A Just Reward

Canon Pixma MX922

I've been thinking of a new printer for awhile, especially in recent months as my old but great HP PhotoSmart has been showing its age. After thousands of pages of text and hundreds of photos, the printer was jamming more frequently. With the holidays approaching, I knew I'd be needing reliable printing, so I started shopping several months ago.

My first choice was another PhotoSmart, but I was irritated with HP for changing the printer cartridges for newer models, so that I wouldn't be able to use ink that I still have in my cabinet. I finally decided on a Canon Pixma MX922, on sale at Best Buy for $125, with free delivery. I was a little dismayed to find the same printer at Amazon for $99 ...

The printer arrived Friday afternoon, 3 full days earlier than promised. I unboxed it right away, and went to work on setup on Saturday morning. Like many of my IT colleagues, I took only a cursory glance at instructions; after all, I've set up dozens of printers and one is much like the other. However, the ink cartridges were a little different on this printer, easy to install the wrong way. I did this several times until an online video and a little logic (often in short supply) led me down the path to success.

One online reviewer warned that wireless networking was harder than expected, but fortunately I've done this for many devices and my problem was limited to figuring out the buttons for the little keyboard on the device display.


Canon Pixma MX922

The printer is fast and output is almost like laser printing. The tools that come with setup are easy to use and will serve me well for use with digital photos -- I don't do much editing but I do straighten and crop photos before archiving.

A new device -- laptop, phone, camera, speaker, printer -- is always a great pick-me-up. I'm thinking of it as my "caregiver bonus".