For home, a great choice
Written: Feb 10 '01
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Pros: Excellent quality, small size, easy to use
Cons: Technology is not the best for higher end scanning
The Bottom Line: Great image quality, great size, fast scanning. Highly recommended for almost everyone. Only question is that it uses a technology that is not yet tried and true.
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| xymox_1's Full Review: Canon CanoScan N1220U Flatbed Scanner |
Canon is known for it's quality imaging products, and this scanner does not disappoint. The home user will find a lot to like about this little machine!
One of the nicest and most unique features of Canon's scanners is the size - this machine is around 1 inch high and not much larger than a sheet of paper, so those with space concerns should be pleased. The reason it is small is actually the one word of caution I would mention about this machine - it scans with something called a CIS or "Contact Image Sensor" and LIDE technology (LED Indirect Exposure) which integrates the parts needed for scanning into a smaller area and therefore you have a less bulky machine that requires less power. Most regular size scanners use a CCD or "Charge Coupled Device" to scan their images. CCD scanners generally have greater depth of field (are better at scanning 3D images - anything that is not flat, such as a book or watch), better shading because more light is emitted from the scan head, and a longer scanner life. CIS scanners are still a relatively new and developing technology, though Canon has made some great improvements to them. For the average home user, none of these factors should be an issue. If you intend to do a lot of scanning over the next several years, or are looking for semi-professional quality images, you may wish to look at a CCD scanner.
That said, the scanner is still a great little machine. The optical scanning resolution is 1200x2400 and can max out at 9600x9600. These numbers indicate the detail level the scanner can achieve. It also has a max bit depth of 42 color and 14 black and white, which corellate to the number of colors it can recognize and render. All you need to know is that it can do very detailed images and recognize a few trillion colors. While going solely by these numbers is not a good gauge of quality, it can be used as bechmark. In the case of the 1220U, it pretty much lives up to it's claims.
Other features of the scanner include a lid that can be moved to accomodate books and other thick objects without bending out of shape and letting too much external light in.
The scanner uses a USB connection to your computer, and will work on a mac and a pc. The USB also doubles as the power cable so you will not have to worry about finding a place to plug it in. It has one button on the outside that starts the scanning, or you can use your PC to begin the process. More buttons would be helpful, but this one is atleast programmeable. It also comes with your standard bundling of software - a lite version of PhotoShop, OmniPage OCR, a photo-editing program and a few other basic utilities.
The picture quality of the scans is extremely good - colors are bright and the tones are very true to the original. The scans are also very fast, taking about 15 seconds for a single page. It is very easy to understand the controls - simply pick what you want to scan, tweak the settings if you are feeling adventurous and off you go! The OCR program that comes bundled is one of the better ones, and for typewritten documents you will get about a 98 or 99% accuracy rate.
All in all, the scanner is a really nice machine. For a home user you will be hard pressed to find a better deal then this. The price, size and quality are all excellent.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 199
Interface: USB
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Epinions.com ID:
xymox_1
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Location: Boston, MA
Reviews written: 88
Trusted by: 9 members
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