Customer Reviews

Canon Pixma MP970 Photo All-In-One Inkjet Printer (2181B002)

5 star:		(77)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

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.

I always owned HP printers (except for 1 Epson). The last generation Canon printers (MP810,MP830, MP960 etc.) always got great reviews on print quality/speed, but no networking. I was NOT happy with the HP printers of the same generation because of the reviews (mediocre print quality). I still favored HP because they have been good printers for me. I wanted to network my printer on my home network (3 wired PC's, 2 wireless laptops). I had my HP printer shared, but one PC has to remain on for the others to print. I was waiting for new models to come out. Finally they are here from HP, Canon, and Lexmark etc.). I first looked at the new HP printers and seen the same small expensive ink tanks and nothing looked better except for wireless. I even looked at Lexmark's new line. I wanted something nicer. Then, I saw the Canon MP970. Outstanding print/scanner spec's, 35mm film and slide scanning, Pict Bridge, etc.
I bought one and have been using it. I have it networked to all PC's and it could not have been easier. I put in the CDROM followed the on screen instructions. Installation went without a hitch. I have printed/scanned from my wired/wireless PC's. Everything works fast and reliable. The quality of text seems laser quality and the photo's look lab quality. This is my first Canon printer and I am very happy with it.

For those who purchase this in North America, you may like to know that this can print directly onto CDs/DVDs. It's one of the standard features, but Canon disabled this feature for US customers due to a patent, but if you do a quick google search for "Canon five easy steps" you can find out how to easily enable this great feature (in five easy steps!).

I purchased this Canon after reading all of the set up complaints about a competitors product. I am an experienced digital photographer and printer and purchased the MP970 for color printing and copying about three months ago. I have a laser for black & white printing and use the Canon everyday. The set up was simple and came with easy to follow directions that worked perfectly with no confusion to install the ink cartridges. The printer is well made and feels solid. The electronic display is user-friendly and I have not needed to read the manual to copy, scan or print. The display comes with a scroll wheel when there's a choice and a 'preview' button. I use the preview all of the time when copying/scanning from bound books to verify that I can see the whole page. I really love this and also being able to print or copy on both sides of the page (duplex printing) with a press of the OK button. I recommend printing photographs on Canon photo quality paper for outstanding images. This is a really simple machine to use and enjoy!

2/14/2010 Update: The printer is no longer working. It does not print all colors. The Canon web site indicates that after deep cleaning maintenance several times, if colors are missing the print head may need to be replaced by an authorized service tech. And if the replacement part does not make the printer work, the part cannot be returned according to Canon Support. The auth. tech. nearest one to my home is 45 miles away. The printer is only 25 months old and should have lasted longer than this!

Pros:
- Excellent Photo Printing
- Print directly from card/camera with 3" display
- Fast start up and printing speed
- Two paper input trays
- Two sided printing
- Plugs into Network,
- Scans film negatives
- Broad range of software included
- Prints on special CDs(I haven't tried it yet)

Cons:
- No fax capability (can scan and then fax from PC)
- No paper feeder for scanner, single page at a time
- Poor envelope printing (Canon recommends using edge of pen to flatten all edges of each envelope, printing smeared if not perfectly flat, have to print labels instead of printing directly on envelope)
- Some of the included software is not intuitive, need to read manuals

The Canon MP970 is my first photo printer. The key things I was looking for when purchasing this were:-
-Good quality prints
-Wireless networking
-Communicates well with Mac
-Scanner

I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived home and read the manual and realized that this printer also scans slides and film. The set up was super simple, the prints are excellent and the scanning of film works superbly (scanned 34 year old slides and the quality was amazing).

The only downside to this printer, in my opinion, is the manual. Its not that easy to follow, but with a little investigation and playing around, you can pretty much figure out anything you want to with the printer.

All in all, I'm extremely pleased with this purchase and would recommend it to anyone who plans on doing a lot of printing (as I do).

Canon MP970
Very satisfied.

Considered getting a nearly-pro photo printer and a color laser for docs.
Decided we probably wouldn't print very many large pics and the loss of text sharpness with this model was mild at worst.

Love that it's network friendly. Our Windows machines found and worked with the printer effortlessly. The Linux machines can print greyscale, but I haven't seen a color solution and Canon seems unwilling to release a linux driver, despite already having one for Mac (hey, BSD aint that far away from linux. Come on Canon)

Duplex printing! -swoon-

Text is very sharp for an inkjet. Black text gets its own pigment-based cartridge!

While we didn't intend for this to be used for pics to be hung or framed, just 'refrigerator-grade' would be fine, the quality of photos on photo paper was quite a pleasant surprise.

I was still under the out-dated belief that inkjets meant easily smudged and critically sensitive to water. This problem has basically been solved with most of today's high quality inks & pigments. Once dry (its fast) neither text nor photos are easily smudged or readily affected by small amounts of moisture.

Our scanner use consist mostly of receipts and checks, but a quick look at a couple of scanned photos (from film) reveals it to be quite nice.

Cons:
???hmmm... just trivial things...
-The included software installs 6 different programs, each in its own folder, with no real description of what you can safely forego.
-It's not small... but no all-in-one is and this one is sleeker than most.

At this price (meaning real cost..including ink price) we're very favorably impressed.

Added May2008: After several months we still like this printer very much. The lack of a linux driver may convince us to find another solution though.

I'm writing this review to note a fairly important flaw in the design of the MP970 relating to pigment black printing. All the wonderful things that others have written about this printer are true. The output is great, scans are great, it's easy to work with, and it just plain works. Despite the problem I'm about to describe, I would buy this printer again because it's such a good deal.

According to the Canon FAQ (and verified in testing,) this printer will use the photo black ink when the duplexer option is selected. Apparently, there's a problem with the pigment black ink getting the rollers dirty when using the duplexer.

This is really annoying because the duplexer and the pigment black ink are major selling points. Documents printed with the pigment black ink really do look significantly better than those printed with the photo black. The text is blacker and edges sharper. But if you want that high-quality output to be double-sided, then you have to do it the old-fashioned way of printing all the odd pages then flipping the stack to print the even pages. The print driver has a manual duplexing option but that uses the photo black as well, which renders the duplexer near useless unless you're printing double-sided photos.

So to use the pigment black ink you must select Plain Paper, check the Grayscale Printing option, and under the Page Setup tab do NOT select Duplex Printing. Maybe in the next version they'll figure out how to use pigment ink with the duplexer.

Before I purchased this printer I did a lot of research. I wanted an all-in-one network printer that could also produce quality photos. Everything I read suggested the Canon MP970 fit the bill.

The printer was promptly shipped and it was easy to set up. The only hitch was connecting to the scanner function via the network. This wasn't a big deal because I only needed the scanner function on the desktop that is beside the printer, so I wired it directly to that printer via a USB cable. With that fix, everything worked.

I'm impressed with the output for documents. Many times, a printer with more sophisticated photo functionality is not a viable candidate for everyday printing for documents, etc. This Canon seems to be the exception. I was also very impressed with the photo quality. My primary photo printer has always been Epson printers, but since I'm not doing as much photo printing, I was hoping to consolidate that functionality as well.

Overall, a very nice fit with what I was wanting. The panel control is very intuitive and easy to use. I recommend this printer without hesitation.

The Canon MP970 is a great multifunction photo printer - nothing more nothing less.

By nothing more I mean it is what it is - a PHOTO printer & scanner. Any one expecting office functionality out of this machine will be sorely disappointed, and rightfully so. It is not intended for office use. The MP970 is intended for use by the average home user in printing out high quality pictures (particularly 4x6 prints), and creating high quality scans. The machine excels at those two primary tasks (the average person will not be able to tell the difference between lab quality prints/scans and what the MP970 produces), and it manages to add to this with a few additional features.

Additional features such as duplex printing, bluetooth connectivity (with required accessory not included, unfortunately), infrared connectivity, and best of all, network connectivity, are absolutely fabulous! The printer is not bad at printing text either - it is near laser quality.

The manuals are not the greatest, but with a bit of effort it is not really difficult to do just about anything (within reason) that you need to do. Connecting the printer to a network is relatively simple assuming you are familiar with networking basics. Even if you aren't, the included networking guide and software should enable an individual of modest intelligence to get connected.

Overall this is a great photo printer and scanner for the average home user. Anyone expecting professional results (that can actually discern professional quality from what this printer produces) will be looking to spend well over $500 for a single function printer. Even with the high cost of ink (there are seven ink tanks), this printer is a great buy for the level of quality you are getting. You will no longer need a lab to print or save your high quality digital images.