The Canon imageFORMULA P-215's predecessor, the imageFORMULA P-150M, was a decent portable scanner, but it wasn't without its problems. Its occasional paper jams, misfeeds and unrecognised documents made it a less than reliable scanner. Can the Canon imageFORMULA P-215 avoid the sins of its father?

It's certainly portable, and won't take up too much extra space in your luggage. It comes with two USB cables - one for power and one for data.

It's nice that it doesn't need mains power, too - it can actually work with just the data USB cable connected, although the scan speeds are slower. It's not by much, and with the power plugged in, an A4 colour scan took just 14.11 seconds. Making things even quicker, it's able to detect if the document you're scanning has words and images on both sides of the paper. If it does, it has a Duplex feature that scans both sides at once, barely making a dent in performance.

It also did much better than the Canon imageFORMULA P-150M when it came to scanning multiple documents from the feed tray. Where the older P-150M would end up misfeeding the pages, resulting in some poor scans, the P-215 worked flawlessly.

The CaptureOnTouch software that comes with the scanner isn't bad, although it takes a bit of exploring to get to grips with. Once you've uncovered the output settings, you can set it to create PDF, JPG, Bitmap, TIFF or PPTX files, and you can assign the scan button on the body of the scanner to automatically scan in your desired format.

Verdict

Even on the highest quality setting, the Canon imageFORMULA P-215 was fast, and the results were excellent.

Reflecta MemoScan Review: Overview

The Reflecta MemoScan is one of a growing number of film scanning devices that do away with the traditional approach to digitizing film in favour of a new approach.

Rather that moving a linear array of CCD sensors over the frame, a CMOS sensor looks at the whole frame in one go while it is back-lit by a number of white LEDs.

This approach is akin to having a webcam look at a back-lit piece of film, and the main advantage is the short time taken to scan a picture.

The CMOS sensor sees everything at once, reducing scan times down to a few seconds, even at full resolution

Reflecta MemoScan Review: Features

Sadly, full resolution is not that huge where the MemoScan is concerned. The unit has a top resolution of 3.8-megapixels, producing 10MB 8-bit files measuring 2361 x 1613pixels.

This is about enough for a 7x5-inch print, or use on the web, but film-shooting photographers wanting to produce high resolution files will want to look for a unit offering more than this.

To be fair though the MemoScan is aimed more at those with a big box of film-based family memories that they'd like to share with others using email or put on the web.

It's a simply designed piece of kit too: the lightweight plastic casing has only one button on it, which can be pressed to start a scan once the scanner is connected to your PC or Mac and the software is running.

Software

At least in theory anyway: installing the software that accompanies to MemoScan was one of the most frustrating experience we've had in a long time. The specification on the MemoScan's box says the software is PC-only, not Mac compatible.

Furthermore, multiple attempts to install the driver and CyberView CS software resulted in failure, and a trip to the Reflecta website was necessary to download a different version of the software. Where we also found that you can get a Mac version after all.

This is a shame, because once the MemoScan is installed it is very easy to use, and a joy to use. Two film holders are supplied –one for four mounted transparencies and one for a strip of six 35mm frames.

These insert into the rear of the unit, and a Live View style feed from the CMOS camera is shown in the software. Line up the frame properly, and click the scan button or press the button on the outside of the scanner.

We struggled with lining up the frames accurately because the software's Live View feed doesn't show 100 per cent of the frame, but other than that the process works well.

Dust Removal

Something offered by the MemoScan that is not often seen on CMOS type scanners is anti dust and scratch technology – called MagicTouch technology by Reflecta.

This is hardware-based and uses infrared light to identify the location of dust and scratches and create a mask from this information.

Reflecta MemoScan Review: Performance

Quick and easy the MemoScan might be, but a top-end scanner it ain't. You get what you pay for with film scanners and this unit delivers images that are average, rather than stunning.

Image Quality

As well as limited resolution, image files have a very digital look about them, more like still frames from a video.

Additionally, the MemoScan has a limited ability to penetrate the dark areas of image, especially when scanning transparency film. Highlights are better controlled than some other CMOS scanners we've seen though, including those in the Reflecta range, such as the Scan-x5.

It's not that the MemoScan's performance is bad; it's just important to get your expectations in line with what this scanner is all about.

Film scans won't look as good as shots from your digital camera, but if you just want to stick old family snapshots on Facebook then you'll be happy.

The scanner's MagicTouch anti dust technology is effective on some dust marks, but unfortunately not all of them. It can be left switched on by default as it doesn't harm image quality, but DigitalICE seen on other scanners do seem to be more effective.

Scan Times

Thanks to it's CMOS design the MemoScan is certainly quick. Basic scans take around five seconds, though this varies a little from computer to computer depending on processor speed.

Engage the MagicTouch dust removal feature and the scan time doubles to around 10 seconds.

Reflecta MemoScan Review: Sample images

Colour prints

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Colour trannies

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Reflecta MemoScan Review: Verdict

We Like

If you want a scanner to digitize old family memories, then the MemoScan has a lot to offer. Once you've installed the software it's easy to use and its rapid scan times mean you can get through a load of negs or trannies quickly.

We Dislike

The MagicTouch anti dust feature is good but we're not confident it works in all situations, with larger dust particles persisting.

Verdict

Based on current technologies, CMOS scanners will always lag behind conventional scanner designs when it comes to image quality, although the MemoScan is better than some models we've seen.

Reflecta ProScan 7200 Review: Overview

At the top end of Reflecta's range of film scanners sits the ProScan 7000, a traditionally designed unit built to produce good quality scans.

Included in the box are USB and mains power cables, discs containing scanning software and a complimentary copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements, as well as the scanner unit itself and a pair of film holders, one for strips of film, the other for mounted transparencies.

A printed manual is welcome, although some explanations of the set up and operation procedures could certainly be clearer. Installation on a Windows PC is simply enough, but is very fiddly and buggy on Mac OSX. It took three attempts to get the supplied CyberViewX application onto our Apple MacBook Pro.

The design of the scanner unit itself is very basic, but in a welcome fashion. No chance of getting confused by a vast array of controls here.

The top of the scanner has a single button that glows blue when the unit is switched on and is used for one-touch scanning.

Once mounted in its holder, film goes in the side of the scanner and a transparent windows allows the user to alight the frame properly.

This is a really nice feature, that while low-tech and simple works very well indeed. Around the back of the scanner are sockets for power and USB and a power switch.

Reflecta ProScan 7200 Review: Features

Despite it's name, the ProScan 7200 actually offers a top resolution of 3600ppi. This is enough to generate a 48MB file from a single 35mm frame, which is equivalent to a 16-megapixel digital camera.

Obviously whether you get the same quality as a 16-megapixel camera depends on other factors too (lens resolution, film and processing choice, etc), but the pixels are certainly there.

In conjunction with the CyberViewX software the ProScan 7200 offers Digital ICE3. This comprises ICE dust and scratch reduction as well as ROC (restoration of colour) and GEM (grain equalization and management).

In contrast to other film scanners you may have seen (including those in Reflecta range) the ProScan 7200 doesn't feature motorized film loading; the plastic film holders must be positioned by hand looking through the transparent window to judge the correct positioning.

There's nothing really wrong with this until you come to batch scanning –scanning all six image on a strip of film in one go.

To do this you must be sitting by the scanner to advance the film manually to the next frame, and although you can use the blue button on top of the unit to trigger the next scan, you still have to OK this on screen.

All this means there is too much user input for this procedure to be classed as batch scanning, in our point of view.

Talking of the film holders, the plastic holders that come with the ProScan 7200 are pretty stiff to open and use when new.

The plastic locking catch on one of them snapped off when started to use it, making it much easier to use but perhaps revealing some build quality issues.

Reflecta ProScan 7200 Review: Performance

All film scanners require some practise use so you can learn how to get the most from them, and the ProScan 7200 is no exception.

Engage the Quality setting from the Scan Mode drop-down menu, up to resolution to 3200ppi and switch off ROC, which does more harm than good on unfaded originals, and scans of positive transparencies are pretty good.

With a DMax of 3.8 such scans have a pretty decent level of detail in highlights and shadows, though the dark areas in films like Fuji Velvia 50 etc are difficult to penetrate.

Image Quality

Sharpness is fair, but comparing the ProScan to a much older Nikon CoolScan V (a legendary film scanner) reveals there is some way to go. Images benefit from some post-scanning sharpening in Photoshop, which works well since the ProScan 7200 doesn't resolve film grain itself.

Black & white negatives scan very well on the ProScan 7200 although, as with all scanners, digital ICE doesn't work with traditional mono films. Colour negatives are much harder to handle since they require more colour balancing than transparencies.

A number of preset film options are included in CyberViewX, but typically these never seem to match the emulsions you are shooting.

The basic editing options make it possible to adjust for white balance and contrast though, and the Photoshop-like variations tool means you can eventually get a good result.

Scan times

The ProScan 7200 is not the fastest scanner we've ever seen, but it's not the slowest either.

On an Apple MacBook Pro (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) a basic scan at 3200ppi takes 1min 20sec to complete with no added frills and extras. Drop the resolution to 1800ppi and this falls to around 50sec.

Turning on ICE, GEM or ROC adds to this time, with the CyberViewX software taking some time to apply the processes. A 3200ppi scan with all three options switched on takes 2min 16sec.

Reflecta ProScan 7200 Review: Image samples

Black & White negs

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Colour negs

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Colour transparencies

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Reflecta ProScan 7200 Review: Verdict

A good performance from the Reflecta ProScan 7200 is let down only by some small build-quality concerns and a lack of batch-scanning facilities.

But for an average street price of around £300, this is a good value scanner that will let you produce good quality scans from your 35mm originals – certainly better than most flatbed scanners with transparency units can produce.

The supplied Cyber ViewX software is basic but, apart from the issues surround Mac installation, stable. The ProScan 7200 is also supported by SilverFast so, if you already have this application, you should be able to use the Reflecta scanner without learning any new software.

We Like

The Reflecta ProScan 7200 is excellent value at £300 and produces better results than most flatbed scanners with transparency units.

We Dislike

The ProScan 7200 has some small build quality issues, and the lack of back-scanning facilities is a shortcoming.

Verdict

Image quality is good, rather than spectacular, and some software sharpening is required post scanning.

That said, as with all scanning processes, the quality of the final result depends heavily on the quality of the original. The ProScan 7200 is no different here.

Sheet-feed scanners come in very useful when scanning multi-page documents, and portable models are useful when working away from home.

Canon's ImageFORMULA P-150M is small and light enough to fit in your bag; it's powered by USB and is plug and play, with no driver installation required.

You just run the CaptureOnTouch Lite application from the virtual disk that mounts when you connect the scanner to your Mac. The P-150M can scan anything from A4-sized documents to business cards. It can be powered from a single USB port, but if you connect the supplied USB power cable to either a second USB port or the mains via an adapter (sold separately), it runs faster.

It can scan in black and white, greyscale or colour, to JPEG, TIFF or PDF, and if you need to scan double-sided documents, its Duplex feature allows you to do so in a single pass.

When powered by two USB ports, at the default 200dpi setting the P-150M scanned a single A4 text page in black and white in just 10.7 seconds. Although the characters were a little pixellated, the results were readable.

Ramping up the resolution to 600dpi, we got a smoother, clearer document, but it took 28.6 seconds. With only one USB port used, it was only a little slower. But for all its speed, ease of use and scan quality, the P-150M lacks reliability.

We tested two separate units, and when scanning documents printed on ordinary, 80gsm photocopier paper, both proved prone to misfeeds, paper jams and pages in the sheet feeder not being recognised. Canon claims it has a 20-page ADF, but it seldom got through this quantity without pulling a page in sideways and jamming at least once.

It performed better with photographs and thinner paper, and also with pages that had been flat for a while and therefore lacked the slight curl found when fresh out of the printer or photocopier. Yet it's difficult to recommend a document scanner that struggles with freshly printed documents.

Fujitsu's ScanSnap S1300 is easy to carry around, but scanning on the move is only one of its talents. It's also very fast.

If you regularly scan documents or large photo collections, it could well prove its worth without ever leaving your home or office desk.

The ScanSnap S1300 can be powered through the mains or USB (two ports required). It's small and light enough to fit in your travel bag and use with your notebook at that all-important business conference, and when you have the software installed, it's extremely simple to use.

It's straightforward to configure too, and can scan documents directly to your hard drive, email, printer or iPhoto.

The bundled Cardiris OCR application lets you scan to editable Word and Excel files, it can create searchable PDFs and its Duplex feature scans both sides of a document with one pass through the scanner. Document sizes from A4 to business cards can be scanned in colour, black-and-white or greyscale.

In our tests, a 20-page, one-sided text document scanned to PDF in three minutes, 32 seconds under mains power, and just over eight minutes under USB. Ten 15x10cm photos scanned as colour JPEGs in one minute, two seconds and one minute, 12 seconds respectively.

Scan quality is also very good, and you can boost quality at the expense of speed if you wish.

Our only real gripe is that the document feeder's 10-sheet capacity (fewer if you're scanning photos or thin card) is a little miserly.

Fujitsu's ScanSnap S1500M is not a jack-of-all-trades designed to fulfil all your scanning needs, but if you regularly scan large, unbound documents, it could make your life easier.

It's capable of scanning both sides of a page in a single pass, and offers four image settings with resolutions of up to 600dpi in colour or 1,200dpi in black and white. It can handle documents from business card to A4 in size, with variable compression options.

Scanned files can be saved as PDFs or JPEGs, and can be automatically emailed, printed, converted to Microsoft Word or Excel documents or imported into iPhoto.

Scanning speed is blisteringly fast. At the highest quality setting, it scanned our 16-page full-colour company magazine in one minute and 14 seconds, which is very agreeable considering the resolutions used. 12 single-sided greyscale A4 pages scanned in 35 seconds at 150dpi.

Image quality is excellent, offering crisp, clear text and faithful image reproduction at the higher quality settings.

As you'd expect, the ScanSnap S1500M is only capable of scanning loose sheets, not books or bound documents. The aforementioned magazine had to be cut down the spine before scanning. Staples and paperclips must be removed, and previously-stapled pages must be checked to ensure they're not still fastened together.

Even so, if you do a lot of loose-document scanning, this machine's for you. It's fast, capable and very space-efficient.

CardScan Executive for Mac is a microscanner and software package designed to manage your contacts. It's for scanning and sorting business cards, but it can also process contact details from websites, emails and other electronic files.

Cards are scanned into a software database, not only as an image, but also as text using OCR technology. This can be edited to correct inevitable but infrequent mistakes.

In our tests CardScan handled most business cards extremely well but it did struggle with certain white-on-black designs as well as non-Roman text. URLs can be launched and emails sent directly from the Contacts window, and you can even pinpoint addresses on Google Maps.

Also, notes can be added, you can organise your contacts into categories and export them as vCards, but best of all, you can copy contacts to Address Book by exporting, syncing or drag-and-dropping.

There's a Cover Flow viewing option, which is useful if you have lots of cards. You can flip the card over and scan its reverse as well, associating both sides with the same contact.

CardScan Executive for Mac is spectacularly easy to use. Conformity to Mac protocols makes it very instinctive. You can familiarise yourself with all its features within minutes, without ever looking at an instruction manual.

At £200 it's way too expensive, but overall it's a very capable package that's a real boon if your desk drawer's full of other people's business cards.

This unique device brings analogue photography into the digital age by allowing you to scan 35mm negatives, import them to your laptop and convert them into digital image file formats.

Negatives are clipped into the supplied holder and then, with a single mouse-click, each image is scanned in seconds and pops up onscreen for you to edit and save. The software is extremely easy to install and use.

A cleaning brush is also included for removing dust from your negatives to help you get the best results from your prints, making this a fantastic and easy way to upgrade your analogue photo collection to high-resolution digital copies.

Offering a step up from the Contact Image Sensors (CIS) built into all-in-one printers and scanners, most self-respecting standalone photo scanners now use CCD sensors for better image quality.

Despite being more expensive to manufacture – they use a relatively complex arrangement of lenses and mirrors – scanners such as the new Epson Perfection V300 Photo boast the latest technology and still give you great value for money.

Like its more expensive V500 relative, the V300 makes use of ReadyScan LED technology, reducing its warm-up time to just one second. Reflective scanning for prints of up to 8.5x11.7 inches in size is impressively quick, with a 300dpi scan of a 6x4 inch photo taking seven seconds at the scanner's full 48-bit colour depth.

600dpi and 1,200dpi resolution scans of the same sized print take 30 seconds and a minute, respectively, with the tonal rendition, colour quality and sharpness of the results being good all round.

Film friendly

The Perfection V300 can also accept batches of four 35mm mounted slides or a strip of six 35mm film frames, each taking between one and three minutes to scan.

As well as a simple Full Auto mode, there are more advanced modes with varying degrees of sophistication, which includes a full-on Professional mode that offers a wealth of facilities for getting the best out of the scanner. With options for an Unsharp Mask, Colour Restoration, Backlight Correction, Dust Removal and Grain Reduction for film scanning, this mode is great for giving you fine control.

However, film sharpness is only average and the Dust Removal system had little effect in our film tests.

The V200 is a great entry-level option. The captured resolution and colour representation are excellent for our needs.

It handles colour, black-and-white photos and text documents well. The lid is also placed on a rising hinge to help get thick books or wide margins onto the glass plate.

You only have four buttons to control, though mostly we just used EpsonScan software to capture the image. It's a very simple system.

User-friendly software

The Epson software bundle has always been very able. It now includes such treats as Auto Photo Orientation, which corrects wayward positioning, and a new auto-cropping feature that lets you throw two photos onto the plate, scan once, but get two separate files back.

This is a great timesaver. One problem we had in the past was the noise Epson scanners made while scanning (not unlike loading software from a cassette tape).

This issue has thankfully not lingered too badly in the Epson V200, which performed reasonably quietly for us.

Quick prints

You need to have realistic speed expectations for a scanner of this size and price. Speed is generally excellent for photos and documents; you get a preview back in eight seconds, and 300dpi A4 colour scans in 15 seconds.

Scanners like this are much slower at scanning film; to do the job right you need to set a higher resolution, and this bogs the scanner right down.

Our strip of four negatives scanned at 2,400dpi took just under six minutes to scan, which is quite slow. If you have bags of them to scan, you'd be better off with Epson's V750.

For more basic scanning, though, you can't knock the V200.