scanner?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Terry Parker
  • Start date Start date
I am currently looking also, as my old flatbed just passed away...moment of silence.... anyway, I've have been looking at a
microtek, or a visioneer 7300, I think I'm going with the visioneer at 75$. What are your uses going to be?
 
JAD said:
I am currently looking also, as my old flatbed just passed away...moment
of silence.... anyway, I've have been looking at a microtek, or a
visioneer 7300, I think I'm going with the visioneer at 75$. What are your
uses going to be?
Click to expand...


Mostly photos for conversion to 3-d cad.
 
are you saying the 7300 is slow?
Click to expand...

Virtually all flatbed scanners on the market today(under 1,000) use
system ram, so they tend to move only as fast as ram sharing will
allow with whatever system your using.
I have some older pro flatbeds with onboard ram that move quite
quickly.
The cheapie scanners you get at you local wal-mart are terribly slow(
under 50 bucks say the Mustek Bearpaw etc...)
The HP's are no better though, just paying for a name there and if you
lose your driver cd you'll have to pay big bucks for replacement.
Most all give fair sharpness and color depth. good pickups are cheap
to make these days.
 
tweak said:
Virtually all flatbed scanners on the market today(under 1,000) use
system ram, so they tend to move only as fast as ram sharing will
allow with whatever system your using.
I have some older pro flatbeds with onboard ram that move quite
quickly.
The cheapie scanners you get at you local wal-mart are terribly slow(
under 50 bucks say the Mustek Bearpaw etc...)
The HP's are no better though, just paying for a name there and if you
lose your driver cd you'll have to pay big bucks for replacement.
Click to expand...

Be fair. HP drivers can be downloaded from their website for free. The
fact that HP scanner drivers are crap and it's impossible to get an
older scanner working properly under WinXP is another story.
 
Hi All,

What's the best value in a scanner - preferably less than $150.....
Click to expand...

I've owned expensive HP's and for my own work, I have found that a $79
Visioneer from Wal-Mart does just as good a job.

I mostly scan in photos for printing to 4x6 photo paper and DVD's for
priting on DVD-R media and it does an outstanding job. I'm highly
impressed.

--Dave
 
I've owned expensive HP's and for my own work, I have found that a $79
Visioneer from Wal-Mart does just as good a job.
Click to expand...
Right! Unless you're doing critical image work just about any scanner
will do a bang up job. And I mean by critical scanning for postscript
for high end printing(155 dpi or greater offset or gravure)
Even if you do art or basic magazine work the low or mid range
scanners will do just fine.
Look at the OPTICAL resolution and the dynamic range.
Just about all other specs are secondary.(unless you buy a real
unheard of no name cheapie which might have noisy pickups.)
Visioneer, Mustek etc.. are good midrange scanners that represent a
bargain for the price.
HP is overrated and over priced.(There only claim to fame in the early
days was their plug and play ease, windows having the drivers in their
database. Not so anymore, you gotta go to HP if you don't have the
setup CD and they charge big bucks for a replacment.)
 
Be fair. HP drivers can be downloaded from their website for free. The
fact that HP scanner drivers are crap and it's impossible to get an
older scanner working properly under WinXP is another story.
Click to expand...
I AM being fair. I have a 3200C sitting in the corner that someone
horsetraded to me and HP will NOT let you download the drivers for
free. I can't remember off hand but I think the charge for the setup
CD was 50 bucks. You got to the page on the HP site for the download
click on the link for the driver files and get rerouted to a forms
page with the option of visa/mastercard as a method of payment.
That scanner will sit in the corner until I can locate the CD for
free.
There is a patch for post 98 OS's that will allow you to run a scsi
setup scanner. I got it and a matching scsi pci card so I could run my
older bigger scanners on win2k etc.. if I wished. Just found it easier
to keep my old machines on a PII super with 98se.
And yes HP drivers and interface panel are crappy and beg replacment
with a third party system.
Unfortunately with the later HP scanner's only a few companies have
elected to make their scanning software compatible with HP. A few and
they cost as much or more than a scanner.
My favorite Scan PrepPro doesn't support HP after 97.
It'd be nuts to pay upwards of 500 bucks for a decent interface when
better scanners can now be had for that with a decent bundle.Sure if you're doing volume work. If not why pay more?
On my personal computer I use an Epson Perfection 1650 and it's not to
bad, moves fast and is fairly sharp.
My commercial scanners on the other hand are super fast and sharp as a
tack with wide dynamic range and virtually no noise. But then they
cost much more.
My flatbed- 890 bucks(second hand too)
My drum scanner- 14,000 bucks

The average persom would find either prohibitive if not down right
insane for the cost.
The difference in rendering quality couldn't even be detected in most
apps.
A little less speed for a lot less bucks makes sense.
 
| Hi All,
|
| What's the best value in a scanner - preferably less than $150.....

I bought a Canon CanoScan 5000F about six months ago and have been delighted
with it. PC World rates it tops. It's $117 including shipping from Newegg.

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,112037,00.asp

Larc
Click to expand...
The canon is indeed an excellent scanner. A friend has one is please
as well.
I use Canon video for my film work and find them to do excellent work.
The real plus is Canon's outstanding attitude in service.
They've always bent over backwards for me and I've always been able to
get a real person on the phone not a recording.
 
BayrryNL's opinoin is just that an opinion. I have a very old
Visioneer 6000A which I purchased about 5 or 6 years ago. I have been
running Windows XP Pro for over 2 years now with absolutly no
problems. Perhaps, the problems exist between the chair and the
mouse?.
 
http://www.scanner-drivers.com/drivers/3/3575.htm

user-drivers password- all
Click to expand...
Been there, tried that didn't work.
The actual software for the HP is alot more than just a few drivers.
HP's reasoning for not allowing free downloads of the entire driver CD
is due to file size and bandwidth considerations. i.e. it would eat up
to much bandwidth on their site to allow downloading of of such a
large driver package. Hence the descision to charge all for
replacement software.
That iddy bidy driver is junk, just read the critiques on the feedback
page.
As I recall the driver installer is around over 80 mb.(maybe larger.)
I did get my hands on a copy of the installer CD for the next model
up, but guess what? It wouldn't work either.
DIFFERENT drivers for each model in the line.
So I stand on what I said, HP is junk.(Mostly because of the corporate
jackals at the home office and their greedy ass ways.)
 
used the driver works fine... I gave you the link cause I thought you were looking for one...


Hp may be junk but the drivers are there. Umax is pulling the same stunt. Any manufacturer who does that, gets no business of mine,
junk or not.
 
tweak said:
Been there, tried that didn't work.
The actual software for the HP is alot more than just a few drivers.
HP's reasoning for not allowing free downloads of the entire driver CD
is due to file size and bandwidth considerations. i.e. it would eat up
to much bandwidth on their site to allow downloading of of such a
large driver package. Hence the descision to charge all for
replacement software.
That iddy bidy driver is junk, just read the critiques on the feedback
page.
As I recall the driver installer is around over 80 mb.(maybe larger.)
I did get my hands on a copy of the installer CD for the next model
up, but guess what? It wouldn't work either.
DIFFERENT drivers for each model in the line.
So I stand on what I said, HP is junk.(Mostly because of the corporate
jackals at the home office and their greedy ass ways.)
Click to expand...

Well, I just managed to download the 40Mb of driver and software from HP
for the 3200C for free. This was the URL:

http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/softwa...osoft Windows XP&sw_lang=en&pagetype=software
 
I found that also, which just goes to show you don't believe all you read....however Umax is doing this type of thing...they have no
qualms telling you on the drivers/software page.

Its sad when people don't know the difference between a DRIVER and SOFTWARE. Never used scanner software, can't do better than
PhotoShop for that.

Thanks for throwing the link out, though he's not interested..
 
I found that also, which just goes to show you don't believe all you read....however Umax is doing this type of thing...they have no
qualms telling you on the drivers/software page.

Its sad when people don't know the difference between a DRIVER and SOFTWARE. Never used scanner software, can't do better than
PhotoShop for that.

Thanks for throwing the link out, though he's not interested..
Click to expand...
Thank you I'll give it a try. When I first tried to download the
driver/software interface bundle all I got was the "buy it" or get
lost page.
I'd tried downloading various driver files from all the sites online
with no success in getting one that would work.
In all the scanner forums I went to it was the same problem for all.
No one could get HP to let loose of the neccessary drivers bundle.
And when I'm talking about interface software I'm not talking
photoshop.
HP has a software control panel that you have to have to get the
scanner to run.(their way of locking up their hardware to make the
owners come crawling.)
I see lots of the HP scanners being dumped at local thrift shops.
Mostly the later one's .
I saw several 3400's a couple of 3700's all going for 5-9 bucks.
No one in our region want's to use 'em anymore, they can getter better
for less and don't have to deal with the Aholes at HP.
Thanks again I'll give that link a try.
 
I realize what your saying, but I never use scanner captureware, scan right into PS, from twain acquire or wia, anyway hope this
one works for you.
 
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