Canon LiDE200 Color Image Scanner (2924B002)

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 14.4 x 9.9 x 1.6 inches ; 3.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B001DJDGX0
• Item model number: 2924B002
  

By : Canon
List Price : $89.99
Price : $79.95
You Save : $10.04 (11%)

Product Description

Manufacturer Product Description
Manufacturer Product Description How easy is this? Just select what you want to do with your original – scan, copy, or create email attachments or PDFs – and the entire process is automated. The new Auto Scan Mode detects your type of original, then scans and saves it with the optimal settings. Your results will be outstanding, with color dpi resolution up to 4800 x 4800, and you can also create fabulous 19600 x 19600 software-enhanced (extrapolated) scans. Plus, a letter-sized color scan takes only about 14 seconds.

CanoScan LiDE 200 Color Image Scanner:

• 4800 x 4800 color dpi resolution.
• Auto Scan Mode automatically recognizes the type of original.
• To reduce the number of wires in your work area, one simple cable provides power and a USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection.

How simple is this? Just press a button to select what you want to do with your original — copy it, scan and save it, produce a PDF, or create an email. The Advanced Z-Lid lets you produce clear, complete scans of thick originals such as notebooks. Built-in FARE™ 3.0 retouching technology helps to enhance your final images, even correcting for dust, scratches and backlighting on photos. And to reduce "cable clutter", one simple cable provides power and a USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection.
Done in 14 SecondsNow, scanning is faster than ever. In about 14 seconds, you can scan a letter-size color original such as an article, or a page from your notebook or textbook.
Shadow-Free ScansTypically, when you scan a page from a book, the shadow from the book’s inside "gutter" shows up on the scan. No more. Gutter Shadow Correction eliminates that shadow, providing a clean scan of just the page — and not the gutter.
4 EZ Buttons How simple is this? Just press a button to select what you want to do with your original — copy it (sending a scanned image to your printer), scan and save it, produce a PDF, or create an email
Smart ScanningWhether you’re scanning a photo, document, business card, textbook or personal notebook, the new Auto Scan Mode automatically recognizes the type of original, crops it to proper size and then scans and saves your file in the appropriate format. Perform this and more with the press of a single button.


Just One Wire To reduce the number of wires in your work area, one simple cable provides power and a USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection.


Manufacturer Product Description How easy is this? Just select what you want to do with your original – scan, copy, or create email attachments or PDFs – and the entire process is automated. The new Auto Scan Mode detects your type of original, then scans and saves it with the optimal settings. Your results will be outstanding, with color dpi resolution up to 4800 x 4800, and you can also create fabulous 19600 x 19600 software-enhanced (extrapolated) scans. Plus, a letter-sized color scan takes only about 14 seconds. The Advanced Z-Lid lets you produce clear, complete scans of thick originals such as notebooks. Built-in FARE™ 3.0 retouching technology helps to enhance your final images, even correcting for dust, scratches and backlighting on photos. And to reduce "cable clutter", one simple cable provides power and a USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection.

 

Canon LiDE200 Color Image Scanner (2924B002)

 

Technical Details

• New "Auto Scan Mode" automatically adjusts settings by detecting where you are scanning
• High-speed letter size color scanning in approximately 14 seconds
• Just one USB cable for data and power
• Advanced Z-lid expansion top for scanning bulky items

Customer Reviews

I decided to replace my old "all in one" printer which I was using as a scanner and a photocopying with the Canon LIDE200. I liked the specification: 4800x4800 dpi and a claimed 11 second scan rate.
The first thing I noticed as I was unpacking the scanner from the box was a mysterious WARNING about unlocking the lid of the scanner. The scanner was packed with the lid unlocked (as I found out later), and the instructions mentioned to keep the lid locked for travel or extensive handling. Fair enough, but it made me wonder if I had already done something bad to my scanner (I hadn't).
I then installed the software. I expected big things from Canon here, because generally they are pretty smart about software. The software, in terms of use, is much better than the software I had for scanning with my old scanner. The scanner has an "easy" setting that basically just scans at 300DPI without a fuss. If you want to scan at full resolution, you have to open the "driver" that exposes a page with all the bells and whistles to let you really fine tune your scan and set the highest resolutions.
All this was fair enough, however I found a few minor disturbing problems with the software. Firstly, once you've opened the "driver", it's not intuitive to figure out how to get back to the "no brainer" mode. Also, when you want to save your scan, it always seems to default to the scanning library it sets up. If you override it, it doesn't stay "changed". This is a slight pain. I always wonder who they hire to test and give feedback, because I always feel like I'm pointing out what should be the "obvious" to large companies like Canon (actually I really love Canon - so take no offense!).
As far as scanning speed is concerned, the scanner does indeed scan a 300 dpi page in about 11 seconds (that's pretty fast folks). However, the estimate does not include the 3 seconds the software takes to respond to the command to begin scanning (I'm running a duo core processor - no slouch) and the few seconds it takes to save the image. All in all, speed is impressive.
Now on to document quality. I tried scanning a few brochures and to be honest, at 300 DPI I wasn't super impressed with the result. So I went into the "driver" at set the scanning at maximum resolution (4800 x 4800). You get a pretty good result at that resolution, but by no means was I blown away. Perhaps more "tweaks" of the driver is needed. I noticed that the scanner attempts to "improve" the picture (which it does) but some of the detail of the text was a little off (brochure had images and text). I wondered if the lid of the scanner was making really good contact. Next time I will add a few pages of plain white paper behind the image and see if it makes a difference.
I tried scanning a printed document, and compared it to a printed document I scanned using my old scanner. I scanned the image to a PDF and low and behold, a major, major improvement (at 300 DPI).
So, I gave the scanner four "stars". Why not five? Well, the software is much easier to use than my old scanner, but still not without a few minor "quirks". This is a great scanner for scanning documents. How well it will actually scan and reproduce a photo is still in question, and perhaps I need to learn how to use the driver software better. I don't think I could scan an original photo without seeing some degradation in quality.
I'd be interested to hear other people's experiences regarding copying photos. I hope I'm wrong in my assessment, because I really expected a 4800x4800 scanner to reproduce "dead on" copies of a photo.

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.
Unfortunately, the particular design of scanner is that (unlike most fat desktop scanners) it cannot scan 3D objects, therefore text near the spine of a book, which is not in actual and absolute contact with the glass, is very blurry. Nor can you just press down the book---this seems to warp the glass causing blurriness elsewhere on the page, and may even jam the scanning mechanism. Also, the lid is non-removable, which means that you may be out-of-luck if you need to scan part of a large object.
Despite these limitations, the price and exceptional portability may make this series of scanners the choice for scanning books---because books which need to be scanned are usually non-circulating items in libraries or archives.
Compared to other scanners the "frame" framing the glass surface is low and only ca 3/8" wide on the right side. So, if you have a circa 1/2" inside margin, and place the right side of the scanner at the edge of a table, you can scan many books easily. You can get in tighter (to within 3/8") by using a peice of stiff, 1/16" thick, cardboard, ca 8 3/8" X 11", placed behind each page before scanning---it is a pain, but it works.
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---albeit there is still an unnecessarily wide margin. The lid opens 180 degrees, so you can scan portions of a large object.
Your original must be ABSOLUTELY flat. Since the lid is light, a weight placed on top of the lid can help insure that the original is in full contact with the glass. A ca 1" thick book is about the right weight.
The foam "pressure pad" in the lid is a bit too soft to insure that some originals (such as stiff letters or receipts which have been folded) are pressed sufficiently flat. If you notice this problem place a 8 1/2" X 11" piece of stiff cardboard and close the lid (or a thin book) directly on top of your original.
Although some reviews imply that books thicker than 1" cannot be scanned, because the "EZ-lid" only adjust to accomodate items up to 1" thick---in fact, and despite the instructions, it is not essential to close the lid at all---so there is no practical limit on book thickness. Caveat---if you don't close the lid, and if the entire glass surface is not covered by your book, then cover or shade any exposed glass from bright light (e.g., sunlight through a window or a very bright desk lamp). You can tape a strip of ordinary paper in place for this purpose, if necessary.
Other reviewers have complained about not being able to scan at greater than 1200 dpi. If you want to scan at, say 2400 dpi, you have to type the value in manually in the driver software. However, such scans are slow, and I have found no actual improvement in resolution (detail recorded).
It is true that the scanner draws power only when scanning. That is NOT a great advantage when used with a portable computer as one reviewer implies. At least with my ThinkPad---scanning to a portable running on battery-power very seriously slows down scanning. Plan on having your portable plugged into an AC outlet if you plan to scan more than a few pages.
If you want the best possible scans, you should save to tif---but the only tif files the scanner driver produces are huge uncompressed tif files. Solution: scan from a graphics program which allows you to save files as loss-less tif (LZW compression) which will produce files as small as 1/20 the size with no loss in detail.
If it is incovenient to scan from a graphics program, you can scan to JPG. JPG files are always degraded by compression, but if saved nominally uncompressed, degredation does not become significant unless you repeatedly edit and save the files. Solution: scan as jpg, but convert the files to LZW tif before editing them in any way. LZW tif and uncompressed jpg files of the same image are about the same size
PDF images generally default to ca 300dpi jpg-like compression---acceptable for most photos, but not for text. If you are scanning a mixture of images and text, scan as tif files at 1200 dpi and use Adobe Acrobat (or other pdf editor) to convert the tif files to pdf. Most pdf editors allow you to select the graphics quality---select "highest quality" --- OR a specific dpi --- OR disable "downsampling".
If you scan half-tone (screened) photos from books, magazines, etc. You can use Gausian blur (in your graphics editing program) to improve (descreen) them for viewing and printing. Use the lowest possible value which eliminates the dot pattern: typically, 4 pixels at 1200 dpi, 2 pixels at 600 dpi.
The very best scans are produced by setting the tone curve manually, with all of the various options "off". Pre-defining tone curves for your particular project makes the process a little easier. Unfortunately, you have to "summon" your pre-defined tone curve for each scan. You can define user tone curves, or the all of the scanning settings (including the tone curve) under user names. Note particularly, pay attention when defining "all of the settings" that some of the settings, particularly color, resolution, and auto-tone have not reverted to the defaults. You have to define things in a particular order, or the defaults reset----very annoying.
Don't panic about the scary "unlock the scanner before using" notice in the instructions. If you try to scan with the scanner locked, it will tell you, "unlock me". If so, just unlock it.
This review was original written about the discontinued Canoscan LiDE 90. After several thousand scans, the LiDE 90 began showing irregularities (as faint moire patterns) only when half-tone photos were scanned at 1200dpi and then descreened. So, I purchased an LiDE 200 as a replacement, since I scan everything at 1200 dpi. As far as I can tell, the only difference between the two model is that the LiDE 200 is quieter, and slightly slower. Although the automatic scanning function has nominally been improved, I use instead the "advanced settings". The "advanced settings" portion of the program is unchanged.
If there is no difference between the LiDE 90 and the LiDE 200, is there really any difference between an LiDE 100 and LiDE 200? I doubt it. Note that the 100 is "ugly black" while the 200 is "pretty silver". But guess what? The newer 210 is also "ugly black", presumably to minimize reflected light within the scanner. I bet that in some situations the "ugly black" LiDE 100 produces better scans that the "pretty silver" 200. As far as I can tell, the only difference between a 100 and a 210 is "improved" software features---which I wouldn't use anyway. The "newer" models claim to be 10% or so faster---but note that the 200 is slower than the 90, presumably to improve accuracy.
After setting up the "preferences" in the "advanced settings" of the LiDE 200 driver on my full size computer, I found that I could not change the options. I had to remove then reinstall the software to be able to change the "preferences". So, take care setting up preferences. The only changes I made were to select Preferences Preview "Automatically Execute Preview" and "Display the last Frame on Previewed Image". With my Thinkpad, no matter what I do, the software will not remember any advanced settings.
Suggestion to the Canon designers: If the frame was flush with the surface of the glass, and the frame (or margin) was narrower (less than 1/4 inch), at least on one side, this would be a great book scanner. The awkward drivers need major improvement.

 

Canon LiDE200 Color Image Scanner (2924B002)