Canon PC430 Personal Copier

To set up the Canon PC430 photocopier, we opened the copier's cover, took out the toner cartridge, removed the protective sealing tape, reinserted the toner cartridge, closed the copier's cover, and plugged in the AC power cord. The copier was ready to make copies without needing even a short warm-up period.

In our test of the PC430, we copied a variety of documents, and, in most cases, the black-and-white copies were nearly indistinguishable from the black-and-white originals. There were no unexpected smudges or grains unless the originals contained colors or shades of gray. For detailed images and photographs, the automatic exposure system consistently made copies that were too dark; so we turned off the automatic system with the touch of a button, and adjusted the exposure by turning a dial--and saw dramatic improvement.

The copier is rated at four ppm, which is slow for an office copier but consistent with copiers in this price range.

Pros:

• Easy setup
• Intuitive controls
• Instant warm-up
• Toner cartridge included

Cons

• Slow copy rate