Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I am an amateur photographer and a professional Software Engineer. I purchased this printer as a general purpose printer and as a low cost photo printer. My home network which consists of 5 Windows XP computers and 1 Mac OS X computer (mine). I connected the printer to my network using the built in ethernet port. All of the testing I performed was over the network and I never tried the USB port. The printer does everything it advertises and does it well. I tested printing, scanning, and card reader functionality using OS X Tiger, OS X Leopard, Windows XP, and the printer worked flawlessly regardless of the OS I was using. You just need to make sure that you download and install the latest and greatest driver for the particular OS you are using. I also tried scanning directly using Photoshop CS3 on OS X Leopard and everything worked perfect.
One of the reasons I purchased the MP970 was for low cost photo printing. I also own an Epson R2400 which is a semi-professional dedicated photo printer. The R2400 is expensive to purchase, and expensive to operate. I was curious how the MP970 photo quality would compare to the R2400 so I directly compared photos printed on the Canon MP970 to the same photos printed on the Epson R2400. The Canon MP970 prints great pictures, but it is simply does not produce the same quality pictures as the R2400. I printed pictures from Photoshop in a color managed environment using Ilford Smooth Pearl Photo Paper and compared the R2400 to the MP970. The Canon MP970 did very well but Epson R2400 was definitely the winner - which was the expected result. The Epson had better highlights, better shadows, and more neutral mid tones. Notwithstanding, the MP970 produced very respectable prints which would be acceptable in all but the most demanding applications. The bottom line is that if you are really serious about excellent photo quality, this is not the printer for you. If you want a low cost way to produce very respectable prints, this printer is definitely for you. I feel that the Canon MP970 fully meets or exceeds my quality expectations for a low cost photo printer. And, as an added bonus, the MP970 is way cheaper to operate than my R2400 because it uses a lot less ink. As an example of how I use it, it's a lot more cost effective to print 25 Christmas cards on my MP970 than it is to print the same 25 cards on the R2400.
I only gave the printer 4 stars because it powers itself off every 2 to 4 days for no reason. Canon technical support confirmed that the printer should not power itself off and sent me a new replacement printer under warranty. Unfortunately, the replacement printer also powers itself off for no reason. I tried several different electrical outlets in my office and it did not fix the problem. Also, no other devices in my office power themselves off. This review has been here for a while now and several people posted comments and said that their MP970 printers also intermittently power off.
Update on Intermittent Power off Issue:
After about 9 months of operation, I ended up moving the printer from my office to my Son's room (for unrelated reasons). For unexplained reasons, the printer stopped intermittently powering itself off after I moved it to my Son's room. The printer has been in my Son's room for roughly 3 months now and it has not powered itself off once. Weird.
I have had the printer for roughly 1 year and I have not had any problems except for the power issue mentioned above.
Here is what the printer does:
- Double sided printing
- Ethernet connectivity
- USB Connectivity
- Initiate a scan from the printer or the computer
- Scan to the disk on your computer, scan to email, scan to PDF
- Copy
- Read camera memory cards. Access the cards via network or USB
- Scanner is compatible with Photoshop CS3 on OS X
- Compatible with OS X Tiger, OS X Leopard, Windows XP, Windows Vista
- 2 paper trays: Cassette in the bottom, open paper tray in the rear
- Will make borderless photo prints
Here is what the printer does not do:
- Does not fax
- Does not have an auto document feeder for the scanner
- Canon does not supply Linux drivers, but I have heard that Linux drivers may be available from other sources (see comments made by others about this review for more information).
- Wireless Ethernet is not directly supported. This printer connects to your network with an Ethernet cable.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Canon Pixma MP970 Photo All-In-One Inkjet Printer (2181B002)
The Canon PIXMA MP970 Photo All-in-One Inkjet Printer lets you preview, scan, copy, and print photographs and documents with one easy machine. This all-in-one printer features a compact, streamlined design that can preview images in high resolution on its 3.5-inch TFT display, scan beautiful images with color resolutions up to 9600 by 2400 dpi, or print photos directly from memory cards, cameras, DV camcorders, or camera phones in seconds. The printer's Easy Scroll Wheel makes operation a breeze. The Auto-Image Fix feature ensures that every photo is clear and vivid--even when scanning difficult items such as thick notebooks or faded images--to result in stunning color resolutions up to 4800 by 9600 dpi. This PIXMA will even allows print or copy two-sided to save paper and space.
Just press the Power button and get to work, thanks to the printer's helpful Quick Start design. Copies come out crisper than ever with the system's Dual Color Gamut Processing Technology. Compatible with Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Mac OS X 10.2.8 to 10.4.x8 operating systems, this printer comes backed by a 1-year limited manufacturer's warranty.
What's in the Box Pixma MP970 photo all-in-one printer, cross sell sheet, easy setup instructions, quick start guide, setup software and user's guide CD-ROM, user's guide, PGI-5 black ink tank, CLI-8 (cyan/magenta/yellow) ink tank, power cord, print head, and sample media (8.5-by-11.5-inch sheets).
Click here for more information about Canon Pixma MP970 Photo All-In-One Inkjet Printer (2181B002)
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