I have had this printer since 7/2002 for home use, and thought I'd share my experience with other users. My F50 works for both my networked XP computers using Windows File and Printer Sharing. (I have the firewall that comes with my security suite turned off.) To avoid that annoying message with a blinking red light that it can't connect, I just don't load the driver and toolbar on the networked computer. Despite the message, printing works. One major catch: It only works for the first user that has logged in to the computer that it's physically connected to, however. If on that computer I log in to a second user, that user will not be able to print.

Since I purchased this printer before I knew I would have a home network and before I used XP, I didn't know about this problem. I don't really blame Canon, but a little foresight would have been nice. Canon does seem like a fairly responsible company that continues to support this old hardware as best they can.

If you have problems with printing looking fuzzy, you probably haven't aligned the printheads since the last installation of print cartridges. The printer doesn't remind you to do so, so it's up to you to do it.

I also agree that you must get good photo paper for this printer. I tried some generic paper, and the prints were all greenish. Both Epson and Canon photo papers produce good prints.

This printer doesn't support borderless printing.

That's all, I'm not very discerning about print quality and other things, so I leave that to other reviewers with superior taste. I don't really use the scanner much anymore, since it takes too long and all my recent pictures are already digital. Copier/scanner/fax/printer all work fine, no malfunctions. The buttons on the front panel are very user-friendly.

Have had printer 1 1/2 years and then upgraded my win98 SE computer to Win XP Pro. Now whenver I print from Win XP Pro it tells me that MPS in not connected (error) when it in fact IS connected. ???? Canon Website did reproduce the ERROR messages but there 40XXXt upgrade driver DOES NOT fix the problem. Even when used on a STAND ALONE computer. I have uninstalled hardware & software it will only orint from MS word one time; when you first install driver. Then after a hard boot it won't work again???? All this for $350 printer/scanner/fax that won't work with XP Pro? I am not using network features either. Canon needs to do better than this to keep me as a customer. What happens when I want a home networked printer? (Is the lesson then----> Don't get a Canon? you cant upgrade it?)

Software was cumbersome. Great print quality. After three years of relatively light duty, the unit is completely kaput. Trashed scanner motor and printhead. I suppose three years is OK life out of a printer, but I'd hoped for more from Canon.

I purchased my Canon F50 when they first came out on the market (they were $489 at that time). I was unhappy with the streaks that my old feed through scanner was leaving on the photos that I scanned. I wanted to find something that had a flat platen for scanning, and also offered the option of an automatic document feeder. I wanted an all-in-one unit that could scan, fax, copy, and print a decent quality photo. I had made my mind up that I would like one that had separate ink tanks so I could just replace the color that had run out and not the whole cartridge. I spent a lot of time researching multifunction units and reading product reviews. The Canon Multipass F50 met all of my criteria and it had mostly good reviews so I went out and purchased one.

Some of the complaints that I read in the negative reviews really didn't matter to me. I had no intentions of using this as a network printer, and I really didn't mind the status monitor setup. I have the status monitor disabled in the msconfig system utility and then I put a shortcut to it in my start menu. It only takes a minute or so to start it up when you do need it. If you don't do a lot of printing then there is no reason to leave it on all the time.

I took out the 3 year Canon extended service plan (which I would recommend to everyone) and anytime I need help I give them a call. They have always been very helpful and I have always been able to resolve any problems with their help. I have to say that their tech support has been great.

The Canon F50 prints out a decent quality photo at a reasonable speed. Remember when printing photos that paper quality is everything! Don't expect to get professional looking photos from low quality photo papers. With the right paper you can print out really great looking photos on the F50. The only thing that I don't like is that it doesn't allow you to print borderless photos.

The ink tanks are very reasonably priced - at least for the off brand cartridges. I found a place called Neximaging.com where you can purchase off brand cartridges for as low as $3 a cartridge!! Just remember that using any cartridges other than Canon brand cartridges will void your warranty, so you have to decide yourself if it is worth the gamble.

The fax speeds are great and its auto-retry feature comes in really handy when you are faxing to a place with busy fax lines. You can just set it and leave. It will keep trying to send the fax while you're away. The Canon F50 can be set to print out a report verifying receipt of your faxes so you will know if your fax was successful or not.

There are some things that I would change if they were to build a better model of the F50. First of all the cycle time to startup and shutdown this unit is very long and it is very noisy during this time. I think that this is when it is refreshing its heads. This is actually a good thing because it extends the life of your heads, so I can live with it. The latch that holds the cover open when you are changing ink tanks seems very weak and the cover could easily drop down on your hand while you are changing the tanks. Also, switching over to envelopes is a pain because you have to unload your paper tray, resize your tray guides, load your envelopes, print your envelope, and then resize and reload the tray again. Couldn't they have a second tray to hold the envelopes and a switch to change between the paper and the envelope trays? Oh well, I guess you can't have everything!

I never have regretted purchasing my Canon F50, although I wish that I had waited a little while until the price on them had dropped. I see what they sell for now and it makes me sick to think how much I had paid for mine. I am not going to make the same mistake twice so I have waited until now to purchase the next model up - the F80. I will be purchasing one soon and I will write a review on that one after I have had it for a while.

I truly like this printer. It's fast, beautiful output. FAX, scanner and copy functions are very easy to use and reliable.

The only thing I don't like is that you have to use Canon's drivers. I never successfuly got the USB connection to work.
Canon want's you to use their USB controls, not Windows. It
got all confused and kept repeatedly saying "It's not connected,
It's not connected!!!". Well, it was. I just plugged in my parallel printer cable and moved on.