a gallon depending on the manufacturer and printer model. This claim based on the cost of ink per ounce, which according to Consumer Reports is anywhere from $15.00 per ounce to $75.00 per ounce. 128 ounces in a gallon. Easy math. So thank you very much to everyone who buys ink from Canon - you subsidized the cost of my new printer for me. I have bought generic ink for years without a single issue. Anyway, back to the hardware.The WiFi connectivity works really well, and is a breeze if you have a router with "Protected WiFi setup". Press a button on your router, and push "Connect" on the touchscreen. It's that simple. The only wire you will need to connect to the printer is the power cord unless you want it connected through the Ethernet port, or a USB cable, both of which are options.Also something easy is making a photocopy of anything on the flatbed scanner on the top of the machine. Touch the blank touchscreen to wake it up if it has gone idle, then touch "Copy" on the touchscreen, and then select how many copies, and then touch either "Black" for grayscale, or "Color" for the obvious. It is pretty fast at copying too, producing high quality copies.The one star I deducted is for the convoluted way you have to tell the printer to print on a printable CD or DVD, the main reason I purchased this machine to begin with. After a lot of looking through the printer properties settings and scratching my head, I figured out you have to set the printer properties using very counter-intuitive media and tray settings. I even called the highly touted Canon "100% US-Based Service & Support" tech support for a few pointers, but the smug little man at the other end told me repeatedly to contact the publisher of the software I use to create and print CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays, etc., because according to him, the problem I was having was that the software could not "see" that the printer has disc printing capabilities, and should add that functionality to their application. He wouldn't listen to me long enough to figure out that the issue was setting the correct media in the Printer Properties, NOT calling the makers of "Discus", which is the best software I have found for creating disc labels and printing them. Thanks a lot Bill. You must be a former so-called "Genius" at Apple.To set this printer to print on a disc:- Open the "Printer Properties" for the "Canon MG7500 series"- In the "Media Type" drop-down list, hover over "Other Papers", and click on "Printable disc (recommended)"- When you do that, a notification will come up onscreen that says "Paper Source Cassette is not available for the selected Media Type. Paper Source setting has been changed to Disc tray.", and the Paper Source is automatically changed to "Disc tray"- Under the "Printer Paper Size:" drop-down list, click on "Disc tray J"- Then click "OK" and proceed with printing, but wait until the printer tells you to to flip down the disc tray input mechanism or all hell will break loose.- Follow the on-screen directions and then it will print on your disc, very well I might add - beautiful results.What would lead someone to hover over "Other Papers" in the "Media Type:" drop-down list to select "Printable disc (recommended)"? Shouldn't the "Printable disc" option be directly in the list under the "Media Type"? I have never used a paper optical disc before. Also, who in the world besides initiated Canon MG series printer owners knows what "Disc tray J" is, and that you have to select it as well for the disc print to happen successfully? To make matters worse, under the "Paper Source:" drop-down list, the only source listed is "Cassette" until you select "Printable disc, at which point it is changed automatically, and then THAT becomes the only item in that drop-down list.This was all very frustrating to figure out on my own, and calling the "genius" at Canon did nothing but make me more frustrated, and made me seriously consider returning this machine to Amazon - I will not be calling Cannon customer support again. I thought customer support was supposed to help your customers solve difficulties they are having with your equipment, not compound the issue and redirect them, erroneously might I add, to the publisher of a software product.Since this is a review of a printer/copier/scanner, I will not deduct stars based on the manufacturer's poor customer support.Nov 17, 2014 ... Ok the first one did come defective (never made it past 5 seconds into the dreaded boot error.) Long way getting gear to the sticks. Bound to happen. EZ fix, don't call Canon (refurbish), call Amazon. 2 days (with prime) and the old one went back using the label that came with the replacement. Calling the shipper for "free" pickup also led to confusion. I had more stuff coming. FedEx driver grabbed it that delivery. Happens, painless, unless you try to do it the hard way first (first time for me & I buy tons of business stuff all over)OK point: Needed a new scanner after the decade old Canon flatbed died (power surges and lightning eventually gets everything) and wanted to replace it with another Canon, but maybe a bit more feature rich? Wanted to now avoid the PC just to make copies?. I NEVER opened the installation disk, manually set it up on my WiFi network, found the android ap for phone & prints perfectly. Even my troublesome Surface RT automatically found drivers!!! and NOW has a printer!!! (where 3 other printers were invisible to it). The old XP had no issues either finding drivers or scanning over the WiFi back into the wired desktop. Scanning to an XP folder also works flawlessly. For device compatibility I have to say 5 stars. The fact I have yet to need the CD for any drivers (let alone software) even more so.There are lots of built in extras. Too many for me but the primary ones are these: Scan to email is tricky. As the printer won't use standard email servers (only gmail & the like) and gmail correctly requires white-listing a third party server to handle that...it originally set off way too much confusion (third party servers, gmail setting off alarms that were more "is this ok" then "look out") ...so we just did not need or use it. Email to Printer however is very well designed. You have to white-list your senders (& yourself naturally) when setting up the email to printer web service address, but that way no spam. When done, in theory the kid's baby pictures can appear magically onto the tray to go straight to the fridge? Your vacation photos could be setting on the tray ready to annoy your friends with the minute you come home (or whoever did not come with you). As the ink scheme is designed for better photos, to just use it as a copier is probably missing the point but at this price one just as well have both? Many ways vice versa to just use it as a photo printer as well I am sure.Two sided printing, scale copies, etc, I have yet to need or try but no question the touch screen is easy to navigate & none of my printers for much more do that. OK it won't print legal size paper, only letter, is about the only tiny flaw BUT it DOES print #9, ie "custom" setting mode, sized envelopes which otherwise jam or require 1 at a time manual feeding on any of my expensive laser printers.No FAX? I am old school too...a bit of creativity finding an eFax service with email2fax capabilities lets your printer email and receive with cutting edge apps giving you modern tools (no PC required) to still look as old school out of touch as you wish. No hard line? No FAX function? Now no problem!If you need the software, most likely a win win but as I have Canon cameras and plenty of graphic software already, was thrilled there was no need to pop the disk in. Plug & Play without the disk yes is doable.As for the "test cartridges" that come with? 2 months later and hundreds of pages (mostly black and white copies) and I am not yet close to running out. Possibly a few more 4x6 photos & fewer B&W copies would better test that volume. Aftermarket spares are here when that day comes.Wasn't able to get the "cloud printer" feature to work, either with my computer or mobile devices, had to buy a cable separately for the wired version. The ink tank is confusing, if one tank is empty (whether it's needed or not), the printer will not print. Install and use is complicated, warming up takes several minutes each time. Size is very large.