Summary: For scanning photos and negatives, this is a great scanner - it has great quality, very fast scans, and almost no startup time, as it uses white LED. The included Photoshop Element alone can account for half its price. It is the latest version 5.0 for Windows and 4.0 for Mac. So if you are scanning photo from inside photoshop, you will be at ease.


However, I bought this to scan books due to its high speed. I was planning to use the multi button pdf scanning feature. After buying it, I found the buttons are on the lid, and while scanning with the lid open, they are impossible to reach, unlike canon's other LiDE scanner models, where they are on the lower unit. I had to resort to clicking the mouse button with one hand, while holding the thick book over the scanner with other, the exact thing I wanted to avoid and went for this scanner with exclusive multi-page scanning button.


The Canon Software for scanning, MP Navigator Ex, is good but lacks some basic features that people expect. For one, there is no contrast (or brightness as they label) control on the scanning function, although it is present in the print and copy functions. Hence if you want to make a scan lighter or darker you cannot use the one-click scans, and have to resort to manual scans. I found the default levels too low for most documents and for copy, I had to set it 25% or 50% darker to make the copy readable. However, no such option is available in pdf or scan functions and they end up to be too light.


Overall, if you are planning to scan a lot of photo and negative, and like to use Photoshop Elements and have not bought it yet, this looks like a great investment. However if you are like me and planning to scan books faster, this is not the one to select, although it does scan fast!

Summary: I Love this scanner, FAST, great scans, Very well built unit.
Includes film adaptors, I currently am still unable to install some of the supplied software: Omni page OCR that comes with the scanner does not want to install on my Windows Vista machine. Not a big deal to me since I do not use OCR but if this is why you are buying this scanner you might want to get that question answered before buying. otherwise I would recommended this scanner to all my friends and family.

Summary: The scanner worked better than I expected. Be sure to download the latest drivers from the Canon website. There appears to be a problem with the driver/software that causes a white border to appear around the negatives. This problem only shows up after I scan about 10 sheets of negatives. Rebooting the computer solves the problem. Adobe Photoshop Elements contains a lot of tools to enhance your photo, e.g. removing scratches, brightening up a dark photo