dj_tetsuo "dj_tetsuo" Say: Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F
Ok for normal office tasks, very limited for films, REVOLTING for slides, 2010-08-09
This review is for: Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F
After 6 months of use, I feel that I have to give everyone my opinion about this little scanner. As many around, I was driven to believe that this scanner was able to process films and slides. It is true that in my mind, I could not imagine that a brand such as Canon would make a scanner able to scan films but not mounted slides. Nevertheless this is the case here. BEWARE THIS SCANNER CANNOT SCAN MOUNTED SLIDES!! This is probably the most stupid marketing concept of the year, but the engineers at Canon just stopped short when developing this scanner. They imagined nice ergonomics, an even nicer low profile making it easy to slide under a desk, created an ingenious lid able to open 180 degrees, not to mention the ability to have the scanner installed angled on a desk, thus limiting the footprint. The scanner works very nicely for everyday tasks, it is easy to use, gives great results scanning documents and normal prints. The software, although always limited, is correct and regularly updated. With little practice, you are able to make it do whatever you want. It installs very well with Windows 7 64 bits and works fine from there. IMHO the major drawback of the software is the way it handles files locations. You are always wondering what is actually happening when a file is saved as it lists processed files not by location, but by scanning session. It's a bit like managing a multi-k MP3 collection from iTunes... Quite annoying and almost impossible...Now about the films. This scanner is able to scan films, B&W and negatives without too much problems, despite the fact that you must manually change the backlight plug-in device for every frame. By default the software crops the frame as it wishes, but you are able to disable this feature if you want borders scanned as well. Scan speed is correct up to 2400 dpi (about 1min 30s to 2 min). Above this resolution, it takes about 5 minutes at 4800 dpi frame and it becomes useless except for specific pictures. I have scanned several hundreds of B&W films (home brewed!) and after messing up at first, I managed to get good results. With the appropriate software such as Photoshop CS4 or CS5 you can save files with 48/16 bits color depth by TWAIN importing (beware CS4 64 bits does not allow this. You must use the provided 32 bits version for the TWAIN interface, another couple of hours lost to figure it out...). You're not able to use 48/16 bits color depth from the Canon software itself as it cannot handle these special files properly, but this is usually the case with most scanner makers. I believe you would probably get even better results with a more professional flatbed film scanner such as 8800f or Epson V500 as I always find that the pictures could be better resolved. But you also have a glass between the CCD and the film...Another point of concern is the fact that you must calibrate this scanner quite regularly. I've found post in forums of users throwing out this scanner as they had horizontal lines when scanning films. This is normal and shows you must calibrate it. Overall from my experience, you must do so at every photo scanning session. It takes 3 minutes to do so, but you have to find where the functionality is hidden in the software. It took me 1 hour to find it. Thanks to the Canon developers... I am a very advanced user, and I believe that most users could not find the calibration functionality this easily... You have to switch the entire software to advanced mode (after you clicked scanning films), then go to the parameters menu, then you'll find in one of the tabs 2 tiny buttons for scanner glass and film calibrations. From there it is straightforward as it is all explained by pop-up messages. Another completely stupid ergonomics brought to you by Canon. Why to hide these absolutely indispensable buttons?But my extra large concern and source of deep consternation is the total inability of this scanner to scan mounted slides. When you try to do so, although there are no reasons whatsoever why it couldn't technically do so, you get completely fuzzy images as the CCD captor is unable to focus the half height of the frame mount. I cannot understand what happened in Canon's mind when they gave their green light to the mass production of this device. Did they think that people do not have slides to scan in the 21st century? This is a proof of complete disrespect from Canon toward their photograph customers.Overall, this scanner is nice for office tasks, but for films it should NOT be branded as a film scanner as it is misleading. It may scan a negative film from time to time, but do not expect to do more that this.Pros-Nice ergonomics, thin line, innovative structure-Nice blend of scan quality, speed, ease of use and software for everyday office tasks-Does not require a power supply (USB powered) Nice!!-Cheap-Ok to scan a film from time to time.Cons-CANNOT SCAN MOUNTED SLIDES!! This is more than annoying, it's REVOLTING!!-Strange software ergonomics, maybe Ok if you have major brain damage, but otherwise requires a lot of search for basic functionalities, calibration in particular-Requires regular calibration for films scanning (every session). It's Ok once you know how to do it.-Impossible to clean the glass from below except if you know how to deal with plastic tabs. A fast remove structure would have been nice as it is necessary to clean the glass from below from time to time

P. Schmidt Say: Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F
Nice scanner for former HP 4670 users, 2011-03-06
This review is for: Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F
I have used an HP Scanjet 4670 for years, and really loved the thing. It was the rare flatbed scanner that did not take up a lot of desk space, having the unusual vertical picture frame design. My particular unit was faulty in some way (I never determined whether it was a hardware fault or something with the driver); sometimes in the middle of a series of scans it would crash, requiring that I close the HP software and cycle power to the scanner, then relaunch the HP software. And it was not a very good slide scanner. But because of its form factor, build quality, flexibility in use, and small desktop footprint, I kept using it.Enter the new computer with Windows 7 (64 bit). I checked all my equipment with both the manufacturers and with the Microsoft Windows 7 compatibility webpage. With the exception of my Scanjet 4670 and my trusty Color Laserjet 2600n, all equipment was Win 7 x64 compatible (HP said there was no Win 7 driver for the 4670 and the compatibility chart did not disagree. I heard that HP has since added a driver but I have not verified this. Some web blogs suggested that it could only be used via TWAIN from other graphics software, perhaps Photoshop or similar). I decided that it was time for a new scanner, assuming I could find a comparable one with the vertical design and Win 7 compatibility and good reviews.The ONLY scanner that fit my requirements was the Canon 'CanoScan LiDE 700F. It is very comparable to the old 4670. Since I am writing this review from the perspective of a 4670 comparison, I will mention the major feature points.- Both can be used vertically by opening the cover and dropping in documents or photos.- Both can be used horizontally with the cover out of the way to scan over-sized items and books.- The Canon is not as good as the HP for scanning when you need to place the scanner face down on the item to be scanned, or when you need to hold the scanner up to an object (such as a wall or a sign) to scan it. The 4670 was the only scanner I ever saw that was really good at these odd scanning situations. The Canon can probably be used, inconveniently, upside down, but I am sure Canon does not recommended it and the non-detachable cover would certainly get in the way. I think trying to use the scanner in a 'free-orientation, hand-held mode would be ill advised.- With the HP, you could see through the scanner to the object you were scanning (applicable only when used upside down or in free-orientation mode); the Canon does not have this feature.- Both have detachable light-source units which fit onto the scanning platen, allowing the light to be sent through a transparency to the scanning element. So, both machines handle the scanning of slides and negatives in a very similar way.- Both have a set of buttons on the scanner for quickly performing common scanning tasks without opening the software.- Both scanners take about the same amount of time to perform the actual scan, not counting warm-up time.Some areas where the Canon is superior to the HP:- The Canon does not have a 'wall wart' power supply. It uses only a small amount of power and therefore can be powered solely from the computer via the USB cord. For this to work, you need to make sure that you use either a full-power USB port on the computer (some computers do not provide full power to all of their USB ports...usually the ones on the back are full powered, but on some computers the ones on the front are not full powered....OR you can use a USB hub if it is a powered type and the hub port you choose is fully powered.- The Canon uses LEDs for the light source instead of a fluorescent lamp. This means there is NO warm-up period, and the scanner starts immediately. This is a huge improvement.- The Canon software is better than the HP when it comes to automatically detecting the boundaries of the item(s) you are scanning. I found that the HP software routinely placed scan crop boundaries in scanned items.- The Canon software automatically allows scanning of multiple small items such as photos. Just make sure they have enough separation, perhaps almost 1 inch, and the software identifies them as different items and saves them to different files. The HP software allowed multiple items on the platen, but you needed to manually select them and save them.The HP was a heavily built scanner, and the Canon is lightly built. I would not say that the Canon is flimsy, but it does not have that solid feel that the 4670 had. I think the Canon is indeed a quality product, but is made with a different philosophy. I think if the two in the same way I compare and old American car that weighed twice as much as modern cars, yet the new ones last longer, don't rust out as badly, are safer in crashes, are more efficient, and generally work better in many ways.OK, how well does it scan? I don't have a color chart, but the photos I have scanned come out looking good. The scanned results might be slightly lighter than the same photos scanned with the old HP 4670. I actually have a handful of photos where I still have the prints, and also have scanned versions done on the HP, for comparison....but have the original prints faded over time? I cannot say for sure if there is really any difference, but in any case the results are very good.The Canon software opens with a simple interface for quick scanning of everyday items. If you click a check box, the software opens an alternate scanning interface with many, many more options and controls. It looks like a very comprehensive set of scanning controls and adjustments can be made here, but I have not played with them yet. By default, the software auto-detects the crop borders of items on the scanner platen, whereas the HP always showed the adjustable crop borders. In the Canon, you need to select the advanced mode interface to get the adjustable crop borders.I have to confess that I don't have any slides or transparencies any more, and therefore cannot easily test the Canon's slide scanning quality and features.I have read other reviews where people have wondered about this scanner's compatibility with the newer Windows 7 operating system, especially with the 64 bit version. I have had no problems at all with the installation or use with Win 7 x64. BUT, I did have problems with many other printers and such, most of which were supposed to be Win 7 x64 compatible. I eventually got them all working fine, but in some cases long tech support sessions were required. I actually spent almost three hours on the phone with an HP 'level three' tech support guy getting my color laserjet working (I never did get the old 2600n working, and the new CP1525 I bought to replace it is the one that took three hours to get working); after this I received a phone call from an HP software engineer who wanted to know the exact steps I took when trying to install the CP1525 the first time (I had followed the instructions exactly), and he told me something interesting about Win 7. Apparently, even if you are the administrator and think you have administrator privileges, Win 7 still restricts certain kinds of changes that driver installation software often tries to make. This can mess up an otherwise good installation. Repeated attempts at installation can leave a mess in the registry and in other places, hence the need for long tech support remedies. The HP engineer told me that when popping an installation CD into the drive, Win 7 opens a dialog box that identifies the executable installation file, asking for permission to run it. Instead of letting it run, take note of the filename, abort the installation, then use Windows Explorer (or whatever that feature is called in Win 7) to open the CD drive folder, find that executable installation file, right click it and select 'Run as Administrator'. This is in fact what the tech support guys did to get other equipment working after they had undone the damage caused by the messed up first installations. So, I tried this method when installing the Canon software, and everything went perfectly. I will certainly use this method for any other drivers I install in the future. Also, with Win 7, it is a good idea to define a system Restore Point just before making any new installation of a driver or other software. If it goes wrong, it it easy to ask Windows to revert to the system status before you made the change, thereby hopefully avoiding long tech support sessions.