Above average scanner, with unnecessary gimmicks.
Written: Apr 20 '02
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Pros: Neat, attractive and unobtrusive in every way!
Cons: 'Upright scanning' is not worth the time or effort.
The Bottom Line: The image quality is exceptional, and I can stand the scanner up on one end when I'm not using it - that's a big plus.
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| pickpocket's Full Review: Canon CanoScan N670U Flatbed Scanner |
I recently decided to upgrade my 4-year-old parallel port scanner. Although the old one was working fine, it was big and clunky, and due to limited desk space, I needed something smaller. This Canon scanner appealed to me because of size, aesthetics, specification and upright scanning capabilities.
Installation was thankfully easy. Despite the supposed smooth installation of USB devices, there are usually little niggles about the way a new piece of hardware 'takes over' of its own accord. The Canon software was much gentler and didn't try claiming all my JPGs! I was really impressed with this, and the result is a small, neat, attractive package which only pops up when I ask it to. I have yet to experience any software crashes.
Technically, I can't fault the image quality either. It seems Canon make much better scanners than printers! Scanned photos are crisp and bright, and colours are accurate. The scanner software also copes well with printed images, de-screening them smoothly and quickly. There is also a wizard which will scan the whole area, determine the areas of whitespace and divide up the image accordingly - making easy scanning of photos or small documents. I doubt that any home or semi-professional user could be disappointed with the output. It is not noticeably faster than my old parallel port model, but I would much rather sacrifice speed for quality (and that USB connection means I don't have yet another AC adaptor to find a socket for).
The buttons on the front of the unit provide shortcuts to the functions you're likely to use most, and the options for each button are very flexible (you can completely re-assign them if you wish). If you use the shortcut scan button, the image is saved to disk automatically... I do wish that there was an option not to 'scan and save' - I like to scan, crop and save somewhere else on my hard drive. The copy button is fantastic and the results in black and whit mode are close to laser-quality photocopies.
It wouldn't be right to write a review without mentioning the gimmicks Canon have incorporated into the N670U. I admit that one of these had some sway on my purchase.
1. Auto-dividing one scan into separate images, making easy scanning of photos or small documents. A bit of a non-feature, but it could save a few seconds here and there.
2. The Z-lid, which allows the scanner to accept wide documents (books, catalogues etc). Presumably Cannon included this because the scanner lid cannot be detached - and that's probably because of the upright scanning feature (see below). Vaguely clever, but if you wanted to scan in something really wide, you would have to leave the lid open. It's an adequate compromise.
3. Upright scanning. A big bonus for me (or so I thought) because I have very limited space and usually only scan single documents. The stand is well made, and does the job, although leaves one edge of the scanner rubbing against the desk - a bit of a disappointment. The biggest surprise of all is that the scanner has no catch to hold the lid shut - just a piece of Velcro! This does the job, but you'll probably find that you'll be bending the lid to open it the first few times (because the Velcro is far too strong) - either that or you'll pull and the Velcro will just come unstuck. Also, there is no real lip or edge to hold your document in place, so getting very thin paper to stand straight can sometimes be a combination of speed, agility and guesswork. A somewhat half-thought-out idea which could have been so great, and so useful, but falls a bit flat on its design. It does the job of setting the N670U apart from the competition... but please, Canon, add a catch, another stand/support and a small lip to hold the paper - THEN you'll have something worth paying £15 extra for.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100
Interface: USB
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Epinions.com ID:
pickpocket
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Reviews written: 6
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