Canon 4508B002 Document Scanner

I have limited space and I needed a printer and a scanner for my documents and photos. Naturally, a multifunctional printer would be the route to go but I found that the optical resolution on the multifunctional printers was not cutting it. Knowing that I had to get two separating devices I went on a search for a scanner.I dont often scan so I wanted something that I can take out, use, and put away. It's been a couple of years of light use and it is still working great. I like that there is only one cable to handle-- the USB cable provides it the power it needs.For something this size and powered by USB, it scans at a good rate.The software included is quite functional. This is coming from a person who often does not like using the included software. In the past when I needed a PDF, I would scan from Acrobat. Or if I needed a photo, I would scan from Photoshop. I find myself using the Canon software and the function buttons on the scanner for some the automated tasks. It even does a good job of cropping photos. I am comfortable with it that I load up a few pictures and let the Canon software crop them and automatically save the photos into individual files.The only criticism of the software I can think of is how it handles where files are stored. As an seasoned Windows file storage user, I prefer that the saved files are nested that deep.Bottom line: This is a great light use scanner with high optical resolution specs (4800 dpi x 4800 DPI).Additional thoughts: Though multifunction printers are designed with space savings in mind, I ended up saving more space by getting this scanner and a smaller printer. The only caveat is that I have to put away the scanner when I am not using it. Again, since I only use it so often, it is not a huge inconvenience.

I mainly use this for picture editing it works well with my photo editing program. Been using this for 30 plus years

I bought this scanner in 2011 and it's still going strong! I haven't even downloaded drivers or any special software, I just use it with Image Capture on my Mac and it just works.

Overall, I am satisfied with the quality of the images relative to the overall price (you get what you pay for, after all), and that this scanner can be easily disconnected and stored away in a compact space when not in use. These were two of the three main reasons I decided on this scanner. As for the other main reason I chose this scanner, the debacle with the installation / setup and trying to get this to work with Windows 7 was a huge disappointment!Be advised that the compatibility is listed as Windows® 7, Windows Vista®, and Windows XP/2000, however, not mentioned is that this applies only to the scanner itself. Once it arrived, I noticed that the box of the scanner indicated that while the scanner was compatible with Windows® 7, Windows Vista®, and Windows XP/2000, the enclosed software packages needed to use the scanner were indicated as compatible with Windows Vista only and NOT Windows® 7 or Windows XP/2000. I researched this scanner on several website before I ordered it, and none of them noted that the scanner and enclosed software had different operating system compatibilities.Long story short, in order to get this to work with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, new drivers for the Windows 7 64 bit operating system for the scanner and two of the software packages enclosed had to be downloaded and installed from the Canon website since none of the ones included with the installation CD worked. While this was fairly straightforward, it then took the assistance of a Canon support team representative on the telephone to tweak the setup to get the new software and drivers to work. There were several issues to resolve, and this took over an hour to accomplish, but FORTUNATELY, THE SUPPORT REPRESENTATIVE WAS EXTREMELY COMPETENT, PROFESSIONAL, CLEAR SPOKEN AND PATIENT, and got everything resolved on the one call!It was less than a minute from connecting with the support number to talking to a live person, with only two or three simple touch tone menu selections to get there. Best of all, the support representative I was connected was clearly not from one of those "from-who-knows-where" overseas support centers, or at least he could have passed as being located just "down my street" with no problems.The only thing that we could install and use without incident that came on the installation CD with the scanner was the instruction manual. Once this was all accomplished, the scanner and software packages are fairly straightforward and simple to use. The scanner itself is a bit noisy, and to me it sounds like the gears are grinding when it scans. None of the other scanners I have had in the past have made this type of sound, but then again they were all higher tier machines than this one.Other than the debacle with getting this scanner and software installed and working and the (in my opinion) misleading compatibility information, my only complaint is the noise the scanner makes when an image is scanning. Offsetting these to some degree is the great support representative, but it is a shame that the support representative was needed in the first place.

This was a Christmas present for my wife, who wanted to start scanning the many, many photo prints that we have amassed over the years. (Many of the older color prints and Polaroids are fading, and it's just a matter of time before the images are gone forever.)I've used and owned many different types and brands of scanners over the years, and in my opinion, this CanoScan LiDE210 tops them all, including other Canon models I've used. It is not a do-it-all scanner (it doesn't do transparencies), but it's amazingly compact and lightweight, and the single-cord hook-up and very good support software make it very easy to set up and use. It provides quick previews and scans a page at the mid-range of its resolution in a respectably short time. And most importantly, it yields excellent results with minimal fuss.My wife was up and running with it after five or ten minutes spent getting the feel of the software and hardware, and managed to do assembly-line scanning of 200+ photos at 600 dpi resolution in a short afternoon session, storing the results on her netbook. A faster PC probably would have sped things up a bit, but the whole setup, netbook + LiDE210, is very compact, leaving plenty of tabletop room for sorting and stacking photos.The included Canon software looks good, although I haven't yet check out all of its capabilities. For scanning, cropping, resizing and other simple photo manipulation, I use the Irfanview donation-ware program. It has a lot of capabilities, and it's "free". My wife picked up the Irfanview basics quickly, and it provided an easy access path to the Canon scanner interface software.