Scanner Reviews

When you walk into the computer store and look at the displays, and sales literature, are you left as confused as I am? Reading reviews is the same. Some 5 stars and some P'off people. It seems as if doing your homework only makes you feel good when you initially and "confidently" plunk down your money. When you get home and plug it in, your homework may or may not pay off. Reminds me of the Cabela's catalog for hunters and fishermen. There must be at least 50 pages of camoflage clothing. If you really want such an item, you'll probably buy it from them because, after all--"they have such a selection" (and they've confused me) so I'll put my finger down somewhere and just buy it. HP, Epson, Canon, and others are the same way. Their strategy is to create a proliferation of products that take up shelf space and the consumer will have to buy something. Why don't they spend their efforts making fewer models and better products? Because we the consumer are used to having 14 brands and styles of peanut butter to choose from (and even more would be better, right?) Any ideas out there on how to put some sanity into the process?

My first scanner was an Epson 600, but when I made the jump to Win2K, there was no driver for it so I bought the Epson Perfection 1250. Alas, it was not as good a scanner. The two main problems are:
- The control panel pops up randomly, something for which there is no fix apparently.
- After 10-15 minutes, the computer has to be rebooted to find the scanner if is has been inactive. If the scanner is unplugged to force a rescan of the USB port, the PC crashes.

It is also very slow and the software that comes with it is not even close to being as good as the package that came with the 600.

Other reviews cite an attachment that helps scan slides but, alas, that did not come with my scanner. On the other hand, the dust under the glass noted in other reviews has not been a problem.

I've always preferred Epson scanners. At work we used the top of the line, so when I needed a home unit, I thought this would fill the bill. So far, I've been very happy with it. It's lighter weight and slower than the professional models I've used, but it also cost less! Set up was a snap and it worked from the get-go. I'm happy with the performance and quality of scans; all the scans I've made thus far are very good. The slide scan adapter also works well; too cumbersome to convert a tray's worth of slides quickly, but the quality is suprisingly good. The software is fine, but I've switched to the manual TWAIN mode and scan everything into Photoshop. This one's a keeper--After living with it for a while, I've upped my rating from 4 to 5 stars.

This was my first scanner, and in my opinion, a very well designed one. I remember that I was up and scanning the first day I brought it home. It even worked with my old 486 long after I got a faster PC. I'll admit that it isn't fast, but if you are only going to do a little occasional scanning (such as for Ebay) it is just fine. It hums and it grinds- but it never failed me.
The only reason that I finally sold mine was, that the cable connectors (parallel port) weren't compatible with my new Gateway (USB).

After reading all the reviews on this product, I was not sure - until the store put this on clearance (newer models are out). It worked great the first day, then didn't the next ("cannot find scanner" message), but I contacted HP online and the next day got a help message. Since then it has given me no troubles. I realize if/when I ever update my computer, this will probably not work(I use Windows 98), but that seems to be the way with anything you buy nowadays - it is already outdated when you get it home. But for now, it does a great job and I am very pleased. (Still I wish it were "one touch", but that is the newer models.) Photo editing program seems to be okay-nothing great, though.

I bought this scanner a while back and I just absolutly love it.. The color scan on it is one of the best I have seen for a long time. It does good for black and white also. It's a little slow when it's scanning but for the money and the quality it does a great job. Buy one today you can't go wrong with HP period.

After getting sick and tired of all the streaked printing from a series of Epson printers--okay, it could have been me doing something wrong, but when I mentioned it at several stores, the clerks smiled and said, "What else is new?"--I decided to get my first HP. I wanted a multifunction unit because I have two kids in middle school and a bit of copying and scanning always comes in handy. I am more than pleased with the PSC 1350. It is remarkably small and attractive, and the black and white text printing is plenty fast, and color printing is terrific. I'm not using it to scan photographs, so you may not be happy with 36 bit scanning if that's your bag, but it is a wonderful sidekick at a very reasonable price.

I was thrilled to find a multifunctional printer for such a good price. It prints gorgeous photos even without the special photo ink, the scanner is the best I've used so far, the copier function is super easy to use, and the card reader was a nice surprise (I thought it was only for printing directly from a memory card - turns out you can use it to open files from the card on your computer). I haven't used the proof-sheet function yet so I can't comment on that. I only have two gripes with it: 1. the top of the scanner doesn't come off - this would make it a lot easier to scan/copy book pages or other things that aren't completely flat or are larger than the scanner itself; 2. The ink costs a small fortune! Even at a military exchange store, where prices are usually pretty low, it's $25 for black, $35 for color. I guess that's how they make up for the low price of the printer itself! Overall, though, it's such a great item that I had to give it 4 stars.

This printer is a really good value. I am just heading off to college and I think that this printer can do everything a college student needs to do. It can do everything from print out my essays, to creating high nice looking photographs (the printer includes 15 sheets of photo paper). The all-in-one also make copies fast and with good clarity. This printer is with out a doubt the best bang for the buck.

Pretty versatile scanner, it looks cool too Silver lid with cool grooves and the button panel is cool plastic with silver pin-stripes which surround the five buttons to make your scanning tasks convenient: scan, photocopy, email, OCR and Web photo sharing. It does reflective (regular things like photos, typed or handwritten pages, etc.) and both positive and negative film with the Lightlid attachment.
The pros are that the software it comes with are pretty good, especially the interface of the Twain program Microtek Scanwizard which you can keep in either simple, easy mode or advanced mode or switch between the two interfaces as you like. The ABYY Fine Reader Sprint is pretty decent OCR Software at recognizing text; you can try and then purchase the full version of ABYY Fine Reader if you need that. If you are a digital camera aficionado or want to be, Adobe Photodeluxe does a decent job at editing your photos and Ulead Photo Explorer SE does a pretty good job at keeping you organized and the real version of Photo Explorer isn't that expensive if you need more options. Along with the online photo sharing and fairly decent scanning speeds, you get alot for your buck.
The cons are the name: ScanMaker 4800, you think it's a better or stepped up version of the 4700 but it's not, it's more of a stepped up version of the 3800. The 4700 is built much more sturdily and it has some better software that comes with it but you do pay for those "extras". The results from the film scanning with the Lightlid attachement are far from stellar, photos are better to scan.I also wish they made the Lightlid (the film-scanning add-on) with a little bit longer cord. Another con I think is that there is no off button (I unplug it to turn it off) or sleep button(low powered idle mode). Plus the scanner won't go into sleep mode unless you run Microtek ScanWizard each time you turn your computer on(this won't be a big problem if you always leave your computer on you just have to run ScanWizard once).
If you need a low-priced, lightweight scanner which is good at scanning photos with good 48-bit color depth and great DPI then this is the one for your home or small office.

I seem to be in the minority of scanner users who actually scan documents and not photographs. By scanning documents, I have slowly been turning my paper into digital images. Depending on scan quality, and image file format, the contents of a filing cabinet can be safely held on a CD-R.

With those goals in mind, I searched for a dependable scanner. Higher-end models had document feeders, but given my experiences with previous scanners...I decided that they were not rugged enough to elicit that kind of cash. I ended up with a middle of the road model - the ScanMaker 4800.

I started scanning and shredding. After a few weeks of playing with the software and the scanner, I can say it is on par with (or better than) the other scanners I have had. To stress test, I was downloading a file from the internet, ripping a CD, playing an MP3, while scanning a document. The scanner would stop and stutter when the PC went to disk, but it never lost its place, and recovered nicely.

Pros: Easy to install, comes with Adobe PhotoDeluxe, and it installs the Adobe PDF software. After installing the adobe software, you suddenly have a "PDF Printer", and you can now generate .pdf files from Word or Excel by "printing" to their driver.

Cons: The OCR software that is included is a nag-ware (crippled) version. It doesn't exactly work that great, and it constantly begs you to buy the "Professional" edition to get better scanning features. I find that annoying. Luckily, I don't do OCR that much.

A 35mm film scanner attachment is included, but I have no reason to attempt to scan old film (I don't have any).

I was thoroughly impressed with this scanner upon taking it out of the box. Although it is bulky compared to the popular Canon flatbeds (670U, 676U) this model was surprisingly economical with desktop space. The exterior shell is nice and has a metallic shine to it. Simple five button layout. All in all, not a bad looking machine.

As with all other USB products I own, the installation was EXTREMELY easy, and the concise manual is written in plain English. Just as important, the Windows 2000 TWAIN drivers are very stable. Running ScanWizard 5 and importing to Photoshop 6 is very painless and simple.

Scans are pretty fast with 96-300 DPI resolution, but once I reach 600, it becomes a tortoise-like drag. I do a lot of scanning of magazine pages in full-color, and I wasn't impressed with the clarity until I reached 1200 DPI (although the maximum interpolation DPI goes as high as 9600). However, because my preferences for professional quality photos are high, most consumers shouldn't worry, especially if you're only using this scanner for web graphics and family photos. Black and whites and web graphics were very fast to scan, and I was impressed with the results. I'm sure most people won't need to go beyond 300 DPI anyway, because that's the best resolution for printing.

I stick with Adobe Photoshop 6, but the included software (Adobe PhotoDeluxe) is a trimmed-down version of essentially the same stuff. The ABYY fine reader program is pretty good with OCR but the Ulead Photo Explorer SE is the best program included, making organization of my scans very painless. Furthermore, to clarify another review, the 35mm Light Lid IS included for scanning film, although I haven't tried it myself yet.

As for the cons, the most disturbing thing is that there is no power button! The only way to turn it off is to unplug it, although there is a power-saving mode. Secondly, size does matter and I do envy the Canon owners who get a much sleeker model that is literally three times thinner. Another thing to note is that support is only available for 30 days. After that, you have to pay for the call. Fortunately, I haven't had to question anything yet, and that's always a good thing.

In summary, I say the buck stops here for scanner buyers. Do your research to confirm you need 48-bit color (most people don't, and actually the human eye can't perceive beyond 32-bit), and have the desktop space. The software, extra features and installation are a steal..., and there aren't any extra hassles to deal with either.

I found the scan effectiveness worthy of praise, but trying to get the content to my laptop unbearable. The software wouldn't install well or access the scanned text on my Win XP laptop, or my Win2000 laptop, and when I went to my old Win98 laptop it worked fine...albiet with a lame interface. And then, when I deleted the desktop software from Win98 system, the OS got smeared and now only fires up in "Safe Mode". Again, the optics work fine, no complaints at all, but the software is puke.

I just purchased this handheld scanner because, as a PhD student and full-time manager, I have tons of reading to do. Before I purchased QuickLink, I either had to hand write or type notes into my PC, spend hours at a copier, or spend lots of time using a full-sized scanner to save the quotes and important text that I needed. Now, this WizCom scanner allows me to easily and quickly scan articles, books and other text no matter where I am (on a plane, in a hotel room, at work, or by the

pool). Then I can quickly upload the text into Word or WordPerfect (or other software programs) when I have the chance. Or, if I want, I can scan directly into a specific file.

Though it takes a while to get used to the pen and its menus, a previous reviewer was right on the money when they offered this tip - "Put the pen in the "left-handed" mode, turn the material upside down and then scan from right to left. This lets the user "look ahead" along the desired pen track (printed line) and helps keep the scanning down the center of the line." THIS REALLY DOES WORK and makes scanning much faster and more precise. (I'm not sure, but if you are left-handed, the reverse directions might work for you.)

Now that I have the knack of using the QuickLink pen, I love it! It saves me tons of time and I can now scan only the text I want instead of copying the entire page. For the price and convenience, it's great.

I just received my QuickLink pen and right out of the box I am getting about 99-100% accuracy. The QuickLink is 100% what I was expecting and I'm perfectly happy with this little gadget.

I bought this pen as an aid to writing research papers. It allows me to scan in the bits and pieces of reference articles and books which saves me a lot of time in re-reading and manual data-entry later on.

As I said before, I am currently getting 99-100% accuracy with this pen and I cannot understand why others are having so much trouble. However, there are a few points to keep in mind when using this pen:

(1) This is not for scanning entire pages of text. You will become very impatient and tired.

(2) Scanning one line of text takes about 3-4 seconds, plus another 3-4 seconds for text "processing"

(3) For best results keep the pen tip at a 90-degree angle to the page.

(4) Move the pen as smoothly as possible to avoid any jerking motion.

(5) Keep the text directly under the white guidelines printed on the pen's tip. When I went slightly above these lines, the text came out very badly.

(6) Try to avoid stylish or funny fonts. I found that this pen works GREAT on standard fonts such as Times New Roman. However, if you scan stylish 'e' and 's' characters, it often reads them as 'c' and '5'.

This pen can and will work great for you, if you take the time to use it correctly and patiently, which is why I suggest it's not for taking page after page of notes. It's perfect for taking highlights of bits and bobs.

And as a side note, it works perfectly with my Palm OS PDA. No extra software is needed to beam notes from my QuickLink to my Sony Clie and in no time I can be editing the text on a larger screen.

Hope this is useful to some of you out there!

(...)

The Officejet d145 is the second multifunction HP I've had, the first being a g85 series. Having it all together is a great feature, and the d145 has one over my previous multifunction in that it has slots for my digital camera memory cards (thin, thick and even the memory stick). And, what's terrific is that when you insert your camera's memory card into the d145, it asks you if you want to upload the pictures. When you press "1" for yes, it creates a folder in "My Pictures" for the particular months the pictures were taken and uploads them. The print quality is as good as my photosmart printers, which is terrific!

Faxing and copying are effortless, with fax numbers taken from Outlook and other address books.

The d145 would have gotten a 5 Star rating from me had the scanning software been as easy to use as what came with the g-series multifunction I had. When you scanned with the other, it asked you what you wanted to send the scanned article to (Word, Wordperfect, PaintShop Pro, etc.), with the d145 you have to establish the applications that it will scan to. This may not be a problem with other buyers, and once I learned I needed to do it, it presented no problem.

One last item, I have an unbelievable number of items hooked-up to the computer that has the d145, so many that I use two USB routers to expand the number of USB ports. I've noticed that some items, such as my PDA desktop cradle, caused my d145 to go slightly haywire with the LED's flashing. Making sure both did not share the same USB expansion router solved the problem.

Overall, the d145 is the best multifunction printer, copier, fax, scanner, I've every had, and I'd recommend it to anyone wanting the best of all worlds.

UPDATE: I recently purchased an HP Camera for my Step-Daughter (Photosmart 720) and one for myself (Photosmart 850). Both use the little SD memory cards. The d145 I purchased only a couple of months ago does not have an SD slot. So make sure your camera's memory is compatible with the slots on the d145.

I shopped long and hard before I settled on the HP d145 as the multifunction solution for my home office. Compared to the other affordable ... all-in-one machines, this one was the best. Although it was the most expensive, it's not perfect by any means.

PROS:
Fast plain paper prints and copies. EXCELLENT, mind-boggling plain paper copy quality. In fact, I printed some photos for a friend, and after printing 4 or 5 copies on photo paper, she preferred the plain paper copy over them all. Double-sided prints are a nice convenience, and the paper feeder is nice when you need to copy something that's double-sided and/or multiple pages. A big time saver over scanning the pages one at a time, figuring out how to place the front side in the feeder to copy on the reverse, etc... This feature alone makes the machine worth the price. The card reader works great, and although I usually just download my images to my PC and pick them for printing from there, the few times I've used the index feature (for when I just took a bunch of photos and wanted to show them to somebody right away), the speed and ease of it was very nice. The onboard LCD is comprehensive, easy to learn and use, and my 9 year old son figured out how to make copies on his own in about 10 seconds.

So why didn't I rate this machine 5 stars?

CONS:
Put simply, photo printing. I own a cheap (less than one hundred dollars) Epson color printer that embarrasses the d145 when it comes to photo printing. Why would HP put a PHOTO CARD READER on this machine, and then offer such lousy photo printing quality?! You can't print anything borderless without using a paper cutter or scissors after the fact. My Epson machine will print beautiful borderless 8.5 x 11 photos that are much sharper and photo-like at a fraction of the cost. Now I see that HP has a new model, the d155, that comes with an onboard print server, but appears that everything else is the same as the d145.

SCANNING: Not impressive. The spec sheet would lead you to believe that this machine can do some quality scanning, but I was very unsuccessful in that area. I have an older, SCSI HP Scanjet 5p that won't work with Windows XP, so I wanted something newer that would take it's place... The d145 scans were full of static and noise, as if it was running some sort of sharpen filter by default. I spent 30 minutes reading the manual and going through the settings trying to fix this problem with no luck. If you are content to scan at lower resolutions for web use, then the scanner is probably fine... but if you want high resolution scans for printing, I have some reservations about this machine. Also, it gives you the ability to "Scan to..." a few different applications, like Outlook, Word, and HP Scanning software... but I couldn't find a way to scan to my program of choice, Photoshop. I had to scan, then cut and paste to get the images into a graphics program for editing... which they needed desperately for touch-up because of the noisy scan.

CONCLUSION:
If plain paper printing and copies, ease of use, speed, and saving space are your priorities, then this machine is PERFECT. However, if you want to print nice, frameable photos, I suggest you do what I did and buy a dedictated photo printer ... You might also want a dedicated scanner as well.... which sort of defeats the point of an All-in-one doesn't it?

This is the second MF printer I have owned, and it supassed my wildest dreams. The printing quality is very high in both color and B&W. The copier and fax capabilites are very simple to use. And the HP software is very easy to scan in pictures. Even the ink cartridges are reasonably prices ... Setup was a breeze with the USB connection. I set it up in under 15 minutes.

I would highly recommend this printer for some one looking for a all-in one machine. While it might be a little expensive, the quality is very high.

I have had this scanner for over a year and between the problems I've had with this and my Epson printer, I will never again purchase an Epson product. My scanner will not copy an entire 8.5"x11" page. It invariably cuts off about an inch off the margin. I have to reduce the image to about 90% in order to get the entire page to print. I have tried saving to a file and then printing...same result. The entire image appears in the preview, but will not print. I have downloaded all the newest drivers for XP, and have spent many hours on the Epson Tech Support site, all to no avail. I had an HP scanner before this, and decided to try the Epson, because it was so cheap. I guess you get what you pay for.

I'm quite pleased with the Epson 1250, I've primarily used the scanner for archiving old photos. For a scanner (in that price range), it provides excellent image quality at 1200x2400 dpi. Setup w/ Epson software and USB connection was a breeze, literally taking about a minute. The included software is quite good for most beginner to intermediate users. In addition to TWAIN capture software it includes OCR capability (text recognition), an image editor, and web picture hosting. More advanced users will make better use of Photoshop and other software, but you still can't beat the scan quality at this price point. Also, hardware seems to be fairly rugged and the scanner has small footprint and very slim profile. I compared various scanners in a retail store, the only ones that have a slimmer profile are the Canon CanoScan models (which cost about twice as much for 1200x2400 scan resolution).

I have owned and used this scanner for more than a year now. Its intallation was very smooth and its output is always almost perfect, not rquiring any further adjustments. 1200dpi is a lot of resolution that is required for most line art publications. I have not used the software package as it is really functionally very limited, particularly the ocr software, but again I doubt that any scanner in the same price range comes with a respectable ocr software (as omnipage). The scanner's control panel is a very large program (about 150MB) and although it offers many options I have not required those. As a whole, I have been very satisfied with this product although I do not depend on the supplied software package.

If you are one of those types of people who like to scan stuff out of a magazine, I wouldn't buy this product at all. When I always tried to scan photos from magazines I'd always get this weird light effect across the whole image. The best I can describe it is, you know how if your cable is bad and you see an annoying black bar that keeps going across the screen. Well this was what happened to my magazine scans. I'd get a transparent yellowish bar (pinkish too) that went across the whole photo and editing didn't even help to get rid of it. Honestly my suggestion is if you scan photos for the web from magazine clippings, don't buy this scanner. The images come out terrible, plus the speed is very slow. This product isn't even worth the lowest rating you can give a product on Amazon.

I have been slow to get a scanner. I just never had any need for one. So, since my wife is a 35mm camera buff and isn't sold on digital photography yet, it was time to get a scanner. Not needing bells and whistles, I took a chance on the low cost HP 3300Cse. It is worth every penny if you want reliable, easy to use scanning.

The scanner itself was easy to hook up. Basically, plug it in and you a ready to go. However, with Windows XP, there was some issues. First, this scanner, on the box, says Windows 98 only. Well, Windows XP recognizes the scanner and installs the proper, signed drivers. However, to use the HP scanning software, you must download a 54 meg file for the latest software and install UNSIGNED drivers. This isn't a biggie for most people, but I found that the built in scanning software in Windows XP works just fine, if you are worried about signed and unsigned drivers. Either way, both software packages do the job.

Scanning quality was surprising, considering the very low cost of this scanner. The images are crisp and can be scanned in varying depths. Add a photo imaging software package and you are in business. The speed is a little slow but not too bad.

You can't go wrong with this scanner if you are on a budget and want a simple, easy to use scanner. Highly recommended.

I am very satisfied with this scanner, it was easy to install, the trick was that before installing it, I downloaded the latest software and drivers from HP web site,(I even haven't opened the original CD with the software yet), so when I connected the scanner for the first time to one of my pc's the installation was very simple, easy and trouble-free, I have tested the scanner with a machine with windows 98 installed and another machine with windows 2000 pro (just for curiosity) =), in both cases I found no problems neither with the software nor the drivers.

The image quality is very good, and unless you are a graphic designer, I can tell you that this scanner will fullfill all your scanning needs

I've been running my X83 on WinXP for 18 months with no real problems. Occasional problems were usually solved by re-booting the computer. My usage of this machine is only about 15-20 pages per month (let's see, 15-20 page x 18 months,that's about 270-360 pages over the lifetime of this printer.

A week ago, I started to print a document and noticed that the printer wasn't "On". Turns out the power supply is OK, but the printer itself totally FAILED (this is what Lexmark' Techs - 3 different ones - decided) with absolutely no warning!! $186 for 360 pages is a little too expensive for me and that doesn't include the cost of the numerous print cartridge that it used.Of course now I'm stuck with three unopened ink cartridges as well.

Nothing else from this company for me. Also, I just learned that Lexmark makes Dell's printers, so stay away from those as well.

What can I say. From the day I bought this piece of junk it has failed to work properly. Emailing back and forth with Lexmark's tech support was fruitless on most occasions. Problems popped up, disappeared and popped up again with no rhyme or reason. I might add that my brother-in-law is a tech expert at a major university and could never figure out the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune I suffered with this printer. DO NOT BUY. I repeat, DO NOT BUY. Learn from my mistake. Right now it serves as a gigantic paperweight. I'm too lazy to call my town's special pick-up garbage service to haul it away.

After comparing the Lexmark X83 at a CompUSA with the comparable HP, we chose to purchase it. In short, we have been very pleased with it. For reference, our previous printer was a Lexmark 3200 which we also bought for its value.

The print quality is fantastic, with a stunning high-end of 2400x1200. On Kodak photo-paper, the images are amazingly vibrant and life-like.

B/W printing is very fast and crisp at the default we set (600x600 on plain paper). It looks at least as good as the office HP laser printer, although that might have to do with the better paper we use at home. I prefer the Lexmark technology to the HP REt; it seems to make small letters more readable.

Others have written about the X83 not being networkable, and that is my biggest gripe. I "solved" this by connecting the printer to my USB hub on the desk top, instead of the USB port in the back of the computer. I unplug the printer from the hub and attach it to my laptop when I want to print from the laptop(rare; I usually print my work at the office). The USB connection makes it very easy to do this.

The USB connection has also proven useful for scanning. Transfer between the printer and the computer is much faster than the old printer connection (my old scanner used a bi-directional parallel port).

Scanning is easy. You can use the included little applet, which is simple. I tried OCR to convert an encyclopedia page to text, and it was pretty accurate. OCR has come a long way since the last time I tried it.

Copying is done via the front panel. One reason I chose the Lexmark was that the copy bed was like a copier. I believe the comparable HP used a page feed, like a fax, which makes copying book pages impossible; the HP flat bed was (...) more expensive. The cover also comes off, which is handy for those really fat books I have.

So, here's a summary:

HITS:

* Cheap compared to HP
* Good quality print in B/W and color
* USB connection
* Easy panel operation
* Flat-bed scanner for copying/scanning books

NITS:

* Not networkable
* Colors not quite true in copying
* Bundled software? What bundled software?

OVERALL:

See my 5-star rating! Great for home use.

The MFC work right out of the box is a good point. No problem, but the quality is not acceptable, I have to run clean printhead 4 times with-in 1 month of take owner-ship of the machine. Take 4 minutes to print 1 page color superfine mode with picture, and the quality not superfine at all. Faxing and PC-Fax are good, fast. Scan is find, I run it with Win98sec. The machine already print 400 pages so far with 4 times clean printhead I think that to much compare to My old HP for 4 year never have one time clean printhead beside when you replace ink. I love flatbed and ADF as well, Had no paper jam so far. I need on/off swith.

I had this machine for 2 years. It worked fine, ink cartridges went quickly though. It's on it's 2 year anniversary and the head is broken. It costs $300 to replace. Out with this and in with a new one. I will buy extra warranty on my next one.

I recieved the MFC-5100C this afternoon, with some trepidation about MacOS X support. I'm happy to report that it works without a hitch in OS X, both for printing and scanning. No USB cable in the box, but that seems to have become standard practice for printer manufacturers.

Print quality is decent. Not on par with the latest/best inkjets, but they cost more than this machine, and don't have scanner/fax capabilities. And inkjet printing has come so far in the last few years that this 'ok' modern printer is far better than the standard a few years ago.

Scan quality (via the TWAIN driver) is good as well. Again, not as good as more expensive scanners, but quite acceptable for an economical multifunction machine. Scanning speed is good as well. Minor gripe, that may not be Brother's fault - i can scan with no problems into Adobe Photoshop and some other apps, but Image Capture.app goes haywire with this TWAIN driver. Might be Apple's fault though, since the driver works fine with other apps.

So far my only concern is that the scanner light stays on permanently, and there is no on/off switch for the unit. So the unit is presumably sucking power and wearing out the scanner light 24 hours a day. :(

-robin