Canon CanoScan FB620P scanner preliminary report

Feb. 5/99

I just recently bought a Canon CanoScan FB620P scanner after being disappointed by the UMAX 1220P scanner. Like so many other Canon products I've tried, I was impressed with this one for the price, but there are some shortcomings. The price was $215. Canadian on sale plus tax, less a manufacturers rebate of $80., bringing the price down to $135 plus tax (not bad for a scanner of this quality). I submitted the rebate coupon beyond the deadline, but Canon paid it to me anyway (after a little chasing). I haven't finished testing, but preliminary results are encouraging & the Canon scanner seems to have few of the problems I mention in my UMAX 1220P report (except that scan times were about the same). Here is what I've found so far.

As you'll see if you click here, the scan resolution of the CanoScan FB620P is noticeably sharper than the UMAX 1220P & almost the equal to the older but more expensive HP Scanjet 3C. This should probably come as no surprise since Canon's area of expertise is optics (though this Canon scanner doesn't use a traditional lens & mirror). I found the Canon CanoCraft CS-P software to be more versatile than the UMAX VistaScan software & it had a much larger preview window as well as automatic white balancing. The size of the Canon scanner is considerably smaller than the UMAX (because of the new CIS imaging technology) making it easier to find a place to put it. There is only 3/4" from the glass to the edge of the cover, which also makes it a little easier to position a book on the scan glass. There was no dirt, debris & greasy finger prints on the underside of the scan glass like there was in the UMAX scanner. The Canon documentation was very good & even was honest enough to note that certain printers might not work properly with this scanner (my HP Deskjet 500 printer worked fine). The CanoScan FB620P scanner has an optical resolution of 600 DPI & a color bit depth of 30 (although I only need 24). An 8.5" X 11" picture at 300 DPI took about 2:27 minutes (147 seconds) to scan in, or with ColorGear Color Matching turned on about 2:52 minutes (172 seconds).

Some recent magazine articles have suggested that the new CIS (Contact Image Sensor) light & image pickup technology (used in the CanoScan FB620P)(Canon calls it LIDE for LED Indirect Exposure) is not yet as good as the older CCD (charge-coupled device) semiconductor chip imaging technology (used in the UMAX 1220P). My experience so far indicates that the resolution of the Canon CanoScan FB620P CIS imager is higher, white/black balanced is better & color accuracy is at least as good as the UMAX 1220P scanner, BUT some new problems have showed up. Here is a reference to these two types of scanning technologies http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/scanners98/ccdvscis.html

The white & black balance was better than the UMAX. Click here to see a stepped gray scale comparison of white & black balances between the UMAX & Canon scanners. I did notice a slight posterization look on solid gray areas & this showed up on the waveform monitor when I used the stepped gray pictures for video, but the video pictures looked fine. I also noticed solid grays have subtle vertical streaks (probably from inconsistencies in the CIS array). These two gray scale problems may be the same thing & at least one magazine article I've read on this scanner has indicated that gray scale performance on this scanner is weak. I would be inclined to agree, but color performance is quite good.  Here is a magazine review on this Canon scanner  http://www.computers.com/reviews/comparative/capsule/0,26,84-2023-643997-683393,00.html?st.co.crr.txt.crc683393

I've found that the new CIS imaging technology has extremely limited depth of focus because no lens is used. If the item scanned is not directly in contact with the scan glass, it will be out of focus. Click here to view samples of a cell phone scan by the Canon & UMAX scanners. It seems that for normal pictures the Canon does a better job & for pictures or objects that don't sit flush with the scan glass, the UMAX (or any scanner with a CCD, lens & mirror) does a better job. I guess at this low price you're not going to get everything.

The Canon (parallel port) scanner did not disable my HP Deskjet 500 printer, although an Inscriber Feature Pak HASP dongle I was using on the parallel port did interfere with the Canon scanner until I changed the motherboard BIOS off the "standard" parallel port setting to the ECP setting. I also noticed that once I had opened the CanoCraft CS-P software, it disables Inscriber, even if Inscriber was already up & running first. I get an Inscriber error message that says "1) block error". The cause of the problem was the HASP dongle. If I reboot, then I can use Inscriber again as long as I don't open the Canon scanning software. The manufacture of the HASP dongle (Aladdin Knowledge Systems)claims that their dongle is completely transparent to other devices, but obviously it isn't. They sent me a parallel port plug in ISA card so I will have two parallel ports as a workaround for the problem their dongle causes with Inscriber when the Canon software is opened. Note that this problem was not caused by the Canon scanner or software.

There is a size lock feature in the Canon software that I really like. You can choose the target size (say 720 X 540) & LOCK it to that. Then when you drag the scan box size to cover the area of the preview picture you want to scan, the box aspect stays the same as it changes in size & the scan resolution (DPI or %) automatically adjusts to fit what's needed to achieve the resolution target. After that, all I have to do is scale it down to 720 X 486 in PhotoShop before I use it for video.

There is also a nice little software feature called ColorGear Color Matching which enhances the picture to have more saturated colors should you want that. Here are examples of how it changes the picture.

I have found with this or any scanner, that you often get a better quality picture if you scan it at 600 DPI, then scale it down in Photoshop to the required size. This is particularly true if you are scanning coloured printed material. Sometimes you might even have to apply a blur (under Filter/Blur) in Photoshop for certain halftoned printed material.

The Canon scanner also comes with CanoCraft CS-P Copy software which allows you to use your scanner & printer like you would a copy machine. When set to the high resolution scanning resolution, I found that it did a pretty good job in TEXT or GRAY scale mode.

By Doug Hembruff.
Last updated Feb. 20/99