Low Price Canon CanoScan LiDE210 Scanner (4508B002) – Price
- Auto Scan Mode automatically adjusts settings by detecting what you are scanning
- High speed letter size color scanning in approx. 10 seconds
- Just one USB cable for data and power
- Advanced Z-lid expansion top for scanning bulky items
- All new Auto Document Fix delivers area by area color correction for beautiful, easy to view scans, automatically
Ultra Compact Scanner with Vertical Scanning and Up to 2400 dpi
List Price: $ 89.99
A great little scanner,
SUMMARY
With a few caveats, this is a great little scanner. The best part is that it actually fits in my Targus computer case WITH my laptop. It weighs only 2-3 pds, and runs off USB power—no converter brick to haul around. Scans are sharp and fast. The automatic settings work very well for nearly all typical originals (old photos, business letters, receipts, etc.). Despite some shortcomings, the price and exceptional portability may make this series of scanners the choice for scanning books—because books which need to be scanned are often non-circulating items in libraries or archives.
SHORTCOMINGS
Unfortunately, the particular design of this scanner (and all other LED-based scanners) is that (unlike most fat desktop scanners) it cannot scan 3D objects. Any portion of your document or image which is not in absolute contact with the glass patten will be very blurry. The raised frame raises the edges of any original which does not fit on the glass patten, causing the edges of scans to be blurry. This is particularly a problem when scanning books. Nor can you just press down harder—that warps the glass causing blurriness elsewhere on the page, and may even jam the scanning mechanism. However, these problems may be overcome using the strategies discussed below.
The lid is non-removable, which means that you may be out-of-luck if you need to scan part of a large object. The software is multi-layered, confusing, and difficult to configure to your best use. Caveat, I’ve used at least three brands of scanner software, none of which were well designed. From the oddly named “MP Navigator” I suggest checking the box, “use the scanner driver” for access to the “Advanced Settings”–or better yet, scan from your graphics (photo editing) program.
NEVERTHELESS
Even though the frame is a problem, it is lower (1/16″) and narrower (3/8″) than most other scanners, and so, scanning books etc. is LESS of a problem than with most other scanners.
CHOOSING AMONG THE MODELS
The hardware and “Advanced Settings” portion of the scanning program of all LiDE models (at least models 90 to 210) appears to be identical. The major differences between the models is 1) improvements in the automatic scanning functions, and 2) the rated scanning speed (which is apparently software controlled). Despite the statistics quoted, there is little practical difference between the models in scanning speed. The “slower” models are quieter, and I suspect are more reliable. Since I use only the “Advanced Settings” (never the automatic settings), the 110 is my preference, regardless of price. Canon CanoScan LiDE110 Color Image Scanner (4507B002)
The 210 may be best for children and other users who will never learn how to use the “Advanced Settings”, since it claims to have superior automated scanning. The 210 may be slightly faster when scanning small originals and/or at low resolution. Canon CanoScan LiDE210 Color Image Scanner (4508B002)
If you plan to scan books and if you do not plan to carry the scanner around much, you might consider a Canon LiDE 700. It has 2 major advantages. The right edge is actually flush with the glass surface (hurrah!!)—albeit there is still an excessively wide margin. The lid opens 180 degrees, so you can scan portions of a large object–albeit there is still an “edge problem” for the other three edges. Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F Color Image Scanner (3297B002)
SCANNING BOOKS
It is easy to scan books which have at least ½” of margin between the print and the spine. Place the right side of the scanner at the edge of a table, so that the book hangs open at 90 degrees when placed on the scanner. Place a moderate weight on top of your original (such as a 1″ thick book). If you must press down with your fingers, press at the edges of the glass area (or even better, at the corners), not the middle. If you can’t quite get in tight enough, place a 1/16″ sheet of stiff cardboard directly behind each page before scanning–it is a pain, but it works.
SCANNING CREASED OR FOLDED ORIGINALS
The foam “pressure pad” in the lid is a bit too soft to insure that some originals (such as stiff letters or receipts which have been folded) are pressed sufficiently flat (even with a book on top of the lid). If you notice this problem, then place a stiff cardboard sheet (or a thin book) directly on top of your original, and close the cover…
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|Amazingly small, low power, good results, and LED based!,
I’m not an expert when it comes to judging image quality-so while I’m giving the LiDE210 a great score, I’m not 100% sure if it’s image results are as good, worse, or better than comparable relatively high end consumer scanners. I can say the results look good, and so far look the same (to me) as a high end HP model from a few years ago that I use at work.
I was shocked by how small the scanner’s box is-in fact I thought maybe I’d accidentally ordered something that would only scan photos. Amazed again when I pulled the scanner out of the box…although it accepts full size papers (and it looks like legal sized too, although I haven’t tested any yet) it’s easily less than half the size of my HP from work. While it still takes up a decent amount of space on a desk (since it has to be big enough for the scanner bed to accept full size papers), it still somehow feels like it fits in better than older scanners.
Also amazing…it doesn’t use a power supply. It pulls all its power over the USB bus from the computer it’s connected to…it apparently only draws 2.5 watts while in use, which to me is amazing. Not having a power brick helps make the unit feel smaller too (and means it isn’t using power when the computer is off).
The small size and low power use are presumably the result of using LEDs (apparently tri-color) instead of florescent tubes like older scanners use. Another benefit-no mercury or UV radiation.
I was also pleased to discover that even on XP, I was able to use it out of the box without installing the included software. Windows Update found the driver for it, and it was working with Windows’ built-in software within a few seconds. (Though I think it’s probably better to install the included software to get access to all it’s features.)
It’s small, seems to give good results, and hardly uses any power…so far seems like a great choice!
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|No 3D scanning,
I bought this scanner to use with Windows 7, because HP has not made available a 64 bit driver for my trusty old HP 5470c scanner (in an effort to boost scanner sales no doubt). There can’t be much of a market for straight scanners anymore because my local Staples has on display dozens of all-in-one printer/scanners and zero straight scanners.
Pro: I like that this scanner is small, low power, and uncluttered, but I won’t dwell on these points as they have been discussed by other reviewers. Quality as far as I can tell from my limited use is good. I saw a detailed review of this scanner that concluded the quality was excellent. Speed is no problem, with no lamp warmup and the preview scan is quick (10 sec).
Cons hardware: As I now know (but did not know when I bought this scanner), all low power LED scanners with CIS sensors like the Cannon Lide family, have a big, big drawback. They have almost no depth of field. They can only scan paper, they can’t be used for the scanning of 3d objects (scanner photography). I did a lot of scanning of 3D objects with my HP 5470c where by cranking up the resolution you could use it like a low power microscope and generate beautiful scans. To be able to do 3D scans with Windows 7, I am going to have to buy yet another scanner!
Document top is near the buttons. To avoid having to rotate the image each time you scan you need to remember to put documents on the glass ‘upside down’.
Cons software: One weirdness is that even though this is 4,800 dpi scanner, the pull down resolution choices (even on the Advanced screen) stop at 1,200. Why? Apparently you have to type in higher values. I marked ’4,800′ on the cover to remember in future how high I can go.
The Cannon scan software is cluttered with beginner screens. The ‘Advanced’ screen, which an experienced scanner will want to use, is almost totally hidden. About three layers down there is tiny little check box on left that says “use the scanner driver”. When you click this, the green ‘Scan’ button changes to ‘Open Scanner Driver’, and this brings you into the scanner screen with full controls (Cannon ScanGear). Access is so obscure, the first time it took me an hour to find it. As far as I can tell, there is no way to start directly in ScanGear, but I did find a way to bypass a couple of beginner screens (add shortcut to ‘MP Navigator EX 4.0mpnex40.exe’), and if you play around with preferences you can get ScanGear to automatically generate a preview scan as you enter.
Cannon ScanGear provides about the same level of scan control as HP’s software, but I find the Cannon histogram (& VueScan’s too) to be not nearly as good as my HP 5470c histogram, so setting the B/W points is more difficult. The histogram is quirky too. If image adjustments other than ‘none’ are selected, the histogram is either blank or compressed. A good feature of ScanGear is that it remembers all your settings.
One useful button is ‘Copy’, which does a scan and sends it direct to the printer. To get half decent quality in a Copy button scan you need to have preset the software to ‘Auto’. An annoyance of the Copy button is that it opens a Canon screen that it doesn’t close. I also have found that sometimes the Copy button is ignored.
I had to install the Cannon software twice on my Windows 7 machine to get it to work reliably.
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