Canon USA P-208 Document Scanner

This product is just what I needed. It is compact and very friendly. I was not requiered to install any software nor drivers. I use windows 8 and just dobled click an icon on the USB port where it connects. It opens a very simple to use menu though with the possiblity to scan almost all choices you want regarding one or two sides of a page at a time, ability to erase pages you do not want on the process meanwhile scanning, ability to choose among different saving options as .pdf or .jpg. It even has an option where you can tell it to scan accordingly to the size of the page that is being scanned without actually telling it the size, though it has a maximum sheet size. It you want something practical, small and good scanning quality I recommend it.

The sane-canon_dr devs say that this has basic functionality under linux, but I couldn't get it to even detect.I checked to make sure the kernel scanner module wasn't loaded.I fiddled around with canon_dr.conf a little to try to get it to work through libusb. Didn't work.According to sane-canon_dr devs: "This backend was entirely reverse engineered from usb traces of the proprietary driver. Various advanced features of the machines may not be enabled. Many machines have not been tested. Their protocol is unknown."It's going back to Amazon. I am done with major vendors like Canon not supporting their products under linux nowadays. These leeches financially benefit plenty by using linux in their business for free for all kinds of things, but don't even want to contribute a driver for their own products...

I use a Fujitsu ScanSnap S300M with my iMac. When I decided that I needed a document scanner that was small enough to carry in my backpack, I bought a Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100. It doesn't support duplex scanning, but it uses the same unobtrusive ScanSnap Manager software that works so well for my S300M workflow. The bar for an acceptable alternative is high.The Canon imageFormula P-208 does not meet the bar.First, the good. The P-208 is physically larger than my S1100 but its build quality feels better. It also supports duplex scanning - the S1100 doesn't, so double-sided documents must be scanned twice. The P-208 is also much quieter while it scans.Now for the bad. Unfortunately, there's a lot of it.After opening the input tray, two adjustable arms unfold to guide documents through. The width adjustment is fiddly and the guides aren't good enough to avoid hand-holding the document as it feeds. So much for the ADF.I downloaded and installed the latest software from the Canon site before connecting the P-208 to my MacBook Air. To use the installed software instead of the on-device "light" version, set the switch on the back of the scanner to "off" - I know it's labeled as if it controlled the scanner's auto feed function, but that's a lie. Once the installed software recognized the scanner, I found it to be unresponsive and it wouldn't save my settings - I chose a default folder for saving scans, yet I was prompted for every scan.Bad software can be tolerated if the rest of the experience, scan quality in particular, is good enough. To compare the P-208 to the S1100, I set each scanner's software to the highest quality (600dpi for each), then scanned a color document and a black & white (not grayscale) document. Both scanners were slow, but the P-208 was glacial. I could scan a document twice in the S1100 in less time than the P-208 required for one pass. The P-208 produces distinctly fuzzier scans than the S1100, for both color and black & white documents.In the end, I found the P-208 to be unacceptable for my needs - it's going back immediately. Using it with Windows may yield better results.

My boyfriend is constantly complaining about needing a scanner (he's a team leader in the Army and has to keep track of his soldier's papers), and I got him this for Christmas. He says it works great and has really saved him a few times since it's so portable. He plans on taking it with him on his next deployment, so I also got an extended coverage package (separate).