Canon CanoScan LiDE 25 Color Image Scanner (0307B001) Reviews

• great scanner, especially for the price

  
  By A3VN42L4MGLM9Q on 2005-12-22
  I bought this scanner to scan in about 150 old black and white family photos, and they all came out very nicely. I scanned only a handful of color pictures, and they were fine as well.
  
  Some experiences I had using the scanner:
  - smaller pictures end up getting a better final resolution
  - the quality is great for pictures, but only average for text; for example newspaper articles don't scan well enough to allow you to read smaller text
  - I was able to scan aout 30 pictures in an hour
  - scanning multiple photos is usually easy: you don't have to crop a big image into the individual photos because the scanning software figures out the picture boundaries. However, occasionally the picture boundary detection stuff messes up and the scanner detects 1 fewer picture than was in the scanner, forcing you to rescan
  
  For some old polaroids, the scanned picture was clearer and brighter than the polaroid. it brought out the picture in
  an amazing way.
  
  

• I'll save you some time...

  
  By A36BE8S4Y32YGD on 2006-09-14
  I mainly bought this scanner because of reviews that mentioned being able to save things in PDF format. Well, it's easy once you figure it out--but that took me over 90 minutes!
  
  The scanner comes with several different kinds of software, and only one of them will save to PDF format. That's the CanoScan Toolbox. Neither ArcSoft PhotoStudio nor the Scansoft OmniPage software will.
  
  The Quick Start Guide suggests trying your first scan using the ArcSoft software. I tried a small chart of plant names. It scanned very slowly and the result was unreadable. I tried again using a higher DPI. When I tried to save the file, I discovered no PDF option in the drop-down box. And even trying to close a window in the program took forever.
  
  Next I tried the OmniPage software, since it was designed for text. It looked much clearer, but the procedure was still slow because it kept asking me to confirm the spelling of nearly every plant name. Again, no option in the drop-down box for saving to PDF format.
  
  Finally in desperation I clicked on CanoScan Toolbox, where there was a big button marked PDF. I had a two-page document scanned and saved, wonderfully readable, in about a minute. Why on earth doesn't the Quick Start Guide suggest starting with this one, being the easiest and fastest?
  
  I think I'm going to be very happy with the scanner, but am deducting one star for lack of documentation.
  
  

• Wow, such a nice little scanner!

  
  By A1JH84DOA45XQU on 2005-09-20
  The last scanner I bought was in 1997. Boy has technology evolved! Back then I had to pre-scan, adjust scan area, scan, and then save. Now all that process has been eliminated by a push of a button! One touch and this scanner scans, auto-crops, and saves automatically! This scanner can detect what part of the flatbed your photo is located, so it only scans that area and saves the photo without having to specify scan area. Neat! Plus this scanner is so thin and small! I am impressed.
  
  

• Well worth the price

  
  By A3CEHXJDATTAG9 on 2007-02-09
  The power supply on my hp5470C finally bit the dust, and this scanner doesn't cost much more than an HP power supply. plus, it's a lot more portable.
  
  i read the earlier reviews and was prepared for noise and slow speeds. i was pleasantly surprised.
  
  WRT noise, the scanner makes a noticeable mechanical whine when preview scanning at 150DPI. at 300 DPI or more, it's much quieter. i measured the sound output from about a foot away, and it's roughly 56 dB (A weighted). that's not loud.
  
  WRT speed, a full page is roughly 15 seconds at 300 DPI color. i tried scanning a dollar bill at 1200 DPI to get a feel for the resolution - the 1200 DPI scan took about a minute and a half, of just the bill.
  
  sharpness was excellent. i could zoom in on the engraving on the bill with very nice results. color was good, and sharpness was fine.
  
  on text scanning, i tried OCR'ing a page of the instructions that were written in small (about 6pt) type. the included ScanSoft Omnipage software got 100% accuracy.
  
  the three buttons on the front of the scanner were easy to configure, and worked very well. a high quality copy of a color photo came out very nicely, when printed directly to my HP inkjet.
  
  the form factor is great. it's about as thick as my hand, is roughly 14 3/4" x 10 1/4". weight is very light. it'd travel very easily in a briefcase or backpack, and i would have no compunction using it in a library (from a noise standpoint). it takes power from the USB cable, so would work very well w/ a notebook.
  
  overall, i'm extremely pleased with this purchase. it exceeded my expectations.
  
  

• Excellent value, but Mac OS X an afterthought

  
  By A55PCTJ6NINET on 2006-11-20
  I wanted a small flatbed scanner to convert nearly all of my paper documents (four lateral file drawers full) into PDF files. I've now scanned well over 1000 pages now with no problems. It could be a tad faster. Even as it is, it finishes scanning before I have the next page ready at least half of the time.
  
  I'd give this scanner five stars were it not for the fact that the Mac OS X software included is so obviously an afterthought. The CanoScan Toolbox does not even have a standard OX X interface (It's not Win XP either, it's just something else entirely). Another minus is that the software which ships with the scanner is several vesions out of date and it's not as easy to find updates on Canon's web site as it should be.
  
  Overall, however, it is an excellent value.
  
  Follow-up 2/27/08: The Canon software is not compatible with Mac OS X 10.5, notwithstanding what it says on Canon's software update page. When I contacted Canon, they basically admitted the problem and offered to sell me a newer scanner at a discount. Instead of replacing the scanner, I replaced the software with VueScan. I have had no problems scanning a couple of hundred pages using VueScan in Mac OS X 10.5.
  
  
• Great price! Works like a charm! I'm becoming a Canon junkie!
  By ALIL6GECW4VE1 on 2005-11-02
  I have been buying Canon products lately -- camera, printer, photo paper, and now this printer. Canon has yet to let me down. I'm amazed at the scan quality this scanner produces! I bought it simply so I could share wedding book and magazine photos with my mother who lives several hundred miles away, but I think I'm going to be preserving my old 35mm shots using the CanoScan LiDE 25. The price was excellent, installation was a breeze, power is supplied via the USB cable, and the software is incredibly user-friendly. I have yet to look at a manual and I'm already scanning images beautifully! It does take a while (45 seconds to a minute, give or take a few seconds) for things to scan. If you're on a deadline, this may not be the right equipment for the job. For day-to-day home use, this scanner can't be beat! Also, kudos to Amazon.com and UPS, from whom I always receive stellar service! My scanner was shipped and received in practically no time at all! I think it was a two business day turn-around from order to receipt, and with FREE SHIPPING!
  
  
• Scan this Miserable Experience
  By A1Y9HYZNBMMX4B on 2007-08-07
  I'm a big fan of Canon products in general however this product really is making me rethink things. It gives decent image quality but is very noisy, slow, and causes strange computer issues. It draws so much power through it's USB cable that I have to unplug it from my computer before I boot up or else it will take an extra 10 minutes! I am not able to even use it with my USB hub because it draws more power than my total hub supports (which is ridiculous because I have no problem when the camera, card reader and mp3 player are simultaneously plugged into the hub and being used). I didn't find the software to be an issue. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. There are a lot of bundled products though and it may take a moment to read and follow instructions. A few years ago I got a free no-name scanner when I signed up for ISP service and I'd take it back over the Canon LiDE 25 in a heartbeat if only the software would run on XP.
  
  
• Affordable, fast and easy to use. A must have.
  By A2G11XU04IQIK8 on 2005-09-11
  You already have a printer, you have the fax machine, you just need a scanner. Of course there are these new all in one packages you can buy these days but they are costly and bulky.
  
  Here you have a simple flat bed scanner that is affordable, and has the features to copy, scan, email, even edit what you scan as well. It's powered through the USB cable so no need to worry about plugs. The scans come out great and so do the copies. The speed couldn't be any faster which is of course a plus. The scanner fits nicely just about anywhere, or can be easily stored if not used frequently.
  
  Total quality, and a great buy especially for the price as well. Worth picking up.
  
  
• Awesome Scanner, Awesome Service
  By A1WCGPA26R83SS on 2005-10-08
  The scanner came in about 4-5 days before the actual expectation date, and the installation was simple as pie.
  
  Within minutes, I had the scanner hooked up, and was scanning images into my computer. Thank you Cannon!
  
  
• Good DOCUMENT scanner but nothing else!!!
  By A34KEN8JYCVG3D on 2005-12-21
  I was bought this scanner 2 months ago because of some GREAT comments of this site. But believe me this scanner is ONLY FOR B/W DOCUMENTS or some simple color pictures. Nothing else. The color scanning is terrible. All picturies are in RED, and deep shadows details are missing. Don't buy it for quality color scanning.
  
  
• Easy for a tech dummy like me.
  By AL42SUL80HBN1 on 2005-08-11
  Received the Canon printer promptly from Amazon; Was so surprised on how fast it was processed and shipped. Opened it with glee and wild abandon. It had a quick start sheet and no user manual which was a good thing, I hate novels. Set up was a breeze. My first scan was completed 5 minutes after installing the software. I was overjoyed, I momentarily passed out. I then went to my photo albums and created scans of my cherished pics of yesterday. I did about 25 'quick and dirty' scans which were very very nice for my tastes. I will tinker around with the enclosed software in the future. I love all Canon products and so glad I added this scanner to my Canon collection comprising of digital cameras; printers; and now this baby.
  
  
• CanoScan LiDE 25 Scanner
  By A3JII6JVNRALGU on 2005-10-21
  Nice design. Plus points: Ultra slim, needs no external power, good software. Only disadvantage: Rather slow, taking around a minute to scan a page.
  
  
• One minor, but annoying problem
  By A1FTTE171R54HF on 2006-05-17
  This little scanner works well enough for the price. The only gripe I have is that at first I couldn't get it to work until a techno-person asked if I had turned the switch on the bottom from "lock" to "unlock". What switch? I asked. Oh, it's there, all right, but nowhere in the instructions could I find reference to a lock/unlock switch; and if the reference IS there, it's certainly well-hidden.
  
  Now maybe people who have grown up with computers know enough to look for such things...but believe it or not, some of us are over thirty! So, this little gizmo gets only four stars...and I think I'm being generous at that.
  
  Hint to instruction-writing geeks the world over: DON'T ASSUME THAT "EVERYONE KNOWS 'THAT'"! Not all of us do.
  
  
• Very good machine at a good price.
  By AV6ANLPPV8NSM on 2006-11-16
  I replaced an old Visioneer which operated on USB 1.1 also, so I can't compare this to USB 2.X scanners, but compared to my old scanner, this one is much faster. No more waiting for the bulb to warm up or for the system to locate the scanner.
  
  The included photo editing software has an automatic adjust feature that does a fantastic job even on poor photos. I've stopped using Corel and switched to ArcSoft. This feature alone makes it worth it's weight.
  
  I really enjoy the absence of an electrical cable. The unit operates from the USB port, and allows one to use the scanner with a notebook running from the notebook's battery. Great for scanning documents at the library.
  
  All in all, a big thumbs up.
  
  
• Canon Scanner
  By A39Q41L5TLZPK4 on 2005-09-25
  Great!!! Love the USB power and compact size.
  Well designed scanning software with an abundance of automatic and manual settings.
  
  
• Quick and Easy
  By AHQBONVOZ0N30 on 2006-03-25
  There isn't anything fancy about the scanner, but it does what I need it to do exceptionally well. The setup was easy and the instructions on how to use it were easily understandable. The quality is good. I use it to scan worksheets for my elementary classroom. Great product - I don't have any complaints.
  
  
• Good enough for a person who doesn't expect too much.
  By A2L0ZMWNGZF8PK on 2006-05-27
  I bought this scanner just because one needs to have a scanner to place some documents and non-digital pictures to computer from time to time.Luckily for me, I use it not so often. It is very, very slow. Besides, Photo Studio software is slow and primitive. Now I have digital camera and can see the difference between its software and that one enclosed with this scanner.However, you really need to have a scanner, and, if you are not too demanding, buy this scanner and use it!
  Now, after one year,I can add that I like this thing more and more.It is reliable and serves me every time I need it.
  
  
• Pleased with product
  By A3C0ZEC8UKUUWU on 2006-07-13
  Product was as advertised. Pretty quick on scanning and easy editing software to master. No problem on installation, either hardware or software. I had it up and running in about 10 minutes. I used this machine to duplicate old family photos. I prefer to use Photoshop for final editing, however, but that's just me. I am a Mac user.
  
  
• An excellent scanner, and so affordable
  By A1XJV2XMWLCCKQ on 2006-12-01
  I love this scanner. The best features are:
  
  1. I've scanned hundreds of photos and it never would have been possible without the multi-scan feature. You can lay 3-4 photos on the scanning bed and the multi-scan feature will save them as separate image files and even straighten them for you. The only problem is that if you lay a photo at the ver top of the scanning bed, it gets cut off, so that you have to leave about an inch of empty space at the top. Occasionally it will detect two photos as one and you will need to rescan - but this can usually be avoided by making sure the photos don't lie too close together
  2. It is so slim and can live on my desk without making it look cluttered. If you don't have space on your desk, it is lightweight and slim enough to store in a nearby closet without being too much of a hassle.
  3. You don't need to plug it into an outlet, just a USB port - this is great for 2 reasons: the first is that power strips are usually so crowded with plugs, it is one less thing to have to jam in there, and also if you are storing it in a closet you don't have to get behind your desk to plug it in. The second is probably not important to everyone, but we live overseas right now, and it's nice to know that when we move back we won't need to buy any kind of plug adaptor or converter to keep using it.
  4. The software that comes with is handy and simple to set up and lets you select a file name that it gives to each file in the whole group you just scanned as a base name and attaches a 1,2,3,etc after the name. Maybe all scanning software does this, but I find that very handy for organizing my files.
  
  When I scan, I'm not usually in the biggest rush, I just scan while I'm doing other things so i don't pay too much attention to how fast it scans, but I think it's about a minute to scan a bed full of photos (3-4 depending on photo size).
  
  Overall, a great purchase and I would definitely recommend.
  
  
• Very easy to use and carry
  By AC9UO8H2VCZI2 on 2007-02-21
  This is a great little machine. Yes, it has the limitations that some other reviewers have noted, but it fits its niche very well. A couple of comments:
  
  1-It is small enough and light enough that it will fit inside a reasonable size laptop case along with a laptop. That makes it excellent for portable tasks, like going to an archive or taking it to a meeting.
  
  2-The software that comes with the scanner is easy to use and straightforward. However, the software that Canon offers on their website is different and is some of the worst-designed software that I've used in many years. It took me 90 minutes to figure it out because it does not include basic features like a save option (it only saves when you exit the program!). Why Canon does not offer the exact same software online and with the machine is a mystery.
  
  Finally, it is cheap enough that you can take more risks with it. If you lose it while traveling or break it, you're not going to be in bad shape.
  
  
• Horrible Little Thing
  By A21KNRUAA5RK5E on 2007-05-21
  This thing is awful. The (Macintosh) software that comes with it is infuriating. The install process installs 5 programs, each of which asks for the same information, install drive, several "next" clicks and something I've never seen -- after each install you must confirm to exit that installer.
  
  Try as I might I couldn't get anything but dark, washed, grainy scans. I tried a software package called VueScan which was able to produce semi-reasonable scans where were merely dark and washed. However there was quite a lot of fringing, so much so that the software could not auto-crop correctly due to fringing which it detected as part of the image.
  
  I think this is a case of you get what you pay for.
  
  
• Oustanding quality for such a low price.
  By A2MOJANFPX353G on 2007-11-11
  I bought this to replace an older HP 3790 flatbed scanner that had died after several years of faithful service. I was surprised that the quality of the photo scans, on the LiDE 25, was slightly better than the older more expensive HP scanner. The colors did have a slight reddish tint until I went into the 'Advanced->Preferences->Color Settings' menu and deselected the 'Color Matching' option. After that the colors were absolutely perfect, even better than the older HP 3790.
  
  
  On my WinXP 2.66Ghz machine with 1.5 MB of RAM using USB 2.0, a 3.5 x 5 inch photo at 600 dpi took 35 seconds to scan, at 300 dpi the same picture took 18 seconds. I am happy with that. If the default settings had the 'Color Matching' option disabled, I would have given this a solid 5 star rating.
  
  Keeping in mind, my only use for this scanner is to archive photographs -
  
  The good points:
  Excellent scan quality.
  Reasonable speed.
  Uses LEDs, less power consumption than older light tube scanners.
  No warm up time required.
  No power supply required, gets power from USB connection.
  After I disabled the automatic color matching, the colors were perfect.
  
  The bad point:
  I had to disable the automatic color matching to get perfect colors.
  
  Quality for dollar value on this thing is excellent.
  
  Ken
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Does the job
  By A216WRW1HHAXR9 on 2008-02-11
  This scanner is incredible value. The setup is simple and the performance excellent. If you are only going to scan a few documents a day, look no further.
  
  On the downside, it is somewhat slow, even though it is a USB 2.0 device. An 8.5x11 greyscale scan at 300 DPI took 30 seconds, then it took 15 more seconds to wind itself back to the starting point for the next scan.
  
  The rest of this review describes my experience installing it.
  
  The first impression on getting it out of the box is how very slim it is. The unit bears clear written warnings to install the software before plugging it in to the computer. Also taped to the unit is a user friendly unmissable request to unlock the mechanism.
  
  As is my habit when installing driver software, I didn't use the CD, but downloaded it from the support website. It went smoothly. Since my system runs XP, I was getting ready to install the driver described as the XP driver, but the readme file said that it didn't work with the Canoscan Toolbox, so I installed the Vista driver (ScanGear CS) instead; this worked fine on XP.
  
  Scanning and copying needed no further setup. The buttons worked fine.
  
  I then loaded the Nuance Scansoft Omnipage SE optical character recognition software. I used the CD, since it wasn't on the website. Again the process was painless. I scanned a page from a book; it recognized the entire thing perfectly with no errors. I scanned a thermal-print credit card receipt from a restaurant. Astonishingly it recognized this, too with almost no errors.
  
  I assigned the OCR to one of the scanner buttons. I did this simply by dragging the button icon to the OCR icon on the computer screen.
  
  I plan to use it for documents, not photos, so I haven't tried its color capabilities.
  
  
• Junk for any serious purpose
  By AIQKROLJIXBET on 2008-02-18
  So, it is fair to give one star to a scanner only costing $50? In this case, I think the answer is yes. Why?
  
  If you just occasionally scan in a single sheet of paper, you may get away with this scanner. The web is filled with complaints of people who can't even do that -- google this scanner and "twain error" -- but I've had no trouble with single pages yet.
  
  The problems really start occurring if you try to scan in any multi-page document. The scanner is incredibly slow, which goes along with the price, but it randomly crashes in the middle of scans with a "twain error." Even more egregiously, everything you've scanned in so far is lost in the process. So, it's back to square one, where it's just as likely to crash mid-process again. It can literally take an hour to successfully scan in a 10 page gray-scale paper, as it keeps crashing in the middle. Just awful.
  
  If you have any intention of scanning in documents, this is simply not the scanner to buy. You'll save money upfront, but you'll just end up having to return it and getting a better (non-Canon) scanner as a replacement. And Canon is of zero help in figuring out what's wrong; it is presumably a problem with their drivers that they cannot fix.
  
  My advice is avoid this at all costs unless you are the most casual of scanner users. If it doesn't work, it's not a bargain.
  
  
  
• Awesome scanner for the money
  By A3QCMFSYDN75SC on 2008-02-21
  Had to replace my Canoscan u650, which didn't work with Vista. This one does, and it performs wonderfully (even if a tad bit slow; patience people!). You have to get the Vista drivers at Canon's website.
  
  This one has 3 buttons on the outside (which the u650 didn't have), which are handy to do quick scans.
  
  Also, the software is good; especially the Toolbox toolbar (see the image I uploaded). A handy desktop shortcut to frequently used scan actions. The 2 functions I like the most are 'Scan 1' and 'Scan 2', one for black and white scans, and the other for color.
  
  Highly recommended.
  
  
• Hunk of Junk if you are a MAC user.
  By A21TUBG8A7BARP on 2008-06-07
  I upgraded to OSX 10.5 and suddenly my brand new scanner- barely a week old was useless, and guess what. Canon knows this, and they make no driver to support the new OSX operating system. Worse than junk- if you advertise compatibility with OSX operating system then make it compatible.
  
  
• Your Best Bet- Truely Worth It
  By A3DQ5D1RKXMVLD on 2005-11-02
  I like the fact that the scanner has the capability to combine power and interface with the computer in one USB cable.
  When I got it the product was very self-explanatory,
  I mean one touch and it scans. How much easier can it get?
  It shipped much earlier than what I had expected.
  The resolution on the scanner is great magnificent
  quality. I really got my moneys worth.
  
  
• Defective Upon Arrival!
  By AN8MF7AZEUYEP on 2006-11-29
  I got this scanner and hooked it up to my PC with no problems. It scanned really good images from photos until... I had noticed large specs on the photos in the same areas each time. I read the instructions on cleaning the glass and scanned again... but they were still there. Upon further examination of the glass, there were large particles of dust underneath the glass with no way to get it out. I contacted Canon directly and they said it was "anti-glare treatment" applied under the glass. Whatever! The Canon rep said I would be compensated under their warranty terms for a refurbished scanner of the same kind. I told them to take a flying leap! Never again will I buy a Canon product!
  
  
• Do NOT Buy
  By A38PAIXH1ZAITW on 2006-12-05
  I purchased this scanner and was highly dissappointed! The scan quality is HORRIBLE! Their were rainbowy effects, lines, crosshatching, blotches just terrible!! Tries calling Canon support and were of no help, dodn't even want to talk to me and tried to puch me off even though I had warranty and everything.. The scanner takes forever to scan also, like 4 minutes and makes a loud icky noise when doing so.
  
  
• Suprisingly Great for its size and price
  By A2YNZUR4XMLFYW on 2007-03-25
  I am coming from an 8 year old AGFA SnapScan 1212u that finally gave up its life to pick up a LiDE 25 because it seemed the smallest and cheapest one around. I was very surprised as to how well it integrates with Mac OS X. The software provided with it is plenty and the same apps come for PC and Mac, it comes even with OCR (OmniPage) and another to program the quick action buttons on the front other than the regular scan software, manual and driver for your system that then is used by all the apps that want to scan with it. What left me very pleased is that those buttons on the fron indeed work well, for example you can put 5 photos on the scanner, hit the button for email and it will then automatically scan in one pass and split up the fotos correctly cropped and add them into a blank email.
  
  I was also very please that it uses a TWAIN driver that allows it to scan right from Photoshop and even Preview.app via "import". Great for those times when you do not want to fire up photoshopp just to fiddle with an image. I mostly scan with settings that will not let the scanner software do anything automatic, such as changing levels, sharpness etc and for me the results are the best that way. Doing a test on max resolution is quite impressive, you can scan a dime razorsharp and blow it up to 40 inches.
  
  The speed is fine, faster than I thought and comparable to my old AGFA. I love the thinness and that it does away with a bulky power adapter using only 2.5Watts max at any time when scanning and half that on standby. For those of you who do need a scanner only a couple of times per week this is perfect. Go for it.
  
  

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