Who comes up with a name like D1250U2? Apart from an unpronounceable name, however, Canon's latest scanner sports some high-tech, high-speed features.
Thank goodness for USB 1.1. Without it, we wouldn't have USB 2.0, and without USB 2.0, the CanoScan D1250U2 would only work half as fast as it does. The extra headroom that USB 2.0 provides allows it to scan in roughly half the time it takes other scanners in its price range. USB 2.0 is still far, far from widespread however, and the D1250U2 can be forced to function at USB 1.1 speeds. Apart from the need to have a USB 2.0 port to make full use of the Canoscan, the other caveat is that you need Windows XP installed for best results. Under Windows 98SE, the scanner posted middling results at best. Being USB 2.0, Mac users are all but shut out of the game - at least until Apple hops onto the USB 2.0 bandwagon.
We clocked the AU$249 CanoScan D1250U2 against our current favourite mid-price scanner, the Epson Perfection 1650 Photo, which retails just shy of AU$500. The Canon D1250U2 delivered rapid scans in half to almost a third of the time it took the Perfection 1650 Photo, a pricier semi-pro model that runs on USB 1.1 only. Canon supplied a USB 2.0 PCI card from Adaptec for the test. The CanoScan we tested can't scan transparent media; the model with the film adapter is the CanoScan D1250U2F (AU$399).
A 300 dpi, 16-bit color scan of an A4 page took 30 seconds on the CanoScan D1250U2, compared with almost 50 seconds for the Perfection 1650. At 600 dpi, the same page took 40 seconds on the CanoScan; the Perfection took two minutes. A 1200 dpi scan of a photo took 50 seconds on the CanoScan; we twiddled our thumbs for over two minutes with the Perfection.
We noticed that the time penalty suffered by the Epson Perfection 1650 grew with the dots-per-inch figure. We reason that at lower resolutions, the light sensor is sending data at a low rate, less than it would take to saturate the port's bandwidth. But up the resolution and a traffic snarl develops. This is when USB 2.0 starts looking like an expressway and its older sibling a secondary road.
Average Image Quality
While we loved the speed, photographs turned out a little dark, with limited tonal range compared to the output of the Perfection 1650. However, they were still fairly good. The TWAIN application lets you perform corrections in-scan, but the slider gradations are too coarse.
The CanoScan D1250U2 features a CCD light sensor, unlike the CMOS sensor in its cheaper sub AU$200 cousins. CCDs may be more accurate, but they are larger than CMOS units, making the CanoScan D1250U2 is twice as thick as its slimline cousins. Still, the handsome gray-and-blue CanoScan is far from bulky. A double-hinged lid lets you rest thicker materials on the platen, but lifts away for the largest books.
Like many scanners today, it features a multi-button console. There are three of them: Scan, Copy and Email. The Scan button launches the Photobase application and creates a scan automatically. Pressing Copy sends the scanned image to a printer and the Email button launches your preferred email client and attaches the image to a ready-to-send email.
Batch Scanning Simplified
Software installation turned out to be trickier than we thought. After we got mediocre scores in testing, Canon advised us to test on a Windows XP rig, as USB 2.0 works faster in the new operating system. We upgraded the OS, but did not remove the old ScanGear TWAIN application as recommended in the manual--a big mistake. The scanner refused to work after that, forcing us to downgrade to Windows 98SE, clean out the old drivers, then upgrade to XP again.
The software package is consumer-grade but well thought-out. ArcSoft Photobase lets you scan, tweak and create thumbnail albums of images. It's a Swiss Army knife that you'll end up relying on, as we did. ArcSoft PhotoImpression 2000 is included if you need more tweak tools. The scanner came with a well-illustrated and clearly-written hard-copy manual as well as a fuller soft-copy manual.
The coolest Scangear feature is the Multi-Photo feature. It previews a group of photos, figures out where each picture is, then scans each one separately, in one batch job. It's reasonably accurate as long as one centimeter of room occurs between the pictures. The letter-sized platen, however, can fit only three snaps at a time.
A Port to Remember
Our advice is, if you are in a market for a scanner, you'd be wise to get one with a USB 2.0 connector. Canon has clearly shown the superiority of the interface. A PCI card with four USB 2.0 ports costs around AU$150. Canon claims that the is the first consumer scanner sporting the USB 2.0 interface; since we haven't seen any other scanner with the same feature, we'd tend to agree, and it's heartening to see it implemented so well.
CanoScan D1250U2
Company: Canon Australia
Price: AU$249
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 02 9805 2000
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