I would be very careful purchasing this item if you run Vista or XP. You''ll probably be happy with it if you are on Windows 7. If Canon fixes their software, this would be great. For now, I can only use it in the mode that has only simple scanning.

You don''t need to load software to get this scanner to work; The scanner has self contained software for simple duplex scans; It comes with software to do more advanced scans.

I was unable to get this to work on computers using Windows Vista and XP with the extra software; It worked with no problem on Windows 7; When I called Canon, they too had problems.

Easy to use, but has a hard time reading multiple pages -- it almost always bunches two or three pages together, instead of scanning each page individually.

Although the scans are crisp & clean, it regularly pulls two pages through at once. Having said that, it's fairly heavy & solid in construction. Shows up as a drive on my mac (I think because of the flash memory which contains the software onboard).

Quite a good scanner! I'm impressed by speed, quality and ease of use! I believe it is quite expensive compared to other scanners but we definitely get what we pay for! I purchased this scanner to go as much digital as possible and this product will definitely help me a lot to reach my goal!

Canon has been making scanners for years, so the company certainly knows its way around the category. But the portable scanner market is highly competitive, with everyone from Xerox and Brother to Fujitsu and Neat Receipts looking for a piece of the action.

Duplexer lets you scan two-sided documents; Multiple ways to connect to your PC or Mac; Easy-to-use Auto Start feature; Excellent scan quality

Business cards can jam during scanning; Doesn't include power adapter; Relatively bulky; Slower scanning speeds on photos and business cards

A portable scanner is inevitably something of a niche product, but if you sometimes need to scan documents when you're out visiting clients then Canon's new P-215 might be just what you're looking for.

Fast; Compact portable scanner; Draws power from USB on host computer

Expensive; Relatively modest scanning resolution

Perfect for mobile workers who need to keep up with the paperwork, but who are frequently on the road and so don't have access to a permanent office, the Canon P-215 undoubtedly fills a need.

I like how compact the unit is, the software installed easily and works fine. Canon is a world leader in digital image processing so that is why I went with the unit. I was able to get a good deal on Ebay for this. Cons. Typical Canon. No AC power source included and no case included.

A close cousin to the Editors' Choice Canon imageFormula P-150 Scan-tini ($295 direct, 4 stars), and one small step up in Canon's line, the Canon imageFormula P-215 Scan-tini Personal Document Scanner ($325 direct) combines a not quite identical scanner with improved software.

Automatic document feeder; Duplexes; Rated at 15 pages per minute for black and white as well as grayscale

Relatively big and heavy for a portable scanner; Application programs don't install by default

This things works great. I got it to organize a great deal of documents and to have a small sized scanner for when you're on the move. The business card feature works well, it uses USB 3 and does OCR (optical character recognition) as it scans which is great. 4 stars because of price.

Works great; has basic software needed built into a small flash memory storage

Seems a bit fragile; expensive