Canon CanoScan N670U Flatbed Scanner

I'll admit I had some misgivings about purchasing any scanner not made by HP or Epson, but the specs and reviews finally compelled me to roll the dice on this one. I'm glad I did. This little marvel has all of the convenience and quality that made the Canon Elph S100 such a highly regarded digital camera. It looks good, feels good, works great. Pop it out of its box, plug the cable into your USB port, put the unit on your lap or anywhere you please (it's as light as a legal pad, no space required, no electrical connections), install the software, click scan. You should have an impressive result within 10 minutes of opening the box--even if you've never scanned anything before.

The pictures appear lighting fast and are fine for most purposes in the default mode (75 dpi-- you'll want to increase this for large photos). I clicked the email button--there was the photo already attached to my send page; then I clicked the copy button--instantly my printer cranked out the photo. In the past, peripherals running off USB power have given me trouble. Not with this scanner. It even worked when I inserted it in my temperamental hub. The Canon people have supplied a special, large gauge, heavily insulated cable to insure you won't feel underpowered or miss the customary electrical cord.

Why "only" 4 stars? For starters, the plastic holder that enables the unit to be a stand-alone vertical device, along with the velcro strip to hold the cover down, makes little sense. The brief start-up instructions even suggest you may wish to operate the scanner in that position--about as practical as using chopsticks. Since there's nothing to hold your document in place, you'd have to "trap" it between the cover and base. But my real gripe is the lack of a complete, hard-copy instruction manual. Personally, I find Acrobat Reader anything but user-friendly. Moreover, printing it out not only kills a tree and drains your ink supply but leaves you with an unwieldy stack of papers instead of a nice little booklet. I'd forego both the vertical holder and another five bucks in exchange for a printed instruction manual. But I guess the elves will play their tricks.

Highly recommend this scanner. It was scanning 8 mintues after I took it out of the box. Very east to install, and for those mobile people it fits very well into a backpack. For the price, the quality is very good.

CanoScan N670U or Epson Perfection 1250? That's why your reading user reviews, right? Let me help you make your decision. The ultimate reason that i chose the N670U was the excellent and plentiful USER reviews on .... The reason I was reluctant to go with the N670U was EDITOR reviews praising the scanning quality of the 1250 and trashing the scanning quality of the N670U. But, I couldn't force myself to get the 1250 after reading the reviews about the horrific bundled software, the tech support problems, setup problems, and scanning quality problems with the 1250. So, I purchased the N670U and the scanning quality is EXCELLENT. I am amazed at how good the scan quality is for a $...scanner. Buy this scanner. Here's one tip that I haven't seen anywhere that will improve your scans on the N670U. In the ScanGear CS-U program, select Advanced Mode. On the N670U tab for Color Settings, select "CanonScan ColorGear Color matching." For me, this fixed all the brightness/darkness issues and the poor color matching issues that some users have talked about.

I'll keep it short. Low cost, simple features, quick scanning and downloads, easy software, one cord plugs into USB for data transfer AND power. Looks nice, very thin. Great product which is inexpensive and over-delivers.

After having so much trouble with 2 Epson 1250's and a 1650 as well, I returned them and bought the Canon. What a difference! Unlike the Epson, the colors were crisp and accurate. Smooth, easy-to-use software, light and compact design, and relatively speedy. An excellent value. I do wish, however, that a more comprehensive manual was included. Also, this scanner is powered directly from the USB cable. I found out through trial and error 1. It needs to be plugged directly into the computer's USB; a hub will not provide sufficient power. 2. Stick with the 6' cable provided. I tried a 10' without much luck.