A Great Little Scanner, October 8, 2010

By 

Stoney (Miami, FL) – See all my reviews

  

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, there is little practical difference in scanning speed between the models. The “slower” models are only slightly slower, but are quieter. 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 is slightly faster. 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

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