Customer Reviews

Canon DR-2580C Color Duplex 25 Ppm Id Card Scanning 600 Dpi USB 2.0

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

My previous document scanner was a Fujitsu fi4220c. It was an impressive scanner and suited my purposes well. I think I used it for about 7 yrs, and its flatbed scanning assembly finally broke. So, I replaced it with the Canon DR-2580C, based on a review from PC Magazine. So far, it had performed perfectly for my purposes. I am a physician and want to digitize many medical records from my solo practice to save space. I also OCR many professional articles that I study. Therefore, I mainly scan in simplex or duplex black & white at 300 dpi. This scanner is very quick in scanning the paperwork. I think it is essentially as quick as the Fi4220c. It is better in that it is much smaller than the fi4220c, because it does not have a flatbed scanner. I was concerned about the lack of a flatbed and considered buying the flatbed attachment. But I have not needed to use a flatbed since I owned the DR-2580C. I had previously used the flatbed of the fi4220c to scan the checks that I received. However, the DR-2580C performed this job easily without the need for a flatbed. The checks fed through the scanner without jamming. The scanner utility could deskew any minor misalignment. This was an improvement over the utility from the fi4220c. I also applaud the utility of the scanner utility. It makes scanning a quick and convenient process. I saved the two scanning profiles that I use most often. When I scan, usually through Adobe Acrobat, I just need to press "alt-F, F, Enter, Enter" and the scanning process begins with the last profile that I had used. So far, I am very satisfied with this scanner. I gave this scanner 4 stars only because I had not owned it for very long--only since the end of 8/2007. I don't know how well it will stand up to time and wear. Will it start jamming more frequently when the parts are older? I also have not tried all its features and don't know how well they work.

I have tried both DR 2050C and DR2580C and they are both great scanners. The DR 2580C however has an edge over the DR2050C. It scans faster and better quality. The scanner takes up slightly more desk space that the 2050C but makes up in sheer versatility. You can scan documents to TIFF files and then combine them into a PDF document using the included Adobe Acrobat Standard or use the Adobe software to create PDF files directly from the scanner. The file size and clarity varies between the two approaches. I was also pleasantly surprised by the quality and accuracy of the included OCR software.

I was a little hesitant to spend so much money on a scanner, but I wanted one that was both fast and accurate. I got both in this machine. It can scan multiple pages at very high speeds, and the quality and clarity of the images is great. I generally scan to pdf, but I've scanned to OCR and found that it was able to recognize most of the text quite accurately. It also has a variety of filters with which one can enhance images (for example, if the document to be scanned is in pencil, or if it has a colored background). If you play around with the settings, you can greatly enhance the images. I also appreciate how compact this model is; in its closed position it occupies the same amount of desk space as a standard-sized magazine or sheet of paper. The software and controls are extremely simple and intuitive, so you don't have to learn much to get started.

The only negative I've found is that it does jam fairly easily if the original is crinkly, too thin, etc., so you have to be careful. I don't know how this compares with other sheet-fed scanners, because this is the first one I've owned.

All and all, if you do a fairly high volume of scanning and can live with the price, I recommend it highly.

We've gone through two of these now. In both cases, they work for about a year, then they start jamming in the back, then a small metal strip on the back door gets bent and then they are toxic waste.

We used the scanner almost every work day, but only for small jobs -- well under 50 pages/day.

Canon makes some good products, but this isn't one of them.

I bought one of these in late 2006 while shifting my office (15 employees) in a paper-less direction. That unit works well, and after 10-200 pages per day, it's still churning along (occasionally misfires, but it's still more reliable than our relatively new HP 7580 multifunction unit).

We've expanded to 3 more units since testing out that first one; all of them still function (some misfeed more than others). Buying 4x small, semi-portable high quality scanners works better for us than one mega-sized super scanner - we can move operations to hotels when we have long-term projects, and if any unit goes down, the others pick up the slack (one misfed far too much, but the situation was fixed with a new roller). I'm mostly satisfied...

But this hardware is almost 5 years old: where is the successor? Where are the modern features I need - networking, bluetooth, wireless, "scan to email"? Why does scanning business cards with this thing still suck (sorry - the relatively new card scanning function doesn't work very well for us). What about running on USB power (like some of the truly portable units)? Upgrading the software and drivers? Speeding up the "push to scan" function (which takes forever to work)?

I love these little units the same way I loved my PalmPilot in its day, but that day is long gone by.

What can I say about this scanner except that it is absolutely a GODSEND. I was using a flatbed, also from Canon but it was too bulky and SLOW as molasses. The DR-2580C might be expensive, but well worth the cost. When I got this, I was really skeptical, but don't be fooled by it's compact size! This thing scans so quickly and saved me hours of scanning documents (I work in tax preparation and I scan hundreds of financial documents). Included was Adobe Acrobat 7 standard which in itself costs $200. This was a very good investment. It has already payed for itself in a matter of days. Use this scanner with adobe acrobat to create pdfs and you are in business. The feeder takes pages quickly. Highly recommended.

I had previously purchased a Japanese standup, gravity scanner, and it would not work correctly with Windows 97. I ordered the Cannon DR-2580-C. When it arrived, I called Canon and told them I was not going to pay $700+ for a machine so small and, I thought useless. The representative told me to use it a week or two and if I didn't like it, she would send me my money back and add $50 + shipping. She called in three weeks and talked to me about the scanner. I told her that I was going to replace my other scanner with the 2580.

My use of this scanner is to scan in IRS documents to a data file. With the old scanner, I had to scan the even pages and then the odd pages. With this scanner the DR-2580, I scan in duplex, both sides at once. It scans at 25 pages a minute. A jewel. It scans in color, it cooks my bacon and eggs, sorry, got carried away.

The only thing I will add, besides this scanner is great, I replace the two roller units, a 1 minute activity, each year because I scann so many documents.

Buy this scanner.

We had a mountainous job to do and this scanner worked great! We had piles of paper in storage; about 100,000 pages in stacks of boxes. For anyone stuck in this boat, here is what worked for us. First, get this scanner. It is compact, easy to setup, easy to use, and it is fast! Then get a service like Carbonite or Mozy so your scanned data is backed-up for you automatically. Work through each box and each folder by creating folders in Windows that matches your existing filing system. Don't think too hard about what to scan or not to scan; scan everything! This scanner is very fast but we spent days working our way through all of our boxes of paper. Viola! No more paper! We shrunk our need for storage and the scanner still works great. We even scanned books (yes, we chopped the binders). With the scanned documents, we used Goodwill Document Shredding Service. We spent around $5.00 a box (around 50 pounds of paper) to have the paper shredded. We tried to shred the paper ourselves and we quickly overwhelmed two different shredders and it became a huge bottleneck. After we found Goodwill, we quickly got rid of the scanned documents. Now, hundreds of pounds of paper are GONE! After 100,000 pieces of paper are scanned, the rollers of the scanner will wear-out. I replaced the 'Roller Kit' myself and it was very easy to do. Now the scanner is as good as new. We have family members that are going to do the same thing with their boxes of paper and they will help pitch-in some of the cost of the scanner. Long story short, we highly recommend this scanner. :)

This is the second Canon scanner we have purchased. The compact size and sheet feeding is very convenient for scanning multiple documents at a work station. The only drawback is a few misfeeds likely due to having to pull documents into the scanner from the desktip rather than vertically. However this infrequent problem does not effect our overall satisfaction with this scanner.

PROS:
I'm always shocked to see how expensive this scanner is. I've had mine for five years already - purchased in December of 2006! i can't believe these aren't $50 a pop now and made obsolete by new technology, but alas. I actually think the price has gone UP, as I paid $580 on ebay. Maybe I got a great deal. In any event...
I remember when I performed my first scan, I was shocked at how fast this little machine is. It really rips 'em through. The OCR software is excellent as well. The job registration tool is good enough - I was able to program the 3 buttons to be 1: black and white fast scan to a .pdf in my documents folder, 2: color fast scan to .pdf in my documents and 3: a color slow photo-quality scan to .jpg in my pictures. These presets pretty much cover everything I want. I recently was able to enhance the whole process by adding kumosync - a tool that then synchronizes anything I scan to google docs. With this combination, it's super convenient. I can scan things quickly at home before leaving for work, and then access them online if anything is needed while I'm in the office. Another big plus: the default file naming convention is a sequential time stamp, which I really like.

CONS:
The biggest downside to this machine is that I had to buy the replacement roller set (about $50) once. I started having problems with the machine not grabbing papers reliably or grabbing several at once. I was surprised but happy to see the replacement rollers fixed it. Now, however - just about a year into them - I am close to needing to do it again. The reason this isn't a strong complaint, though, is that I attribute the issue to misuse. In both cases, the roller issue started after I tried to get away with jamming something far too massive in there. I forget what it was the first time, but most recently it was my passport with the extra 52-page insert. Aint gonna happen. It ALMOST worked too - my wife's standard one was able to scan. Once you abuse it like that, though, the roller issue somehow comes up.

I had a Mac for a brief period, and I was not able to get it to work there, which was a bit disappointing.

One enhancement I wish I could recommend would be... while the sequential time stamp file naming is definitely my top choice for anything automated, it would be great if it were possible to set it - perhaps on just one of the buttons - to prompt for a file name. Ideally I'd have it start the name with the date/time, let me fill in a quick name, and then add the default extension. Alternatively, it would be great if it could autosuggest a name based on the OCR read. Ideally those would all be options. I'd love it if it would scan, OCR, then favor the topmost, centered, and/or larger text and come up with a title from that. I'd likely use that for an automated setting, then have a second button to prompt me for more critical documents. Using google docs to index the OCR-detected content of pdf files has worked quite well, but being able to firm-up the title would make it even easier to search through them.