I was looking around recently at getting some of my old pictures converted from 35mm negatives to digital. After looking at the pricing offered through both companies specializing in this and local camera shops/retail stores I was in awe at the prices they charged. The lowest price I found was $0.50/image and they charged around $5 for a CD and I’m not sure for a DVD. Even the person at the local camera store suggested I buy a scanner and do it myself since they had them starting at around $100.

Rather than adding another device to my work area, I opted to look around at replacing my 1 year old HP C5180 AiO. It’s a good printer/scanner with network and card reader support but it would be cheaper to sell it off with a stack of photo paper, etc. and just go for what I found to have what I was looking for, which included the 35mm negative scanner, card reader and network connectivity. I found the MP970.

I have little to contribute at this time and will probably update this later. I did, however get it connected to the network (which required connecting it to USB first for some rediculous reason) and scanned both a negative scan from the interactive menu (direct to 4×6 photo paper) and straight to the PC at 4800dpi (about 6800×4400) . Both worked without issue (albeit slow with the resolution). The print I chose wasn’t a very good choice since it was from a disposable underwater camera that I used for snorkeling in Cancun several years back. I also picked up a pack of Canon photo paper to compare it to the HP paper I had for my C5180. It does appear what they say is correct regarding the quality of the print being directly related to paper chosen for the printer, however I’d have to try another since the first photo printed (out of the box) was to the HP paper. The HP print had clear banding while the Canon paper was clear (both being a bit blurred since it was under water). Once I find a good print, I’ll do another print to both paper for a better comparison.

The final test for the moment is TWAIN scanning. I attempted this with PhotoShop with no issue. One of my biggest complaints about the HP software is that it gives no prompt for scanning. You get an immediate scan, no ability to load a profile or change settings… it immediately does a full image scan at 200dpi. Saving settings only means they’re available AFTER it does the initial 200dpi scan. There’s no stop either with the HP software. Luckily the Canon opens up the TWAIN dialog and instructs you to click preview or change the settings before committing time to a scan you’ll start over with.

I’ve read mixed reviews on the unit about the installation. It’s true that it’s overloaded with bloated software, including the drivers which was a whopping 150mb. What the hell do they put in drivers these days?? I understand it has a lot of functionality and installs the TWAIN drivers but 150mb??? There’s also a photo package, OCR software and some other items that add up to a total install of over 600mb. What these user reviews missed is that all of this is NOT required and doesn’t have to be selected. There’s a button that allows you to do a customized install and apparently this escapes these users. The other item that that users argued wasn’t clear is connecting the AiO to the network. I agree that when asked to connect the USB I scratched my head and was hesitant but I knew that I had chosen network and followed the steps and found no ambiguity by simply following the on-screen messages.

cNET also isn’t keen to the MP970 over the MP960 (which was $100 more w/no network support) regarding speed and overall quality but in reality a 6.9 rating on cNET isn’t that bad and user reviews (outside of setup) have been strong 4 or 5 (out of 5). Unfortunately PC Mag has no review for the 970 as of yet, only the 960, which was an editors choice.

So far, so good after about an 1 – 1 1/2 hours of “play time”. We’ll see how the process continues as I start scanning in my 35mm negatives and complete some other scanning tasks such as direct pictures.