The Canon ImageCLASS D661 is an affordable two in one laser printer and copy machine that is perfect for those looking to add copying capabilities to their home office on top of printing. Laser technology provides quality at a high speed, and with Canon’s unique single cartridge system, swapping out toner in this unit is easy enough for a novice user, and also affordable.
The single cartridge system implemented by Canon incorporates toner and drum cartridges into one device and, in this case, provides a hefty 5,000 page yield at five percent density. This makes for a price per page of about three cents, which is economical for any printer, inkjet and laser alike.
Copy specifications are great for a home business, but wouldn’t stand up to the professional grade multifunctional centers at the high end that are intended for office networking. Copy speed maxes out at 13 per minute, and the time to first copy is a little delayed, running at 13 seconds. But the 30 page automatic document feeder should prove to be a huge help when dealing with larger copy loads at one time.
One outstanding feature that you won’t find too often in an instrument of this caliber is a huge paper storage capacity, with a massive 500 sheet front loading paper cassette that allows you to load an entire ream of paper at one time, and an equally large 100 sheet multipurpose tray.
The multipurpose tray allows users to not only print on oddly sized media, such as envelopes and transparencies, but to load an entire stack of such media for automatic paper feeds, as opposed to the often seen front loading single slot. When using the multipurpose tray, however, thicker media will fit far fewer than the stated 100 sheets, as that number is based on 20 lb paper thickness. That being said, if 20 lb, or similar, paper is what you prefer, then the extra tray could be used simply as additional letter or legal sized storage.
Surprisingly for a copier of this magnitude, the document glass is of a full legal size allowing for maximum versatility. If you prefer to use the ADF, legal size is also supported along with letter, and even sheets as small as 5.5” x 8.5”. Any smaller, and you will have to use the platen glass for single passes.
The Canon imageCLASS D661 comes equipped with 2 MBs of built in memory, which allows the unit to support such features as memory collate. It also comes with not only standard parallel and USB 2.0 full speed ports, but also an optional Axis 1610 network adapter that may be purchased separately to allow networking of more than one user.
Sitting at 52.9 lbs with dimensions of 17.4″ x 24.5″ x 15.1″ (with attachments), this unit is very large considering its capabilities. Newer units with similar, or better, feature sets are almost always significantly smaller, but, of course, can be more expensive. But, as toner cartridges are still available, purchasing a Canon imageCLASS D661 refurbished on a site like Amazon may be an excellent cost effective choice for your home.
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