Canon G3501 High Volume Refillable Ink Multifunctional Printer

I chose a Canon rather than an Epson printer because of reliability issues reported about the latter on this site, and my Dad has recently sent his £500 A3 Epson printer back to be repaired after nine months. The main thing that was putting me off Canon was reports of buyers having to phone Canon customer services after WiFi connection problems. Assuming these reviews are genuine and bearing in mind the skewed and self-selecting nature of Amazon reviews, these did make me pause for a moment before buying this printer. As someone who can remember as far back as Windows 3.1 and tends to keep computers and operating systems until they are unsupported, I know how something as apparently simple as connecting a printer to a computer can lead to anger and swearing!Would buying a Canon printer end in ‘Failed to connect’ and ‘Search online for updated driver’ messages, and swearing, I wondered. (I am using Windows 8.1)...I followed the instruction sheets... taking the tape off the printer, filling the ink tanks, turning it on, installing the software and pressing various buttons in a set order, whilst various lights on the printer flashed......and got a ‘connection failed’ message! (I am not swearing at this point, just sighing and feeling a sense of deja vu).The installation software then directed me to pressing a WPS (WiFi Protected Setup) button on my WiFi router. This made a red light flash on the router. Whilst this was flashing, I had to press some more buttons on the printer...... and heh presto, the printer was connected![The unboxing, filling ink tanks, software installation and set up took a little over an hour.]Once connected to WiFi, printing has been as smooth as clockwork, whether printing from PhotoShop on my laptop, or from an Android phone via a Canon app. There are various print quality and paper options, all very easy and intuitive. My first few prints on glossy photo paper are top quality, and look very professional. (There were no issues with using cheap, non Canon photo paper).To sum up, setting this printer up was fairly easy and the print quality is very good. So I can, on first impressions, recommend this printer.

The manual is only available online and runs to over 600 pages! There is a quick start guide that comes with the box, but a slighlty longer short printed version would be helpful. Also, it was not clear about duplex printing. My ancient and vastly cheaper Canon printer really did print on both sides, which meant you could leave a print run as long as the paper could last, go and have a bath and come back to it being ready. With this printer, you have to turn the stack over manually, which is less convenient. Trying to use the online manual to establish these facts proved very difficult.

I purchased a used version of this printer (£177 instead of £234). The printer had already been used and ink placed in all four tanks (which is good - saved me a few steps). However, I think it had already been connected to someone else's WiFi router and it took me a good long time - and a lot of trial and error - to work out how to get it connected to my router. One of the key pieces of documentation (setup no 2 in English) was missing and this didn't help. So I had to use the web and run the setup program several times.Eventually got it going. If I hadn't done this sort of thing before I think I might have had to spend a few hours on the phone to Technical Support.The printer itself is excellent - as I have come to expect from Canon. Outstanding printing.

Seems like a good printer once you get it working. But the set-up was a right palaver.iPhone set-up didn't work. I was trying to avoid downloading a set-up program onto my Mac, but in the end that was the only way to get it to connect to the network. Once connected to the network, it could print from my iPhone. Still can't print from the Mac, coz it won't download the drivers.WATCH OUT IF YOU ARE EXPECTING AIRPRINT SUPPORT!!!!----Edit: After using this printer, there are lots of issues with it:- If you run out of paper mid-print, you have to start the print again, it will not resume?!- The iPhone app only prints small files. Any more than a few pages and it will crash/run out of memory.- You cannot get the scanner working on MacOS - I have to use the iPhone app.- It used to power down by itself to save electricity, that has stopped working too now?!In all, Canon have not got a handle on the user experience and software experience.

Shame the paper is fed the way it is and not in an upright sheaf but the refillable tanks are excellent and so cost effective.

Prints well. I like the refillable ink tanks. You can see the level of the ink, so its easy to see when to order more. However, my printing so far has not affected the levels much! The software is a bit clunky, but not really a problem.

This printer is excellent in terms of ink use - it is very efficient and the ink is long lasting. However, the connectivity issues are terrible. It is frustrating to operate and sometimes can take an hour to get going on a print job properly - printing one page and then waiting for 3-4 minutes. I'm very sad that it works so intermittently as it is a brilliant machine in terms of ink usage.

Difficult to set up on WiFi when eventually got it set up a week later it fails to print and nothing I could do would make it work so sent it back