Customer Reviews

Canon CanoScan LiDE 35 Scanner

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Canon has some fantastic optics for photo scanning. So does Epson. I wanted to scan photos every now and then and maybe archive old photos, so great photo optics was important. Canon, known for great digital cameras, has the same quality in the scanners. Why this over the 3170? This is half the price, smaller (about 1/3 in height), and looks great. It fit about 4 4x6 photos on the scanner, use the multi-scan at 600 dpi and works fine. Sometimes though, I think the autocropping could be better. It took all of 5 minutes to set up and use. It does not need a separate power adapter as it uses the USB for power. Its quiet and fast.

I have done over 600 scans so far. Works like a charm. Its so fast, I can scan about 75 to 100 pictures an hour!

I am a private user with no Cannon affiliation. This is a fine product that I hope lasts for years. The scanner and software are a tremendous value for the money. While this is not a full blown professional scanner it is great for what it was made for: getting printed data onto your computer quickly, easily, and cheaply while substituting somewhat for a copy machine and doing some graphics work. The included CanoScan Toobox software makes the scanner do simple functions with ease.

Copy Timing & Quality: I love the copy directly to printer function. You can shrink and enlarge by 25% to 400% or custom % size. The 75-300 dpi setting works fine but the 600 dpi copy function locks up my system and is too slow and the files are too big for my liking anyway - a switch to the HP print language driver away from the HP postscript driver on my HP4500 color laser printer seems to have fixed this problem. For most quick copy non critical uses the fast 150 dpi setting is fine though text picks up a slightly "blocked up" or "bold" look with fat edges. 300 dpi gives a more normal looking copy. A 150 dpi scan to "copy" in color (color scan looks better even for black and white images in my experience) takes about 15 seconds from start to being dropped on my print spooler. A 300 dpi takes about 30 seconds. Reasonable times compared to most cheap home copiers I've used but not blazingly fast. You have to add your printer's print time to get the total time to make a copy. The copy quality is almost up to a regular copy machine but not quite unless maybe you spend time tweaking the settings. There is a tendency to get a slightly gray rather than white margin with the 150dpi copy that seems to go away on the 300 dpi copy. This could also be due to a smaller bulb in this small scanner verses the larger bulbs in normal copy machines. As I say with some adjustments to the software and at 300 dpi it usually goes away but I just want to automatically copy without adjustments. Buy a dedicated Cannon copy machine if that is what you need and they are reported to me to be better than other brands during this time of "sell it before it brakes" trash office products that are presently available in the mass selling office stores.

File Size: The scan to "copy" function has a jpg file that is rather large and might print slow on some systems. I wish I could adjust the jpg quality level to my desires in speed and quality. 150dpi color gets a decent, fast, scan to printer for a quick copy function and size of about 5-6 meg, 300 dpi is half as fast (makes sense) and much larger in jpg (20-24 meg). The 24 meg is a slow print even from my postscript HP 4500 color laser.

The scan to "file" (pdf) makes smaller files maybe only 10% of the size of jpgs from the "copy" function in my experience. The pdf is more efficient.

The scan to "email" jpg file function uses a more compressed version of jpg that makes a good looking mailable image and allows you to limit the max size of the scanned file. This is of great help to speed emails and get them through servers that don't allow large files. It also will save the file in a folder so you can use this small size jpeg for other uses.

The ArcSoft program is needed to get to 1,200 dpi since the CanoScan tool box maxes out at 300 to 600 dpi depending on options. This is okay since scanning is slow past 300 dpi anyway and the files get big.

To copy newsprint: Try Grayscale scanning and lighten up the adjustment a bit.

Physically: The buttons on the front are reassignable but I don't know why you would want to. They are too hard to read from their low position. Click on CanoScan's "Settings" function to see what they do and to reassign. The top has a flimsy but adequate hinge. The "turn it on the side" attachment is a joke, since HP tried this others follow, but to position correctly you will want the scanner on a flat surface so you can press the top down on the print or magazine, don't delude yourself into thinking that a flat top scanner needs no space.

It is not made to scan film negatives or slides. I tried both and it just won't. Stick to paper and printed pictures.

Install on windows XP was simple. I have a USB connection straight off my modern (made within the last 2 years) Intel motherboard and have not had USB problems as others have commented. You might need the Service Pac 2 XP update. In my experience, when scanning is happening, I can't do anything else, that is I can't use other software or operating system functions, if I do Windows XP will lock up and I have to restart.

To beat this scanner you have to spend more money like for a medium line Epson Photo scanner and then you would not have the convenient copier business software according to reports that I've read. It is not a full substitute for a copy machine but is fine for most home users. Professional OCR scanners costing thousands of dollars scan faster and use about 200 to 250 dpi as a standard scan so in the scanner world the 150 to 300 dpi for a normal scan at 15 to 30 seconds for a $80 scanner is a good value.

Compared to the HP All-In-One that it replaces for me the Cannon is fun to use. I grew disgusted with the HP so I bought a separate Brother $200 fax and this Cannon scan/copier. The HP's menu system was a mess always jumping back to the beginning, the machine kept telling me the unit was busy when I pressed the copy key a second time rather than using memory to do successive scans, it had cheaply made plastic hinges which broke on the document feeder, it had software problems on Mac, and HP's support is waning because they require serial number and invoice information just for simple support questions...goodbye HP...hello Cannon. Thank you Cannon and Brother for a great substitutes.

Additional: Recent color graph scans show very good color differentiation even with reds which surprised me given the low cost.

This scanner is tiny, it is light-weight, and it is USB powered so you don't need to worry about plugging it to an AC outlet. This scanner gives great looking scans with true, sharp colors. With the USB 2.0 connection, this scans fast for most home or small office users.

The set up is very easy, and using it is also very easy. It comes with the CanoScan Toolbox software which is easy to learn. On the scanner are four buttons. You press the SCAN button on the scanner: the scanner scans the picture and opens it with the software of your choice. There is also a COPY button on the scanner: it will scan then print to your default printer. The E-MAIL button: it will scan then open your mail software and put the picture as an attachment. The PDF button creates Adobe PDF files from the scanner. The LiDE 35 has all the features of the LiDE 50 while costing less and weighing less.

Unpacked this great scanner out of the box and had it working in minutes. It is incredibly slim (about 1.5 inches) and light, but one of the great benefits is that it takes power from the USB port and does not require an external power source. Instead of having a large lamp on board the scanner uses LEDs as the light source. Not only does this reduce the power consumption, but my guess is that they will last longer than normal bulbs. (Disclaimer here...the reason we bought the Canon was that the HP bulb burned out and the cost of replacement was prohibitive).

The software that comes with the scanner is easy to use in basic mode, but gives a number of options at advanced mode that are extremely useful under certain conditions.

The programmable buttons work well, with one minor annoyance, that being that to press the button sometimes the scanner slides backwards on the desk. This seems to be due to the strength needed to depress the buttons overcoming the friction of the light scanner on the desk.

Scans are excellent. The scanner is fast and accurate. We have used it for generating content for the web, for copying documents and for general document acquisition. I am very pleased with the way the scanner automatically will detect the outline of the documents and make multiple documents scanned at once accurately available as single digital images.

All in all I am very impressed with this unit, with the build quality, and with the output.

I own several Canon's flat bed scanners for many years and are happy with Canon's products.
First, Canon's scanners are designed as compact, portable, easy to install and use.
Second, Canon's scanners are designed with USB powered, that means low power consumption, and most important there is no additional power adaptor required!
Third, Low operating noise. LiDE 35 has lower noise than the LiDE 20/30.
We use scanner for documentation very often (use B&W mode and 300/400 dpi). Here are some testing results for CanoScan LiDE 35 (mechanical comparison only):
1. B&W scan, 300 dpi: 10 second scan, 10 second return (LiDE 20: 20 second scan, 15 second return)
2. B&W scan, 400 dpi: 20 second scan, 10 second return (LiDE 20: 40 second scan, 15 second return).
Therefore LiDE 35 save about 40% scan time compared with LiDE 20.

First. I don't know what the previous reviewer's problem was BUT this scanner works great with Windows XP. I had no difficulty at all with installation.

The Canon LiDE 35 is a very compact scanner powered off of the USB port. For my needs it does excellent quality scans including photos though I use it mostly for documents. It also is much faster than my old Visioneer Paperport. The four front panel buttons make it very easy to make a copy to a printer or archive a document by simply push the button and you are done. To save disk space it can save files to Adobe PDF format which most users can take advantage of with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

The Toolbox makes it easy to configure the various scan operations. The included software is great. For image editing it includes ArcSoft Photo Studio 5.5. I like it because it is very easy to crop an image and then resize. Of course it can do a lot more, but those are the two most important features that I use. For OCR it includes OmniPage SE2.0. I have not used it too much but what I like is that I can scan a document and save it to a .bmp file. Then if I right click the .bmp file and select " convert to OmniPage SE2.0 " it opens the program an starts to convert the file to a text document. It works VERY well and is fast. It usually asks a few questions about the conversion and then I can save to a Word file. This is a great feature to convert old documents into Word files so that they can be edited from there.

For the money you can't go wrong buying a Canon LiDE 35 with the performance, small footprint, features, and included software.

After getting burned on the worst scanner ever, the HP 3970- I should have looked at the negative reviews on that before I purchased it (I've now resold it on Ebay at a $20 loss), I bought this Great, Wonderful, Scanner based on reviews I had read online.
This is truly a marvel, software downloads fast and easy and it scans really well (I use "magazine color" for the best picture quality on the scanner). I totally recommend this to anyone as it produces quality scans, is fast & is easy to use.

This is not as fast as other scanners I have used, but overall it is easy to use. The scanning process is slow, but this is maybe only an issue if you need to scan several documents as quickly as possible. Otherwise the scanning speed isn't a hinderance to any casual user.

The included software is powerful (includes Optical Character Recognition software so you can scan printed documents and convert them to a text file). Buttons on the scanner allow for easy access to commonly used functions, such as emailing photos, storing images to a file, or editing photos in your favorite image editing program.

The power over USB is also nice for people with fully occupied power strips. There's only one cord to fuss with.
Additionally, the thin profile of this scanner makes it easy to store on a shelf when it's not in use.

I bought my LIDE35 at Fry's Electronics for under $40. I needed a scanner in a hurry since my last Paperport had died. The LIDE35 installed and worked with no problems. The quality of my first scan was much better than any done with the Paperport.

I bought this unit because it was cheap and small. It is compact enough to travel with a laptop. USB power means you don't have the weight, mess, and need for an outlet that a wallwart powered scanner has. This is a big plus if you are traveling. Computer bags seem to grow in size and weight when you are running across Ohare airport tryin to catch a plane on the other side of the terminal. Wallwarts require power strips and make a mess in hotel rooms.

The LIDE technology looks good to me. I have had 4 previous scanners. They all died because the CCFT lamp went South after a year of moderate use. LEDs should last much longer. I found the color quality and balance of LIDE better than the CCFT scanners I had used. It is really nice to be rid of the lamp warmup warnings and delays.

Buttons on the front are more of a problem than a feature for me. I ususally operate scanners through the scanner control software, and edit with photoshop. Accidentally hitting a button wastes more time than using it for it's intended purpose ever saved. I would actually pay a few bucks more to have a scanner that did't have buttons.

Other things that would improve the LIDE35 are:

Make it even thinner and lighter.

A lighter thinner USB connection cable. Several aftermarket cables are more compact.

Over all I feel this was a bargain. It works better than any other scanner I've had and will probably last longer since there is no CFFT. Canon did a good job on the LIDE 35.

I am completely satisifed with the Canon scanner and love the trim design and LED indirect exposure technology.

Excellent. Contrary to another reviewer's experience, I have had no problems running the scanner with XP.