I’ve been hunting for a cheap scanner to replace my old HP ScanJet 3200C flatbed scanner. Since I don’t use the scanner that much, I wanted to keep things on a budget. My requirements were simple:
It had to be a flatbed scanner (since document scanners don’t work for bulky items).
It had to give me a good quality scan.
It had to be dependable.
It had to be cheap!
While scouring the deal sites, I came across a number of scanners in the $50-60 range, but that was still more than I wanted to spend. Then I saw a post about the Canon PIXMA MP250 Photo All-In-One Inkjet Printer, available from Walmart for $32!
I could care less about the printer features, I just wanted something that would scan. The reviews were pretty favorable, so I decided to bite the bullet and give it a shot.
When I opened the box, I had to laugh. Canon uses a whole roll of tape to keep everything in place during shipment. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen. Since I didn’t have the foresight to take pictures ahead of time, I found a video to illustrate my point. Skip to the 5:00 minute mark to see what I’m talking about.
Better safe than sorry, I guess.. In any event, I removed all of the tape, plugged in the power and USB cables, installed the software, and I was off and running. Canon’s scanning software is pretty intuitive, and has some nice features like multipage scanning support, exporting your scanned document to a PDF file, etc. I installed it on my XP machine, but it also has support for Windows 7, Vista, and Mac.
I wanted to scan something bulky, so I grabbed the first thing near me. South Park Season 1 on DVD. As you can see from the scan below, the quality is pretty much spot on:
So there you have it. For $32 + tax, I couldn’t be happier. 
at 12:05 pm
Totally agree, the Canon PIXMA MP250 All-In-One has also been an excellent seller over here in the UK. It doesnt have the support software like its more expensive rivals but in terms of what you get for your money, theres not much better out there, especially when it comes to Canon scanners.