Canon's Desktop Supremodel
Written: May 13 '01
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Pros: Slim, beautiful design. Power and signal through single USB cable.
Cons: Somewhat slow for power users
The Bottom Line: Super small form factor with excellent quality should please all but the most demanding power users due to it's slowish speed.
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| BitBoy's Full Review: Canon CanoScan N1220U Flatbed Scanner |
They say you can never be too rich, or too thin. Well, regardless of how you feel about that adage, Canon seemed to have taken it to heart when designing the CanoScan N1220U. It’s about as thin as they come, barely taller than a stack of 3 WIRED magazines. And while it certainly looks very rich thanks to it’s silvery patina, it’s sub $200 price range allowed even a poor schmuck like me to introduce a little bit of glamour onto my desktop. However, despite it’s thinness, it’s still very functional and ready to swallow the thickest dictionary you can give it thanks to it’s unique “Z” style expanding hinged top.
Setup couldn’t be simpler. Simply install the software on the supplied CD-ROM (I installed mine on both a Windows2000 equipped generic PC and a Power Macintosh G4 desktop system – both installed flawlessly). Then plug in the single USB cable. That’s it. The concept of a single cable is both inspired and desired for all other peripherals. If I could just get rid of half the baby-elephant’s trunk of wires behind my desk, the fire marshall would sleep more soundly at night.
Scan quality is very good. This scanner uses CIS (compact image sensor) technology, as opposed to the old CCD (charge coupled device) technology (like used in most camcorders). Everything I had read stated that the quality of CIS was not quite up to a good CCD. While those techies may be right, if this scanner is lacking in quality, I wasn’t able to notice it. It scans as well if not better than the HP ScanJet 6200cse I had borrowed from a friend in the last minute scanning panic that inspired the purchase of the Canon.
As for the other bundled software, I can’t really comment, as I didn’t install it. I primarily use Adobe PhotoShop 6.01, so I didn’t have a need for other software, however, I did note it came with Adobe PhotoShop LE, so if you don’t have access to the Pro version, this is a nice way to get started learning and using a premiere photo editing tool.
One oddity is this scanner also came with a desk stand that allows you to use it vertically (yes – vertically, as in standing on it’s left or right edge). I understand it’s space saving virtue, but I simply don’t see how it would be practical as you’d have to unclamp and clamp it from it’s stand every time you wanted to scan something.
After two weeks of heavy use, the only downside I can think of is that it’s somewhat slow. An average full page 150 dpi magazine scan takes about 40 seconds. Thankfully, as a result of the CIS technology, there’s virtually no lamp warm up time or start up delay like I experienced using the HP. Given this, overall scanning time from a cold start may be equal.
-BitBoy
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 199.99
Interface: USB
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Epinions.com ID:
BitBoy
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Member: Bit Boy
Location: San Francisco, CA
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 3 members
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