Canon Mobile Document Scanner P-215II, Black

This item is brilliant and as it is small it is very portable.

This is a review of: Canon ImageFORMULA P-215II Mobile Document Scanner . One big plus right off the bat is that this uses a standard TWAIN scanner driver. That means you can use any of your favorite software for scanning and archiving and you are not obligated to propietary software to use the Canon P-215II. (I think Fuji scanners require Fuji software. I did not like that idea.)

Another mention I’ll make right off the bat is that this thing will clog and misfeed way too often when paper is placed in a stack. There is a workaround I’ll mention later. But, unless the paper is exactly flat and unwrinkled and unless you fan the stack to fluff it before inserting it…more than likely pages will misfeed and you’ll spend a lot of time examining the scanned input to see what’s missed. Then you have to re-scan to capture those missed items and then you have to assemble those re-scans into the batch of previously collected images.

I don’t like that but I have to admit I had the same problem with an expensive Xerox brand document scanner I used in an office several years ago. So, if that $900 Xerox had problems feeding paper I’m not going to kick up a terrible fuss over this $200 Canon with the same frailty.

I had the previous model Canon P215 and this newer model (Roman Numeral II) is just like it except Canon’s graphic user interface (gui) became more tedious and spread out. They should have left the software alone, I think. Unfortunately, the good old software version for the old P215 won’t work with the new Roman Numeral II scanner. One version of the software fails to recognize the other version of the hardware. Too bad.

The Canon software is usable once you get the hang of it if you can force yourself to endure its tedium in light of the benefits it offers. There is a “Pro” version of the ScanTini software. It’s got some good points and some bad points. You’ll have to try it yourself because it would take me hours to discuss all the details. All versions are free.

If you just can’t stand that software which they call Canon ImageFORMULA, install it anyway and then just don’t use it. But, by installing it, you’ll have the driver and graphic user interface that you need for any other scanning software you might choose. You will have to install the Canon scanner software in order to have available the necessary little utility application that lets you change the settings in the scanner for detection of very long pages. The utility lets you set the scanner to work with v-e-r-y l—o—n—g pages like those point of sale “cash register” receipts and such that are way too long for other machines to manage.

You can leave the Canon P215II set for long pages, actually. They claim it makes it scan more slowly in some situations if you leave it set for long pages but I’ve never experienced the problems. Nevertheless, I still set it for regular lengths unless I am scanning those hugely long ribons of paper that come from stores these days. You know what I mean, those ribbon strips that have sales data, warranty data, rebate data, and al that stuff burned on thermal printing paper–the paper that turns yellow in a short period of time.

One of my favorite alternate scanner software applications is the open-source scanner software called NAPS2. It’s great. It’s got an easy to use GUI and it has OCR for pdf files and all the things you need. (I think NAPS2 stands for something like Not Another Paper Scanner Version 2.)

This Canon does misfeed. I said that. You know that. So, I decided to heck with stacks. It just takes too much time and effort to fix the misfeeds in a batch. So, I tried feeding one page at a time. Well…even that was troublesome. Sometimes a page wouldn’t insert easily into the feed slot or sometimes it would be sucked in but it would be crooked to the point that it would crease and wrinkle the paper. Dang!

So, finally, I removed the part they call the “seperation pad.” The “seperation pad” is a consumable–meaning that eventually the rubber wears out. So, being a consumable, it’s an easily removed part that everybody can remove. It takes no tools. Just pinch the tabs on it and pull it out. Look at the owner’s manual. The manual will guide you to removal if visual examination gives you no clues. If you break it…no big deal…you can pick up a new set of “separation pad’ and “pressure roller” for about $30 at our favorite auction site. (Don’t bother ordering from Canon if they show the set as backordered. I waited months and the order was never fulfilled. I was going to order a spare set. I gave up and haven’t needed them. Some day my pressure rollers may get hard and slick but they’ve been going strong for years and seem none the worse for wear. If I do need some, I’ll go straight to the auction site where there are sellers knowing that they have it on hand to ship.)

Once you remove that “seperation pad” you can get ready to do 100% faithful no-snag feeds except for one thing: Windowed envelopes will snag unless you place them with the window down. But, if you just be careful with windowed envelopes. and if you wait for a page to exit before you feed in the next page…you will have 100% reliable totaly enjoyable scanning experiences even if you don’t insert the pages exactly straight and even if you never place it exactly in the center of the feed slot.

It seems it doesn’t have to be exactly horizontally centered side-to-side because the Canon hardware will capture only the paper image and it will crop it to proper edges. I don’t know how it works…it just does.

So, it might be nice to slam a stack but if I have to spend a lot of time fixing misfeeds…it’s easier and uses the same amount of time if I manually feed each of the 30 pages that would have been in a stack. (I think it’s about 30 pages of 20 lb paper max specified in the manual…or something close to that amount.)

If you set the Canon TWAIN GUI for automatic feed, it will sense when you’ve shoved something into the slot. You don’t even have to hold it perfectly straight beause the Canon TWAIN driver has a setting for “deskew” and it works pretty well. (NAPS2 has a more accurate and more reliable “deskew” so if you use NAPS2 use that and disable the factory “diskew” in the Canon TWAIN GUI. Other document scanning software I have also offeres deskew functions better than the Canon deskew function.)

Well. That’s it. It was a nasty troublesome device to use until I plucked out that “seperation pad.” Now…it just scans and never whimpers. (Although you have to be sure you remove all staples and remove binder clips and if you spill something on the paper…well…you know.)

Enjoyed using the scanner. The unit’s size is deceiving as it works perfectly. A little finicky when scanning multiple pages at the same time. You need to ensure to slightly separate the pages when feeding into the input tray.

I purchased this scanner to save my receipts. It dose an excellent job and copies both sides at the same time. It also automatically will straighten a crooked scan and will automatically rotate the image upright if it is upside down, if you choose that option when you set it up. The one thing I was disappointed in was if the receipt is over 11″ long the scanner thinks there is a jam. Simple solution just fold the receipt over on itself and the scanner will automatically scan both sides and correct the text being upside down.

I have owned a lot of Epson & HP printers and always had trouble with them. I purchased a Canon Printer 20 years ago and I have never had an issue, So, I decided that I would try this Canon scanner. I have not been disappointed. the software is very intuitive and easy to set up. If you need a portable scanner or a scanner that does not take up a lot of space, buy this one!

The Canon P-215II scanner works well for light-weight jobs. It is compact and versatile. The double-sided feature is handy and a time-saver. I initially connected the scanner’s two USB cables to a 2.0 hub but that did not work. I then connected the cables to two 2.0 USB ports on my PC and it worked fine. The software interface is fairly straightforward but the instructions are rather poor. I found I had to just try various setting in the interface to get the results I wanted.

On a side note, the first unit I received was defective. Everything seemed to work OK except the feed motor in the unit would work intermittently so that documents may or may not feed through when “SCAN” was clicked on the interface screen. I worked with Canon technical assistance for about an hour and the tech determined it should be replaced. Canon shipped a new unit and I received it the next day with a return label enclosed. I returned the defective unit in the same box.