I started a project decades ago scanning in old photos with a flatbed scanner, and it took forever. At some point life took over, and I ran out of time to finish the project. The old flatbed scanner was outdated and no longer compatible with my laptop, so I took the plunge and shelled out for this, which is worth EVERY penny. It comes with a CD, but I easily found the software online and downloaded it, and it worked perfectly with my laptop. It is VERY FAST and easy — automatically detects proper cropping or orientation if you drop the picture in crooked or sideways, and it’s easy with a couple clicks to change orientation on the computer before you save the files. The scan quality is perfect, and the file size is small enough that they uploaded to my photo site WAY faster than new digital photos from a camera or phone. I was able to quickly finish my scanning project after all these years and organize the old photos to be given to those pictured one day when I’m gone.

Like many others, I have multiple boxes of old photos, and I’ve started on the project of converting them to digital images. I put a lot of time into researching photo scanners, and the ones I was interested in were pretty pricey. Timewise, this project is out of the question using the flatbed scanner available in my printer. After a lot of research, I decided on this Plustek scanner. I’ve had it for about 7 or 8 months now, and I love it. You can scan up to 50 photos at a time with no buttons or adjustments – just feed the photos in one at a time. At 300dpi, the process is fast.The images drop into Plustec’s software, and you have the ability to do some editing and color adjustment. I’ve found that this software works well for me, is easy to use, and is all I need. I just want to get all these photos scanned in and organized and I’m not terribly interested in any serious editing at this point. I’m especially happy with the color enhancement that’s available for those old color photos from decades past that are fading or turning yellow – it really gives those photos new life, just by clicking on a button or two. I have other photo editing software on my laptop, and I’ll worry about serious editing later, if I even decide to go that far. After I’ve made any quick color adjustments, I just move the photos onto my hard drive, where I can organize them., and save them on an external hard drive.The Plustek scanner does a great job and has a very attractive price tag. The user manual is detailed and very helpful. I’ve heard good things about the customer service, but I haven’t needed to use it. There’s also a case available for it here on Amazon, and I keep it in the case on my desk to eliminate dust. The scanner doesn’t take up much room on the desk, so I keep it there to work on my scanning project when I have a little extra time. I recommend this scanner for anybody who’s looking to tackle a photo archiving project without breaking the bank.

I would give this 10+ if I could.I took a chance and purchased this scanner because my old one stopped working. I paid twice as much for my old scanner than this scanner. I bought this scanner in November but did not open it until February. Living not too far from the recent fires in Southern California and knowing the fire victims lost no only their homes but so many precious memories, I decided to stop procrastinating and open the box and get started. Setting up was really easy. I started scanning right away. The speed at which to scan photos was very fast. I actually had to go to YouTube to learn how to save my photos to a flash drive. It was very easy. It took me days to scan over 4,000 photos and I still have more to scan. I had old Polaroid photos that were thick and they glided through with no problem. My old scanner could not handle the thickness of the photos. It even scanned newspaper articles, small wallet sizes, 10×13, and torn photos. I will enhance all the photos that have faded later.

This machine is perfect for a small business, or for someone like me who’s archiving all of my family’s photos. I love it and this has been a ton of fun! Just drop them in and you’re done. They only go in one at a time, and you can’t queue them like paper, but it’s worth it! The scans are clean and quick. It’s very easy to use and I only took a star off because after about 5k photos, I started having issues with digital scan lines in almost every picture. I had to send it back, but my replacement is working great!PROS: Easy to setup and use. The software is excellent for cropping images, even if you put them in crooked or they have crooked cuts. Consistent. Color balance is good and you can just pop them in one at a time, over and over.CONS: The interior wheels need to be cleaned occasionally, which is a little tedious, but worth it. I was averaging about 250 photos between cleans, maybe more. It’s not hard to clean, which is nice, but the cleaning cloth kinda sucks. The directions say to wipe back and forth, however, I found that putting a little pressure on the wheel with the cloth and pulling in a single direction actually works a little better. There are occasionally digital scan lines in the images. The images pop up quickly once they are scanned and you can usually see right away if the photo slipped, or has a scan line in it, however some are too light to see in the thumbnail, so just be diligent and check them sporadically.

This little dude is super compact, does exactly what it says, and is perfect for scanning documents or receipts for your records. I’ve been juggling a ton of legal and medical paperwork while traveling constantly, and this thing has made it so much easier. Honestly, it’s better than the big, clunky all-in-one printer/scanners back at my office. The Brother software is surprisingly decent too—clean interface, no fuss. And unlike the compact Epson scanners I’ve tried, this one actually works. It’s earned a permanent spot on my desk at home.

WHAT GREAT, SMOOTH, EASY TO CONNECT TO MY MAC, SOFTWARE SITE EASY, AND IT’S COMPACT. I ALSO LIKE THAT IT DOESN’T NEED A SEPARATE POWER CORD.

I purchased this scanner about 2 and a half years ago and it continues to work flawlessly… This is impressive as I admittedly purchased this portable on-the-go scanner for a very different task – to digitize all the documents in my filing cabinet from the last 30 years. The initial wave included around 5000 documents soooo no question it has paid itself off.To be honest, at this point, there isn’t much I haven’t tried feeding through this thing – credit cards, sparkly greeting cards, supplement cardboard box packaging, etc. so I’m continually impressed it hasn’t broken. When theres an issue (feeding documents too quickly, a paper jam, etc) the indicator light blinks red and, as far as I know, to remedy this you lift the top portion and close it… I’ve had to do this many times (which is not to say it malfunctions often) but each time it sounds/feels like the act alone should break the thing.The only bummer to me is the scanning length limitation. While the width limitation is a given due to the physical dimensions of the scanner, the documents are fed through and each individual scan is limited to around 14″. That is, it stops feeding through at a certain point and if the item hasn’t cleared, you get the red indicator light and the image isn’t processed.Other things I like:+ the cord is detachable+ I was able to download and operate the supporting software on my dinosaur 2011 mac air+ the software has a continuous feed feature to scan multiple documents in a row (without having to interact with the software between pages)

So, let’s start this off by saying one this — Yes! The DS-640 is a great scanner… HOWEVER.. It does have some issues that bring it down a peg or two..I’ll start this off by highlighting the positives –It’s portable. It’s easy to use. It’s lightweight.On the downside –It’s infuriating after scanning only a few documents that you’re told “OH NO! We’re out of memory!” .. The first time it happened I stared at the message on-screen and thought to myself.. How the heck can it be out of memory when I have 64 GB of high-speed RAM in the computer… Then I remembered that the chips inside these scanners have temporary memory built-in… but then the kicker… …buuut I only scanned TWO PAGES… They were 3 color (black, blue, red) documents and standard paper size. It’s not like it was a full-size poster in crisp detail at maximum resolution, bitrate, with edits… This was a major failure of the design, and was actually my first experience with the scanner, which as I don’t need to mention, is NOT GOOD! A terrible look for the BRAND, as this was my first ownership of their brand’s product, and not good for the future of this little new device sitting on my desk with the threat of return, due to a degraded trust in the product. If it’s going to fail me on day one, what’s it going to do on day 365?That brings me on to my next quarrel with this device. Resolution and color limitations by size. If I want to scan a sheet of paper at the fullest-size available for this device in the MAXIMUM allowed quality (resolution and color and bitrate), why am I limited from doing so by software? We physically know the scanner can do it, because we can do it with other smaller sheets and the compliance with the HARDWARE is there… but for some reason, I get rejected by software when I want to actually use the product to its fullest potential, hardware wise.With auto document sizing set to “On” you can only scan stuff at a resolution of 300×300 dpi, regardless of being set to black and white or full 24-bit color.The device does have a slider to control a guide for paper size, but it’s so flimsy and loose in the track that even if a document does start to kink to one side, it’s pushing that guide out of the way. No sense in even having it there, really.The port on this scanner is not a generic connection, and requires a dedicated special cable to hookup to your PC by USB, so don’t expect to be able to head down to your local PC repair shop and snag a new cable after your pet gerbil decided that the big thick black cable looked like a delicious after-dinner licorice dessert.With all this in mind, choose carefully.If you’re using this to scan documents in an office setting, it’s fine, I guess. Just be ready to scan that 43-page packet 5 times over until the software quits telling you that it magically ran out of memory.If you’re using this to scan photos, whip out the old handy-dandy ruler and be ready to fight with size-presets telling you that you can’t use the fullest scan quality on auto-sizing.As the package says — Be sure to save your box and packing materials, in case you do ever need to send the unit back in for service or repairs. I recommend buying a wet/dry scanner cleaning kit.

The portable scanner is a great tool for professionals who need to digitize documents quickly while away from the office. Its lightweight and compact design makes it a convenient companion for work on the go.An excellent choice for students, remote workers, and mobile professionals who need a quick and practical way to digitize paperwork. While not a replacement for a high-volume office scanner, it performs very well for portable scanning needs

As an artist, I have been meaning to find myself a nice flatbed scanner for art purposes, scanning sketches or what have you, but found myself procrastinating until I could devote time to really look at reviews and figure out a high quality, high end scanner. I found myself in a position recently that I needed to manually sign some documents and get them to where they needed to be by the next day, but my car was in the shop. I thought maybe one of those portable wand style scanners might be good, and I could use it also to scan receipts, but they are so expensive, and I needed some thing that would be delivered the next morning. What came up was the Cannon LIDE 300, which would be delivered between four and eight in the morning, and this was perfect—I could sign the documents, scan them and upload. And I would also have a nice inexpensive scanner for things. I was looking for something that would be an overnight delivery, and dare I say, on the “cheaper” side and this fit the bill. This printer far exceeded my expectations. I realized with the first scan that this little machine was way more useful, and of a higher quality than its price would suggest. Inexpensive, yes, but by no means a cheap piece of equipment. I am on an older OS Mac, so I was worried I would not find some thing that would be compatible with my system, but in reading the reviews, it looked like the scanner would work—and there were some very helpful reviews on how to use the scanner without having to download any software for Mac. It was pretty much ready to go straight out of the box, plug into your computer, go to system preferences under “printers and scanners”, hit the plus sign and you can add this scanner. Use the “printers and scanners” window to access the scanner—just hit the “open scanner” button and it will give you the scanner “user” window. It starts immediately with an overview scan and from there you can change the resolution, the size, rotation angle, even the format —say PDF or JPG. You can even do image correction with brightness and contrast. It’s pretty intuitive —all you really need to do is play around with that scanner window for a few minutes and do some test scans and you’ll see exactly where you’re at. For each new page/item that you scan you need to close the scanner window, go back to the “printers and scanners” window and hit the “open scanner” button again… There may be a way for it to auto detect when you put a new page in the scanner, but I have not figured that out… Maybe I should take a look at the manual, which is still in its plastic bag… L O L. There is a “combine into single document” option, but I chose to just do separate PDFs, and then combined them in Acrobat. And it worked out great. The quality was fantastic! And the color 300 dpi test scans I did on some color items were phenomenal, and when you enlarge them up and look at the detail, I was just blown away… Much higher quality than I expected, and I’m starting to think maybe I don’t need a higher end scanner. As I said, I bought it as an emergency measure, but now I find myself with quite a useful, high-end (in my eyes), and inexpensive little scanner. I will probably be saying quite often “how did I ever live without this”… And again I’ll mention the price is right on point, pretty inexpensive for the quality that I’m seeing, and I deal with resolution/dpi levels In my job as an artist…If you need additional information, go in under the (Amazon) reviews for this scanner and type in Mac in the search window—that was very helpful for me in making my decision to buy this scanner… The information I ultimately used for how to access the scanner without software was from one of those reviews. The scanner worked with the cable that came with it, and in less than 10 minutes I was scanning…No download of software needed for now, but I might check that out in the future. I thought this review might be helpful for others who are on an older system Mac… Sometimes it’s really hard to find useful information on products, regarding compatibility with the older systems…For reference I am on Mac, Mojave 10.14.6. Because yes, sometimes the newer OS does not always equal the best. I will say, with the positive experience of this little inexpensive model scanner, I will upgrade to another Cannon scanner, when and if needed. That’s how strongly I feel about this scanner.PS the scanner does have copy, scan/auto send as part of its functions (buttons), but I’m guessing you probably would need to download some software for those functions. As noted, this was a quick solution for some “emergency” scans, and this device was perfect! I am looking forward to seeing what else this scanner can do.

its great, i love this scanner. i work in creative fields so i needed something that was slim and durable for all my bs.its fast, slim, convenient, seemingly works with any cable. I was concerned about a long and annoying set up process because i read a lot of reviews about how it was difficult to make compatible with Mac iOS, but I was literally able to just plug it in and image capture took care of everything else. I have a 2022 Macbook Air M2 thats currently running Tahoe 26. Super easy, no issues.Scan quality is great, I don’t need more than 1200dpi usually and its super fast. Textures and accuracy are crisp, def recommend

Canon CanoScan LiDe 400 Slim Scanner, sold by Canon.After almost 20 years of reliable performance, my trusty Microtek SlimScan C6 flatbed finally bit the dust. I seriously considered buying another C6 (new old stock) because it was so reliable, easy to use, and full of features. BUT, the C6 probably won’t interface well with newer versions of Windows (i.e., anything later than XP), so I decided to look for something newer.For $ 90, the LiDe 400 seemed to fit both my budget and needs. Here’s the PROs and CONs I have found:PROs:1. Really inexpensive2. Pretty simple to install on any Windows computer with Win 7 or higher.3. Does a really decent job of scanning documents and photographs (see below).CONs:1. Doesn’t come with a manual (hardcopy or on the CD), and there doesn’t seem to be a way to download a whole manual from the Canon LiDe Website (it’s a pain in the ass to have to find the information you are looking for, piece by piece, on the Website… a downloaded complete manual would be so much easier).2. The cable from the scanner to computer is relatively short (a little less than 5 feet). That’s fine for hooking to my laptop that sits adjacent to the scanner, but doesn’t work for my laptops or PC that are at more distant workstations. It would be really nice if Canon provided a cable that is 2 – 3 time longer, or at least provided cable specifications so you could buy an appropriate longer cable (it’s apparently a “special” cable… you can’t just use a run-of-the-mill extension).3. You can’t remove the scanner bed cover to facility scanning larger media. With my C6, you could take off the cover so you could scan large media like maps without having to fold (damage) the original. For me, this is the most serious downside to the LiDe 400, and is something Canon could have easily rectified with a different type of cover hinge.4. Apparently doesn’t work with earlier version of Windows. I’d really like to use the scanner with my old XP desktop, because I have lots of really good XP-based image processing software. The work-around appears to be to buy VueScan drivers from Hamrick. That will be one of my next tasks.As far as use, so far I have been reasonably satisfied with the Canon LiDe 400.I used the front buttons to scan pages and create a pdf document, and it was a really simple and intuitive process. The Auto Scan front button made a decent copy of a photograph, but you can get much better photo scanning results (including higher resolutions than what “Auto Scan” provides) using the Twain compliant ScanGear software that is included.ScanGear lets you do some limited image correction and post-processing. It’s OK, but the ULead PhotoImpact software that came with my Microtek SlimScan C6 was FAR more versatile. In particular, ScanGear has very limited options for descreening when scanning printed images (like newspaper or magazine articles, or some types of laser printed originals). I’m really hoping that when I install the VueScan drivers on my XP machine, I can interface the LiDe 400 with the much better PhotoImpact image processing software that I already have.Overall… the Canon LiDe 400 scanner is a decent, inexpensive, basic-use flatbed scanner. For most people who just want to scan letter-size documents, or digitize a bunch of photographs with good resolution, this scanner will more than suffice.FINAL NOTE: Like most inexpensive flatbed scanners, you are limited to original documents that are no more than 8.5 x 12 inches in size. Supposedly, there is a way to scan larger originals in pieces, and then “stitch together” the pieces to create a full-size digital product. I haven’t tried this feature, so I can’t tell you if it really works as advertised or not.Original review: 15 June 2022. This review will be updated once the Hamrick VueScan drivers are installed, or if any problems with the scanner are subsequently found.

Works well for my needs, no problems setting up. Very straightforward. I’m 72 and sometimes this is not the case for me with new tech devices.

I had a stack of historical documents that needed to be scanned and was trying to use a manual scanner to slog through it. This device wasn’t cheap but I figured I’d splurge and see if it performed as promised. I hadn’t even had the thing out of the box more than two hours and I was finished. Couldn’t believe it. Installed the software from the web, powered it up, hooked up the USB then configured it for WiFi. It connected no problems, disconnected the USB and loaded up my first stack of documents. Hit the scan button, saved to a folder as PDF. Great quality, the software is basic but offered fantastic editing options like rearranging the order of pages when you stacked them wrong. The scanner copied both sides at once and detected if it was blank or not. I am absolutely amazed at how easy it was to setup and to use. Folds up nice and compact for storage when you are done. WiFi means only one cord going to it. I’m loving this thing.

Love this little scanner. I moved my home PC from a windows machine to a Chrome Box a couple years ago. Love the decision, but I had to retire my previous photo scanner, as it didn’t have a Chrome Box interface. I’ve mostly only used the ScanSnap to scan photos, so I’ve only used it so far with the front feeder, not the auto document feeder, as not sure ADF will work with thicker photos. It’s fast. You put the photo at the front feeder, the scanner gives you a second to get the photo square at the feeder, then pulls it in, and out the back, then pulls it in from the back and spits it our the front, all within a few seconds. Very quick and easy to put that photo on the “done pile” and insert the next. It stores lots of photos, I’ve done up to 80 so far, and then you copy the batch of scanned photos to whatever directory you want on your Chromebox, and scan the next batch.Setup instructions were a bit lacking. There’s no “On Switch” on the scanner. If you open the ADF loader, the scanner seems to stay on, and the Chrome app can find it. If you don’t have that open, the “Scan” button turns the scanner on, but not for long if it doesn’t connect to the app. Once I figured to open the app, then quickly push the “Scan” button, I haven’t had any problems connecting. I’m running it over WiFI, not USB printer cord. Never had to use the USB interface during setup, but you do need a WiFi, so I believe this would work well with an Android phone. The App window does scale somewhat for my Chromebox, not a phone size window on my big monitor.

I have a three-in-one canon printer (printer, fax, scanner) and for some reason every once in a while the connection with the scanner drops and it’s a nightmare to restore it. While I have no problem printing, and it does a pretty good job at it, my computer stopped recognizing the scanner feature. The same happened with an HP 3-in-1 I had before, always a problem with some type of driver or file that one day is there and suddenly can’t be found anymore. The “solutions” found online are completely useless (“check that the scanner is connected and turned on” or “run Windows troubleshooting”).This dedicated Fujitsu iX1300 scanner I got, thankfully, is awesome, at least so far, with none of the problems I had experienced before, working as expected every time. I don’t use it every day, however, so I don’t know how it would fare under heavy usage.I have had it for about 6 months and I am connected via bluetooth. One cool feature is that it does a good job at text recognition so it provides a name that makes for the scanned image based on the first line (which you can override) which makes it easy to file.I also scanned my passport, which I thought could only be done on a glass plate scanner, but there is a pretty big slot in the front of the iX1300 that takes it in and out and scans it. Quite a good little machine that occupies a very small footprint. The only thing I miss is the ability to scan a page from a book, which is only possible on a glass plate scanner. I hope I don’t jinx it with this positive review :0

If you want something to destroy everything you try to scan, this is the perfect device for you.My biggest problem with this device, and the reason it is now sitting in my garbage can, is how much it loved to eat and crumple documents. Didn’t matter if I tried to use the front or top loader, it typically crushed it at least half the time. Old Christmas cards in the front, regular 8×11 on top, didn’t matter. Always a good chance the rollers would pull it in funny and spit it out creased, folded, or crushed, with a terrible scan. Today it turned legal documents into a crumpled mess, and I snapped the top loader trying to get them back. I guess I should not have trusted it with 6 pieces of paper.Other problems I’ve had, and while I will never buy from this company again:While setup isn’t too difficult, it is tedious.WiFi scanning is a joke. Never once could I just turn it on and scan to my computer. Needed to use the USB cable, get it reconnected to the WiFi, and then could keep going if I needed it to. Rarely needed to scan more than the one document, so typically not helpful.The program interface looks like it was designed on Windows ME, and it works like it. Did not feel user friendly, way too many options with technical jargon, and why it would not just scan straight to My Documents without trying to create extra subfolders is beyond me. It also tries to read the document and autofill things, which it always got wrong, and made very difficult to edit. I want it to scan documents, enable some minor adjustments, and save to the correct folder. Why that is the last thing their program wants to do is beyond me.Finally, spring came off the back flap last month, so it would not stay closed. Could not for the life of me get it back in, there’s no help online for this problem, and tech support was worthless.This is one of my biggest regret purchases, and I will never trust a ScanSnap with any important, or my money, again.

Updated review 8-18-2025:Once I upgraded my Mac Mini to Sequoia, the scanner no longer worked on my Mac and I had to use my Parallels Windows 11 partition to use it (and it was quite awkward about where it’d post the scan).BUT, the good news is when I plugged the scanner in yesterday I was offered an update to the firmware of the scanner (R10_UpdateTool.app) which took 20 minutes to complete. They warn you not to allow your Mac to sleep and not to unplug the scanner during the update process (standard fare for firmware updates).(After I copied the R10_UpdateTool.app to my applications folder I noticed the date on the file was March 18, 2024 (see picture of this attached to this review) which suggests this existed last year but wasn’t released until recently? – Odd.)After that it worked perfectly on my Mac again. As before when you plug it in to a USB port on your Mac (or to a powered USB hub attached to my Mac which I tried, and it worked just as well) you get the pop up with the CaptureOnTouch Lite software which appears to be the same as before – dated Mar 30, 2020.Double click on that icon and the scanning interface appears. Select Color/Black & White/Automatic, and you can edit the location where the scanned document(s) are saved. Click SCAN and you’re good to go.I ALMOST bought a new scanner from another company and was very pleased to see the updated firmware offered up.Back to quick double sided quick and good (not excellent) quality scanning.(BTW, I found no mention of this firmware update on Canon’s support website).Thanks for the update, Canon!——Prior Review:Once I plugged this in to my Mac Mini (M1) chip, a popup indicated an update was required to work with an M1 computer. After update was completed, there was software “CaptureOnTouch Lite” that was installed on the Mac. Then I just loaded max of 20 pages, and selected my options in the software app, then [SCAN] it quickly scanned (both sides at once) all the documents flawlessly. Then it gives you the option to [SCAN MORE PAGES] so that if you have a document more than 20 pages, it will add them to your first scan so you end up with just 1 PDF in the end. It is very small, light, and portable. At one point after my computer had entered sleep mode, and I then tried to scan additional documents it said “DRIVER NOT FOUND” – I rebooted the Mac and it was back to scanning documents again. Duplex scanning and the simplicity of the scanning interface (and high quality scans) make this a sure fire winner. Addendum: I plug the scanner into a USB A port on my Mac Mini – I have not tried it on a USB hub, but would suspect it’d be less reliable through a hub.

What a great little scanner. The computer sees it as an external drive. So, when you turn it on, it connects and opens that “drive” folder and that’s where the application to scan is. Just run that – very easy to customize – when your done, turn it off and your computer disconnects. Nothing to install. Scans both sides at once and auto detects color or black and white. Of course, you can override to what you want very easily if you need to. Very compact and easy to take with you – we work from the RV some so it’s perfect. Also got the case for it.

If “no stars” was a choice, that would be my rating of this piece of garbage scanner. When it arrived, I installed it exactly as the directions stated. It worked . . . for about a week. Then, it stopped communicating with my laptop. After a lengthy phone conversation with various “experts” at Canon, one person agreed to send a replacement scanner to me to see if it would pair with my PC. No such luck. Same problem. I even replaced the “new” connecting cord with an even newer cord. Useless. For a while Canon was sending me emails telling me I needed to return the first unit. I responded by telling them I’ll return BOTH defective units once they’ve refunded my full purchase price. Guess what? I haven’t heard from Canon since. Tells me all I need to know about this company.

I’m coming back a year and half after buying this for a review.First I’ll explain my personal purpose for it. I wanted it so I could use something for over the road traveling in an RV. I wanted something that didn’t just use wifi as that can be a challenge on the road sometimes. I wanted something that could do multiple pages and both sides of pages.My level of technical ability: LOW.When I bought this and opened it, I began the trial at home to get used to it.I love the size – it’s perfect.I love that the program pops up everytime I open it, making it easy to start using.I dislikeAt first I struggled with how to save my stuff. Like everything once you figure it out, it’s very easy. RESOLVEDIt eats pages, you can’t do more than about 3 pages. However once you accept that and work with it, it is very easy to scan 3 then continue to add more and click the scan more pages to continue. I’ve come to terms with this and accept it. RESOLVED.It will eat just a single page and scan it crooked. It’s not hard to re-scan it and continue on. I’ve come to terms with this and accept it. RESOLVED.I’m still learning things about it and I honestly don’t use it much, however it is my primary scanner and overall I’m very happy with it, I’ve really learned to like it and accept it’s imperfections because at the end it gets the job done, it’s never quit (so far), it’s been reliable, it’s very small and compact.OVERALLI do recommend the purchase.Maybe bundle it with a package of patience and realistic expectations.

This is the best and easiest tool I have purchased in months! It is plug and play, and all I had to do was connect it via the USB cable provided to my laptop. I loaded a two sided document, chose black and white and hit scan. A few seconds later I have a duplexed image scanned and all I had to do was choose the folder where I wanted to store it.The font in their control panel is very small, but can be adjusted to a larger size. That’s my only negative…and it’s really not a significant issue. It is so small, it is fast and super easy to use. When you plug it in you are able to see and launch the executible file for it’s app and that’s it.

Found some old slides from the 1970s and 80s and had no way to view them. Ordered this and it’s perfect! Was able to sort through the slides quickly. Simple to use and serves its purpose well. Good value for the price.

I am very satisfied with the slide viewer. I have looked at a number of my old slides and it does an excellent job.

The product is a simple “one slide at a time” viewer. You insert the slide and after viewing eject it below into a tray by turning a knob. The clarity of the viewer is acceptable. If you are doing a quick evaluation of the content of the slide, you should be able to accomplish this by holding the slide in front of the viewing window. This will save time. According to the product description, the viewer can be powered by either a USB cable (included) or 4 AA batteries (included). However, I had issues. The box was open when it arrived. It was missing the USB cable and only had one of the four batteries. The instructions were badly wrinkled. It seems clear to me that I was not sent a new product but, instead, one that had been rejected by a previous purxhaser. Their customer service was unclear as to how the issues could be resolved so I opted to return the product and purchase from a different supplier. 06/28/2025 UPDATE – Above you can determine why I originally had a “1-star” rating. I have updated my rating to “4-stars” for the following reasons. The product “gets the job done” as I have explained. It isn’t fancy, it isn’t automated but it works well. The price seems fair to me. In the course of working through my issues of only 1 of 4 batteries and no USB cable, I discovered the following: The Amazon website for this product states that a USB cable is included; but, if you read the information on the actual box, a USB cable is not included. I have notified DigitNow of the need to update the product description. I also worked with DigitNow’s customer service, which was very good, on a solution. They have refunded my purchase cost as I need to have the Slide Viewer powered by USB. I am satisfied with the outcome and would buy from DigitNow again.

This is a really nice product for a very good price to review slides or film strips to see if you want to do any printing or digitizing first. It’s easy to use the directions are on the box and inside. It’s a very thoughtfully put together product.

I have many old slides from the 50s and 60s that my late father made from photos of my family, and I needed a slide viewer that made looking at hundreds of them easy. The design is good because the screen is pointing upward at just the correct angle so you don’t have to hold or tilt the viewer or strain your neck. The LED lights up the photos brightly so you can easily see them. The viewer comes with four AA batteries, which was convenient. This slide viewer both for slides and strips of photo negatives from old fashioned cameras. It’s a decent value for the money but could have cost less for what it is.

Why did you pick this product vs others?:This product does exactly what it’s supposed to – lets you view slides and film negative strips in a slightly larger format. We bought it to have a way to view some slides we found in my parents’ house and it worked great for that. One button to turn the light on and one button to eject the slide. Simple!

Works great for sorting old slides

I’m using it to sort slides and it works fine for this purpose. The image is bright and clear but there is some distortion around the edges of the screen. I will eventually digitize the slides but viewing them through this is fine in the meantime. It works on AA batteries which actually makes it easier to use since there’s no heavy cord or transformer brick to mess with.

Though maybe not the highest quality or fullest-featured transparency scanner, this product is GREAT for quickly and easily reviewing and scanning old family slides and negatives. The native 13MP image sensor is fine for the amateur family slides and snapshots from old cameras, in my opinion. 35mm negatives and slides produce 4320 x 2880 pixel image files, which seem to be about as clear as I would expect the old film to produce, if the original photo was sharp and clear (largely a function of the camera quality).Reviewing and scanning color negatives is especially nice, as it is very difficult to post-process color negatives in software – you can’t just “invert” a color negative accurately with most photo editing software. With this viewer, you can just select “Color Negative” and view (and scan) your negative strips as if they were positive slides! Very handy and useful, something you can’t do with just a light box and a magnifying glass.I also really appreciate the auto-exposure feature. It automatically compensates for over- and under-exposure in the slide or negative, making it quick and easy to correct and scan amateur shots. It seems to do quite well with compensating for a wide range of over- and under-exposed shots. The color correction feature, if needed, also seems to do a decent job with some fiddling – sometimes saving the extra step of post-processing some color corrections in photo editing software.I do wish they had a mode for over-scanning some slides and negatives, to reduce the auto-cropping of slides and negative frames. As other reviews have described, the scanner crops the images a little from what is usually available on the film. This is handy for most images, since it cleans up the edges by cropping off the “fuzzy” edges and rounded corners on slides and some negatives – but sometimes you need to capture the very edges of amateur shots for some critical details. With this scanner, you sometimes need to make small sacrifices over what might have been possible if you could scan more of each film frame, and do your own edge clean-up when needed.The only other issue I had was with some old non-35mm square negatives (127 format film, 40mm x 40mm image sizes). I WAS able to scan most of these negatives in a 35mm form by NOT using a film adapter (just the slide carrier), and selectively cropping a fair amount from the top and bottom, and a little from the sides. But it would be nice to be able to better handle more of the 40mm square negatives that seemed to be popular in the 50s and 60s or later.And REALLY, Kodak – not allowing the date to be set earlier than 1980?? Come on! Those old negatives and slides from our parents and grand-parents are still relevant today! My photo editing software allows the date and time “Taken” on digital images to be changed (EXIF “DateTimeOriginal”), but apparently the scanned date (EXIF “DateTimeDigitized”) from the Kodak scanner is still retained in the image meta data. This causes issues with some handling in my photo organization software (Photoshop Elements Organizer).Overall, I am very satisfied with this scanner for my main purpose of easily viewing and digitizing old slides and negatives!

First – Am I happy with it? YES. If you mainly want ACCEPTABLE SCANS of your memories, it’s QUICK and EASY. Perfectionists or serious photographers who sell photos should buy something more professional or use commercial scanning services; still, it’s good for quick scanning of many less important slides.Helpful articles: DPReview Jan 2021 “Reporting: Lab scan vs. Kodak Slide ‘n Scan” and Dec 2019 “Scanning vs photographing slides” (includes a video of Library of Congress archiving methods). I spent many hours reading articles and watching videos about digitizing.I gave it 4 stars rather than 5 because it lacks the superior quality of far more expensive scanners and it limits exposure compensation. But overall, it’s easy, speedy, and good quality.Scanning is a tradeoff between TIME, QUALITY, and PRICE; top quality demands a lot more money and time. Pro film photographers often grimace and groan when asked if they’ve digitized all their old negatives and slides! Best methods: a dedicated film scanner (Epson, Nikon, etc. at $400 to $1000+), a flatbed scanner (min 2000dpi) with a transparency media adapter or homemade “Backlighter,” a DSLR with a macro lens setup ($300+), extension tubes ($40+), or an old slide duplicator/reverser ($40 on e-bay, but requires a full-frame camera), and other creative setups found on the internet.I scanned over 6000 slides from the 1970s to 80s. My Kodak Ektachrome and Kodakchrome slides retained more original colors than my Fujichrome. Commercial scanning companies charge about $0.20 to 0.70 per slide and more depending on quantity (e.g. $140 for 200 slides, $1000 for 5000 slides); custom scans cost even more. So it cost me $240 / 6000 slides = $0.04 per slide. It’s more economical IF you have thousands of slides. An average roll (36 exposures) took me less than 10 minutes to scan (longer if I had many adjustments), so about 5 rolls per hour including saving photos to my hard drive. Compare that to one pro that used a high-end scanner who spent four 8-hour days to scan 1800 slides (about 1 minute per slide).I haven’t scanned negatives…for most photo memories, I simply place nine 4×6 prints together and use a DSLR to photograph them at max megapixel; I save only irreplaceable negatives.TIPS:Years ago, I bought a Wolverine F2D 20-Super, but it sat in a box until recently. Its 1-inch monitor is useless, so I hooked it up to my TV – after a month its connection mysteriously failed. Besides, adjusting exposures and colors was time consuming – make a small change, press OK, and then it displayed the changes. So I bought the Kodak – you can adjust exposures and colors in REAL TIME – you see your changes immediately before saving (A MAJOR PLUS, no matter what scanner you buy – expect MANY exposure adjustments).I chose the 7-inch over the 5-inch screen to facilitate editing in a pinch and to use later as a digital picture frame (approximating a 4 x 6 photo), but I always planned to connect it to a large monitor. Reviewers of the 5-inch scanner had some software issues, so I hoped the 7-inch model was upgraded.MONITOR: The 7-inch screen is acceptable for many photos, but definitely not for fine detail adjustments. Use a large computer monitor with HDMI input (for a VGA monitor, use a female HDMI to male VGA adapter). To connect the scanner, you need a male mini-HDMI to female standard-HDMI adapter; plug the male end into the scanner, and then use a standard male to male HDMI cable to connect to your monitor. (You can eliminate the adapter by using a special male mini-HDMI to male standard-HDMI cable.) I mainly share photos with friends on my computer monitor or large screen TV (which essentially replaced my old slide projector and white screen), but calibrating colors on a computer monitor is easier than most TVs. If you’re going to display photos on a large screen, then use a large screen to edit them!COMPUTER: Connecting the scanner’s USB cable to my desktop computer as a power source also allowed easy transfer of images to my hard drive. The computer (or laptop) has its own separate monitor, so I could use my photo editor immediately after image transfer (so I use 2 monitors; 1 connected to the computer, and 1 connected only to the scanner) as well as listen to music while scanning.PRIORITIZE SLIDES TO BE TIME EFFICIENT:1) Slides to scan and then discard.2) Slides to scan and then send to relatives and friends who may want to professionally scan them and make enlargements.3) Slides to professionally scan (especially where exposure and color adjustments are crucial) – slides that are irreplaceable and/or make money; I still keep those original slides. Or if you prefer, use one of the other homemade setups and do it yourself – the DSLR method seems best.In the late 70s, I ordered “inter-negatives” of slides I sold as huge enlargements (low concert lighting required slide film processed at higher ASAs, not possible with negative film back then). A slide loupe magnifier and LED light table or panel ($15 at a home building store) sometime help when you’re not exactly sure.ALWAYS CLEAN your scanner and slides. Small specks are obvious, especially in the sky (or maybe specks were birds or dust on your camera lens). Constantly check the scanner screen for dust and use its wiper brush. Clean your slides with a wide photo brush stick (easier to use and hold in the same hand while inserting a slide) and use a separate blower for lots of dust. When you still see specks on the screen, simply remove the slide holder and clean your slide and scanner screen if necessary (or flick the slide on the left side to eject the slide on the right side so you can clean it). BE PATIENT – cleaning is easier than touching up later!EASIER SCANNING: Save a junk “pusher” slide to insert on the left side of the slide holder to help line up your first slide, and also to push your last slide into the scanner. And use a nice comfortable chair if you’re scanning for hours!UNEXPECTED CROPPING: The scanner crops some of the photo; long ago, slide photography taught me to avoid filling the entire frame since enlargements often cropped the edges, but sometimes it wasn’t enough. E.g. vertically, the scanner cropped off the top of an Egyptian pyramid, so I simply used a scissors to trim the bottom of the slide so the slide moved downward in the holder to make the pyramid top visible. Horizontally, you have to choose between what’s more important, the left or right edge.EXPOSURE ADJUSTMENTS AND LIMITATIONS: Remember – the scanner is actually a camera taking a digital photo of the slide. I had to adjust exposure on MOST slides. Aim for an exposure (often underexposed) that reveals the MOST DETAILS (look for letters in signs, lines in buildings, light poles, mountain tops, no hot spots in facial features, etc.).It’s like adjusting EV on a digital camera, but the scanner only takes an AVERAGE exposure of the entire frame, not a SPOT exposure of a specific area. Photos with great differences between light and dark areas can be frustrating.Examples:– Eiffel Tower dark intricate steel framework from below against a bright sky– Friends on a beach with the sun behind them where you wished you used a flash to illuminate their faces– Bright sky photos with a dark airplane (like a Navy Blue Angel)– Night photos (concerts, performers, fireworks) where most of the background is black; the scanner may overexpose the main subject. In existing light photography, you turn off your exposure meter and manually set your speed and aperture to avoid overexposures.Sometimes even Kodak’s +/-2 EV isn’t enough; I suggest +/-4 EV for future models. To fool the scanner exposure meter to go beyond +/-2 EV, sometimes I slid the slide slightly in the holder to areas of the photo I planned to crop, or I made a little physical dark paper mask and stuck it (with a glue stick) on the bottom of the slide to block part of the scanner light source to decrease average exposures.If the photo is very important, make a few scans (like bracketing exposures) to work on later with your photo editor. Treat it like a multiple-exposure HDR Capture (High Dynamic Range); some software can combine all the exposures into one photo, OR send that slide to the commercial scanning services!When it doubt, ask yourself, “Is this slide worth $1 to pay a lab to custom scan? OR should I take multiple exposures and use HDR software to combine the images myself. OR should I spend a lot of time and money using expensive scanning or camera equipment?”KNOW YOUR PHOTO EDITOR: At first, after scanning a roll, I saved it to my computer (already connected to the scanner’s USB cable). Then I used photo editing software to crop and Auto Enhance for colors, brightness and contrast, bringing many colors from 40 years ago back to life. By knowing the capabilities of your photo editor, it’s easier to choose better adjustments beforehand with the Kodak scanner.I seldom adjusted Kodak’s RGB unless colors were washed-out; do it before using your photo editor. (Remember, you’re actually adjusting the scanner’s camera to photograph your slide; it’s always better to start with a good photo before using any photo editor. Old, washed-out slides need a good photo editor to revive the original colors even with the best scanner on the market.)My Kodak scanner and photo editing software work together as a team so I get a better feel on exposures; sometimes underexposure on the Kodak gave better results when my photo editor executed Auto Enhance. Once I understood what my photo editor could do, I then scanned all my slides, leaving photo editing for later.TO MAKE IT EASIER AND FASTER when you need to adjust thousands of slides, use one of the new economical photo editors with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to do most of your work, such as Luminar, Movavi, Photoshop CC, etc. Expect a fair amount of post editing, so make it easy. Even pros are praising the new AI photo editors – hours of complicated editing can now be done in less than a minute!SOME PHOTOS JUST WON’T SCAN PROPERLY: Either send them to a custom service or forget them – if you haven’t looked at them for 30 years, they’re not that important! (Remember when your uncle would invite everyone over to watch a 2-hour slide show of his vacation?)Treat it like “photo triage” – do you really want to spend the money and time on an expensive scanner? Save the handful of complex scans for the pros and pay them for their expensive machines. Trying to scan every single slide to perfection quickly turns tedious.I still have around 2000 slides of night concerts to scan where exposure is very tricky. I’ll use the Kodak scanner to save the less important slides, but make a DSLR setup for the prime slides that require a lot of time to digitize. I’ll shoot RAW with the camera tethered to my computer monitor and photo editor. For the absolute best, I’ll use a custom lab. Afterwards, I’ll hermetically seal and store them.ORGANIZING: I organize each roll into a file directory; some photo editors do this. If you can’t remember dates of your slides, see if the processing lab stamped the slides with a month and lot order number (generally, if you sent several rolls to process at the same time, they all had the same lot number). Label your directories with that info, and after scanning all your slides, look at the photos to sort the directories chronologically.CONCLUSION: Use the Kodak scanner to scan most photos to make it cost and time efficient, and for the most precious photos, use a superior setup (film scanner or DSLR, but requires more time) or a commercial lab. The Kodak scanner saved me a lot of time and money!HAVE FUN! Seeing memories from 40 years ago and remembering family and old friends is terrific for your spirits!

Discovered seven boxes of slides from a trip to Europe 53 years ago. In 20 minutes I was able to start scanning the first box. Simple and easy to use!

I used this scanner to scan about 1500 slides over about four months. I found it to be fast, reliable, accurate and easy to use. I was eventually able to scan 150 to 175 slides an hour. I would start with three slides loaded into the scanning carrier, push the scan button and wait for the scan to finish. I would advance the slides manually and once the new slide was positioned add a new slide to the right side of the carrier, pushing a finished slide out the left slide. I barely glanced at the scanned slide, instead I concentrated on keeping the workflow going. One warning I would give is that this is strictly a WYSIWYG operation. The slides I was scanning were 50+ year old and had degenerated from age and bad storage conditions. The scanner did nothing to improve the quality, but it did give me a decent image to start with when I got to Photoshop Elements.The scanner is OUTSTANDING. Scanner was priced right, shipped quickly and arrived in perfect shape. The scanner is OUTSTANDING. Easy to set up, easy to use. produces great scans. It took me a few minutes to get in to a work flow rhythm but I was doing about 2 scans a minute once I got rolling. I suspect this will get up to at least 3 scans a minute.

I originally ordered the ScanSnap iX1600 sheet fed scanner but then realized that it was used and would soon become non-eligible for manufacturer repairs. I sent it back and then ordered the ScanSnap iX2500 which is the new replacement for the iX1600. The iX2500 is brand new, comes with full warranty and hopefully won’t become outdated soon. As a bonus, the new iX2500 was priced lower than the iX1600! (I switched to the ScanSnap iX2500 because my trusty Fujitsu fi-6130z is not supported by my recent upgrade from Windows 10 Pro to Windows 11 Pro.)The ScanSnap iX2500 arrived within 1 day and was easy to set up. (Download the installation files from Fujitsu first – you will be taken to a RICOH website via a link on the Fujitsu site.) Setup was easy just by following the prompts on the scanner, but YouTube videos are also easily found and are helpful for novices. I set the new scanner up on my Windows 11 Pro tower this morning and so far no error codes on the computer and the scan process is much faster than the fi-6130z (which I still have connected to my Windows 10 Pro machine as a backup.)I have been using PaperPort since the days of my first HP ScanJet flatbed scanner (mid 1990’s) and the current version is 14.5. Unfortunately, the ScanSnap iX2500 does not use a TWAIN driver like the fi-6130z did, so scanning into PaperPort requires a few extra steps. For those using PaperPort who wish to have seamless transfer of the scanned file into any PaperPort folder, the TWAIN driver can be downloaded as a free trial to insure compatibility with your scanner and then can be purchased at snaptwain.com to get full functionality. Although pricey, this addition is worth it to me.The ScanSnap iX2500 fits nicely on my desk. It actually takes up a little less room than the fi- 6130z. I am using my scanner hard wired with the supplied USB cable, but wireless connection to your network and integration with smart phones is an option during setup and doesn’t look complicated.Scan quality is excellent whether using the downloaded ScanSnap Home software or PaperPort 14.5. Photo image quality is excellent and the speed is much faster than what I have been used to. I also installed the free ABBYY FineReader PDF / OCR software downloaded from the RICOH website, but have not had a chance to try it yet.

I was really surprised at all the high praise this machine got, so I ordered it. No disappointment here! It was up and running so fast and easily connected via Bluetooth! Amazingly excellent instructions! Incredibly intuitive! Works like a charm! I haven’t been this happy with a new electronic device for 30 years! Both mechanically and electronically, works the way it should! Scans receipts, documents and photos equally well. Color quality of photos way better than my previous scanner. When done, it folds up into a tiny footprint on your desk. Wow! WOW! WOW!!!

If I could give this scanner 6 stars I would. I have experience with Fujitsu scanners. Our company has had two humble ScanSnap S1500s in service for over a decade, each having scanned 50,000+ documents on all original parts (and still going). We also experimented with a Fujitsu N7100 network scanner (I think we paid $1700 for that scanner new). I like this scanner better than all of them.First of all, the old S1500s only worked with ScanSnap Manager and the older Fujitsu software. This one works with both the old software and their flagship ScanSnap Home software. I honestly thought I’d hate the new software and was planning to just use ScanSnap Manager again. I begrudgingly gave ScanSnap Home a chance and I must say, it’s substantially better. First of all, the older software was made up of multiple parts that all had to work together. ScanSnap Home has one clean interface that acts as a document manager, a scanner config, and so on.The flexibility is where this thing really shines. At first glance the touchscreen appears to be laid out how they think you’ll want it. In reality you can customize every button, change it’s icon, change it’s action, etc You can have ScanSnap Home manage the docs or have it scan elsewhere and not even show the document in ScanSnap Home. I have my scanner setup here at home in a dual role. I use the default ScanSnap Home button to scan to my local NAS (as a directory on my computer, not direct [more on that later]) . I have other buttons that scan to various OneDrive locations that sync with SharePoint. For those documents it just scans direct, and I don’t have it showing on my computer. Everything just works perfectly.Setup was a breeze. I initially set it up with a USB cable then decided to put it on the Wifi just for fun. I figured I’d setup the mobile app but never got around to it. Then one day the USB cable was unplugged and I went to scan something, not even thinking about it, and it just worked. My computer found the scanner over the network without any additional configuration. Even over Wifi and uploading to either my NAS or OneDrive scanning is pretty much instant. I’ve scanned 50 page documents and after the last page went through it was fully OCR’d and available to open within about a second.Here’s the only downsides (which I didn’t dock points for because this is not an expensive scanner by comparison). Although you can (with a firmware update) scan direct to a network share without the use of a computer the scanner doesn’t perform any OCR on it’s own. Our expensive N7100 could perform OCR on it’s own but honestly it was slower. To really leverage this scanner’s true capabilities, you should use it with a computer. The ScanSnap Home software is able to perform OCR on the incoming documents faster than anything I’ve ever used. On that note, you do have to check a box in the settings for the PDF files to actually have it save the PDF as searchable.My suggestion for when you get it is to bypass the manual altogether and just dive in. Pretty much everything is self-explanatory. If you go to Settings / Scan Settings in ScanSnap Home you’ll be pretty much good to go.

As an artist, I have been meaning to find myself a nice flatbed scanner for art purposes, scanning sketches or what have you, but found myself procrastinating until I could devote time to really look at reviews and figure out a high quality, high end scanner. I found myself in a position recently that I needed to manually sign some documents and get them to where they needed to be by the next day, but my car was in the shop. I thought maybe one of those portable wand style scanners might be good, and I could use it also to scan receipts, but they are so expensive, and I needed some thing that would be delivered the next morning. What came up was the Cannon LIDE 300, which would be delivered between four and eight in the morning, and this was perfect—I could sign the documents, scan them and upload. And I would also have a nice inexpensive scanner for things. I was looking for something that would be an overnight delivery, and dare I say, on the “cheaper” side and this fit the bill. This printer far exceeded my expectations. I realized with the first scan that this little machine was way more useful, and of a higher quality than its price would suggest. Inexpensive, yes, but by no means a cheap piece of equipment. I am on an older OS Mac, so I was worried I would not find some thing that would be compatible with my system, but in reading the reviews, it looked like the scanner would work—and there were some very helpful reviews on how to use the scanner without having to download any software for Mac. It was pretty much ready to go straight out of the box, plug into your computer, go to system preferences under “printers and scanners”, hit the plus sign and you can add this scanner. Use the “printers and scanners” window to access the scanner—just hit the “open scanner” button and it will give you the scanner “user” window. It starts immediately with an overview scan and from there you can change the resolution, the size, rotation angle, even the format —say PDF or JPG. You can even do image correction with brightness and contrast. It’s pretty intuitive —all you really need to do is play around with that scanner window for a few minutes and do some test scans and you’ll see exactly where you’re at. For each new page/item that you scan you need to close the scanner window, go back to the “printers and scanners” window and hit the “open scanner” button again… There may be a way for it to auto detect when you put a new page in the scanner, but I have not figured that out… Maybe I should take a look at the manual, which is still in its plastic bag… L O L. There is a “combine into single document” option, but I chose to just do separate PDFs, and then combined them in Acrobat. And it worked out great. The quality was fantastic! And the color 300 dpi test scans I did on some color items were phenomenal, and when you enlarge them up and look at the detail, I was just blown away… Much higher quality than I expected, and I’m starting to think maybe I don’t need a higher end scanner. As I said, I bought it as an emergency measure, but now I find myself with quite a useful, high-end (in my eyes), and inexpensive little scanner. I will probably be saying quite often “how did I ever live without this”… And again I’ll mention the price is right on point, pretty inexpensive for the quality that I’m seeing, and I deal with resolution/dpi levels In my job as an artist…If you need additional information, go in under the (Amazon) reviews for this scanner and type in Mac in the search window—that was very helpful for me in making my decision to buy this scanner… The information I ultimately used for how to access the scanner without software was from one of those reviews. The scanner worked with the cable that came with it, and in less than 10 minutes I was scanning…No download of software needed for now, but I might check that out in the future. I thought this review might be helpful for others who are on an older system Mac… Sometimes it’s really hard to find useful information on products, regarding compatibility with the older systems…For reference I am on Mac, Mojave 10.14.6. Because yes, sometimes the newer OS does not always equal the best. I will say, with the positive experience of this little inexpensive model scanner, I will upgrade to another Cannon scanner, when and if needed. That’s how strongly I feel about this scanner.PS the scanner does have copy, scan/auto send as part of its functions (buttons), but I’m guessing you probably would need to download some software for those functions. As noted, this was a quick solution for some “emergency” scans, and this device was perfect! I am looking forward to seeing what else this scanner can do.

its great, i love this scanner. i work in creative fields so i needed something that was slim and durable for all my bs.its fast, slim, convenient, seemingly works with any cable. I was concerned about a long and annoying set up process because i read a lot of reviews about how it was difficult to make compatible with Mac iOS, but I was literally able to just plug it in and image capture took care of everything else. I have a 2022 Macbook Air M2 thats currently running Tahoe 26. Super easy, no issues.Scan quality is great, I don’t need more than 1200dpi usually and its super fast. Textures and accuracy are crisp, def recommend

I love this scanner, but I’ll start off talking about a certain aspect because I did see a lot of reviews saying you can’t scan at 4800DPI or you are limited to a tiny image. After some trial and error, I found out you can do 4800 DPI. The limitation of the ScanGear software (included with the scanner) is apparently memory. But oh well. The image cannot exceed 50,000×50,000 pixels or 4GB. so that means the biggest image I was able to scan at 4800 DPI is 6.7 inches x 9.20 inches which is just below 4GB in size for a JPEG. I shouldn’t have any limitations because my PC has 128 GB of RAM and 80 TB of storage but oh well. Note that this 6.7 inches x 9.2 inches is the output resolution. The input can be whatever can fit on the glass (example, 8.5 inches x 11 inches).In order to get to 4800 DPI, if you want to use the included Canon software, you have to use ScanGear. It doesn’t appear to be available in Canon’s other scanning modes. If you use a paid commercial scanning software like Vuescan, maybe this 4800 DPI memory limitation doesn’t exist because the hardware can do 4800 DPI. Here’s the key point, you have to go to the settings for ScanGear and select the checkbox for “Enable large image scans”. I don’t know why this is even an option. Whoever wrote the software should just allow for large image scans because it’s only going to confuse people.If you don’t set this checkbox, the biggest image you can scan is something like 14000×10000 pixels which means at 4800DPI, the biggest image is something like 2 inches x 2.5 inches. Once the setting is saved, go to ScanGear to scan the image. TYPE 4800 into the resolution box (don’t use the dropdown arrow). Set max scan to 6.7″x9.2″. That will produce a 4GB data file. If you’re expecting to scan a 4800DPI 6.7″x9.2″ TIFF image, you would probably need terabytes of RAM because it doesn’t scan to your storage. It scans into your memory and then saves that image to disk. Considering a lot of users have only 8GB or 16GB of RAM, scanning a 4800DPI TIFF image isn’t really feasible.Then you will be able to scan at 4800DPI. Remember, this 6.7″x9.2″ is the output resolution. The input can be the full size of the scanner glass. For example, you put on a 8.5 inch x 11 inch paper. and then the output is 6.7″x9.2″. And the last aspect of 4800 DPI scanning is how long it takes. This is not the seconds of scanning you get with 300 DPI or 600 DPI. No, this is many minutes. You really have to realize whether 4800 DPI is worth it to you. If you’re scanning a printed photo, 4800 DPI won’t really make it better. you’re at the limit of the print.4800 DPI aside, how is this scanner? It’s super thin as a scanner. You can put books or whatever on the glass (platen). I thought about the Epson photo scanner where you can feed pictures. But then I realized it was $600 and that you can’t scan books and non-fed sheets and it was limited to 600 DPI. This Canon is super fast at more normal resolutions (300, 600, 1200, etc.). It comes with a stand so you can have the scanner vertically positioned while scanning! Not sure how useful that is but it is neat to see it scanning something while vertical. The color reproduction and the scanner features are top-notch.I totally recommend this if you’re scanning at 2400 DPI and below. I bought it mostly for photo scanning.For photos I plan to share through social media or email, I’ll probably scan at 300 DPI or 600 DPI (that I then compress down) because email’s limit is 25MB which is something like 7000×7000. I know the JPEGs I output out of photoshop from my digital camera are 45 megapixels (8192×5464 resolution) and 31.5MB in size so already too big for email or social media.If your main thing is scanning everything at 4800DPI, then I would suggest getting something else. For photos I’m going to print, I’ll probably scan at 1200 or 2400 DPI. But if you’ll only occasionally use 4800 DPI, then this can totally do it and do it well (as long as you’re below 50000×50000 resolution). I just scanned a 32162×44160 which ended up being a 410 MB JPEG. It took about 20 minutes (ballpark estimate). Note that if 4800 DPI was seamless and was selectable from a dropdown menu, I would’ve given this scanner 5 stars. But for making it a hassle, I knocked off a star.

I’m so happy with this little device! As soon as it arrived I tested a 35mm color negative. It’s really simple to use, as soon as you set up the scanner and slide in the negative, you can see the image immediately on the screen. It’s so enjoyable and quick and the quality exceeded my expectations. You do need to buy a 32GB SD card or 32GB SDHC card. It will not work with larger GB or with SDXC cards.Setup:Plug in the USB-C/USB cable (provided) into the scanner. USB-C side goes into the scanner, and the USB side goes into to your PC or to a wall adapter. Insert the SD card in the back of the scanner (right next to the USB-C slot). Open the hinged slide holder and insert the adapter for 135mm, 126mm or 110mm depending on what film you are using, and then snap it closed again. The manual shows you how to align the adapter inside the hinged holder. If you are scanning slides you won’t need an adapter, you will just need the slide holder. Insert the slide holder into the slot on the right side of the scanner. The arrow on the slide holder should be pointing toward the scanner. About an inch will still be visible, sticking out of the slot. This is where you insert the film.How to use:Press the power button (it must be plugged in to PC or wall using the USB cable to power on). Press the large OK button on the front to select film type. Use right/left arrows on the top of the machine to select film type and then click OK. Select the film size and click OK. Make sure your film is right side up, and slide the negative into the slide holder on the right side of the scanner. Smile when you see your image on the screen! You will need to adjust the film so that the image is centered on the scanner, and then press the large OK button again. Slide the film further in until you can see the next image. Press OK to scan. Once you can’t push the film in any further, you can insert the next piece of film and it will push the first one through and out the left side. I found a few times where the film was curved and wouldn’t go in past the first image. If this happens you can remove the slide holder from the scanner, insert the film into the holder while gently pressing down on the first image. It should slide through and you can reinsert the holder into the scanner with film already in it. It takes about 2 seconds for the image to scan.Transferring photos to your PC. You have 2 options – you can remove the SD card and insert it directly into your laptop/PC if it has a slot. If not you can connect the scanner to your PC using the USB cable (provided) while the SD card is still in the scanner. This will bring up a USB device on your PC and you can see all of the images. They are given file names based on the order you scan them. I have scanned over 1,000 images on the SD card so far.Quality: The quality of the images is better than I expected. For sure up to 8×10 prints would be high quality, I’m attaching a scanned image so you can see. Also please note in the scanned image I didn’t center the negative properly. If you are moving too quickly through the images this can happen, so it’s good to view the images periodically in case you need to rescan anything. Make sure you keep the film dust free, and also make sure the scanner is dust free. It comes with a cleaning brush that can be inserted into the slot where the slide holder goes to clean out dust. Do this with the soft part of the brush facing down. I didn’t do this at first and some of the images ended up with some marks from the dust.

I am a child of the 1950’s. Everyone in my family and in particular my Grandfather used Ektachrome for slides. When I went away to college I studied Art and the fundamental method of conveying images was through slides. it was “standard operating procedure” for a long time. I have a Kodak Carousel slide projector still in use. I took slides of everything because Ektachrome was always in my Pentax Spotmatic F. I have accumulate a great many slides after almost 70 years but many of them have not been seen in a very long time. That is until now. I do not have a place to set up a projector and I have for a long time needed a way to achive this recorded history. I did the search here and discovered this unit from Kodak. I read reviews and have learned to toss the demonstrably bad ones from those with axes to grind (2 ** for no SD card included) . I bought this and fell in love with it right out of the box. It is very easy to set up and use with very little reference to the manual. I am one of those people who don’t like using manuals. There were a few things like learning the clock is not designed to be continuous but just a date stamp that knowing in the beginning saved some frustration but for the most part the buttons on the top will explain themselves. I have had a box of slides slides floating around since moving in to my present location that had separated themselves from the bulk of those that I have stored. I have wanted to see what this box contained but it is not that easy to hold them up to the light and see all of the detail. So with new Kodak unit now plugged into the USB port of my iMac I headed into the unknown. With the unit powered on and a quick glance at the manual to see which button to push for review i was away down memory lane. I was initially only going to look at a couple of images to see how the images looked on the 5 inch screen. But i soon was so captured by the quality of what i was seeing that i went went one slide after another until every one of almost 200 slides had been recorded. I owned several slide viewers in the late 80’s and early to mid 90’s and they were always problematic to use. They were just small projection boxes whose lamps always generated a great deal of heat and were rather cumbersome to use and store. And they were only viewers with not means of recording images. This Kodak unit has solved everything for me. It is small enough that it sits comfortably amongst my other pieces on my desktop and yet large enough to easily see the screen. It is also very stable and will rest comfortably wherever it is placed. This unit has for me been the answer for everything that i have needed. Now I have a reason to excavate my Grandfather’s old slides a relive the Christmas gatherings when everyone was still around. I whole heartedly recommend this Kodak viewer/recorder to anyone with similar needs.