[dannykewl]

Hi, what's the better printer of these two? I know two people who recently bought the HP C5180 and the (4x6) prints look great and they are happy with it, but when I looked up reviews (CNET, etc.), the reviews say the Canon MP500 gives better prints and functionality, but worse scans than the HP.The HP has an Ethernet port which I could use it that way in my network, and the Canon does not. However one report says any PC's wired into the router would be able to access the printer. What about my wireless laptop, hooked to the same router wirelessly? I assume I can scan from any hooked in (to the router) PC?On the other hand, I read that when you want photos with the Canon, you manually have to change the ink cartridges to the photo ones each time. Does that apply to the MP 500?The HP seems to be available everywhere around where I live, Cleveland, Ohio, but the Canon seems a little harder to find. Thanks much.BTW, I bought the HP a few days ago but didn't open the box yet. If the difference is only marginal, I'll keep the HP.What about ink costs, my local Best Buy has a package for the HP with the 6 ink cartridges and 150 sheets of 4x6 photo paper for $36. My neighbors bought theirs plus the extra pack about 2 months ago, and BB still sells it for 436, and if I keep this printer, hope sthey still sell it.Any similar deals for the Canon MP 500, at least ink at a reasonable cost? I don't want to pay $60+ for the set of cartridges like I have to do for my Epson RX600. I just read a review that Canon uses ink like water, but they all probably do. Also, does the Canon have a separate 4x6 tray like the HP does?I read people like the MP500 better than the 520 or 530?Thanks much.(I changed the title as I had HP C5800 written by mistake)

[Dave67]

I have the HPC3140 which is an older printer your model is newer model series. I like it alot but i am using it on linux as well as windows. my ink costs me less then 20 bucks per cartridge I don't like cannons much they use ink to fast for me. For photos most printers have ink for photos even HP does the photo the ink is brighter to make the prints have better color. My printer was only 80 bucks btw.As for the printer network connection, If you have a printer connected up to your pc as wired than only the wired network will only be able to see that printer. your laptop can only see the printer if you are connecting it on the wired network. Here is why wired and wireless are two different networks so the can not see each others sharesConnect your PC to the wireless network with your laptop than you can use your printer on either computer. than share the printer from the PC, than add it to your laptop as a network printer.You can not scan a filefrom the scanner to your laptop Use the scanner on the PC to scan the file than transfer it from the PC through your network to your laptop. I do this for my network I have a folder that is shared and all my transfers and downloads go there. I had a bad problem with canon once with their drivers I download their new drivers for my old 755 multipass I installed them and after I did, nothing worked as it should have the software said it installed but as I was installing the software the printer part was ok but the other scanner software kept giving me errors. I called canon up and they charge me a fee for this support and they could not figure it out. two days of being on hold, I fixed it the next day by using the old drivers and I trashed the new drivers. The new driver software had a bug in it and they did not want to admit it. I never had a problem with Hp I even have a older printer for anther PC that is about 10 years old and it cost more to use it but it works fine I bought it for 10 buck at a thift shop but the ink is 35 each it is HP832C. I had to download the drivers when i got it home install it and it worked like a charm.

[dannykewl]

Thanks Dave67. I still didn't take it out of the box yet, the guy at Best Buy thinks the Canon makes better prints, and the cartridges are 13 ml each vs the HP at 3.5 ml each. But the HP carts seem to last my neighbor forever, and they print a lot of 4 X 6's. I have the extended holiday return policy are far as I know on the HP, but again resaech showed me the Canon ink carts are expensive, as are my Epson, unless I want knock-off brands. Same with photo paper, I seen online you can get 100 sheet packs of the 4 X 6 (without the ink) at CompUSA for about $11US. But then the separate ink is more expensive if not buying the special ink and paper pack for $35. Guess I could use the paper on the Canon too. Just wondering if Best Buy and other places will keep selling that ink and paper pack for $35, that's what I'm worried about.

[ghutch]

I was initially impressed by the 4x6 paper and ink packs, too. The sales guy at Office Depot clued me in that the ink cartridges in that pack are the low volume ones. Might not be such a great deal.I haven't gotten mine installed yet. I downloaded the latest drivers from HP. HP has packaged them 2 ways: one with all teh other software applications and one with just the drivers. When I tried to load them on my server (older pc running windows 2000 server) it bombs saying my system isn't supported. The other thing I don't like is how they packaged the drivers in some odd format in stead of a Zip file or self-extracting Zip file. All you can do is run the downloaded file - no option to unpack it - and it takes FOREVER. So the jury is still out at the moment.

[dannykewl]

Thanks ghutch,That confirms what I just found out a couple of days ago when I used HP chat, the tech did tell me the value packs contained less ink than the regular cartridges at full price. They didn't say how much less, but when I was at my local Best Buy, I noticed the regular color carts had 4.5 ml each, so maybe half that in the value pack. I believe my Epson RX600 that I currently own has color carts holding either 13 or 17 ml each, for about the same price as the HP ones, and the Epson also uses the same 5 colors plus black. It seems my Epson color ink gets used up fast, wonder about the small capacity HP ones? As I stated, it seems my neighbor's color ink levels were always high after printing many pics, but then he said he had to replace yellow, then magenta, and perhaps the levels dropped real fast, that's the levels reported on the screen every time you go to print. Maybe it's like a gas tank level indicator on some cars, seems to stay full for a very long while, then starts dropping like a rock.I also just read, that even though the Vivera inks are supposed to be water resistant, others are stating that just a small drop of water will toast a pic. Since I haven't opened my box yet, and Best Buy has the holiday return priveledge in effect, my HP is going back today or tomorrow, and I'll make do with my Epson for the time being. I believe I did read online that you can buy the same HP 4X6 photo paper that you get in the value pack in a 100 sheet pack, sans the ink carts for about 11 or 12 bucks US at CompUSA. I may try that for my paper.