Separate scanning device?
Have any DU'ers purchased a separate scanner? I bought a Canon Image Class multifunction printer about 2-1/2 years ago, using this printer with a Vista OS Laptop. Worked fine until I replaced the laptop a year ago with the dreaded Windows 8 OS. I downloaded the 64-bit driver to use with the new laptop, but have never been able to successfully scan again. Appears to be an incompatibility issue, and there doesn't seem to be any new drivers available on the Canon website to address the problem.
So I'm considering purchasing a small portable scanner that I can plug into the computer via a USB drive, and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this type of accessory.
TygrBright
(20,733 posts)It's very handy, and fast as lightning. It also does one-pass duplex. It's a Xerox Documate 3115, which can switch from desktop to portable (though I think it's really a bit large to be easily portable.)
It was a bit tricky to set up on our Windows 7 machine but it's very versatile and I'm quite happy with it so far.
helpfully,
Bright
steve2470
(37,456 posts)I love it, highly recommended. It installs easily on my Windows 8.1 machine and plugs into USB.
csziggy
(34,119 posts)A thin, lightweight Canon LIDE 600F scanner that is my go to scanner for documents and quick photo scanning; an Epson V500 Photo scanner for better quality photo scanning and medium format negatives; and a Plustek film/slide scanner for 35 mm negatives and slides.
I prefer the Canon for document scanning since it's scan-to-PDF function does excellent OCR (optical character reading) and I can get more cut and paste capability. The Epson I have does not do any OCR - when it scans documents to PDF, they are just pictures of the document - useless for practical purposes. My sister has the next model of that Epson, the V550, and it does OCR the scans to PDF but not as well as the Canon.
The Canon is great for carrying around - it's about the same size as a laptop, fits in our laptop bag and uses only a USB connection, so no power cord required. The Epson is three times as thick and needs a transformer for power.
A film/negative scanner is a specialty device, only useful if you really want to scan a lot of transparencies and spend the time doing it. Both my Canon and Epson scanners can scan 35 mm negatives and slides, but the dedicated scanner does a better job and is faster.
MizzM
(77 posts)Thanks for your experience with scanners. Some of the scanners are really pricey, as I look them up. I managed somehow to find a way into Canon tech support, and they spent a couple of days with me on this. Tech support said I should be able to scan with Windows 8. After a lot of back and forth emails, they finally hit on a particular file in Windows as the culprit--twain-32, whatever that is. Anyway, with a lot of instructions to follow, I finally was able to scan again. (Twain_32 is correct, not Twain-32).
MizzM