Scanner Reviews

At under ($$$), the D646U+BCJ2110 is a great value for money. The D646U scanner installs easily and I had no problems setting up the software bundle that came with the scanner. Scanning resolution is not fantastic, but its still high enough for most jobs that I do at home. The color reproduction is pretty darn good for the price, and the scanning speed is adequate. The scanning software allows the beginner to begin scanning with a minimum of fuss, while still catering to the whims and fancies of the intermediate user (me!!). The Z-lid on the scanner, which raises up to allow you to scan in fat texts is a great idea and works very well. Plus, the styling is nifty and its slim and beautiful on my desk.
The BCJ-2110 printer is also a great value for the money. Its slow, yes... but hey! I'm in no hurry to go anywhere. Setting up the printer and the software is a breeze and the print quality is pretty good. I have tried printing pretty much everything from text-only documents in draft quality to photographs on glossy paper. All of the printouts are pretty good. The photographs sometimes look a little flat, but that can be remedied by playing around with the printer settings and manually adjusting the brightness, etc.
In summary, a highly recommended bundle.

well, i got one of these for my sister for christmas last year and she liked it so much and has told me over and over again how great it is that i am asking for one for myself this christmas.... i have used hers (both the scanner and printer) and havent one bad thing to say about either. the price is great, the brand is great, and they are both asthetically pleasing. definite recommendation.

I purchased my Canon Multipass C530 in October of 2000. I paid $199.99 for and it came with a $55 mail in rebate. I consider it to be a very good buy. It is still working very well with one minor quirk that I have learned to live with. If you are using it with a computer that has a Win based modem it sometimes fails to initialize on startup. This problem is easily bypassed by shutting the power off to the unit (unplugging it) and then plugging it back in.

I also found out the hard way that the unit must be kept plugged in. I had the unit plugged into a powerstrip with the rest of my computer. I would shut off the power to everything when I turned off my computer. I couldn't understand why I was going through ink cartridges so quickly, so I called Canon support. After talking with two techs we figured out why I was having this problem. Power must remain supplied to the unit in order to put the carriage in a home position which seals off the ink cartridge so it doesn't dry out. After pointing out the fact that this was one major point that they forgot to mention in the manual they were very apologitic and sent me 2 new ink tanks free of charge.

I have used this unit for everything and have been very pleased with the quality of prints you are able to obtain with it. Grant it they are not the 1200 dpi resolution that you would get with some more expensive units but they are good enough to print out fairly decent color photographs. Quality paper makes a big difference! I have printed out business brochures which turned out fantastic on the higher quality paper.

I have been doing a LOT of scanning photographs for a family photo video that I am putting together. It does a good job of scanning these pictures but if you run one through the scanner feed more than four or five times you will start to notice light track lines across these pictures (even if you keep your feed rollers clean). Because of this I am currently shopping for a flatbed multifunction unit - Canon makes one called the multipass F50 which is also a multifunction unit but has no rollars to leave track marks on my pictures. This is quite a bit more expensive though so if you can get by with only scanning a picture a couple times the C530 might still be a good choice for you.

The fax speed is great with the G3 technology you can scan a page in about three seconds and with the error reporting feature turned on you will know right away if you fax has been sent or received properly.

The printer has a built in nozzle cleaning feature which can clean out clogged nozzles with just the touch of a couple buttons. Since I have been keeping the unit plugged in the nozzles stay fairly clean and my ink tanks last pretty long.

Don't be expecting a speed demon with this machine it is not a high speed printer - full color photos take a few minutes. Just remember that this isn't a $300 machine and you can't have everything for almost nothing and you will be happy with it. All in all for the money I would say that this unit is definitly a good buy.

I actually went into the stores looking for a fax machineexpecting to spend about $150. when i saw this at [the offered price], i realized i hit the jackpot. its so nice and small and the cover closes up to hide the buttons for a better look. my print quality was exceptional even though the dpi is only 720x360. in reading about Canon's Drop Modulation technology, i can see how they do it with minimal dpi. black quality is perfect and there are NO paper missfeeds at all. it seems as though it will copy just about anything and that makes me happy. i havent had any worries about this machine and Canon has answered all my questions about the different things i can do with it. Thank you so much Canon for making a great product. Now my fax machine does 4 other things as well! Awesome.

You should try using it with the CardScan 600C scanner. I used to own the 500 model scanner, but when they created this color scanning device-I had to have it. Not only did the OCR improve from the previous version, it is now a USB only scanner, that's much sleaker and smaller than it's predecessor. I scan, and with the click of a button (after the setup of course) I can send all the information into my Outlook Contacts folder, or my Palm Pilot address book. This thing is great, where has it been all my life, now to attack the huge pile of business cards that I have sitting around my desk!

Cardscan 6.0 is by far the smartest way of getting the information contained on a business card into your computer.

You simply put the card on your twain compatible scanner click the scan button and of it goes.

After scanning a batch of cards, one has the option to assign some batch prossesing to the scanned cards and OCR process the scanned images.

This works rather well. Though on several occasions the program is not quite sure where to put the information. It sometimes puts names into titel fields, and the addresses need to be reworked on a regular basis. But all in all this is still quicker than typing.

Card Scan 6.0 includes all neccessary export funtions to join your scanned contacts with your outlook express/ Outlook and a whole lot of other email and address based comunication tools.

This is what make Card Scan so powerfull: Being able to scan lets say 100 address lables for a mail shot, then converting them to a windows address book and using the names and addesses to perform a mailmerge in Word, thus beeing able to reuse them for the next mailshot.

I have been setting Card Scan up in my offices and people are finding it an easy and helpful addition to their usual tasks. We see our customer database grow and it helps us to keep in touch with the rest of the world.

All in all a very well designed product with plenty of powerfull potential.

This was my first major purchase online. I had done quite a bit of research on the scanners, reading reviews, and talking to people at the computer stores. Once I saw the image quality, and the speed that it delivers the images in, I was hooked and stopped my search. I was also pleasantly surprised at the lack of errors when scanning text for OCR. Look for this product online, you will be able to find it MUCH cheaper than you could in a retail store.The only problem I have with it is scanning light remains on while power is on. Everything else is PERFECT! Now I am very happy with the scanner and would have no problem recommending it to anyone.

I have other scanners that cost under $500, and they do not compare to the Epson Pefrection 636. It is quiet, fast, and provides high quality scanned images. I have invested a lot of money on the commercial scanning of pictures, slides and prints, and I cannot tell the difference between Epson's work and that of a commercial scanner. It is not only easy to use, it is fun. I recommend it over more expensive scanners.

This is the second scanner I have owned that uses a SCSI card. I have never used a USB-connected scanner, so I can't compare the two types. I wanted to get another scanner that uses a SCSI connection, because they are said to be faster. The scanner works well and is very fast. I am pleased with the unit but I personally do not like the Photo Adobe software (which comes with the scanner). I have used it previously, and just do not care for it. I wound up using MGI Photosuite III software primarily (purchased separately), which I prefer. Occasionally when saving images with Adobe, the file would read "corrupt" when retreived. Using MGI, I did not have that problem. The scanner is very fast. The SCSI card was easy to install, but I did have some difficulty loading the (software) driver. I believe that resulted from my previous scanner software. I could not completely uninstall the software from my old scanner, so I think that caused my problem. I had to use the Epson tech-help phone line, which was an excellent experience. You pay for the call, but they knew their stuff (was never on hold). The scanner arrived in just 2-days as ordered, using express shipping (you can track it the whole way). Overall, I am very pleased with the scanner. The scanner has one-button operation, but that can not be programmed to open any software you desire.

This is the third scanner I've had to purchase, and so far it's the best. Basically just plug and play, and the software is very easy to use. High resolution scans are true to color and crisp and it scans quickly. I am very pleased! And Amazon delivered it next day!

The Mimio whiteboard scanner was very easy to setup and get running. I was really surprised with how easy it was to use. When you get the product be sure to go check out the Mimio web site for software updates. The only problem I have is that you have to write kind-of big to make it legiable on the computer screen and some times if you not writing hard enough it doesn't pick up. But overall this is a very good product.

We attached a Mimio Digital Whiteboard to Sorenson's EnVision desktop video conferencing product. The whiteboard played flawlessly with Sorenson's electronic whiteboard application which is based upon NetMeeting. With a PC, Sorenson EnVision and Mimio, you have a powerful remote teaching and collaboration platform!

This is a great product for the price!

Do you need the SF-200? The question is, are you going to scan a whole batch of slides? Or are you scanning a few slides? Do you have the time and patience to hand-feed all the slides you will scan?

For batch work, the SF-200 is absolutely essential, like the ICE Cubed software that comes with the Coolscan 4000 ED. WITH these two powertools, you can quickly capture and enhance thousands of slides quickly.

Does the SF-200 work perfectly? No. It jams now and then. That's too bad, because since it jams from time to time, I am constantly checking and listening to make sure it doesn't.

Does the ICE cubed software work perfectly? Nearly. It works wonders on old, scratched, poorly lit slides. But in it's quest to clean up and color balance your ancient slide collection, it sacrifices a bit of sharpness. Some people prefer to leave the heavy processing off, and then rescan the problem slides. That's what I do. It saves time, and gets good results. But my favorite photos have been enhanced with ICE3 in a way that would be nearly impossible for all but the most talented Photoshop artists.

You will probably want to dust off your slides before you scan them. You can do this with a 1" camel's hair brush, and/or a couple of cans of pressurized air. Beyond that, if your slides have fingerprints, or other material on them, you can clean that with PEC-12 photographic emulsion cleaner and a lint-free cloth. PEC-12 is from Photographic Solutions, Inc. in Buzzards Bay, MA. This powerful cleaner dissolves goey junk on the slide, but not the slide film! Use it for you problem slides. That's what I know about pre-cleaning (which the Nikon manual does not mention).

For my purposes - scanning thousands of old slides - the SF-200 and ICE cubed are ESSENTIAL to my use of the Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED. If you need to scan batches of images, get the SF-200. Ebay it when you're done.

You can load 50 35mm slides into this feeder and just let the scanner run while you do other work. Given, working on other applications while the scanner is going is really slow, but if you need to do so, you can!

Every once in a while, the feeder will jam, but it is extremely easy to follow the instructions to unjam it. The possibility of jamming increases if the slide has a damaged cardboard mount, or a really thick plastic mount.

Here's a hint, number your slides in pencil before you scan, and you will be able to double check your work easier.

This is a really great little scanner and terrific value at an unbelievable price. I had it out of the box, attached, and fully working with my first scan in less than 10 minutes without a hitch. The software it comes with is probably worth more than the total price of the scanner and all -and great software it is, too. Paperport Deluxe 7.0 is a wonderful, easy-to-use scanner utility, and MGI Photosuite is a wonderful product. The scanner is a breeze to use for anyone, especially those new to tech equipment. Three front panel buttons send scans to email, your printer (for easy, cheap document copies), or into Paperport for storage. Scanned images are good and have enough clarity and definition for most home/small business use - unless you're really into graphics, in which case you'll probably need a scanner with higher resolution. This is a great product - and the color is very cool, too!

I just ordered this scanner a few days ago and it arrived very quickly, it was so simple to install a 5 year old could do it, just put in the software, push install, and plug 1 cord into the back of your comp and the other into a wall socket and you are ready to go. The software that came with it is great, and it scans under 10 seconds on 200 dpi, It has the most beautiful quality scans i have ever seen in both grayscale, and color. It's just amazing! I love the preview feature! it has a real-time preview feature where you can change, contrast, lighting, etc and see it happen while you are doing it, so you know exactly what it looks like when you scan it. I encourage everyone who needs a scanner or just wants one to get this one! it's the best!

Reading the Amazon's editorial review on this scanner I thought it would be a breeze to work with. But anything involving computers I should of figured would be a difficult endeavor. Visioneer 5600 is good and will take a few hours too get the bugs out. The directions are some what confusing since I'm having trouble figuring out how to get the right resolutions . The USB connection on my Pentium III processor is located in the front and the adapter cord is too short to reach from the back, as well as the plug-in cord ( so I'll have to invest in longer cords). The software is great and has been helpful. The size is perfect for my roll top and the smoky blue blends in well. I think in time my Visioneer 5600 will be a great buy.

I bought this scanner used for ... some odd dallors through a market place seller here at amazon, I had never heard of the visioneer company before and asked family, freinds, and local computer store experts about it, no one had heard of the company before and urged me not to take the chance and get a reliable brand. well, I had my heart set on this one but i looked up scanners from epson and hp and cannon and found comments from previous buyers saying how "____ went wrong as soon as i got it", and "it's a peice of junk" etc. so I decided to take my chances with this scanner, It arrived a few days later and I was surprised how easy it was to install, there are only two cords, one is permanently attatched to the scanner and hooks into the usb port on your computer, and the other was a plug in cord that hooks into your wall socket, and the other end goes into the only hole in the back of the scanner, then you just put in the software (though you really should do that first) push install, restart your computer and *poof* you have a scanner! I didn't know what to expect in quality so i was presently surprised when my scans turned out better than my mom's scans on her [more expensive] scanner! it basically kicked her scanner's butt! I am so pleased with this scanner, and the software that comes with it and I urge EVERYONE who has the chance to do so to buy this scanner!

I've found our Visoneer 3100 flatbed scanner to be easy to use and a very welcome edition to our home office. If you are in the market for a basic scanner to keep friends and family updated with photos of any kind, this is a truly wonderful product! It is a snap to use, and it barely takes up much memory space on the hard drive! It is quite reasonably priced, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a scanner to do basic functions! I can even make homemade holiday cards with it! It is great!

I bought the Visioneer 3100B scanner over two years ago and am very happy with it. The price is low and the scanner is easy to set up and install. In fact, I liked the 3100B so much I purchased one for my cousin as a wedding gift, and encouraged my aunt to get one herself, which she did. As far as I know, they all like it. There are other scanners with more sophisticated features, but the 3100B has everything the ordinary computer user needs. I use mine to scan important documents and fax them in, as well as scan family photos and send them thru email.