Customer Ratings & Reviews

This is a great little scanner with a bunch of neat features. The unit is compact and does not take up much space yet can handle fairly large paper sizes. The 2-tier input guide with adjustable width along with the 3-tier output tray easily handles paper of a myriad of sizes. I don’t know exactly what the capacity of the input tray is but I’m guessing that it could hold at least 50 photos. The job select button which maps up to 9 preset scanning profiles is also a handy feature. Connection is via a common USB-B cable which is provided. Power is provided by an external power brick with a rather odd old-fashioned looking connector that plugs in to the scanner. Scanning is done on Windows or Mac using the CaptureOnTouch software application which must be downloaded from a URL provided in the setup guide. It is easy to use and there are 2 modes to choose from. In the standard mode you select a type (photo or text), then the output destination (there are many to choose from) and then press the Scan button. In the One Touch Scan mode the input and output choices are already assigned on a handy card sized button to click on. Both modes are super configurable, and you tweak the input and output settings for just about any button along with creating new buttons and moving them around any which way. When you get ready to scan you can either start by pressing the button on the scanner or clicking a button in the software. Scanning speed is dependent upon the scan quality selected for the current scan configuration and I found that even on highest (slowest) setting for photos it is really quick. Once your batch of documents has been scanned the software opens the preview panel where you can review and edit any of the scanned images. The editing capabilities are comprehensive for batch scanning. You can make various alignment, rotation, and color adjustments along with overriding the intended output settings. You can also keep adding to the batch of images by loading more items and scanning via the physical start button. I scanned numerous photos and text documents and scans were always very high quality. A cool thing when doing document or text scanning is that it automatically detects the direction of the document, and the scan will always be in the proper orientation. While the software doesn’t have built in OCR capabilities, I found a trick that works pretty well. If you select the file type as PDF and then the output as Send to application and choose MS Word, it will automatically turn the PDF into an editable document. The scanner would have easily been a 5-star rating for me. However, I had a problem right away where the software would report an “error with the TWAIN driver” when trying to scan. I spoke with Canon’s tech support and they were able to help me get it going but with what feels like a workaround. So, the current behavior is that if I turn the scanner on after I have started my computer it will fail to scan every time, however, if the scanner is turned on before powering on my computer it will work fine every time. I do not know if it is a perhaps a Windows 11 thing, but I did not have time to hook it up to any other PC to try out. That “feature” is annoying enough that I had to knock a star off the review. Maybe, I hope it will get fixed in a future software update.

I have a huge photo collection. I've saved pictures from when I was a kid, and I recently got more boxes of photos from family members. I've been tasked with archiving these thousands of pictures, so I was really excited to get this scanner, hoping it would make my job easier. Over the years I've had six other sheet-feed scanners. Only one of them did a decent job at scanning pictures, but it's nowhere near as accurate as this Canon scanner. Scanning quality -- By "accuracy," I mean how close the scanned image is compared to the printed picture. 1. Proportions -- most of my other scanners tend to stretch and/or shrink the image vertically in some areas. This Canon scanner tracks much better than others, and the images haven't got vertical distortion like that. 2. Colors -- the Canon scanner is really good at picking up the correct colors in the picture. 3. Sharpness and detail -- Incredibly detailed. The scanner picks up things in pictures that you just can't see with your eyes. For example -- some of my pictures show perfectly straight vertical lines 1 pixel wide. I carefully cleaned the scan surfaces and these lines didn't go away. It turns out that these pictures were scratched, probably during processing, but you can't see these scratches looking at the picture. The detail is so sharp on this scanner that you can tell the difference between a film-developed photo and a high-res digital print. After scanning and reviewing a few hundred photos, I found that this scanner does a great job of archiving photographs. I feel confident enough to dispose of most of the prints after scanning them because of the scanner's accuracy. I also use sheet-feed scanners to archive documents. This scanner does an amazing job with text, even at higher speed. Clear and sharp text means that OCR is way more efficient. So -- this scanner is awesome, but I wish it had a couple more features. If you call it a "photo scanner," it really needs the ability to scan negatives and slides. This one just does not have that capability at all. Also, it can only be used when it's plugged into a computer. It has no network connectivity and has no way to attach storage devices for direct scanning, so I can't just stand in front of it and use it as a stand-alone. That would be a huge benefit when archiving hundreds or thousands of photographs. Overall, I recommend this for most people. You'll get a very accurate sheet-feed scanner.

The RS40 is a VERY compact scanner for photos and documents. Ideally, this would be used in an office that relies on a separate printer that isn't an all-in-one device. It is a USB connected printer without wifi connectivity. It can scan photos and documents no wider than 8" but can scan any length (e.g. receipts). Scanning is surprisingly brisk (and quiet!) and the mechanism that carries items through the scanner works very well. The RS40's three most incredible features are: (1) it can scan both sides of a document in a single pass, (2) it can accept a load of documents of varying widths, & (3) the straight-through pass design of the scan allows for effortless scanning of IDs and cards. All of these features worked without flaw. The box advertises (software) features for auto photo fix, for red-eye correction, and for face sharpening/smoothing. The software can also tackle problems with paper texture and with fading. It defaults to auto-fix mode but each scan can be filtered through any of these correction algorithms (each correction you choose is carried out by the software without much input from the user - the defaults are great but this isn't a full-featured photo editing piece of software). Their one-touch scanning environment presents the simplest interface for scanning that I have ever used - very intuitive. I have only one critique: the directions for downloading the software for this device was a disaster for me - the link asked for my serial number to identify my device and proceeded to fail to recognize my serial number. I was finally able to download the software by searching broadly for the drivers for this specific model number and was able to proceed - failures like this from an older company like Canon would usually lead me to a very negative review, but this little scanner performs so incredibly well that I'm not going to knock-off any stars. Enthusiastically recommended.

The Canon RS40 scanner comes loaded with features. The scanner feeder will hold up to 40 photos at once. Once they are scanned there are a number of helpful features including face smoothing, face sharpening, red eye reduction and automatic photo fix. In document mode it can automatically correct items that do not scan straight, detect document orientation, scan both sides in a single pass, skip blank documents, deal with mixed document sizes and creates documents that are searchable. Installation was quick and easy. The One Touch Scan software has 2 buttons preprogrammed, one for single sided scans and another for 2-sided single pass scans. There is a third button that allows creation of custom scan programs. The preprogrammed buttons are customizable. The Standard Scan menu has plenty of options, especially for output locations. My primary need for this scanner is digitizing financial and medical records. I was able to scan over a year's worth of medical records, bank statements, investment records and a few other items the first afternoon I had this scanner. I rid myself of about 3/4 of a tall kitchen garbage bag full of paper. I did scan a stack of old photos so that we might e-mail some of them and that worked fine. I have not yet had a chance to try the photo editing functions. This scanner has done everything that I need it to do quickly and effortlessly. It has features that I have yet to have a chance to explore but will be nice when needed. I have found no negatives about this scanner. I have nothing but praise for this scanner and recommend it!

As an owner of a color printer manufactured by Canon that has served me well, this photo scanner lives up to Canon's great reputation. I have lots of family pics that I needed to scan and keep for memories. This scanner has done a wonderful job of capturing clean imagery of my family's keepsakes. I am excited about this scanner and its multiple features which I know will last me for years to come.

Hard to understand how to get computer to save where you want. Customer service with Canon is non existant. Thought about returning it.