Canon DR-3020 Scanner – A Study in Excellence
Written: Jul 03 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A true workhorse, simplex/duplex scanning ability
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: Durable scanner that will provide quality scans without a lot of maintenance.
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| OpalMan's Full Review: Canon DR 3020 Pass-Through Scanner |
We have used the Canon DR-3020 scanner for several years now at the credit union. It is an extremely durable, high-quality product from a well-respected company. We have a number of items that we scan on a daily basis so we need a good scanner that can handle a fairly heavy load. The Canon DR-3020 lives up to all of our needs and then some.
Durability
This has to come first. We need a scanner that will operate under a steady load day in and day out. We have used this scanner every day we have been open for a little over three years with no problems. The few times I have received support calls for this computer, it has been software related rather than scanner related. In that time, the scanner has received a thorough cleaning only once and has held up.
Speed & Efficiency
The Canon specs for this device say that it will do about 40 pages per minute (ppm) at 300 X 150 dots per inch (dpi) and about 20 ppm at 300 x 300dpi. We generally use this for checks and the like so our pages are much smaller but I believe our experience is actually somewhat above the listed specs. Again, our page size is drastically smaller than your 8 ½ x 11” sheet of paper.
Some of the features of this device add to its efficiency. It has automatic paper size detection, which for us is a life-saver. Not all checks are the same size and it is a great time saver to simply put a stack of checks in the scanner and let it rip. It also has a built in document thickness detector. This prevents it from jamming when one item is a little thicker than the previous item.
Connection and Drivers
This device uses a SCSI connection and is compliant with both ISIS and TWAIN Drivers. This enables it to be used with a wide variety of scanning software. The Optical Imaging system we has requires that we use a specific piece of scanning software that is ISIS compliant only. The fact that this device can handle that driver, as well as a more generic TWAIN driver make it an ideal candidate for our situation.
Scanning Quality
I have to admit that I was rather pleased when I saw the scan quality of most of the items coming through this scanner on the simplex scanning. There are the occasional blurry images and mysterious black smudges but they are not too common. In all honesty I could not tell you what a duplex scanned document looks like as we do not use that function, although it is available.
Price
I believe we paid approximately $3,500 for this scanner when we purchased it. A quick check on Google revealed that it can be found for approximately $2,800 now. Not bad for a scanner that can handle the load as effortlessly as this one has.
Ease of Installation
This device was not the slam-dunk that most peripherals are these days. There was a little bit more to it than just hook it up and go. Part of our extra set-up was due to the fact that we had to get it to interact with our Optical Imaging software. I would say that this device does require at least a minimal level of computer knowledge.
Bottom Line
Would I buy this product again? That is a resounding Yes. As a matter of fact, I have purchased a new one when we needed a scanner for the new branch we opened a little over a year ago. That scanner has operated every working day without a problem and without requiring maintenance. If you are looking for a quality, digital scanner with duplexing capability, this is a scanner that will meet your needs. It will last quite some time with a minimal amount of maintenance.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3500
Interface: SCSI
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