Customer Reviews

Canon CanoScan LiDE 210 Scanner

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Very happy with this scanner - great results. I got the 210 to replace my LIDE 50 that is not supported by Wndows 7 - this is. Essential that the software is installed before plugging the scanner in for the first time - this is in the instructions. I only wanted a basic scanner, but this will actually do a lot more. One useful feature is the ability to scan A3 in two A4 scans and it the software will stitch it together for you. The Zed hinge is good for allowing you to scan books. You can mount it vertically to save desk space, but putting the paper/book in and keeping it in the right place when you close the lid can be tricky.

Bought to replace a Lide 50 for Windows 7, things have moved on quite a notch in the last few years.

The nice and simple set-up takes only a few minutes and the software is so much simpler to use, which is a good thing.

I've stopped using the standard 6x4 settings, as they seem to leave a border on two sides, but if you set it for Auto Detect, then there's no problem. It also scans 4 at a time without chopping the bottom one, which my 50 did.

I haven't found a preview button, which would allow the scan area to be cropped, which I always find useful, but it's not the end of the world.

Speed is definitely improved, although this is a level above the old 50 anyway in terms of performance.

I haven't bothered with any manipulation software (I'm not even sure if any was included), as I always use Photo Elements for a half decent job and only want the scanner to scan old prints, which it does perfectly well.

Update 02/02/11 - You can indeed do previews and presumably adjust crops, but I find that the multi-scan is so simple and useful that I don't bother with anything else. The only time I might use the manual preview is when scanning a cropped area at maximum resolution, which would be useful for increasing picture size.

I bought this scanner to replace my Canon LiDE 60, as the LiDE 210 is compatible with Windows 7. I've only done a few scans with it, but it seems excellent. I particularly like the fact that the Canon LiDE scanners work off a single USB lead, not requiring a mains plug, and that you can stand them on their side, giving them a very small footprint.

The only thing I would point out is that the LiDE 210 did not come with ArcSoft PhotoStudio, despite this being mentioned as included in the Amazon description. (ArcSoft PhotoStudio was included with the previous, non-Windows 7, models.)

Update: I have emailed Amazon and they say they have passed my comment to the relevant department to have the reference to ArcSoft PhotoStudio removed.

After purchasing a new pc,I needed a new scanner as my old one was not compatible with Windows7.Already having a photocopier,this was mostly for converting my many old photos to digital so just a simple scanner.
Worked straight out of the box,easily understood instructions,within minutes allowing automatic picture enhancement, and cropping to full screen size.No need even to centralize photos,they come out straight!Also copied book pages to A4 size
Overall,reasonably priced easily used scanner.

I didn't want to buy a printer with a scanner built in (I like my existing Epson printer because the 3rd party inks only cost a couple of quid each), so I opted for this new Canon stand alown scanner. Whenever I need to use it, I just plug it into a USB socket, and it's recognised in a few seconds. Scan, unplug it and put it away again. Simple.

I find this an excellent product on my setup which is an Apple Mac G5, OS 10.5.8, Canon iP4600 printer. I use the Scanner Driver and Advanced Mode (rather than the Auto modes) where you can set Colour/Greyscale/B & W; Input Size; Output Resolution (up to 1200 dpi); Output Size (by mm or by dragging a selection frame); Image Adjustment (Document, Newspaper, Magazine, Photo, Auto, None); Unsharp Mask; Descreen; Reduce Dust & Scratches; Fading Correction; Backlight Correction; Gutter Shadow Correction-to clarify the gutter area of books open at both pages. All these look complex but are in fact easy to use although one feature (the ability to create groups of setting with individual names) does not work.

The result of scanning into Photoshop, then printing, for each of the 4 doc. types listed above, was very good. Colours true, blacks black, image sharp, including colour photos printed on ordinary or photo paper.

Using the auto buttons on the scanner is convenient but imposes default settings which might not suit all tasks, but they work (although the Scan to Email launches Mail which I do not use). The ability to scan several originals and to have them assembled into a single multi-page PDF is useful. The on-screen manual is comprehensive and describes all sorts of expert features like setting White Balance, Colour Balance, Saturation, Histogram etc. (if you need those).

A really excellent high quality product, especially at this price. (I first bought the competitor Epson V330 but had to return it because of a strong green cast which Epson Tech. Support could not solve.) Canon CanoScan LiDE 210 Scanner

Slim and robust design, bought as replacement for my old Canoscan Lide 50 which no longer worked with the Mac due to driver issues. Set up was very simple following the quick guide. Very straightforward controls either on the front of the scanner or on the software panel that can be se on autoload when starting the Mac. Basic options work fine but under the hood there are masses of extra tweaks for people who want to play around with the settings. OCR capture was a dream. I had not realised how improved scanning could be over the last few years. At the price this is a very good purchase indeed.

I purchased this scanner a few days ago and have connected it to my Imac running Snow Leopard, The scanner overall works very well and is I believe a quality product. With the imac however I have to keep restarting the computer to get the scanner buttons to work, but in the great scheme of things I guess this is fairly minor, but nevertheless annoying. More annoying is the poor quality of the interactive user instructions. Quick start paper instructions are provided in numerous languages on big sheets of poor quality paper, and the first job is to throw most of them out. If you want to know more detail you have to wade through the CD user guide, which I feel is poorly constructed and no substitute for a decent booklet in the queens english. Although widely advertised as a 4800 dpi scanner, nowhere in the CD can I find any reference to 4800 dpi, and indeed a search on te user guide for 4800 yields a zero result. So on this aspect at least, i remain totally confused. The descisions taken by canon on the instructions are obviously intended to save them money, personally I would sooner pay a £1 more to have a worthwhile document.

LED back-light tech used in this scanner has serious issues with certain types of media.

Scans perfectly photographs that are flat, however if you are scanning photos that have been slightly crumpled, the LED light seams to highlight these folds really badly no matter how I try to flatten them. Much better performance from my 8yr old epson scanner - which uses the traditional fluorescent tube backlight.

Also doesn't handle some really old matt photographs well, (circa 1950's). Must be the texture on the photo paper it doesn't like, resolved by using my old epson again.

In general however, for glossy photos and items that are perfectly flat, the quality and speed are really good.

The bundled software is not my cup of tea, its redeeming feature is that it lets you scan lots of things one after another then dump the lot out to a folder - where I can use picassa or iphoto to manage them.

The scanner driver is pretty good at selecting and separating two or three photos placed on the platen and spitting them out as separate files.

Oddly the OSX version of the software scans once and cleverly crops out the pics, whereas the windows version of the software scans each photo one at a time. This makes the OSX version much faster to use when scanning hundreds of photos.

The anti fade feature is also very good for a small number of the really old photos, however its worth playing with the levels for each photo to get the best result.

Whilst the LiDE technology is neat in that you do not need a separate power supply, its drawbacks are huge when trying to scan old photos.

I'm no image expert, but I was after a device for the mac to electronically scan paperwork rather than have it fill up the filing cabinet.

I had a canon scanner some years ago, then moved on to a (dreadful) canon multi-function device, and now i'm back where i started. The key features for me were no need for external power, USB only and the vertical stand. The stand works reasonably well, but may need a good lump of blu tack or something for a bit of extra stability. The stand is easy to remove so for larger docs I tend to put it back to horizontal. However I have scanned single docs vertically quite easily.

I was slightly disappointed to note a discernible smudge on the glass on first opening, but this was carefully cleaned.

The biggest letdown really is the Mac software. I have a love hate relationship with 3rd party manufacturer driver software - that is, I love to hate it. This one is no different. Trying to change things like default directories was torture, you'd change it only to come back later and find it was back to where you started. There are multiple locations for things like default save directory, depending on the mode of the scanner. The behaviour of the buttons is a bit frustrating, that is, depending on setup, you press one and the software auto loads, scans and exits without being able to change settings. I found even when auto scanning was off, it would still behave oddly trying to kick into the scan. It tends to get a bit confused when you start clicking oddly labelled options like "system driver" and image capture fights with the manufacturer software. I'm no mac zealot but the software could do with some mac-standards love. I *really* got frustrated with it and I'm a systems developer by trade!

I know that you can use image capture with the device but I suspect you still need various bits of the proprietary manufacturer software for the driver etc.

After a good hour or so faffing about, and a rare mac-reboot, things were somewhat better. I can now drop a doc into the scanner, press the front button and a PDF pops out in the directory I want it, or direct to Mail.app. So it does what I want.

We were also pleased that "scanner sharing" a feature of macos, (not the canon software) worked well, again after some faffing and rebooting. My wife went into Image Capture, grabbed the shared scanner from her mac, scanned a doc direct from her machine, which is very useful, but as I say this is not unique to canon.

So it is doing our correspondence very well which is what we bought it for. I have no doubt we will start scanning old photos in time so we can purge more clutter! It's difficult to fault at this price and I expect to get good use from it.