I wasn't planning on getting another scanner until I foolishly decided to clean the inside and outside of the glass on my old HP scanner because the underside was cloudy. I got rid of the smokey glass but added lint:( so I checked the specs on this scanner since there weren't many reviews on it and decided to take a chance on buying the LiDE 700F because of the image resolution and price.
I couldn't be happier that I messed up the old scanner. This one makes excellent scans and makes things very easy to enlarge when printing. It is also very lightweight and easy to store. One of the better things is that it all works with one USB cord. I really am impressed with the quality of the scan although I don't believe that it actually scans at the speed that is advertised. It does seem slower than what the specs list and that is at the default scanning resolution for me. That issue doesn't bother me though because it fits my needs perfectly. Resolution is easily adjusted but the higher the resolution the slower the scan.
I use it (and carry it) between 3 different computers in 3 different rooms. It works flawlessly on Windows XP, Windows Vista 32 bit, Windows Vista 64 bit, and Windows 7 32 bit and 64 bit. It comes with its own software which works well although I prefer to use it through Adobe Photoshop.
Picture scans come out excellent and the color correction is great but not perfect. It has restored some old photos very well for me. Scanning text is easy and having the four buttons on the front make scanning for e-mail, .pdf, copies, and scans faster.
I do not have slides to scan so cannot comment on the quality of slide scans although I am extremely curious due to the very high maximum pixel count for slide scans.
I like this scanner immensely because of the light weight, portability between machines I use, that it requires only one USB plug, and the great scanned images. I do agree with another reviewer that the cover does feel flimsy and could be broken by someone not careful but that does not concern me much even thought I carry this from room to room depending on what machine I need to use. Just use the same care as you would with your laptop and you will be fine.
I would not hesitate to recommend this scanner for high resolutions scans for people on a budget. This is a great scanner! I have no regrets having purchased this scanner.
BTW: This is my first straying from HP scanners since 1995. Beware HP! Canon has won me over.
EDIT: (Addition 3/7/10) Works flawlessly with Windows 95, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7.
I also have to retract my statement about color correction. This machine scans so well that the image of something I scanned, using this scanner, was better than the actual item according to the person who bought the item. I was accused of "Photoshopping" a picuture because the image was so much better than the actual paper money the scan was used to represent. It was only scanned (using the scanner software - not imported into Photoshop), cropped only, and not altered using software. Now that's an impressive scanner! Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F Color Image Scanner (3297B002)
The scanner does a good job and it's great that it doesn't need a separate power cable. The main drawback I've found is that the hinges for the cover depends on a tiny little plastic nubs that are easily broken off.
This scanner does a good job of scanning prints and documents. But the accessory film scan device is virtually unusable. My results were hopelessly out of focus. I contacted the Canon service center, and after they had seen my emailed scans, they agreed that something was amiss. I sent the scanner back (along with my test negatives), and they sent a replacement unit. This performed better, but the film scans still are woefully unsharp compared to what I got seven years ago with my HP film scanner.
I'll keep the scanner for scanning flat copy, but I will not bother to scan any more films.
After 6 months of use, I feel that I have to give everyone my opinion about this little scanner. As many around, I was driven to believe that this scanner was able to process films and slides. It is true that in my mind, I could not imagine that a brand such as Canon would make a scanner able to scan films but not mounted slides. Nevertheless this is the case here. BEWARE THIS SCANNER CANNOT SCAN MOUNTED SLIDES!! This is probably the most stupid marketing concept of the year, but the engineers at Canon just stopped short when developing this scanner. They imagined nice ergonomics, an even nicer low profile making it easy to slide under a desk, created an ingenious lid able to open 180 degrees, not to mention the ability to have the scanner installed angled on a desk, thus limiting the footprint. The scanner works very nicely for everyday tasks, it is easy to use, gives great results scanning documents and normal prints. The software, although always limited, is correct and regularly updated. With little practice, you are able to make it do whatever you want. It installs very well with Windows 7 64 bits and works fine from there. IMHO the major drawback of the software is the way it handles files locations. You are always wondering what is actually happening when a file is saved as it lists processed files not by location, but by scanning session. It's a bit like managing a multi-k MP3 collection from iTunes... Quite annoying and almost impossible...
Now about the films. This scanner is able to scan films, B&W and negatives without too much problems, despite the fact that you must manually change the backlight plug-in device for every frame. By default the software crops the frame as it wishes, but you are able to disable this feature if you want borders scanned as well. Scan speed is correct up to 2400 dpi (about 1min 30s to 2 min). Above this resolution, it takes about 5 minutes at 4800 dpi frame and it becomes useless except for specific pictures. I have scanned several hundreds of B&W films (home brewed!) and after messing up at first, I managed to get good results. With the appropriate software such as Photoshop CS4 or CS5 you can save files with 48/16 bits color depth by TWAIN importing (beware CS4 64 bits does not allow this. You must use the provided 32 bits version for the TWAIN interface, another couple of hours lost to figure it out...). You're not able to use 48/16 bits color depth from the Canon software itself as it cannot handle these special files properly, but this is usually the case with most scanner makers. I believe you would probably get even better results with a more professional flatbed film scanner such as 8800f or Epson V500 as I always find that the pictures could be better resolved. But you also have a glass between the CCD and the film...
Another point of concern is the fact that you must calibrate this scanner quite regularly. I've found post in forums of users throwing out this scanner as they had horizontal lines when scanning films. This is normal and shows you must calibrate it. Overall from my experience, you must do so at every photo scanning session. It takes 3 minutes to do so, but you have to find where the functionality is hidden in the software. It took me 1 hour to find it. Thanks to the Canon developers... I am a very advanced user, and I believe that most users could not find the calibration functionality this easily... You have to switch the entire software to advanced mode (after you clicked scanning films), then go to the parameters menu, then you'll find in one of the tabs 2 tiny buttons for scanner glass and film calibrations. From there it is straightforward as it is all explained by pop-up messages. Another completely stupid ergonomics brought to you by Canon. Why to hide these absolutely indispensable buttons?
But my extra large concern and source of deep consternation is the total inability of this scanner to scan mounted slides. When you try to do so, although there are no reasons whatsoever why it couldn't technically do so, you get completely fuzzy images as the CCD captor is unable to focus the half height of the frame mount. I cannot understand what happened in Canon's mind when they gave their green light to the mass production of this device. Did they think that people do not have slides to scan in the 21st century? This is a proof of complete disrespect from Canon toward their photograph customers.
Overall, this scanner is nice for office tasks, but for films it should NOT be branded as a film scanner as it is misleading. It may scan a negative film from time to time, but do not expect to do more that this.
Pros
-Nice ergonomics, thin line, innovative structure
-Nice blend of scan quality, speed, ease of use and software for everyday office tasks
-Does not require a power supply (USB powered) Nice!!
-Cheap
-Ok to scan a film from time to time.
Cons
-CANNOT SCAN MOUNTED SLIDES!! This is more than annoying, it's REVOLTING!!
-Strange software ergonomics, maybe Ok if you have major brain damage, but otherwise requires a lot of search for basic functionalities, calibration in particular
-Requires regular calibration for films scanning (every session). It's Ok once you know how to do it.
-Impossible to clean the glass from below except if you know how to deal with plastic tabs. A fast remove structure would have been nice as it is necessary to clean the glass from below from time to time - Canon - Canoscan - Canon Scanner - Macintosh'
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