Shooting for the Best With Canon

Reviewing such an electronic marvel as the Canon PixmaMP970 is a daunting and formidable undertaking for this Potato Head. Technical wonder meets technical wonderer is the story here. Canon’s MP970 is one of its premier machines, one that is capable of printing, scanning and copying via normal means or wirelessly over a network or from a Bluetooth enabled device. It can print directly from memory cards. The MP970 has dual paper paths and offers two-sided printing with a built in duplexer. It has an auto-Image fix function and a 3.5-inch high-res color LCD for preview and editing. With this amazing machine one can create borderless prints, enlarge and reduce, make multiple copies, print two or four pages on one side of a sheet of paper, repeat an image on a page, mask, trim, even brighten faces. In short, the Canon MP970 has more features than this Potato Head needs, will ever use, or will ever figure out how to use.

Why

I envy those who can buy on the fly and never look back, those who buy based on price and gut instinct. Even if better products are out there, they think theirs is good enough and the price was right. Some of us, on the other hand, research too much and think too much. I’d owned an Epson, three HP’s and a Canon printer. I like the Canon’s durability and back feed design so I pretty much was sold on Canon. But which one? After some research and review reading, I’d decided on the MX700 all in one. Not content to leave well enough alone I continued to read and search, finally choosing from Canon’s 14 multifunction printers the faxless MP970 because of its wireless capabilities and its duplex printing feature. Most “professional”reviews I read found the MP970’s picture output superior to that of the MX700 though in Circuit City I saw a sample photo printed from the MX700 that looked fabulous.

Whatcha Get

The MP970 measures 18.5 by 15.6 by 8.4 inches, with a stated weight of 35 pounds.
In its burnished silver cabinet, it looks sleek and modern despite its size.

In the box – the printer and power cord, easy setup instructions, quick start guide, setup software and user’s guide CD-ROM, user’s guide, print head, ink cartridges, and sample media.
Software included – MP driver, MP Navigator, Set up software and user’s guide, electronic photo application guide, electronic user’s guide, e-registration, ArcSoft Photo Studio, ScanSoft Omni Page SE, Easy Photo Print version 3.5, and easy Web Print

Below are only a few of the printer’s specifications. You can find the entire list at the Canon site or the sites of vendors.

Prints 4” x 6” borderless photo in about 35 seconds
Prints up to 30ppm of black text.
Prints up to 22 ppm of pages with graphics

Nozzles –black text 512
Nozzles – color 512 x 6
Reductions/Enlargements from 25% to 400%

Copy feature – borderless, duplex, 4 on 1 or 2 on 1, fit to page, image repeat, auto magnification, fading correction, multiple copy 1-99 pages, face brightener, dual color gamut processing technology. ( I have no idea what that last one means.)

Features

If I list them all here, this review will go on for days. Serious shoppers can easily find more details elsewhere. Here are just a few.

Multifunction photo printer, flatbed scanner and color copier
Can print credit cards, legal size paper, #10 envelopes and almost any size in between
PictBridge Direct USB printing from most modern digicams
7 color photo ink system, individually replaceable ink tanks
Dual paper paths
Two-sided printing with built in duplexer
Borderless printing
3.5-inch high-res color LCD. Easy to read for preview and editing
Auto image fix function
Infrared wireless JPEG printing from compatible cell phones
Bluetooth wireless adapter available.
Built in Ethernet port for network connectivity. (no cable included)
Energy Star qualified
Certified for Windows Vista
Print pictures directly from memory cards or cameras


Personal experience

Luckily for this dimwit “Easy Setup Instructions” are included with the printer. The first step is to unpack the machine. Installing the printhead and ink cartridges was easy as was printing the test patterns. Installing the software was also problem free and took about half the time ominously shown on the setup screen. Vista even automatically sought and downloaded the latest drivers and updates.
The inks snap securely into position and a light goes on for each cartridge to indicate proper installation. The Canon Multipass predecessor doesn’t have the light feature. Those who upgrade from an older Canon printer will recognize the familiar dialog boxes and printer properties screens complete with a few added features.

As frames of reference I draw on the previous Canon MultiPass, my daughter’s basic Canon printer, and the HP’s at work. As stated previously I like the sturdy quality of this machine, especially the paper feeds. Do a hands on examination of printers in any electronics store, visually and manually examining the paper feed mechanisms. Many are flimsy and feel like they may fall apart at the least jar or pull. In fact, with a previous HP that’s exactly what happened until the third replacement. Feeding paper of various sizes and even envelopes has been smooth sailing with this printer.
Two-sided printing is especially nice. One side is printed, the paper is drawn back into the printer and a second page is printed on the other side before the page reemerges. Two-sided printing works best with a good quality paper. I find this feature convenient when printing the numerous software and hardware guides only available on disk these days.

Loudness – This printer is not silent, but does seem to be somewhat quieter than the MultiPass and noticeably quieter than Michelle’s Canon Pixma 1800. The sound is certainly not obtrusive. It sounds like a machine that knows what it’s doing.

Output Quality – Text on plain paper at the fast speed is marvelous, clear and sharp. Text at the slowest speed on good quality paper is superb. I have no complaints. I printed about 30 pages of the printer’s online manual combining text and graphics. Using the standard setting produced beautiful results with crisp text and clear illustrations with no blurring, no smudging.

Printing the same photographs with both the MP970 and the MultiPass on Canon High Resolution Paper and Canon Glossy Photo Paper produced inconclusive results. Color and detail on all photos were excellent. The photos printed on the MP970 generally had a more intense coloration. The auto image fix feature does make a difference and its handiwork is more noticeable in some photos than others.

Speed - I have no complaints with this unit’s printing speed. Other printers may be slightly faster, but to me getting a printout a few seconds sooner is a negligible advantage. The comparison charts shown on some sites make two seconds look like two minutes.

Conclusion and recommendations

I like this machine quite a bit and would buy it again. After the hundred-dollar rebate, my final cost for the MP970 was two hundred dollars. I’m willing to pay a little more knowing I’ve bought quality. On some online sites it can be had with free shipping and no state taxes.

Random thoughts-
Documentation is mediocre at best, as is the online help. In my experience the help screens and digital documentation provided by HP is much better.
I haven’t set up the wireless function yet since I haven’t bought the necessary cable yet. After reading the included Network setup guide, it doesn’t look too complicated.

I like the printer’s onboard controls and especially like the large LCD screen with its detailed directives. Using the clear screen, it’s a joy to preview photographs from a memory card, make adjustments, and print. Even a Potato Head could do it. Photographs of a large frog printed directly from a memory card onto plain paper at the standard setting came out incredibly.

Turn ons – Every printer I’ve ever owned, as well as the big business copiers at tutoring center, take an interminable amount of time to prepare for work with lots of audible complaints. The MP970 is ready to go a few seconds after start up. It turns itself off quickly also. This fast turnabout is a welcome feature for the impatient.

The software bundle included is quite generous. I like the easy web print program and am familiar with it from the MultiPass. With all documentation and guides on disk, it will take some time to learn all the ins and outs of Arc Soft Photo Suite and the Scan Soft Omni Page. ArcSoft’s included Fun House is aptly named and an enjoyable program for those who like to tinker with photos for fun.


I’m not looking forward to replacing the expensive ink cartridges, especially seven of them. Only time will tell how long the ink tanks will last and how much it will ink costs will be.