Canon CanoScan LiDE 25 Flatbed

Don't be fooled in to thinking this Canon CanoScan LiDE 25 Flatbed is an excellent scanner by the rating I have given it. However, for such an inexpensive product from such a big name manufacturer, I am impressed. Compact & lightweight, powered by USB (no need for another socket point), good quality photo scanning (for the price), simple to setup, easy to use, advanced features for image settings (no need to use separate image enhancement software), and it comes with a pretty good software bundle.

Although, a major downside of the scanner is the time it takes to scan anything. How slow? Well, it takes over a minute to warm-up, about 20 secs to run a preview scan (and the same to then park the scanner bar). It will then take a further 1 min to complete a full 'photo' scan at 300dpi output. Even 'black & white' will take at least 15 seconds for a full page document.

Note: you need to use the 'advanced' menu if you require an output of over 300dpi, but it does go all the way to 1200dpi. I shudder to think how long it would take to scan something at max settings.

In conclusion, so long as you're not in a hurry and only scan the odd picture or document, then I would seriously recommend this product as a cheap alternative to others in the same price range. But if you are a serious scan-jockey, you will become very frustrated within a very short period of time, so avoid the disappointment.

Very light and USB use is positive. It doesn't have good program to choose parts as in other scanners. Would have been better to have bought a useful scanner.