Canon CanoScan LiDE 80 Color Scanner by Canon
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Digital camera reviews of Canon CanoScan LiDE 80 Color Scanner
Digital camera Review: Great Scanner - NOT for Mac OS X
Summary: 1 Stars
I recently bought this scanner. Its a great device. Small, light, produces good scans. The drivers and software provided for Mac OS X are pathetic. I have had many other Canon products before (printers & cameras) and they have always had good software. So, I am really astonished.
This scanner is less than 10 days old and I am strongly considering returning it for one with better Mac OS X support.
Digital camera Review: Great Scanner For The Amateur Photographer
Summary: 5 Stars
I just purchased this scanner to replace a slow, unwieldy HP 5300C. After 1 week, here's what I think.PROs:
1. Slim form factor.
2. Good quality photograph scans. Maybe not for a professional, but for us amateurs, it rocks!
3. Very quick scanning
4. Negative scannning possible with included adapter.
5. Canoscan software definitely a cut above the norm
6. Windows XP installation is fast and simple.
-->a. Install Canoscan Drivers and software, reboot THEN
-->b. plug scanner into nearest HighSpeed USB (USB 2.0) port
-->c. You're good to go!
7. Full Photoshop Elements 2.0 included
CONs:
1. A bit noisy
2. Some software supplied as "SE" or limited versions
3. Scanning Kodak APS film pictures can be tricky due to the
nonstandard print sizes.
A final piece of advice - make sure you acquire the latest Canon software from the Canon, USA website.
Digital camera Review: Great and Easy to use.
Summary: 5 Stars
Old scanner(4yrs. and it died) was a general HP not for pic's or slides. Decided I want to copy my pic's & slides onto CD. This scanner works great with a great price. And it has a nice software package. Cannot compare to a high price scanner but I am very pleased the the results that I am getting from my pic's, old negatives and slides. I am using the software with W98SE and I have the scanner plugged into a Belkin hup. I also have the Canon printer i860 which does very nice pic's.Digital camera Review: Great hardware for the price, terrible OS X software
Summary: 3 Stars
The image quality is very, very good for a scanner of this price. The size is convenient, the use of USB 2 for power is convenient, the scanner looks good. It's fast at 300 dpi, slower at 600 dpi, and remarkably slow at 1200 dpi.
Two issues, however. First: the box says max resolution of 2400 x 4800; the software shows a max resolution of only 1200 dpi. Yes, 99 times out of 100, 1200 dpi is plenty; but why market as 2400 dpi then? Second: with the exception of the included copy of Photoshop Elements 2.0 (a great deal), the software for OS X is horrible. The installer requires classic to run; and the installer is not necessarily successful in running. I downloaded an update to the drivers, and that was set to run in classic, even though it will only run in native OS X (not classic). I ended up having to install the CD, download the update, and copy the install script from the CD to the correct location in the update to get that installed, and then make an alias in one of the library folders. Compare this to the process for installing a digital camera: just plug it in. So while I'd recommend this as a nice home scanner for the price (don't expect the quality of a professional scanner), I'd also recommend that Canon do something about their installation software.
Digital camera Review: I tried it all - PC, MAC, USB 1.1, USB high-speed, color...
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm pretty impressed with this little guy, but eventually decided it's not for me because it's just too fancy for my needs.
PC (XP Pro): Installation was pretty easy - I didn't try to do it from the Canon-provided CD because sometimes that adds icons where I really don't want them. So, I downloaded the driver from the Canon website. I also downloaded the software and at first tried to use that directly, but I must have been doing something wrong because it wasn't behaving. I wasn't interested in wasting my time with it, so I uninstalled it and just used the "Import" function of Photoshop, and everything was a snap. I have USB 1.1 on my PC, and the speed was fine - at first it seemed slower than with high-speed USB (see below), but I retested it, and it's about the same - fast!
Mac (X 10.3): Installation was very easy - again, I downloaded the driver from the Canon website, and this time just went straight to Photoshop and used the "import" function. The Mac interface of the software is so much more superior than the PC version, I can hardly express it. Everything seems just so much more organized and works from the first push of the button. There was zero fiddling around. My Mac has high-speed USB, and it was fast on two accounts - the computer found and initialized the scanner very quickly, and the scanning itself was also very quick. As mentioned above, USB 1.1 wasn't much slower! This is a very fast scanner.
Black-and-white text scanning - I was surprised that I had to go up 300 dpi to get decent resolution (like that of a photocopier), but a black'n'white letter-sized document at 300 dpi is still less than one MB, so not too bad. Scanning was quick.
Color scanning - I can get very decent resolution even at 75 dpi, with fairly true colors and contrast.
Documents which contain both black-and-white writing and a photograph - to get decent (photocopier) resolution of black-and-white text in color mode (so that the photograph is also captures), surprisingly I had to up the resolution to about 200 dpi. There was some fiddling around and testing for this particular type of document.
Preview feature of the software: I ended up using my Mac more because the software interface is so much better and my Mac has high-speed USB. The good feature of the preview function is that the document is scanned fairly accurately, and you can box the area of interest, press scan, and the import window remains put, so you can box a second area without having to preview again, and press scan a second time. Two documents result in Photoshop. The two scans can be in different functions, too, one in black-and-white, and one in color. This feature is absent in the PC version of the software - one press of the scan button, and the preview is gone. If you want another scan from the same page, you have to preview it again. Another good feature is that images can be rotated 90 or 180 degrees during the scan, and they can also be cropped, which is one less thing you might have to do in Photoshop (same on PC). Lastly, the scanner is "smart" - it will automatically detect the size and box the item that's being scanned, saving you time (same on PC). The bad feature is that the preview isn't accurate - the black-and-white is pretty bad, to be honest, compared to the actual scan (same on PC). The preview in color can have some false stripes, perhaps as a result of glossy paper, but those don't appear in the actual scan (same on PC). The bottom line - the interface is user-friendly, especially for the Mac, but the preview isn't always that accurate.
I like the lack of a power cable, I really don't need another one of those. I like the expanding lid for fat documents, and it goes pretty high. I like the overall look of the scanner - matte chrome, beautiful. I like the lack of buttons that can be accidentally pressed. With respect to design, a really simplistic and beautiful piece of work, reminds me of some of the Apple items.
We all have our non-traditional scanner uses - I scanned in some fabric swatches, both flat and textured, and this scanner did a better job capturing their look than my 2 MP digital camera - I was impressed! I hope you, too, find non-traditional uses for your scanner.
This scanner is totally beefed-up, which is why I'm returning it and buying a LiDE 30 instead. If you use max resolution for a color letter-sized document, the file will be more than 100 MB! I have no use for such monstrosity, and I prefer to use close to the lowest resolution possible to obtain the results I want. It also comes with all these film attachments, which I absolutely have no use for and cannot comment on. Overall, very impressed with the low-fiddling-around-with factor and the excellent Mac software interface. Review of my new LiDE 30 scanner will be coming soon (after the Labor Day sales).