Customer Reviews

Canon CanoScan LiDE 500F Color Image Scanner

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Summary
+ Very mobile (no power cord uses USB connection for power)
+ Good quality
+ Plenty of useful software to get you started
+ Good resolution
+ IR image correction
+ Scans negatives (a 6 frame strip at once)
+ Small footprint, and 3 ways to setup the scanner on your desk.
+ Good match with the i950 printer.
+ No waiting for warm-up, just scan away.
(...)
+ Well matched with my I950 printer

- Slower than some of the $90 bulky scanners.
- Lower resolution than some of the bulky scanners.

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I purchased this scanner the day it came out (Jan 31 2005). (...)

There were more features, it was a newer product. So I gambled with the 500f and returned the LiDE80.
The reviews were mixed for the LiDE 80 to begin with. It seems that it's biggest asset was the slim profile. This attribute is compounded in the 500f since it can be setup "vertically". The footprint is minimized on the desktop.

The LiDE technology allows the use of LEDs to illuminate the object being scanned. Other technology uses a cathode/fluorescent tube. The advantages of the LEDs are that there is no warm up and thus no waiting. The life span is much greater for LEDs, and they are not damaged by movement or vibration. Though most cathode/fluorescent tubes can produce just as good a sometimes much better image quality, their lifespan can be shorter and power requirements are much greater. This technology is best realized if you will be moving the scanner, using it adhoc, or if you don't want to wait for a warm-up. LiDE is also what allows Canon to make the thing so thin (1").

The 500f scanner is rather slow at higher resolutions 2-3 sec preview and 30 - 40 seconds full scan. Other tube type scanners offer higher resolution with faster scan speeds for less money. These scanners are fine if you are not interested in the space saving aspect, and don't mind an initial warm-up.

The scanner does a good job at correcting minor scratches and dust on slides and photos. I think the over all quality is fantastic, not to mention the price.

The unit operates pretty quietly and is a good match with my printer (Canon i950 - which is incredible by the way).

The software offered is complete and allows you to really use the scanner. There is a simple tool which scans and saves - a tool for photo editing (feature rich I might add)- a tool for assigning actions to the 4 buttons (mail, pdf, copy, scan). The copy is pretty cool if you want the image to scan and go right to the printer to be printed. You also get a program which scans and converts image to text. If you were to scan the pages of a book the scan would be converted to text. I have not used this text recognition software yet, but it could be useful at some point.

A nice feature of the 500f over the 80 is the fact that you can scan a 6 frame strip of negatives at once. The 80 requires you to manually advance 1 frame at a time. If you're looking to archive negatives, or perhaps make reprints of your negatives, this is a really cool feature simply made better on the 500f. Other scanners offer the 35mm negative functionality as well...

I'm very happy with the purchase of this scanner. People that may feel it is lacking is those who are not in the market for a $109 scanner. If you want a really high end scanner you're going to be paying more than 2 times that amount. However; there are some scanners for less money that produce scans just as good but lack the features.

The scanner is only going to be as good as your printer; and for what I do, its a real bargain.

I looked hard at the Canon Canoscan LiDE 20 through LiDE 80 series and found much to admire. Even though I am a committed buyer of older-and-proven tech products, I paid a bit extra to get the newer Canon LiDE 500F. Why? Great design, great portability, great scanning resolution, great software - all for a great price. The LiDE 80 has these too, but the latest evolution of the Canon LiDE concept embodied in the 500F goes much further.

I'm a freelance writer, and I needed a slim and portable platen-based scanner powered through a fast USB 2.0 port to avoid a separate power supply for the scanner. I have a sheet-fed scanner built into my trusty old HP OfficeJet T45, but it's only good for documents neatly printed by PC printers, not odd-sized info from books and magazines that require a platen-based scanner. I use the Canoscan LiDE 500F to "copy" info when gathering research, both with my office desktop PC and in remote locations with my laptop. I use ABBYY FineReader 7.0 optical character recognition to recreate the original document or article's text (complete with the original graphics and layout) saved in Microsoft Word. The offsite alternative to this is a crude, time consuming, and expensive hassle using a local library copier.

The LiDE 500F's double-hinge expansion top design enables the platen lid to fold away flat, so any book or magazine covers the platen for scanning without having to deal with the platen lid at all. The Canon software is quite comprehensive, covering the gamut of customized scanning needs from simple office automation to highly complex scans for graphics. A built-in stand enables the LiDE 500F to stand on its edge in the office, enabling space-saving efficiency and convenience, with it's software-automated buttons for "copying" to a printer, scanning to a bitmap file, scanning to an Adobe PDF file, and inserted a saved scan into an email as an attachment. You will especially love the one-step convenience of inserting a bill or invoice into the scanner while mounted on its edge, and having the scanned item automatically print directly to whatever default printer you preselect. The software also well supports the external film/slide adapter up to the 48-bit 2400x4800 max - including the vaunted FARE Level 3 (Film Automatic Retouching and Enhancement) built-in film retouching technology that automatically removes much of the dust and scratches that may appear on your originals. Canon's FARE Level 3 works, and works quite well to my eyes.

Is this the ideal scanner for the graphic artist or photography enthusiast? No. Desktop-only scanners dedicated to these pursuits are far superior in every way, only lacking the portability and all-round usefulness that the LiDE 500F offers for the price. The LiDE 500F reminds me of why the Olympus DS-330 is such a great voice recorder for both workstation-docked recording of telephone interviews and on-location voice recordings: a combination of great design for both stationary use and mobile use, and great software that handles every contingency for both the professional writer or general corporate user.

Drawbacks? The LiDE 500F is larger than the LiDE 20-80 series, a bit heavier, and a bit thicker. Note that it is almost exactly the same size as an Apple 17" Powerbook, so an Apple neoprene laptop sleeve for that PC fits it perfectly for slipping into your briefcase (if your briefcase is large enough). Just make sure you lock the platen down with the switch on the back before moving it to avoid damage. I've heard that the LiDE 500F is "noisy." It's not, really - no more than any other scanner. Just a low hum when scanning that disturbs nobody in today's noisy libraries, and virtually unnoticeable in any corporate office. I read somewhere that it is "slow." All scanners are slow compared to a high-speed copier, but the LiDE 500F's USB 2.0 interface boosts its performance considerably compared to the earlier LiDE 20/30/35 models that use a slower USB 1.1 interface. The speed of the LiDE 80 should be about the same, as it also uses a USB 2.0 interface. The trick to fast scanning is to limit your scanned resolutions to 300dpi or less. The file sizes will be smaller, and there's less work for your PC to handle for each scan.

If the LiDE 500F is too pricey or fancy for your needs, be aware that refurbished LiDE 20's and LiDE 35's are available today (April/2005) for a song - $30-$50! But they are limited by a slower USB 1.1 interface, lower resolutions for your photos, and don't have the built-in edge-standing office convenience of the LiDE 500F. Note that I have not commented on the quality of the scanning, color faithfulness, or sharpness. I also cannot comment on its long-term durability. To me, the LiDE 500F performs quite well and exhibits none of the weird patterning and faint lines that seem to plague similar slim-profile models from HP. Truth be told, HP printing and scanning products seem to have suffered from shabby quality and design in the past five years, and are no longer the unquestioned "safe bet" they once were. In contrast, the LiDE 500F certainly seems to be a safe bet for those seeking an ideal balance of performance and portability that desktop scanners have never before offered.

My objective is to scan in my most precious photos over the past 50 years (and much older photos from my parents) that I have in hard copy and negatives for backup and to use in memoirs. If you place the photos on the scanner with separations between them, each one is scanned as an individual .jpg file and the quality is incredible when I reprint them. I have not tried all the features, but am looking forward to scanning negatives as well. Great product, and so easy to install and use.

I bought a few other scanners that said they were compatible with my new MAC - however - I had many problems with them - but this one - plugged it in - no problems at all. Definately what you need in a scanner for MAC OSX!

Thanks!

Before buying a scanner, I had noted down a couple of points that I would definitely want in a scanner:
* min resolution of 2400x4800
* film scanning
* Portable and low on real estate - my desktop is filled with gadgets - printer, speakers, keyboard, mouse ...

8400F and the LIde 500 were the two scanners I shortlisted, finally decided to go with the LiDe 500. No regrets as it meet all my requirements.

But if you have space on your desktop and you do not mind about the portability, go for the 8400 F, it is a great scanner, but a bit bulky.

What I like about the LiDe 500
+ Excellent high resolution scans for both negatives, positives and pictures
+ Can be placed vertically on the table
+ Portable - it could easily fit into my 17" laptop bag (not joking, thats how I carried on a international flight)
+ No external power supply (a great plus point)
+ Easy to install and configure
+ The software that corrects the minor scratches - really works !

What I did not like/could have improved:
+ Some of the negative scans seemed to be a bit overexposed, but some adjustments with the accompanying software seemed to correct it
+ Lacks the ability to scan multiple negatives at the same time

I have a Mac running OS X 10.3.9. I had a previous model of Canon which my son broke and I was willing to try a Canon again. The scanner works well via the on board buttons. I installed the latest relaease of Canoscan's toolbox, which I plucked from Canon's website. Scans are fairly fast and high quality. I use the Toolbox interface to get my scans, using the 'save' option. You can asign this function to the scan button. I think by default the button scanned to an application. I have not been able to set up scanning directly to iPhoto. I scan, and save the file to pictures/my pictures/date where date is the current day.

Multi scan works great once I figured out you have to leave a half inch gap between photos. Also, auto crop is pretty good but sometimes does not crop the image from the full platen size.

The scans are fantastic for color and contrast.

This scanner has a nice physical design. a bit larger than my previous one, but the built in stand is nice and most of my scanning, when I am doing one picture or a sheet of paper, I can do while the scanner is stood up on its stand.

I have not tried the transparancy tool yet.

Bought this scanner because of it's zero warm up time and straight to PDF scanning. This is a really awesome scanner for this purpose. I can scan a document to PDF at 400 DPI(the highest it will do B&W) in <12 seconds. The no warm up is really awesome. Forget all this preview junk, just sacn it the first time. This is a PERFECT SCANNER for a band director looking to archive music electronically. With other scanners I've had, first have to scan to an image, then print to PDF driver. My previous scanner (an older HP scanjet) took 90 seconds to complete the same task (using 600 DPI). Quality is perfectly good at 400 DPI for the job, and I have no regrets.

I had no issues installing or using, no lines that I can see. I haven't tried color yet (and probably won't for some time). The only thing I've found to complain about is the USB cable coming out the front. What idiot decided that. The document glass sometimes requires a little push to shut flush and block all the light on a single 8.5x11, but these are all veyr minor gripes. This device is really small. That wasn't a conern to me, but I was comparing to the 8400 also by Canon, and this one was cheaper, so I went with it. No regrets at all, very fast. Don't discount the no warm up time. Those 1-2 seconds add up when you're scanning 60 pages. This one scans immediately and quickly.

When it comes to printers, scanners, or cameras, I almost never look at anything but Canon (exception: Casio digital cameras).
Why? Because Canon consistently produces quality products at reasonable prices. The LiDE 500F Color Image Scanner is no exception to this rule.

There is absolutely ZERO wait between scans and at 200DPI scanning mode + ABBYY FineReader Pro's native interface, this scanner begins the next scan before I can even load the next page of my book. Simply amazing.

The scanner uses a standard USB device cable, which can be found at [...] using coupon code PRICEWATCH (free shipping) for dirt cheap. Regardless, this scanner includes all necessary cables.

I decided not to post "pros & cons", since other Amazon reviewers have already done a fairly good job of that.

A few minor complaints about the 500F, though;

1.) There is a slight "creaking" sound whenever I raise & lower the top lid.
2.) The scanner refuses to work on my Dell 2001fp's [20.1inch LCD w/ built in USB2 ports] USB ports. I'm guessing because the internal USB2 hub doesn't supply enough power. That was a bummer. It works on my computer's regular ports just fine though.
3.) The inherent design of the scanner makes it a little awkward to scan certain types of books. I kind of wished that Canon followed the LiDE35 model design with the center-hinged top cover.

Some positive things to note that others didn't mention;
1.) Absolutely NO lag between scans. It uses LED head scanning technology, so there's no warmup time!
2.) The scanner's design is absolutely gorgeous. Bravo, Canon.
3.) VERY portable and not that heavy for a top of the line scanner.

Neutral:
1.) I didn't even bother with the included software, but I've heard that it's actually pretty decent software. I use ABBYY FineReader Pro OCR 7's native interface to scan back-back documents/books.

Love the scanner. Using it in the configuration that allows you to set it on its side it a wonderful feature that uses very little desk space. I would recommend to anyone looking for a small footprint flatbed scanner.

Only negatives
1) Rather slow in full color scanning. I am willing to give up speed for the small footprint but if you do a lot of color scanning you may want to get something faster

2) The company needs to update the packaged software. It comes with Adobe Reader 5.0. After installing the scanner I found that I was getting a lot of 'Page could not be displayed' when surfing. I noticed they were all pdf files trying to load into the page. Removing the 5.0 Reader version solved that problem but then I had to go into the Canoscan toolbox and tell the program where to find the current version of Reader 7.0. Silly that such a nice product has such old bundled software.

I am quite impressed with this scanner. My last scanner was purchased back in 1999; this new one is in a different league! Scanning is fast and easy and I'm quite surprised by the quality of the images. I've scanned 20 year-old photographs and the quality of the scans easily matches the original prints!

Set-up was easy with the USB cable (no power cord needed); it is lightweight with a sleek design; and the software is quite usable. I spent a few hours reading reviews on the Internet before I purchased this and I am convinced I made a good decision. You're not going to do much better in this price range!