Canon CanoScan LiDE 500F Color Image Scanner Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)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.

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Product Description:
CanoScan LiDE 500F Flatbed Scanner

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Canon LiDE200 Color Image Scanner (2924B002) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I decided to replace my old "all in one" printer which I was using as a scanner and a photocopying with the Canon LIDE200. I liked the specification: 4800x4800 dpi and a claimed 11 second scan rate.

The first thing I noticed as I was unpacking the scanner from the box was a mysterious WARNING about unlocking the lid of the scanner. The scanner was packed with the lid unlocked (as I found out later), and the instructions mentioned to keep the lid locked for travel or extensive handling.Fair enough, but it made me wonder if I had already done something bad to my scanner (I hadn't).

I then installed the software.I expected big things from Canon here, because generally they are pretty smart about software. The software, in terms of use, is much better than the software I had for scanning with my old scanner.The scanner has an "easy" setting that basically just scans at 300DPI without a fuss.If you want to scan at full resolution, you have to open the "driver" that exposes a page with all the bells and whistles to let you really fine tune your scan and set the highest resolutions.

All this was fair enough, however I found a few minor disturbing problems with the software. Firstly, once you've opened the "driver", it's not intuitive to figure out how to get back to the "no brainer" mode. Also, when you want to save your scan, it always seems to default to the scanning library it sets up.If you override it, it doesn't stay "changed". This is a slight pain.I always wonder who they hire to test and give feedback, because I always feel like I'm pointing out what should be the "obvious" to large companies like Canon (actually I really love Canon - so take no offense!).

As far as scanning speed is concerned, the scanner does indeed scan a 300 dpi page in about 11 seconds (that's pretty fast folks).However, the estimate does not include the 3 seconds the software takes to respond to the command to begin scanning (I'm running a duo core processor - no slouch) and the few seconds it takes to save the image. All in all, speed is impressive.

Now on to document quality.I tried scanning a few brochures and to be honest, at 300 DPI I wasn't super impressed with the result. So I went into the "driver" at set the scanning at maximum resolution (4800 x 4800). You get a pretty good result at that resolution, but by no means was I blown away. Perhaps more "tweaks" of the driver is needed. I noticed that the scanner attempts to "improve" the picture (which it does) but some of the detail of the text was a little off (brochure had images and text).I wondered if the lid of the scanner was making really good contact.Next time I will add a few pages of plain white paper behind the image and see if it makes a difference.

I tried scanning a printed document, and compared it to a printed document I scanned using my old scanner. I scanned the image to a PDF and low and behold, a major, major improvement (at 300 DPI).

So, I gave the scanner four "stars".Why not five? Well, the software is much easier to use than my old scanner, but still not without a few minor "quirks".This is a great scanner for scanning documents.How well it will actually scan and reproduce a photo is still in question, and perhaps I need to learn how to use the driver software better.I don't think I could scan an original photo without seeing some degradation in quality.

I'd be interested to hear other people's experiences regarding copying photos. I hope I'm wrong in my assessment, because I really expected a 4800x4800 scanner to reproduce "dead on" copies of a photo.

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Product Description:
Canon LiDE200 color image scanner has convenient features for easy scanning up to 4800 dpi.

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Canon LiDE100 Color Image Scanner (2923B002) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Bought this scanner to replace my failed Epson Perfection 1650.I like its compact size and quietness, and find the operating speed close to that of the 1650.The software is ok, and scanner operation is as convenient as that of the 1650, but there is less flexibility to allow altering color satuation, hue, etc.I found image sharpness disappointingly soft, and color saturation less than that of the original photo being copied.The overall effect is a somewhat faded, hazy image.Tried downloading and installing a fresh driver, but that didn't change this characteristic.After selecting USE SCANNER DRIVER on the operating panel, I was able to make selections that improved the image quality somewhat, but it is still not up to the performance of my previous scanner.Turning off the softening mask makes very little improvement.For me this scanner does not live up to previous glowing user reviews that helped decide this purchase.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Canon LiDE100 Color Image Scanner (2923B002)

Product Description:
This is simple, high-performance scanning at its best. Four easy buttons automate the entire process, and the new Auto Scan mode makes it even easier: It actually detects the type of original you're scanning - a photo, business card, notebook or form - automatically adjusts settings for the optimal results, then scans and saves the image.

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