Scanner Suggestions

[OklaEd]

I am about to put my Visioneer 8650 to rest and purchase a new scanner. Do any of you have a desktop scanner you are happy with that you might suggest?

-Ed.

[OklaEd]

I am about to put my Visioneer 8650 to rest and purchase a new scanner. Do any of you have a desktop scanner you are happy with that you might suggest?

-Ed.

[OklaEd]

Hi John ...

Letter sized, 300dpi+, mostly for print, accurate color reproduction is desireable. The Visioneer scanner was fast but not terribly accurate. Photo scans on HP scanners in the office generally yield better results. Price is not a major concern ... but I'm not willing to pay a $300 premium if the quality doesn't justify. Any experience with Epson?

-Ed.

[Albacore]

Hi Ed
I have just bought one of the new HP scanners with the glass front and metal stand and I am more than happy with the performance of scanner when getting accurately colours from the scan.
The glass front allows allows you to accrately position the material you want to scan under the scanner.
The metal stand allows the scanner to sit nearly upright making the amount of room that the scanner takes up on your desk a lot smaller.

On the negative side the software that is supplied with the scanner for photo correction is terrible, but I was not interested in that for I use PS and other software to do the correction.

Also I have heard that there is a new scanner from Canon which a friend is using and I have seen the results and they were quite impressive.

The two scanners met your needs and they both retail in the UK for about £150.

[OklaEd]

Albacore ...

Thank you for the response. I have been looking at the HPSJ4670 (the upright "see thru" HP model). I appreciate the input. I also looked at the Canon 8000F, but with the limited space I have it looks like the HP might be the way to go.

-Ed.

[Darkhorse Graphics]

I use the Hp scanjet 4570c and its awesome and comes with the negative carrier and can get the optional doc feeder too...I have scanned to 600 dpi with great results.

[Albacore]

Hi Ed
Remember me extolling the virtues of the HP well don't if you are going to use the negative or slide scanner.

When I wrote the original reply the scanner was new and I only had dabbled with the slide part now that I have tried to use it, it is awful with terrible scan lines throughout the result.

Most mags are going for the very new Epson Perfection 4870 at £350 which I have seen being sold at just under £300 and you living in the states will probablly get that for the same in dollars.

It comes with usb 2 and max. res. 4800 x 9600 although at this res. the scanning speeds are slow. Good package of sofware comes with it:
SilverFast SE, PS Elements, Abbey Fine Reader and Sprint 5.

Sorry about the bum information before

[RTK]

Ed,

Do consider the scanning speed when choosing your machine. I don't use mine very often, but the slow speed still gets to me.

Mine is also one of those very slim ones (CCD? instead of those regular lights) which gives it a very limited depth. It's fine for scanning paper, but you can't play around with it so well, e.g. scanning objects.

[OklaEd]

Hi Guys ... I had forgotten about this post until I just saw Risto's response.

Albacore,
I took your advice and got the HP back in early March ... BIG mistake (no offence intended). It was slow and the quality of scans was not what I was looking for. I sold it to a colleague and bought an Epson 4870 ... now THAT's a scanner. The first thing I scanned was one of those high school pics with the texture on top ... you know ... the ones that are "scan-proof". The Epson reproduced the image so well that when printed on my Tektronix laser I could hardly tell the scan from the original

Risto,
The Epson is also extremely fast. It comes with firewire and USB2 capability. I connected with the USB2 cable and WOW! I guess you really DO get what you pay for!

[Dan Huff]

Sorry for the lateness of this posting, but I didn't see it before just now.

I recently bought a Visioneer 9320 from Sam's Club for around $93 or so, and I couldn't be happier. It replaced a Umax something or other piece of total CRAP that was extremely s...l...o.....w......, and whatever I scanned had to be tweaked excessively in Photoshop to somewhat resemble the original.

Not this Visioneer. It runs off the USB2 port, previews in about 10 SECONDS, updating pretty close to real time , and I can scan a photograph 5 inches tall at 300 dpi in about the same amount of time! ...and the color saturation, accuracy, and complete lack of artifacting has made me no longer dread having to USE the scanner. It has an additional light built into the lid so you can scan negatives or slides and has an optical resolution to 6400 dpi

I'm sure there are a lot better(AND more expensive) scanners out there, but I don't even care at this moment because I'm so happy with this one, being SO radically different than that to which I had been accustomed.