Rating: Summary: Canoscan N670U Review: Installation was easy and fast. The scanner is connected to USB HUB with self-powered mode. It works fine. I scanned a 4x6 normal silver halide color print at 300 dpi. It took only 25 seconds. Then I made a color photo print at 1440 dpi( As you know, several printer dots make each pixel in image). It was very acceptable quality for relativery picky casual user like me. In my case, I couldn't find any white specs and dust on my printed out photo. Anyway, this is not a film scanner. We can't expect super high resolution from scanning color photo prints. Scanned image from art work is very crisp and accurate in color.
Rating: Summary: No driver for Compaq presario 1720US on XP Home Review: Do NOT buy this if you have a Compaq Presario 1700 series running in XP. Call Canon first before buying this to ensure proper drivers are available. Compaq does not have them.
Rating: Summary: Good -- While It Lasted... Review: All the pros that you've read about are true: featherlight, easy to use, simple software, no power cord or adapter, good quality scans (if you're not a professional photographer with exacting standards). I'm a genealogist, and this scanner was going to be heaven for me: I could take it to the courthouse or library and scan in original documents then and there.The cons are unfortunately true as well: my scanner quit working after just 2 weeks. The OS continues to acknowledge that a scanner is attached via USB, but the photo and OCR programs can't find it, and it no longer lights up when first plugged in. Canon's website lacks any troubleshooting or discussion of possibly faulty equipment and what to do about it, and if you've been reading other reviews, you know that there is no toll-free support center. If you're lucky, you'll get a good scanner that's truly portable and easy to setup and use. But it's a gamble, and if you're unlucky, you have few options to recover your money. Buyer beware!
Rating: Summary: Sleek and easy to use. Review: This scanner is very sleek and a breeze to set up and use. I had never used a scanner before and had this up and running in a few mins. It is quiet and seems fast. I would highly recomend this scanner to anyone.
Rating: Summary: satisfying me Review: I am not a professional digital image person. As for a tool let me digitalize my photos and other documents, it works perfectly! I am very satisfied on its resolution and other performance. Some people said that it doesn't work if you connect it to a USB hub. But it works fine with my USB hub. (I use IBM ThinkPad iSeries, WinME now Win2K, a no-brand USB hub which is made in Taiwan) I am very pleased by its slim, easy carry feature.
Rating: Summary: "Specks of dust" on photo scans Review: Photo Scanning: Every Color Photo that I scanned resulted in images that looked like there were little specks of dust on the image. Yes, I changed the setting that purports to remedy this issue, but it did not adequately correct this problem. Setup: Straightforward, documented and easy Speed: Not as long as I had anticipated for a 4x6 photo, based on the other comments Noise level: Its noisier than my old Umax, but not overly so Size/Appearance: Nearly perfect, if you do not need legal size scanning
Rating: Summary: pleasantly surprised Review: I live overseas (Bolivia) where there are no nice electronic stores to shop at or salesmen to show me the different products available. I finally decided to get another scanner after my Visioneer stopped working. With Amazons free shipping, I figured I would buy it there, and their prices were better than some of the other big name online stores. I read the reviews on Amazon and compared them with reviews at the computerreview.com site. Both sites had good ratings for the Canon even though I had my doubts. I almost went with another Visioneer, but decided to take a chance on Canon. I had already assumed that when I got it in the mail, that I would have problems hooking it up and getting the programs installed and getting it to run right the first time (I use windows 98). Phew, I was wrong. I kept waiting for a message on the computer screen telling me there was an ERROR or an illegal operation was performed and I would need to shut down the computer. I couldn't believe it went flawlessly. Just a lot of simple mouse clicking to install the programs and I had the first scan done and emailed in 25 minutes. The manual is kind of wimpy, but that also makes it a lot less intimidating. The photoshop 2000 software seems quite nice and I went to their website and printed out various tutorials on it. There are a lot of things you can do with the photos, much more than came with my Visioneer 4-5 years ago. Plus I was also very satisfied with the picture quality of the scans. For under $100, I think I made a great choice and I know I will have some fun with it.
Rating: Summary: A Good Buy! Review: Purchased a N670U scanner, arrived in 7 days via ups ground, not bad. Followed installation directions for hardware and software, not a single problem. A real slim design, glad it has some noise to it so I know it's working--but definitely not noisy. Software worked as advertised--no problems. The Epson units are tempting but the reports of bad software scared me off. My system is an ECS K7S5A mainboard, 512mb ram, 1.4AMD/266, Gainward GEForce 2 Pro 64mb ddr, running W98. Before installation I was wondering if my USB would work, have heard of problems with this mb, but no problem. I would definitely recommend this scanner package a good buy for the money.
Rating: Summary: Worth $80 - $90 Review: Spent the past 3 days with the N670U scanner and my opinion went from loving it (first scan looked great) to disliking it (discovered its significant weaknesses) and then back to just liking it (figured for the $82 +S&H, it couldn't be perfect). In the interest of brevity, I'll just summarize with pro's & con's. But first some basic information: This scanner replaced my UMAX 1220U b/c WINXP made the old software obsolete and therefore limited its usefulness. My system is a heavily used COMPAQ PIII 500 MHz with 256 ram, running Windows XP Home. CONs: (-) A bit confusing on install as to which CD to use; my unit came with two CDs, one with the ScanGear CS-U driver and software package and one marked "For winxp only". But when I read the documentation, it said you should NOT install that (for winxp only) driver if you wanted all the features of the included regular TWAIN driver and software. The fine print on the winxp cd explains that it's a WIA driver and contains limited features for basic scanning. Right on the scanner box it says designed for winxp, with the logo and everything, so my question is why would anyone want to have only basic, limited features? (-) LOTS of mainly white, dust-like-looking, specks on the scans, if scanned with default settings and viewed at full size. I guess it might be called "noise". The glass on the platen is perfectly clean, but the scans look as if it was dusty as hell. Later I found a fix that cleans it up pretty well: check the check box on the first driver screen that says something like "use driver to make additional adjustments" and then go to advanced settings where you'll find a "remove dust and scratches" feature that gives you several options: I choose "hard". (-) I get a "Windows 16 bit subsystem error" each time I start the driver to scan. I get this with some other software too, so maybe it's my computer. In any event, I can click "Ignore" and it proceeds after about a 20-25 second delay. PROs: (+) small, lightweight, vertical footprint (+) whisper quiet (+) usb for power (+) fairly fast scanning (after the delay mentioned above); not including the delay-which is probably my computer issue-I can scan a 5x7 photo at 600 dpi with the dust/scratch removal feature on in about a minute and a half, much quicker at lower dpi of course. (+) no real warm up time needed; scanning with my UMAX was like starting up my old Chevy Nova on a cold winter morning in Wisconsin. (+) decent color, although sometimes overly saturation of some photos (even using the same original photo, sometimes I have difficulty getting a scan as good as the first time I scanned it which had very natural and even coloration). This can be easily adjusted with any photo app though. (+) multiphoto scanning is an amazing feature; downside of this is that you can't get the advanced scratch/dust removing option using the multphoto option (at least I haven't figured out how). So, the scans are not the best quality - ok but not great. (+) nice ScanGear Toolbox interface; pleasing to the eye and basically user-friendly. (+) buttons on front of unit are assignable and quite convenient. (+) overall scanning of text (and photos if you don't mind some white specks or using advanced setting) is pretty good. (+) just tried the OCR and it worked very well; Canon gives you the OmniPage Pro versus a cut-down SE version which would be expected for the price. (+) it just plain looks good! So there you have it: the good & the bad. Looks like the thumbs up and thumbs down folks are both partly correct. And CNET's rating of 6 isn't too far off either. I'll be generous, but not as generous as most customer reviewers, and give it a 7. The "noise" (mainly white, dust-like specks) is a fairly big negative and prevents a higher score.
Rating: Summary: Compact, storable Review: One of the overlooked benefits of this and some other Canon scanners is their ability to run on the power of the USB port alone--no wall socket connection needed. Scanners, even small ones, have a relatively large footprint, and one less cord makes it easier to detach, store and re-attach. I store my U67OU sideways on the bookshelf.
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