Canon P-215 Scanner Review

One of my goals (I don’t do resolutions,) for 2013 is to become as paperless as possible. If you really want to see how paperless you can become with Evernote’s help, read Jamie Rubin’s blog. Jamie is Evernote’s Paperless Ambassador, and his blog is full of awesome ideas.

Photographers accumulate paper. Release forms, contracts, receipts, even hand-drawn lighting diagrams and shoot ideas. I used to keep these in manila folders, stuffed in alphabetized drawers of a filing cabinet. Slowly but surely, these papers are being scanned and added to Evernote.

Canon’s imageFORMULA P-215 is solid. Out of the box, it comes with a power cord and a USB cable. The power cord isn’t necessary if you’re plugging the scanner into a USB3 port, however. This is perfect for mobile scanning where all you have is a laptop and no plug-ins.

The front and top of the P-215 fold up and back to form a paper feed tray, complete with fold-out side guides and extendable “wings” to keep your papers from flopping backwards. They really did think of everything here. There is even a specialized area in the front of the scanner that accepts business cards. Opening this scanner up is like playing with a Transformer.

Canon provides their Capture on Touch software to accompany the P-215. I set mine to default to “Scan to Evernote (Document)”, so that when I press the button on the scanner, it automatically defaults to that preset. Both sides of the paper are scanned at once (huge time-saver,) and sent to the Capture on Touch software window for review. If everything looks as it should, one click sends the PDF to Evernote.

There is an option, if you don’t want to install software, or if you happen to be plugging the scanner into a friend’s computer, to use the Lite version of the Capture on Touch software. This lite version is stored in the scanner itself, so nothing needs to be downloaded or installed.

I found that the scanner works extremely well on various sizes of documents, but that some tweaking of the scan settings are required to get good scans of photos. I did manage to scan over one hundred old photos during a recent visit to my mom’s house. The P-215 did a great job, and the fact that I didn’t have to plug in a power cord made it simple to scan through stacks of photos while sitting in the living room watching movies.

The only issue I’ve had is that occasionally a document doesn’t feed into the scanner and needs a little nudge. Other than that, I can’t find any problems with this scanner.

From a functionality standpoint, this is one of the best scanners I’ve ever used. Canon really thought of everything when they designed this thing. My favorite features? The two-sided scanning, the business card feeder, and the fact that it can be powered by a USB3 port alone.

Overall, the P-215 does an excellent job of handling daily scanning tasks, and works extremely well as a mobile scanning solution.

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FULL DISCLOSURE: Canon supplied this scanner to me free of charge. I was under no obligation to write a review, positive or otherwise.