SCANSTATION

Canon's Business Switch Hitter

This is a compact duplex scanner that is competitively priced at about $9,500 list. The DR-5080C can handle 75 pages per minute (150 images per minute duplex) in bitonal mode. When you shift to 24-bit color it scans 8 ppm (16 ipm) .

Most mid-range and high-speed scanners in this league have a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD), a cold-cathode light source, a lens and mirrors. This combination is considered to be the best document scanning technology available, provided that all the components are sound. The DR-5080C has a Contact Image Sensor (CIS), which uses a single row of sensors and a row of red, blue and green LEDs as a light source. CISs have smaller sensors, cost less to manufacture and use less power. They are normally found on inexpensive desktop scanners.

Considering Canon’s use of CIS technology, the scanner’s image quality was surprisingly good. The color accuracy was adequate. In my tests, the scanner tended to give images an extra red hue that threw the colors off slightly. White backgrounds came out gray and mottled until I adjusted the brightness and contrast. At that point text became fainter.

Canon envisions this scanner being used for “business color” — capturing color for things like logos and forms where color accuracy is not critical. You wouldn’t use it — nor does Canon recommend it — for things like color photographs. Canon has a separate line of flatbed scanners intended for high-quality color scanning.

When scanning forms with color backgrounds, clarity and color quality were very good at 400 dpi. Color quality suffered somewhat at 200 dpi. Once adjustments were made to brightness and contrast, the scanner reproduced the colors on an AIIM color chart quite accurately, but the tones were blotchy and there were plaid distortions on the halftone test pattern. At 200 dpi, the scanner also introduced background noise where there was none in the original. This could probably be eliminated with image enhancement software.

On monochrome documents, the image quality was very good at six point and larger type. Halftones still created that same plaid effect that was on the color halftones. Handwriting in pen, pencil and typewriting on a white sheet of paper came out very clear and readable.

When I first started scanning large batches of normal letter paper I had difficulty with multifeeds, but this turned out to be a software problem. I hadn’t noticed that Canon’s scanning utility defaults to the A4 document size. Scanning smaller (8.5” x 11”) paper at this setting had caused the multifeeds.

If you’re going to use Canon’s scanning utility, you’ll have to check the paper size setting. Chances are you’re going to use some other scanning or imaging software, so this probably won’t be an issue.

The speed tests ran beautifully once the proper settings were chosen. Paper handling was smooth, and the scanner easily met or exceeded its rated speed (75ppm in bitonal mode at 200 dpi). The scanner’s mechanical deskew straightened most angled papers before scanning them.

The control panel on the DR-5080C lets you do things like adjust contrast and brightness, count pages and start scanning from the machine itself rather than the software.

The scanner comes with ISIS and TWAIN drivers (you need a Windows 95 or 98 workstation to use this scanner with the TWAIN driver). It works with PixView (ISIS) and Imaging for Windows (TWAIN). An imprinter is included with the scanner, and an endorser and a barcode reader are both planned options.

We would recommend this scanner to people who need a fast bitonal scanner but who sometimes want to scan documents in color. The efficient paper handling, full duplex in bitonal and color, mechanical deskew, imprinter and inexpensive price make this scanner an Imaging & Document Solutions Best Buy.

Quick Scan

516-328-5000

Scanner: DR-5080C

Price: $7,000 to $10,000

Rated speed: 75 ppm/150 ipm bitonal, 8 ppm/16 ipm in color

Daily duty cycle: 5,000 pages a day

Resolution: 200 to 400 dpi

Duplex support: Yes

Document feeder capacity: 500 pages

Warranty: 90 days

Strengths: Bitonal and color scanning in full duplex at an affordable price. Mechanical deskew means you don’t need to perform software deskew. Paper handling is smooth with few jams.

Weaknesses: Scanner speed is slow in color. Image quality is adequate overall, but color quality suffered at 200 dpi.