Canon Canoscan 300F

Obviously larger than Canon's USB-powered slimline products, the Canoscan 3000F may require a conventional mains cable but offers more hardware for your money.

This is a genuine charge-coupled device (CCD) scanner complete with a small but practical transparency adaptor lamp in the lid; all for under £100.

Very conveniently, the device has been designed so that you can place originals the right way up on the scanning plate rather than inverted as with most low-cost scanners.

There are three quick-task buttons at the front of the case: Scan, Copy and Email. Pressing any of them triggers an automated routine that can be customised simply through the Canoscan Toolbox options.

The Scangear CS driver includes some excellent functions for automatically recognising what's being scanned, separating multiple shots, correcting tilted originals and so on.

Unfortunately, the one thing it can't auto-recognise is whether you've placed a photo print or a photo transparency on the plate.

The transparency lamp covers a tiny area just big enough to scan a single frame from a 35mm negative strip or a mounted 35mm slide, and a plastic holder is provided to help.

The underside of the lid can be protected with a white plastic sleeve when scanning reflective originals, but this seems a bit flimsy.

Scanning is fast and painless with a good selection of software provided, while the image enhancement filters in the Twain driver help optimise your results.

However, lab testing confirmed our early subjective impressions that while scan quality is OK, it's no better than that.

This is most noticeable with transparency scans, which fall just on the right side of acceptability.

Contact:
Canon 08705 143 723
www.canon.co.uk

Specifications:

• 1,200 x 2,400dpi max res
• 48bit colour depth
• Scangear CS, Canoscan Toolbox, Arcsoft Photo Studio 5 & Photobase 3, Presto Page Manager 6, Scansoft Omnipage SE
• 2.5kg
• 257 x 460 x 71mm (w x d x h)
• USB2