Customer Rating: 
Summary: Big Performance In A Small Package
Comment: Canon has packed a lot of power in a little package. The capabilities of the CanoScan LiDE 600F is nothing short of impressive. I've skipped over talking about most of the features that you can garner from the product literature and most reviews, and simply highlighted some of its capabilities:
Color & Resolution
------------------
With a 48-bit color depth for a total of over 281 trillion possible colors! (2^48 = 281,474,976,710,656) and a maximum optical resolution of 4800 x 9600 dpi, this scanner is comparable to the best scanners currently available. The resolution is double that of its look-alike predecessor, the LiDE 500F, which has a maximum optical resolution of 2400 x 4800 dpi.
In practice, you probably won't be needing resolutions _remotely_ close to the maximum resolution it's capable of! Case in point, if you set it to scan at its maximum resolution and color depth, you will generate an output with a file size running up into the Gigabyte range, and the scanner driver will display a warning. Scan times would also be inordinately long. So, from the standpoint of practicality, its power is a little bit of an overkill. It's nice to know that it's capable of way more than what you'll need, nonetheless.
Quality of Scanned Images
-------------------------
I put the scanner to the test and scanned a 4 x 6 photograph at 1200 dpi. The scan took 4 minutes and generated a file size of over 100 MB. Because of its size, the only application I possessed that was able to open it was Photoshop. When opened, I saw that the resulting screen resolution was humongous. When zoomed to fit the screen, the picture was stunning. Details were as sharp as the original. Granted, my LCD monitor isn't calibrated, and pro-CRT color purists would say LCD displays produce inaccurate true colors, the scanned reproduction was mighty close in color to the original. When printed, the printed output was indistinguishable in sharpness from the original. In terms of color and brightness, I thought the reproduction actually looked a little better than the original.
I do have a quip to make about document scanning. The printed scanned output has a very slight pinkish tint to it - not terribly noticeable but definitely perceptible. Regardless, it doesn't detract from the quality of the scan. At very high resolutions, you can make out the individual fibers on the paper, literally.
Speed
-----
The warm-up time is just under 3 seconds. In my tests, the scan speed was 40 seconds at a respectable 300 dpi (sufficient for OCR), 38 seconds at 150 dpi, and 32 seconds at 75 dpi. The quality of the printed output of the image scanned at 75 dpi isn't any worse than what you get from a photocopy machine. So, for the purpose of archiving documents, 75 dpi is quite adequate. Although not blazingly fast, the scanning speed is respectable for the occasional copying of important documents - perfect for home use.
Portability
-----------
The best way to describe the LiDE 600F is that it is comparable to a laptop in both size and weight. Actually, it even looks and feels like one - it's sleek, compact, and lightweight, which makes it very portable indeed. If you need to do some scanning on the road, this scanner is ideal because the USB cable from the laptop supplies it with the necessary power. If you're pressed for space, this scanner can even be propped upright, so you can do drop-in scanning.
Overall
-------
The resolution and clarity of this scanner is simply phenomenal. The scan speed is a little on the slow side for voluminous scanning, but for the home user who needs to make an occasional digitized backup, this might just be the perfect scanner. It's big selling point is its portability, and rightly so. The ease with which this scanner can be carried around is a definite plus. It is able to produce the best scan quality you can ever hope for, and it does it at a respectable speed. All things considered, the CanoScan LiDE 600F is top-notch and more than worthy of a 5-star rating.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Two MAJOR reasons to not buy it
Comment: I have owned a lot of scannersover th eyears, and four have been cannon. I probably will not buy any more Cannons.
While this scanner functione pretty well for a while, as did most of the cannons I have owned, this one had finicky instalation issues, and at random times would just plain stop working properly. Now even uninstaling/reinstalling will not get it to function correctly. Fromt he web I see I am not the only person to have these issues. And Canon is not helpful.
The second big issue with Cannons is that if you end up pressing down on the scanner, such as to flatten paper, it WILL break the machine. Thetr is next to zero tolerance for this, and I have had to toss 3 of them for that one reason alone. And I am very gentle with them! Never had this issue with other brands.
Yeah they are cheap and small, but they break easily, and the software is buggy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It does not work
Comment: It does not work. I have contacted Canon support and it still does not work.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Small, reliable, works great
Comment: Works great with my mac , especially with space issues. Unit works without a powersupply just a usb connection to my computer. Fast printing speed and good quality on documents and photos as well. Also comes with a separate negative scanner that you hook up when needed. Sweet! Highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This scanner can.
Comment: I used to have a Canoscan LIDE 20, which worked well but had limitations. This new product incorporates a number of improvements in hardware and software that make it more useful and versatile. So far, after about a month of steady use, I've encountered no performance or reliability issues. If the product fits your needs, buy it. You won't be sorry.
|
