Scanner Reviews

This is one of the best laser printers I have ever used. Highly
recommended.

I've had the opportunity to use this printer (home use) for the past 2 years (it was my roommate's). The thing is so fantastic and dependable I forget it's even there; I think that's the true measure of an excellent product - when using it becomes completely transparent. I've come to expect this top-notch quality and dependablility; I have no idea what I'm going to buy to try and replace it now that I'm moving out.

Changing the toner cartridge is a walk in the park. It takes longer to fill an ice cube tray. There are so many flaps and doors on the thing that clearing a paperjam (of which we had one over the past 2 years, and it was my fault for loading the paper crooked) was simple and quick. I especially like the separate loader tray that easily accepts envelopes, cards and (my favorite) CD labels. After you're done with the loader tray, it folds up into the unit.

We also have the 4050 TN's (has an additional paper tray) at work - I can attest that these puppies can handle a seriously high volume of print jobs - flawlessly. I don't know what the pages-per-minute number is, but I can't imagine you needing anything to be much faster.

I recently purchased the 4050 from Amazon and couldn't be more pleased with the quality, ease of installation and use of this printer. The 1200 dpi is spectacular and halftones look great. The built-in Postscript capability is a godsend and I can't believe the speed with which the 4050 delivers copies! Although a printed manual would have been an asset, I haven't needed to look at the documentation disk. I highly recommend this printer for those who need a high-volume, top quality machine.

I am using this product almost exclusively for slide scanning, so my comments only apply to that aspect of this product.

If you are like me and wondering whether you should suffer through using a consumer level slide scanner or fork out the dough for this one, then the quality this produces when scanning dark slides should be enough to convince you alone. And that's just the beginning. I've used consumer level scanners before and no amount of tweaking or photoshop'ing can match the quality the Coolscan 5000 produces. For professionals, this is of course a no brainer, but for semi-professional folks like me, this is a major investment, and I needed some convincing that it would be worth it. I am now convinced.

Don't put too much stock into the scan times (and feed times for the sf-210 auto feeder). These times are without any Digital ICE, auto exposure, auto focus, etc. However, I have found if you do not use these features, you are wasting your time. After much tweaking to get all the settings such that the final result looked just like the original slide, I am looking at about 1 minute and 30 seconds per slide using the sf-210 (AMD 2.2 Ghz 1GB Ram, scanning at 2000 dpi)

I have found that without tweaking, you get a bluish hue (although a little less so for Kodachrome slides). I have turned red up +20 and blue down +20 (green at 0) and to me, this seems to give the best results (ymmv).

Use the digital ice features!!! They are simply amazing. The dust and scratch removal is phenomenal. The grain removal is also wonderful - and it keeps the picture sharp much more so than using a software filter like those found in Photoshop. Personally, I set the Digital ROC (color restoration and correction) to 0 because it is too unpredictable.

Lastly, use a bright, high quality LCD monitor! You would be amazed at the difference this can make when doing color matching, especially on dark pictures. I was astonished to see the difference.

When you take the above into consideration, this scanner is superb. Plan on spending a few hours getting your settings just right, but after that, sit back and enjoy. I've done 8x10 prints of my slides (scanned at 2000 dpi) that are just beautiful. It is near impossible to match the luminance and beauty of a projected slide, but the Coolscan 5000 does a darn good job.

First of all, let me say I am a neophyte when it comes to scanning. My mother passed away recently and I wanted to go through my father's 20,000 slides and scan the best ones before they, as many before them, disappeared into the hands of one of my 7 other siblings never to be found again.

After culling my father's slides I ended up with about 750 I wanted to scan. After culling my own slides I ended up with another 200 slides. And after that I decided to go through my color negative collection and scan the best of those as well. A daunting project! But honestly well worth the effort.

Most of my father's slides are Kodachrome. Much has been written about the inability of this scanner to scan Kodachrome slides and said about ICE4 not working with Kodachrome. Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The ICE4 does work, however, inconstantly with Kodachrome slides producing unacceptable artifacts in about 5 - 10 percent of the slides. It is a hit or miss proposition. I scanned with ICE (not ICE4) always on and then rescanned if I encountered unacceptable artifacts. I did notice that the scanner ICE feature was stumped by old Kodachrome slides where subjects were wearing shirts with stripes. Those stripes were really butchered by the ICE feature.

The GEM ROC and DEE (the other stalwarts of the ICE4 other than ICE itself) work on Kodachrome slides as well, but I found that the results were unpredictable and that I could achieve better results myself in Photoshop far more quickly. The GEM ROC and DEE features simply took too long and slowed down the scanning unacceptably. The results, for me, were not worth the additional scanning time.

The good news: The scanner is fast and does produce wonderful wonderful detailed scans, easily demonstrating the grain in the transparancies at 3000 and 4000 dpi. The Kodachrome slides were a challenge to the Dynamic Range of the scanner, but I believe that most of the detail in the shadows that is there was extracted. Unfortunately, Kodachrome, with all of its many attributes, does have substantial downsides including a very narrow exposure latitude and shadow detail is simply lacking. I think the scanner accurately reproduced the information including the colors on the Kodachrome slides, with perhaps a slight bluish cast noticed in some cases.

It wasn't until I was finished scanning all of the culled slides that I undertook to scan my select color negatives. And this scanner really came into its own scanning color negatives. Don't even TRY to scan color negatives without ICE because the results are unbelievably bad. Even pristine negatives have scratches and pit marks that magically are erased by the ICE feature. What a godsend. I only wish it had worked so flawlessly on the Kodachrome slides. The scanned color negatives were just beautiful with very accurate color rendition. But immediately I noticed much more grain in the color negatives (Royal Gold and Fuji Superia Gold) than in the scanned slides.

One note unrelated to the scanner itself. Until you've used a digital scanner to scan your color negatives you can't begin to realize how far superior Kodachrome, Provia, and Ektachrome slides are to color negatives insofar as capturing detail. Even the best color negatives have much more grain that Kodachrome. And the difference in color negatives is substantial too.

The included Nikon software worked fantastic for me. I downloaded a copy of VueScan which according to many reviews is superior to the Nikon software and found that for me the Nikon software was easier to work with and produced superior results.

The software did cause my computer to crash occasionally which was an aggravation, but a minor one when considered against its many attributes.

I can recommend this scanner without reservation. It is a phenomenal piece of equipment.

The previous generation (CS IV and CS 4000) were hard to top, but Nikon did it yet again. Scans are smooth and gorgeous, color accuracy (provided your monitor is calibrated) is unrivaled and the updated ICE4 including DEE are a blessing. In fact the scans are so good that I have started to prefer CS5000 scans from well exposed Fuji Provia 100F or Astia 100F slides than images from a 6MP DSLR. Hard to believe but thats true.

Did I mention scanning speed ? I timed a 4000 DPI scan with digital ICE turned off, on a P4 2.6Ghz with 1 GB ram and USB2. It took 17 seconds from begining to end (excluding autofocus and auto exposure). Thats right. Actually three seconds faster than Nikon's claim of 20 sec. Beat that Minolta.

IMO the next step up can only be a $50K HowTek drum scanner ;)

I have one of your Brothers mfc1780 5in1 products and when I bought it from this person at a yard sale he did not have the disc to install it on my Computer. I have a Compac 5000 series. If there is something you could do to help me install this on to my Computer i would be grateful. Thank you, and by the way your product is great because i can do other things except get it to print it ie a great Fax, Copier, and Scanner. But like I said I can't get it installed on my Computer to print out documents. Thank you again.

Good value for the money. No problems with any of the features. Cheap enough that you won't mind if it becomes obsolete or gets destroyed in a move, as so often happens.

Iam well acquainted with this Mach as we have been useing it at my job for the passed year. We have incountered very few problems. I have found it to be very relible at all times.I wrk at a Apt complex where a lot of diferent people use the Mach an still no problems That gives 5 stars.

I'm quite pleased with this scanner. The scanner is fast and the digital ICE does a nice job in removing dust specs. I use it mainly to scan my 6x6 color negatives. When I use the scanner firewire connection with two different XP PCs it is not a simple "plug and play" operation. I have to go through an involved turn-on sequence to get the scanner to work with the PC. The exact sequence differs between both PCs. Others on the Yahoo Minolta Multi Pro Scanner Group have reported this same problem with firewire and XP. I now use the scanner scsi interface with a fast scsi or an ultra scsi card in both PCs and it always works as long as I power the scanner on first and wait for it to settle down before powering on the PC. The scan time is the same with firewire or scsi. 35mm scans look great, but medium format scans are somewhat grainy. It's like color prints made on a condenser enlarger instead of a diffusion enlarger.

After confirming that the Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro film scanner works wonderfully with color film, I thought I'd branch out. I soon discovered that the Minolta also works superbly for both my 1) black & white and 2) underwater photography.

For black & white photos, I use Kodak's black & white film for color print (C-41) processing, the film recommended for use in the Minolta film scanner (due to limitations in how the Applied Science Fiction image enhancing software works). The results, nevertheless, were fantastic.

The images were sharp -- with tremendous amounts of detail in both the highlights and the shadows. And digitizing them allowed me to use my PC to control the tonal range better than I ever could using a professional print service or my own home darkroom. Shooting -- and printing -- b&w photos has never been more satisfying. For once, I really felt like Ansel Adams!

For underwater photography, I use Canon's A-1, a very affordable autofocus camera that's good down to 11 feet -- a sufficient depth for snorkeling or taking photos of my kids swimming below-the-surface in the pool.

When I scanned some kids-playing-underwater shots into the Minolta, I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw the results. The original photos (from the photo lab) were very bluish, as would be expected. But the prints made from the Minolta-scanned images had flesh tones and bathing suits that looked as natural and as colorful as if the photos had been taken on land! It was truly amazing. It made me immediately want to go out and enroll in scuba diving lessons -- to take underwater photos of very colorful fish. Jacques Cousteau, here I come!

In both cases -- for b&w and underwater photography -- the Minolta allowed me to create the most sensational images I've ever authored in either medium.

The Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro film scanner continues to delightfully expand my photographic horizons. I'm sure it can easily do the same for you.

Being an avid film photographer, I wanted to make beautiful 8 x 10 enlargements -- from film -- rather than from digital. The Minolta Dimage Scan Multi Pro film scanner (along with my home PC and printer) has enabled me to do just that. I couldn't be happier!

The enlargements I've made (using the scanned images of my 35 mm negatives) are just phenomenal! Not only are they sharp and crisp -- but the Minolta brings out all of the shadow detail normally lost in the typical prints one gets back from a regular photo finisher. Pictures that I would've normally dismissed as being "too dark" now come alive with color and detail -- just as I remembered the original scene to be.

I once read that 35 mm film contains between 11 and 13 megapixels of information -- which is far in excess of the capacity available in today's most advanced digital cameras. After seeing the photos created by my Minolta film scanner -- I have no doubt that this comparison is absolutely true.

The enlargements I've made using my Minolta film scanner are vastly superior to my previous efforts:

- Using a digital camera -- where the color range and image resolution are definitely inferior.
- Making professional enlargements from my 35 mm film -- which doesn't adequately bring out the shadow detail (without dodging and burning) since the process isn't digital.

As background, I selected the Minolta Scan Multi Pro since it was the only film scanner that I found which could do all of the following:

1) Accept both 35 mm and 120/220 (medium format) size film.
2) Scan up to 4,800 dpi for higher resolution.
3) Connect via Firewire (as a faster option than USB), which I have on my Sony Vaio (desktop) computer.
4) Scan using Digital ICE, ROC and GEM (from Applied Science Fiction), which removes dust and scratches, and restores and adjusts the color automatically.
5) Is Windows XP compatible (which many film scanners, particularly the older models, aren't).

The Minolta software that came with the unit was very easy to load. And the screen interface is very intuitive.

The Minolta program is intended for scanning images only -- and opens as an import into Photoshop and Photoshop Elements (which I use), and other major photo editing programs. Since all of the retouching takes place in the host photo editing program, this allows the Minolta scanning software to be much simpler -- and much more reliable.

There is an index scanning feature (at lower resolution) which provides for fast (initial) image viewing. Photo uploads -- at the highest 4,800 dpi setting with all of the filters turned on -- takes about five minutes. (I drink coffee while I'm waiting.) And the photos, once captured, normally require only minimal retouching or color adjustment (if at all).

Since I shoot mainly with zoom lenses (and without a tripod), I was also worried that my 35 mm negatives woudn't be sufficiently sharp for making nice 8 x 10's. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to discover the following:

- That my 35 mm photos had much more resolution than I ever knew existed (particularly in the shadows and fine details).
- That I didn't need to change my equipment (to fixed focal length lenses) or use a tripod to make sharp pictures.
- And, most importantly, that I didn't need to buy an expensive higher-megapixel digital camera to make excellent 8 x 10 enlargements.

The level of detail (and drama) that I now see in my scenics and portraits is truly exceptional! I couldn't be more satisfied.

Granted, this Minolta Multi Scan Pro isn't cheap. And a less expensive film scanner can probably be had, especially if one can do without some of the options listed above (in particular, the 120/220 film capability, the faster Firewire connection, or the 4,800 dpi).

I love, however, that my photo albums are now filled with page-after-page of beautiful -- and richly detailed -- 8 x 10 blow-ups. And I'm even happier knowing that I can continue to shoot using the highest resolution photo medium yet available today. Film!

Get a Minolta Multi Scan Pro film scanner -- and discover just how good your 35 mm pictures really are! You'll be truly amazed!

First of all, let me say I am relatively new at scanning and that I LOVE the Coolscan V as a cheaper alternative to the Coolscan 5000 which I have also used. I recently decided to go through my father's 20,000 slides and scan the best ones before they, as many before them, disappeared into the hands of one of my 7 other siblings never to be found again.

After culling my father's slides I ended up with about 750 I wanted to scan. After culling my own slides I ended up with another 200 slides. And after that I decided to go through my color negative collection and scan the best of those as well. Just recently, my father in law enlisted me to go through his slide collection of about 1500 slides since he was blown away by the results I achieved on my father's slides with the Coolscan 5000.

Most of my father's slides, and all of my father-in-law's slides are Kodachrome. Much has been written about the inability of this scanner to scan Kodachrome slides and said about ICE4 not working with Kodachrome. Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The ICE4 does work, however, inconstantly with Kodachrome slides producing unacceptable artifacts in about 5 - 10 percent of the slides. It is a hit or miss proposition. I scanned with ICE (not ICE4) always on and then rescanned if I encountered unacceptable artifacts. I did notice that the scanner ICE feature was stumped by old Kodachrome slides where subjects were wearing shirts with stripes. Those stripes were really butchered by the ICE feature. The difference in scanning quality between the Coolscan 5000 and the V was negligible to this relative newcomer to scanning.

The GEM ROC and DEE (the other stalwarts of the ICE4 other than ICE itself) work on Kodachrome slides as well, but I found that the results were unpredictable and that I could achieve better results myself in Photoshop far more quickly. The GEM ROC and DEE features simply took too long and slowed down the scanning unacceptably. The results, for me, were not worth the additional scanning time. The V took even longer than the 5000, but in neither case, IMHO, did the results justify the time expended.

The good news: The scanner is does produce wonderful wonderful detailed scans, easily demonstrating the grain in the transparancies at 3000 and 4000 dpi. The Kodachrome slides were a challenge to the Dynamic Range of the scanner, but I believe that most of the detail in the shadows that is there was extracted. Unfortunately, Kodachrome, with all of its many attributes, does have substantial downsides including a very narrow exposure latitude and shadow detail is simply lacking. I think the scanner accurately reproduced the information including the colors on the Kodachrome slides, with perhaps a slight bluish cast noticed in some cases. I was unable to appreciate a significant difference between the two scanners in shadow detail even though the 5000 had a THEORETICAL greater dynamic range.

The V was slower than the 5000, but honestly the difference for the non-professional scanner, to me, was not worth the additional investment. The V represents a superb value giving you nearly all of the advantages of the 5000 other than speed for a substantially cheaper price.

It wasn't until I was finished scanning all of the culled slides that I undertook to scan my select color negatives. And this scanner really came into its own scanning color negatives. Don't even TRY to scan color negatives without ICE because the results are unbelievably bad. Even pristine negatives have scratches and dustthat magically are erased by the ICE feature. What a godsend. I only wish it had worked so flawlessly on the Kodachrome slides. The scanned color negatives were just beautiful with very accurate color rendition. But immediately I noticed much more grain in the color negatives (Royal Gold and Fuji Superia Gold) than in the scanned slides.

One note unrelated to the scanner itself. Until you've used a digital scanner to scan your color negatives you can't begin to realize how far superior Kodachrome, Provia, and Ektachrome slides are to color negatives insofar as capturing detail. Even the best color negatives have much more grain that Kodachrome. And the difference in color negatives is substantial too.

The included Nikon software worked fantastic for me. I downloaded a copy of VueScan which according to many reviews is superior to the Nikon software and found that for me the Nikon software was easier to work with and produced superior results.

The software did cause my computer to crash occasionally which was an aggravation, but a minor one when considered against its many attributes.

I can recommend this scanner without reservation. It is a phenomenal piece of equipment. If speed is not a paramount consideration and you are not a professional scanner needing the options (the auto feeder) offered by the 5000 then, in my opinion, the V represents an absolutely tremendous value.

Decade's collection of fading film this COOLSCAN can handle. You can obtain detailed images that are truly vivid, sharp, and better than the original then technology.

Batch scanning can be done with one click on the Scan button in Nikon Scan 4's firmware. The maintenance free red, green, blue, and infrared LED light source is gentle to film. The 4000 ppi optical resolution is an ideal start for outputting A3+ prints on the new crop of large format bubblejet and inkjet printers.

Reading the Nikon Scan Reference Manual in the Nikon Scan Reference Manual/Easy Scanning Guide CD would be your best learning tool to get the most out of your scanner. For the most accurate results, the first thing to do before scanning is to set your preferences by clicking on the Prefs button in the Control Area of the Scan Window.

When enabled, the Digital ICE quad Advanced software works well with most film. The Manual will explain that ICE, ROC, GEM, and DEE will not operate with the optional FH-G1 Medical Holder.

ICE will not work on monochrome film unless the film has been developed in colour. ICE will not work properly on Kodachrome, but will work on other brands of slides. Noise may appear if ICE is used on overexposed or very vivid images. ICE will reduce the overall sharpness of the image. ICE is not not designed nor does ICE advertise itself to remove all dust and scratches from film. ICE will reduce most of the dust and scatches, however. You will have to use a third party application like Adobe Photoshop to remove the remaining dust and scratches. ICE alone will double the scanning time of 38 seconds.

ROC may add colour to monochrome or grayscale images. ROC alone will almost double the scanning time.

GEM alone will almost triple the scanning time.

DEE works best when the image is cropped to exclude other unexposed areas of the film. DEE alone will almost quadruple the scanning time.

When enabled, Scan Image Enhancer (SIE) will automatically adjust hue. It does not work with darker images. In fact, the scan produces darker images. You are better off using DEE to pull out hidden detail in the shaded areas.

ICE, ROC, GEM, DEE, and SIE together will almost quintuple the scanning time.

Unsharp Mask can be created to all colours, or individually to red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, or yellow colours in the image. Deselect blue if you do not want to emphasize the grain in an image with blue sky.

The SA-21 strip-film adaptor only works for 2 - 6 frames. To save money by not having to buy the optional 1 - 6 frame FH-3 film holder, place a 1 frame negative into an empty cardboard slide holder and insert into the MA-21 slide holder. Remember to select Neg (color), and Calibrated RGB in the Control Area before scanning.

Along with a short USB 2.0 cable, included in the package is a Nikon View 6 CD, which is an application, used to organize saved pictures in TIFF and JPEG file formats only. According to the Manual, large files created in Nikon Scan may not show on Nikon View slide shows.

Before clicking on the Scan button, press Ctrl (MS Windows) and the Autofocus button. Then left click on a focal point in the preview image to ensure accurate focusing at that point. You can always change the focus point using the same method, or by using the Focus Tool in the Layout Tools palette. The palette can also be customized to suit.

If you have to use the Analog Gain palette to correct or adjust the colour values for each of the elements in the scanner's light source, your LED's may require repair. The probability of repair to the LED's is not specifically discussed in the Manual.

If desktop or cubbyhole space is an issue, the scanner can be placed with either the top or side vents facing up. Remember to provide the minimum clearances to the scanner for ventilation. The dual wrap around band of rubber feet will ensure a cushioned slip resistant footing.

After using the transparency unit on an Epson Perfection 1670 Photo flatbed scanner for 2 months, this COOLSCAN is the only economical equipment to use to obtain satisfying scans. It is amazing how much the original analogue images have improved.

If you have at minimum several hundred frames to archive, and the time to spend in front of your monitor performing adjustments and scans to each frame, then you will not regret overspending on this scanner.

Having worked with professional drum scanners (Hell Graphic Systems), I know a little about scanning. This Nikon Coolscan V ED is the first personal scanner I have worked with and am pleasantly surprised. I have inhereted the old familly slide collection and several of the slides are grossly underexposed, or darkened with age. The V ED has the sensitivity to pull out more image than I had hoped for, with very little noise. The provided software is no replacement for Photoshop, but can go a long ways to giving acceptable results without other image retouching software. I am eager to see SilverFast for the V ED however!

The only problems I've encountered is unexpected termination of the program, and mis-judging frame boundaries of negative strips. Negative scanning is a snap, an unexpected pleasure as thinking color in reverse is painful (on German drum scanners).

For the price, this is a very highly capable scanner worthy of your consideration. If your scan rate needs are high, consider the faster version, and a FAST G5 Macintosh. A 1.25 GHz G4 gets a workout on the tougher scans.

My Agfa SnapScan e50 arrived swiftly from Amazon, much to my delight. So far, I have only used it for scanning a couple of photographs, and some OCR work, using software that I already own and like. I plan to try out the OCR that came with the scanner also, as it advertises to do more things. The software guide was an excellent help in getting the page to scan, OCR, and copy to a word processor all on it's own. The only problem I ran into was when I tried to go faster than the guide, and messed things up.

The other thing that made a great impression on me was that I got a call back from AGFA-US tech support very quickly before I decided to purchase this unit, and the man on the other end of the phone was very helpful and friendly. That cemented my decision to go with Agfa, despite there being only one review on it at Amazon. ...

I have found the scan quality to be superb. Most surprising was the resolution on 35mm negative scans. 8X10 prints of 35mm negative scans have the same (at least to my eyes and several others) resolution (and better shadow detail)as 8X10 prints from scans of 4X6 prints. This from a flatbed scanner was impressive. The Scanwise software has also worked very well. At first I thougt all of it's automation would be a problem, but it has actually been quite a help to myself and my daughter as it does appear to be very intelligent. I have not done much with the included software as I use MGI's Photosuite III.

This scanner may not be fastest around, but to have such quality for both reflective and transmissive scans is a real bargin. It will not handle anything larger than 35mm slides which for me is not an issue. This is a quality scanner and a great value, which is why I rated it at 5 stars.

I got a good deal at Amazon.com, With free shipping it makes it worthwhile. The Same Cable is thirty bucks in the retail store. It looks very sturdy and doesnt flop around. It has a cool translucent look. It is braided. The contacts are of solid quality.

...This is a very good quality cable. It has a very nice fell to it. The braided sleeve gies it a "stay" not seen with the rubber sleeve cables.
I do not see the logic in spending a lot of money on cables. There are cheaper ones on Amazon.com, but ony this was eligible for the free shipping. I was familiar with how it looked since I had shopped for it in the retail store. With the free shipping (& no taxes) this is an excellent deal.

I purchased the HP 5200Cxi about a month ago and have found it to be great. The set-up was quite easy and pictures and other things i've scanned come out great. The only negative thing I have to say is that it is much slower than I expected for a fairly expensive model.

Wow! I am very Impressed with the HP Scanjet 5200cxi very nice, and pretty much the best for this kind of money! (<:

I had problems with the USB installation (not caused by HP, but by a previous scanner that left garbage all over my Windows registry) but now that it's working, it's great. Very fast and reliable, with excellent photo quality. There are cheaper scanners out there, but with those companies you'll pay in aggravation what you save in dollars. I highly recommend the HP!

Only problem I have is copying and printing transparencies. I am an artist and have my work photographed on 8 x 10 transparencies (chromes). I was told that this machine can copy same by simply putting a white piece of paper over the back of the transparency. IT DOES NOT WORK and I can't seem to get an answer from anyone regarding this problem. Other than the above, I am satisfied with the machine.

I had been searching for replacements for my older flatbed scanner and HP 660C printer -- and, of course, on a budget.

The HP R40 met my requirements, and I got a color copier out of the deal, too. The scanner and associated software is pretty good, though certianly not HP's highest end. Print quality is excellent, with near-photo quality even on plain paper (and almost indistinguishable from photo quality when on glossy photo paper). The copier function allows you to select b/w or color from the front panel (and is much handier than the old-fashioned way of scanning an image in and then printing back out!). It lacks a document handler, but the R60 (at about $100 more) includes one, if you need it.

A tip: to really speed things up (especially scanning), make sure you go into BIOS and enable ECP on your parallel port(s).

Overall, a very good value, and, as usual, high quality from HP. I'm very happy with it, and it complements my HP PhotoSmart printer and photo scanner well.

I LOVE this machine! I use it for my graphics business for printing photos, artwork and text. I recommend for anyone using it to set up your computer to make 2-way communication with the R-40. My scan time of high-resolution images was cut to a fraction of the time it took before I adjusted it.

Unless you are prepared to spend $2500+ for a film scanner, the Dimage Scan Elite is the ideal choice for 35mm scans of color negative film. The Scan Elite produces much better tonal range from negative films than the Nikon offerings (although Nikon does a better job on slide scans). The SCSI interface is adequate for transferring huge files up to 45Mb. And the digital ice software is convenient for occasional scratched negative.

There are some compromises to contend with: the bundled software is mediocre, but many prefer Vuescan software which offers much more functionality for film scanning. Minolta is not going to release a OS X compatible driver, and the scan speed is much slower than the manufacturer specs in multiscan mode which is essential to minimize channel noise. However these are reasonable tradeoffs for the reasonable price point of the Dimage and outstanding 8x10 to 11x14 color prints which result from a good scan.

I'm a serious photo hobbyist, not a professional, but this scanner produces really professional results. I've had one about a year, installed it with the 2906 scsi card before Minolta supplied them. First, you CAN scan very fast, but I NEVER do-because I want those BIG image files around 30 MB from a color original. These have been taking upwards of 20 minutes on my older 400 mhz pc. The big file? You can make stunning prints on an Epson 1280 printer--say, as big as the printer will go, 13X19 inches. I spend the time to do it well, neither the scanning nor the printing are a quick process.

This scanner is phenomenal. While you're busy comparing the Nikon coolscan to the Canon film scanners, don't get tunnel vision and forget to consider the Minolta Scan Elite. Sometimes you do find a good deal AND a great product in the same package. Professional results for photographers needing high-res scans for stock or other commercial endeavors. GET ONE! You won't be sorry.