Customer Reviews

Canon CanoScan LiDE 25 Color Image Scanner (0307B001)

5 star:		(141)
4 star:		(86)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I bought this scanner to scan in about 150 old black and white family photos, and they all came out very nicely. I scanned only a handful of color pictures, and they were fine as well.

Some experiences I had using the scanner:
- smaller pictures end up getting a better final resolution
- the quality is great for pictures, but only average for text; for example newspaper articles don't scan well enough to allow you to read smaller text
- I was able to scan aout 30 pictures in an hour
- scanning multiple photos is usually easy: you don't have to crop a big image into the individual photos because the scanning software figures out the picture boundaries. However, occasionally the picture boundary detection stuff messes up and the scanner detects 1 fewer picture than was in the scanner, forcing you to rescan

For some old polaroids, the scanned picture was clearer and brighter than the polaroid. it brought out the picture in
an amazing way.

I mainly bought this scanner because of reviews that mentioned being able to save things in PDF format. Well, it's easy once you figure it out--but that took me over 90 minutes!

The scanner comes with several different kinds of software, and only one of them will save to PDF format. That's the CanoScan Toolbox. Neither ArcSoft PhotoStudio nor the Scansoft OmniPage software will.

The Quick Start Guide suggests trying your first scan using the ArcSoft software. I tried a small chart of plant names. It scanned very slowly and the result was unreadable. I tried again using a higher DPI. When I tried to save the file, I discovered no PDF option in the drop-down box. And even trying to close a window in the program took forever.

Next I tried the OmniPage software, since it was designed for text. It looked much clearer, but the procedure was still slow because it kept asking me to confirm the spelling of nearly every plant name. Again, no option in the drop-down box for saving to PDF format.

Finally in desperation I clicked on CanoScan Toolbox, where there was a big button marked PDF. I had a two-page document scanned and saved, wonderfully readable, in about a minute. Why on earth doesn't the Quick Start Guide suggest starting with this one, being the easiest and fastest?

I think I'm going to be very happy with the scanner, but am deducting one star for lack of documentation.

The power supply on my hp5470C finally bit the dust, and this scanner doesn't cost much more than an HP power supply. plus, it's a lot more portable.

i read the earlier reviews and was prepared for noise and slow speeds. i was pleasantly surprised.

WRT noise, the scanner makes a noticeable mechanical whine when preview scanning at 150DPI. at 300 DPI or more, it's much quieter. i measured the sound output from about a foot away, and it's roughly 56 dB (A weighted). that's not loud.

WRT speed, a full page is roughly 15 seconds at 300 DPI color. i tried scanning a dollar bill at 1200 DPI to get a feel for the resolution - the 1200 DPI scan took about a minute and a half, of just the bill.

sharpness was excellent. i could zoom in on the engraving on the bill with very nice results. color was good, and sharpness was fine.

on text scanning, i tried OCR'ing a page of the instructions that were written in small (about 6pt) type. the included ScanSoft Omnipage software got 100% accuracy.

the three buttons on the front of the scanner were easy to configure, and worked very well. a high quality copy of a color photo came out very nicely, when printed directly to my HP inkjet.

the form factor is great. it's about as thick as my hand, is roughly 14 3/4" x 10 1/4". weight is very light. it'd travel very easily in a briefcase or backpack, and i would have no compunction using it in a library (from a noise standpoint). it takes power from the USB cable, so would work very well w/ a notebook.

overall, i'm extremely pleased with this purchase. it exceeded my expectations.

The last scanner I bought was in 1997. Boy has technology evolved! Back then I had to pre-scan, adjust scan area, scan, and then save. Now all that process has been eliminated by a push of a button! One touch and this scanner scans, auto-crops, and saves automatically! This scanner can detect what part of the flatbed your photo is located, so it only scans that area and saves the photo without having to specify scan area. Neat! Plus this scanner is so thin and small! I am impressed.

I have been buying Canon products lately -- camera, printer, photo paper, and now this printer. Canon has yet to let me down. I'm amazed at the scan quality this scanner produces! I bought it simply so I could share wedding book and magazine photos with my mother who lives several hundred miles away, but I think I'm going to be preserving my old 35mm shots using the CanoScan LiDE 25. The price was excellent, installation was a breeze, power is supplied via the USB cable, and the software is incredibly user-friendly. I have yet to look at a manual and I'm already scanning images beautifully! It does take a while (45 seconds to a minute, give or take a few seconds) for things to scan. If you're on a deadline, this may not be the right equipment for the job. For day-to-day home use, this scanner can't be beat! Also, kudos to Amazon.com and UPS, from whom I always receive stellar service! My scanner was shipped and received in practically no time at all! I think it was a two business day turn-around from order to receipt, and with FREE SHIPPING!

I wanted a small flatbed scanner to convert nearly all of my paper documents (four lateral file drawers full) into PDF files. I've now scanned well over 1000 pages now with no problems. It could be a tad faster. Even as it is, it finishes scanning before I have the next page ready at least half of the time.

I'd give this scanner five stars were it not for the fact that the Mac OS X software included is so obviously an afterthought. The CanoScan Toolbox does not even have a standard OX X interface (It's not Win XP either, it's just something else entirely). Another minus is that the software which ships with the scanner is several vesions out of date and it's not as easy to find updates on Canon's web site as it should be.

Overall, however, it is an excellent value.

Follow-up 2/27/08: The Canon software is not compatible with Mac OS X 10.5, notwithstanding what it says on Canon's software update page. When I contacted Canon, they basically admitted the problem and offered to sell me a newer scanner at a discount. Instead of replacing the scanner, I replaced the software with VueScan. I have had no problems scanning a couple of hundred pages using VueScan in Mac OS X 10.5.

You already have a printer, you have the fax machine, you just need a scanner. Of course there are these new all in one packages you can buy these days but they are costly and bulky.

Here you have a simple flat bed scanner that is affordable, and has the features to copy, scan, email, even edit what you scan as well. It's powered through the USB cable so no need to worry about plugs. The scans come out great and so do the copies. The speed couldn't be any faster which is of course a plus. The scanner fits nicely just about anywhere, or can be easily stored if not used frequently.

Total quality, and a great buy especially for the price as well. Worth picking up.

The scanner came in about 4-5 days before the actual expectation date, and the installation was simple as pie.

Within minutes, I had the scanner hooked up, and was scanning images into my computer. Thank you Cannon!

I replaced an old Visioneer which operated on USB 1.1 also, so I can't compare this to USB 2.X scanners, but compared to my old scanner, this one is much faster. No more waiting for the bulb to warm up or for the system to locate the scanner.

The included photo editing software has an automatic adjust feature that does a fantastic job even on poor photos. I've stopped using Corel and switched to ArcSoft. This feature alone makes it worth it's weight.

I really enjoy the absence of an electrical cable. The unit operates from the USB port, and allows one to use the scanner with a notebook running from the notebook's battery. Great for scanning documents at the library.

All in all, a big thumbs up.

Nice design. Plus points: Ultra slim, needs no external power, good software. Only disadvantage: Rather slow, taking around a minute to scan a page.