flatbed scanner advice please...

[Wulfman]

my old (win2k-driverless) spot scantak 12p stopped working (seems like the cable is broken, but it cannot be changed) - I need a new one fast, but cannot spend too much money on it...

requirements:

~150?/135$

usb/parallel (no firewire, no scsi)
good scan quality (photos)

thinking about:

Epson Perfection 640U
Microtek ScanMaker 4600
HP Scanjet 3400C

suggestions, advice, bad experiences?

mfg
wulfman

[Dr Mordrid]

Rule of thumb;

You can rarely go wrong with an HP, Epson or Canon scanner.

That said, given your list this is the order I'd place them in;

the Epson 640U is a VERY good scanner.

the HP 3400cse is a step down from the Epson in scan quality.

the Microtek 4600 isn't worth considering in this group.

My alternative pick considering your price range + a fudge factor;

Epson 1640SU ($175.94 @Amazon.com). 1600dpi optical, 42 bit, 8.7ms/scanline. Once you use USB for a scanner you won't care about parallel. Weakness: USB doesn't work in WinNT4.

My alternative pick not considering your price range:

HP Scanjet 7400c ($499). DAMN nice scanner.

Dr. Mordrid

[Maggi]

good advices already given by Doc, I just wanted to throw UMAX into the ring, as I recently found an excellent offer for their Astra 4000U (only 299 DM/~140 US-$) ...

Excellent scans with a maximum optical resolution of 1200x2400dpi, very comprehensive interface, easy PnP via USB, but unfortunately not very fast (a bit below 1 MB/sec).

The package came with Photoshop 5.0 LE, as opposed to the announced PhotoDeluxe and all included drivers worked flawless so far.

[Indiana]

I have the Epson 640U personally and I'm very happy with it (both Win98SE and Win2k), speed and quality are good and I think quality/price ratio is excellent.

EDIT: Epson's software, however is a bit, hmmmm "gewöhnungsbedürftig".

[Wulfman]

UMAX is an interesting idea, but the shops I usually visit don't sell their products

but a website (http://www.flatbed-scanner-review.org/Index.html) gives them interesting ratings.... really depressing that they call a 2000$ scanner "mid-range".... (ok, they are testing professionell equipment...but.. )

thanks for the help so far!

mfg
wulfman

[omegaRED]

I have an UMAX Astra 2200U, USB, and i`m very satisfied with it ... colors are good, plus it has a ... whats it called ... to scan slides or negatives? I dunno, i never use it ... but its there

[MetalCartman]

I'm very satisfied with my Canon N650U USB-Scanner. It's a smart device, no power supply, just an USB-cable
42bit color depth, 1200dpi resolution, stable drivers and very fast at all. It also consumes not much desk space, it's really worth to think about this scanner. It will set you back $130/270DM, that's not too much.

Greetz,
Cartman

[Joel]

I like my UMAX Astra 3400, USB, 600x1200dpi, 42 bit color scanner that I got for $9.95 plus tax after instant savings and rebates.

Joel

[ALBPM]

Damn!!!!

I'm still using my old UMAX 1200S. I finally got it to work with a Adaptec 2906 PCI SCSI card since the 815 mobos don't have ISA slots.
It was one of the few SCSI cards with the external DB-25 connector on it.

Still runs great even seems a bit faster with the PCI SCSI card.

Paul

[Bohrn]

good quality inexpensive scanner is an Agfa E series. The E20 that I have is a small step down from the E50, but it was only $120 canadian. I am more than happy. It scans objects extremely well. I scanned my keys in(just put em on the flatbed and scanned em) and when the pic was veiwed, it was like my keys were behind the monitor glass. Some of the other lower priced scanners were not like this. Best of luck.

[impact]

Oh and definitely choose the USB variant over the parallel one. There IS a difference.

[MK]

Hi Wulfman,

I can definately recommend the Plustek Scanners. About two years ago, the Plustek 9636T scanner won the c`t scanner test. Too bad they didn`t test their scanners since that time ...

IMHO the new models like the U12B that I have for example are even a big step forward (I had the 9636T and I have the new ones). Plustek`s support located in Germany is definately good, there are Win2k drivers for all their new scanners and even some with linux drivers. If you like you can check http://www.plustek.de !

I bought my scanner in Lichtenberg near Linz at EV-Web, owned by Dipl. Ing. Volker Engel. He even has a web-shop at http://www.ev-web.at/ and I paid about the same price (öS 1490,- inkl. MwSt. und deutscher Urheberrechtsabgabe an die VG Wort, der Scanner läuft also mit voller Geschwindigkeit !!) I would have to pay for a direct order at Plustek Germany.

Plusteks scanners have excellent picture quality, are reliable and fast and I would definately go with Indiana`s recommendation to buy a USB scanner. They are a tad faster and the CPU load is by far lower compared to a data transfer via the parallel port.

Greetz

MK

[MK]

Wulfman - which scanner did you buy ?

MK

[Wulfman]

none yet - I try to find a cheap source for the Umax Astra 4000U (thx maggi )..

Plustek is interesting too - but that seems to be the same as with my last one - it won a CHIP test 2 or 3 years ago... and then I was not able to get win2k drivers...

so: well known brand-name scanner this time

mfg

wulfman

[MK]

I tried a UMAX and brought it back to the shop the next day. Aber die Geschmäcker sind verschieden ...

MK