Canon CanoScan LiDE 25 Color Image Scanner (0307B001)

Especially in light of its low price ($49.99 with free (and prompt!) shipping), this product is an excellent piece of equipment and a fantastic buy, especially since my first scanner, which occupied half my desk space, cost just over $200.00! I've read negative reviews about its noise (scarcely more than a whisper), its slowness (so far I've never had more than a minute taken up, and, at age 80, I have the patience to deal with that), and scan quality (the first scan I did was to copy and print out our 2 passports, and it captured every detail accurately), all I can say is picky, picky, picky! I've set mine to import directly to Graphic Converter (The poor man's PhotoShop for the Mac, at $35.00!), which enables me to adjust sharpness, brightness, contrast, color balance, and color saturation in seconds, I'm delighted with the gadget. Perhaps the critics need to take the time to experiment with the ample contols available.

This scanner is a really good deal for the money. My previous scanner was a 3-in-1 printer combo, and that was super slow and the software was useless. The software that comes with the LiDE 25 is very useful in tweaking the image before you scan (although sometimes it's just easier to scan it in and tweak with Photoshop). Also, it auto crops the image, finding where the image is on the page you are scanning. Very helpful! The software will also help you stitch documents together if they are too large for the plate. Colors are bright and crisp.

The only issue I had (thus giving it 4 instead of 5 stars) was that it was a bit difficult to get to work with Windows Vista, despite the apparent support for that OS. I had to delete a registry key relating to a Logitech web camera for some reason, but then it worked.

Amazing to think I bought a lesser machine for ten times the price a few years back. Here's a good suggestion: read the amazon reviews before to find out how to save time and iron out the kinks-- you won't regret it.

This scanner is exactly what you get when you pay $50 for a scanner. It's great for a few copies in a sitting, but not made for large quantities of scans. If thats what you need, then look at more expensive models. I bought this scanner for the sole purpose as an addition to my home PC to scan articles or the odd business document. The quality is good and you can barely tell the difference between the original and copy on 300dpi. The machine is loud and slow, but it gets the small jobs done. Well worth the $50 I spent on it.

This is my first scanner purchase although ive used them before this is the first ive owned. You cant beat it at this price. So easy to set up and use right out of the box. its great. also the shipping from amazon was excellent as usual.