Canon LiDE 500F review

You'd be forgiven for thinking that Canon had left something out when you unpack the stylish and thin LiDE 500F. There's the usual complement of manuals, driver disks and a USB cable, but you won't find an AC adapter.

Happily, there's no need to worry, as the scanner doesn't use one. Instead, its power comes from the host computer via a normal USB connection.

The other unusual thing about the LiDE is that it can operate vertically. A fold-out stand tucks underneath the scanner's body on the lid's hinged side, and props it securely. This might seem odd at first, but it makes document loading extremely simple - you just open the lid and drop in the document you want to scan.

In this configuration, the scanner looks even more distinctive. It takes up less room, which will be useful in a cramped workspace. However, if you want to a scan a book, or anything else thicker than a single page, you'll still need to lie the LiDE flat.

Many modern scanners capture images from negatives or colour transparencies. Transparencies don't reflect light as pages of books or photos do - instead, they must be lit from behind. Scanners often have a backlight in their lid for this purpose, but the LiDE has a separate Film Adapter Unit (FAU). This grandly named device is just a small light box that connects to the scanner via a cable.

The LiDE must be flat for film scanning, and there's no holder for mounted slide film. Negatives and strips are loaded into a removable holder. The light box is placed manually over each frame in turn, and the lid is lowered to secure it. It's as fiddly as it sounds, but the results are reasonably good.

Scans of photos and paper pages are very good, with the driver's Auto Tone function ensuring that colours are a close match to those of the original. In our tests, an A4 preview took 12 seconds. Scanning a standard 6x4in photograph at 600 dots per inch (dpi) took 18 seconds, and at 300dpi an A4 document took 23 seconds. These times are perfectly acceptable, but a little slower than some competitors.

The LiDE is slim and light, and with no AC adaptor, it's easy to carry around. With a protective bag it would be great for travelling workers - as long as they don't need to scan transparencies. Style comes at a price, however. More conventional devices, such as Epson's 2480 Photo, offer similar quality for about half the price.

SIMON HANDBY