Scanner recommendations needed

**MacGyver** · January 15th, 2002, 12:43 PM

Our office is planning on purchasing a scanner for marketing purposes. The scanner will mainly be used to scan photographs from magazines and other articles (so moire removal is a must in the scanner software), perhaps scanning 4X6 photos. The possibility of using it for OCR in the future is a remote possibility. The main things we are looking for is USB interface, easy portability since we are going to allow people to take it to their desk on an as-needed basis, and easy to use scanning software so I won't be called to help everytime somebody uses it. Windows 98 compatibility at present, with driver support for other OS's as we may migrate to a new OS in the future (Win2K likely). I don't want to explain to my boss why we need to buy a new scanner when we upgrade our OS.

Price range $150-250 USD or $200-350 CAD

Please keep any recommendations you can provide to personal experience only, no manufacturer bashing please. Thanks.

**pmetal** · January 15th, 2002, 01:49 PM

Mac,
I bought my wife an Epson Perfection 1650 PHOTO Flatbed Scanner for Christmas, and from what I've seen so far, it does a good job, although I haven't thoroughly tested it. I got it at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005M259/qid=1011123571/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_70_2/002-8880581-5580069" target="_blank">Amazon</a> for $215 plus about $12 shipping to VA. There is also a regular 1650 model for about $185 but it's not the Photo model.

Fairly easy install in Win 98 SE, with USB. I believe it has drivers for Win2K as well. The software is pretty straight forward; ie: "click to scan to file" is one of the menu buttons. Pretty self-explanatory. The only thing I don't know about is the "moire removal", not sure about that. OCR was fairly decent in the test I ran on it.

If you need more details, let me know.

**Sowulo** · January 15th, 2002, 06:39 PM

Big fan of Microtek scanners since my first flat-bed purchased in 1988 for $1900.00. I'd start by looking at the 3600, (their base model which sells for $39) an USB scanner that I've used for many projects. All their current and many of their older models have drivers for XP even.

**shamus** · January 15th, 2002, 07:36 PM

I'm with pmetal on this one...got eight of 'em at the H.S. that have survived the tortures of 8 thru 12 grade students. As far as the DigCams we have about six Sony Mavicas (PRICEY I know) but VERY user fiendly...save your stuff to a floppy.Thank GOD I've gotten that far...don't want to try and deal with memory sticks....

**Gameguru** · January 16th, 2002, 05:35 PM

I'm with Sowulo on this one...
Microtek are great value for the money. I picked up a slimscan c6 for about $49 NEW. Its USB but it does have a seperate power adapter. It has built in moire removal that works fairly well but you would be better off if you just removed it in Photoshop. Then again, that is another expense that you may not want. I did just buy my sister-in-law a scanner from newegg.com for $39. It was USB, no seperate power adapter and it scans great from the pics she has sent me.

As for OCR...thats going to be a software issue. I personally use ABBYY Finereader. Works great!

Now if I can teach her that everything doesn't have to be 1200dpi.......

**Draggar** · January 16th, 2002, 10:23 PM

If you can find it, HP scanjet 5300.
You can get an automatic document feeder for it, also.

The scanner is about $150 now.
PC/Mac compatable out of the box.
OCR & Photos, can also do mixed graphics & OCRin a single pass.

I have it & I love it.

**IT Len** · January 17th, 2002, 10:34 AM

Cast another vote with Curt... Our digital imaging biz has ten scanners...we've tried just about every make and model there is and always seem to settle on Microtek. Again, good software package, good support.

Models? We like the 5700 and 4700. $300 US and $130 US respectively. The 4700 is everyone's favorite. And, especially if you're using it for future marketing projects, it comes with a transparency adapter. You'd think at first that the ability to scan film negatives and slides isn't important, but it's turned out to be extremely useful!

Lastly, we found that document feeders really don't mean that much to us. It comes in hand when archiving a lot of documents...but that's something we don't often do.

**Draggar** · January 18th, 2002, 05:11 PM

[quote]Originally posted by IT Len:
<strong>

Models? We like the 5700 and 4700. $300 US and $130 US respectively. The 4700 is everyone's favorite. And, especially if you're using it for future marketing projects, it comes with a transparency adapter. You'd think at first that the ability to scan film negatives and slides isn't important, but it's turned out to be extremely useful!
</strong><hr></blockquote>

Ugh! I had a 4790 scanner (I think it was that one) Transparency adapter, slide adapter.

I hated it! The quality on negaitves wasn't too great, and the overall use of the product wasn't too user friendly..

Luckily I had it only a day and I was able to return it for a refund & got the 5300 off of Amazon.Com

**DANIMAL** · January 18th, 2002, 05:29 PM

I noticed you mentioned the O/S issue, So all I can say is make sure that it is compatible with all O/S's even XP you never no that could be the next O/S upgrade and it seems hard to fine scanners and printers that are compatible with XP.

**IT Len** · January 19th, 2002, 05:21 AM

[quote]Originally posted by Draggar:
<strong>

Ugh! I had a 4790 scanner (I think it was that one) Transparency adapter, slide adapter.

I hated it! The quality on negaitves wasn't too great, and the overall use of the product wasn't too user friendly..

</strong><hr></blockquote>

I know what you mean...we started with that opinion on slide quality too, until we figured out it was a "scan setting and software" issue...

User friendliness I can't fairly comment on, we've used this stuff for so long now, it all seems "normal" to us...!

**Draggar** · January 19th, 2002, 07:16 AM

One thing I did forget to mention, if they're still packaged like they used to, Visoneer scanners used to come with a great software package, and the quality wasn't too bad, I'd concider it average.
But concidering the were the first one-touch scanner out there in retail, it wasn't too bad..

My sister still uses my old one (its about 3 years old) and still does an OK job.

They're inexpensive, but the quality is average.

**JeffAtUCLA** · October 12th, 2003, 05:00 PM

I'm with everyone else when I say that Microtek has some great products out there. They just came out with the Scanmaker 6000 which does 6400x3200 optical resolution. I was over at Best Buy picking up some blank CD-Rs and played around with it for a while. I have a dedicated Microtek slide scanner but I'm thinking about picking this up for the family. Looks like it would make a great addition!