Scanner Reviews

After 3 yrs of ownership I am ready to toss it out the window.

Even when it was new, the print head slammed got "stuck" and stopped printing while spewing ink inside the machine. The ink cartridges are super-expensive and hard to find, unlike Canon refills which are cheap and available everywhere.

The fax can only handle about 20 pages when scanning to memory first.

The slow scanner produces low-quality images which have herringbone patterns embedded in the image.

The software included is terrible, this unit is not fully compatible with Win XP.

The unit always indicates that it is out of ink when there is plenty of ink left.

The 470cx is radiant in the multifunction marketplace. There are no competitors that rise to its adoration level. The built in 1200x1200 color printer rivals many other 'only printers on the shelf'. Setting the fax machine to auto/manual/telephone or dedicated fax is easier than most brands. The scan feature operates faster than expected and the print and copy speeds are faster than all of the nearest competitors. If you're spending $250 for a machine, dare not pick anything else until you've astonished yourself at the overwhelming features, simplicity of use and extended life cartridges the 470cx has. For the money (and believe me the features are top notch), its the best multifunction on the shelf.

Almost the best but the best you can get Reviewer: An electronics fan from San Diego The 470cx is radiant in the multifunction marketplace. There are no competitors that rise to its adoration level. The built in 1200x1200 color printer rivals many other 'only printers on the shelf'. Setting the fax machine to auto/manual/telephone or dedicated fax is easier than most brands. The scan feature operates faster than expected and the print and copy speeds are faster than all of the nearest competitors. If you're spending $250 for a machine, dare not pick anything else until you've astonished yourself at the overwhelming features, simplicity of use and extended life cartridges the 470cx has. For the money (and believe me the features are top notch), its the best multifunction on the shelf.

I bought one of these about 3 years ago and it has given good service, running on Windows 98.

I now have windows XP and as other reviews have said, the software provided with the product does not work at all with XP. However, the critisism in some of the reviews above is not up to date. I have loaded updated software from the Umax site, which was free and works fine with XP. In fact it appears identical in use with the software initially provided.

I still think this is a good scanner, although it is a bit dated and bulky by today's standards.

RA

I purchased the Astra 2100U ,mostly because the price point for a 32 bit scanner was hard to beat. A little nervous on how it would perform ,however I was pleasantly surprised. I ended up removing all of the software bundled with this product except the VistScan software and the Adobe PhotoShop Home Edition 3.0. I like the ease of use on the copy utility, and use it often. FYI ,I have a P3 750 256M.B.SDRAM O/S WinMe , Iam using ver3.53U of the vistascan software, those having probs and are running WinMe or WinXP can download ver3.55 , I have'nt had any probe so Iam sticking with the originial ver off the installation CD ! If like me you dont use a scanner often,and cant justify spending alot on one ,this is the way to go ! When I frist recieved the scanner I noticed some smugges on the under side of the glass, UMAX support replied quickly to my concerns about this and supplied directions for opening up the case and cleaning the glass top and bottom. I also was concerned because I accidently had the scanner light on all night ,they said if the bulb was to burn out they would replace it!

I received this scanner free from a friend who has bought a new one and I replaced my old ulead scanner with this one. I love the simple use of all of the programs and there is no need to always set up size and pixels settings as in my other one. I don't know if I would have purchased this one to replace my old one but since it was free I am giving it a try and so far I am very pleased. I am running windows me and have had no problems...

Like others have mentioned in their review, my HP 3570 worked fine for a while. The problem started when after moving, I attempted to scan with my scanjet. Nothing works! It is like there is no power to the scanner, though it's connected exactly the way it was before I moved. I decided to see what what happen if I installed it on another computer and again - NOTHING WORKS!!! I tried all the troubleshooting and driver installing, updating, etc.... NOTHING! I see now after reading other's reviews, I am not the only one who feels scammed, ripped-off, dissappointed, let down, etc. by this pathetic HP product! Shame on what I used to think of as a respectable name in computer equipment!!!

I am going to burn this thing! I have spent 5 hours messing with this stupid thing and nothing works! I have downloaded every driver update etc. HP just sucks...

All the quality you've come to expect from Hewlett Packard in an affordable package. After running a few benchmarks of my own, I found this scanner ran exceptionally with very high quality results... up to a point. Using a stock Dell Deminsion 2350 (6 months old) under Windows XP I tested the various resolutions offered with excellant results up to 1200 dpi. At 2400 dpi the system bogged down and would not scan any higher without a memory upgrade. Speed is another consideration with this scanner. It takes a bit of time to warm up for old-fashioned paper scans, but be prepared to wait for as much as a minute or more for the transparency lamp to warm up. Further, I could not configure the software to scan directly from Jasc's Paint Shop Pro ver. 8.0, leaving me to scan, save, exit and then edit. A tedious routine if you have much to do. The built in OCR though is this scanners true saving grace. Best OCR I've used yet, allowing you to scan printed material directly to a Rich Text Format (such as Microsoft Word). I encountered no problems at all with the transparency adapter, testing both negitives and slides (with the sole exception that I did fail to slide the slide all the way down the adapter track on my first try.) Scanning Roll Film (35mm Microfilm) was an adventure, but with a bit of creativity, I was successful in obtaining several legible census records. My only suggestion to the manufacturer (other than reducing warm-up times) would be the addition of a horizontal cross channel for the use of 35mm Roll Film. All in all, if you are willing to overlook a few minor inconveniences, the HP Scanjet 3970 offers a great deal for such a low price.

I had an HP Officejet 1170 and gave it awa for this piece of junk! Not only does this All-in-1 have small ink cartridges that seem to run out way before their time...HP also includes an obnoxious popup software to tell you it's time to blow some more money on their bottom line! This feature is unrelenting and leaves me wondering if the cartridges have an internal battery designed to last 30 days regardless of use! Plus, I have never been able to successfully refill these...even the black ink...a great way to mess up the whole device...artfully designed to screw you. In my neck of the woods, adjacent to the second largest city in the USA, no one seems to carry #14 cartridges and when I do find them...what a rip-off! Also, when the fax is used on tone dial, it never works...when HP was made aware of the problem within warantee period...their fix was to have me set it to rotary dial! No repair, no replacement of the disfunctional internal modem...just disable it and go back to 1960's!! What a bunch of crap HP!!! You are theives in the night and I will never buy another HP All-in-1 anything!!!

The HP d135 is a wonderful printer. It has everything a home office needs. It prints, faxes, copies and scans as well as any moderately priced, separate copier, fax machine, printer or scanner. The front panel is intuitively designed. It even has cool features that allow you to print or copy multiple pages on 1 sheet, or reduce/enlarge photos or copies effortlessly. I also like the automatic document feeder. The best part of the printer is that it's fast. I generally use the "fast" setting because it saves time and ink.

This is, by far, the best multifunction machine on the market. And, of course, it's an HP. I only gave the printer four stars because the machine is loud and the CD-ROM that came with my machine was corrupt, so I had to download the driver from the HP website. Otherwise, setting up the printer was no problem. I also think it should come with a USB cable (you have to buy it separately). A machine that does everything should include everything you need in the box to hook it up.

NOTE: If you do a lot of two-sided printing, you should consider the HP d145 or d125. Or you can purchase the two-sided printer accessory separately.

ADDENDUM - I had to exchange my first d135 printer because it was leaving streaks on the page and it was putting large yellow drops on the pages. Because of this, I downgraded this printer to 3 stars. Hopefully, this new printer will work better.

I was hoping for the best, but I guess there's no such thing as an all-in-one product that does everything perfectly....

Overall the D135 is a great multifunction. All the functions work very well and in many cases rival the quality of individual components. Uses HPs new print engine with separated ink cartridges and print heads. The print heads are user replacable and are rated at 3 years or 50000 pages (not bad!!). This should be an economical machine to use.

The scanner has been upgraded from the G85 and is better in every way. The document feeder is much better than the G series and the scans are now optically 600 x 1200 48 bit color (unless you have a Mac which is limited to 36 bit I believe).

The fax is also 33.6 color (assuming you find someone else with a color fax)....Plenty of memory for preprogrammed numbers and 10 one touch keys.

Overall The D135 is quite easy to use with good ergonomics and tons of usable features. Also watch for the forthcoming D145 and D155 which add CF, SM and Sony Memory stick slots for digital camera users, a duplexer to allow two sided printing and copying and, in the case of the d155, a second paper tray for power users.

Pitfalls, and there's always a few....

1) Typical for HP printers, prints are often skewed just a little bit on the page. About 1mm off when comparing left to right. This seems to be an HP trait. I tried 4 different D135 machines, all with a similar problem.... Many users won't notice the slight skewing, but I found it quite easily when printing borderless photos.

2) The WinXP software isn't ready yet so the functionality is limited a bit right now. PC faxing yet not enabled yet and sone scanning functions don't work yet (including OCR unless you buy an off the shelf Twain compliant OCR program).

3) The scanner head is a bit noisy. No biggie, just thought I'd bring it up. Don't expect to use it in the bedroom while the wife is sleeping!!!

Despite the quirks, overall HP has a winner!!

I've had the same experience as several others. My printheads are all causing horizontal lines on the pages I print and the cost to fix will be over one hundred dollars (I suspect the printheads all need replacing). I've had this MFC for a little over 2 years. I don't print to it often, so it has to clean the ink cartridges every time, which takes several minutes. I also have to replace the cartridges quite often. Unfortunately, the Brother printers are the only ones I can get through my work program. Otherwise, I would definitely get something other than a Brother printer. I've used Epson and HP laser printers and love them.

I got an MFC-9200C on April 16 and began using it immediately. As a copier (mono or color), it is worth the $ I paid. I can drop a stack of papers into the sheet feeder and it runs them through without any problems, making excellent copies. Although not great, the color matching while copying is good. Another sheet feeder advantage is the ability to scan several pages; priceless for entering multipage documents into an application. If you want to FAX, there is no need to use the computer, the 9200C can operate independently as a FAX machine. It also has ports for CompactFlash and SmartMedia cards but I have not used them at all. I was leery of buying an all-in-one device because of reliability concerns but I am glad got the MFC-9200C. I saved many hours scanning a 200-page document into Adobe without any problems or having to individually handle all those pages. Since it has a flat glass surface, you can scan (or copying) several small items (like receipts) at once or pages from a bound book. As a printer, it is a little noisier than I would prefer but the output is high quality and fairly fast. Discount ink cartridges are not yet available but their cost is not too high. I would certainly buy this device again and highly recommend it to anyone who frequently needs to scan or wants the convenience of a home copier.

I recently replaced an HP scanner and Epson laser printer with the Brother MFC-9200C. Used in a simple home network, we primarily need it for everyday PC document printing and photocopying.

My wife really appreciates the "stand-alone" copier and fax functions, and we are all impressed with its overall speed and quality. This device makes photocopies in about half the time it previously took to scan (on a fairly speedy scanner) and print on a laser printer ... and the quality is as good or better.

My daughter has fun trying to see if she can spool a school report from her PC to the Brother MFC-9200C and get downstairs before the printed page is in the tray! She's pretty fast, but most of the time the MFC-9200C is faster!

The software that comes with the Brother MFC is easy to install and use. So far, this is one of the best purchases I've made.

I can't believe I wasted $200 for the machine and $72 to replace all print cartridges and have not been able to print a single document. I'll never buy another Xerox product as long as I live. Burn me once shame on you... Burn me twice, I'm an Idiot!!

I got one of these back in August of 2001. It has been nothing but a money trap! It worked well for maybe the first two months. Its quality was acceptable at everything but draft. Its color was OK, not photographic quality but sufficient for quick color copies, or Word reports with spots of color.

The scanner seems to work well as a copier or as a PC scanner. This is why it got two stars.

As a printer, though, it was a disappointment and a half. I have owned six printers over the years, worked with countless more, and have never experienced the problems that I have with this one. Upon changing the black ink for the first time, it never correctly printed in black again. The text was streaked, faint, and often illegible. I found it necessary to print 2-3 pages of random text to "warm it up," and even then, I had to print out in the painfully slow Best quality mode for useable results. Replacing the black cartridge again failed to help. Strangely, the color cartridges never displayed this trait, and I replaced each as well. I did try doing alignments and head cleanings to clear up the problems, and they only made things worse. Often, these froze the printer and required it to be rebooted.

I used the printer in USB mode under both Win 98 SE and Win 2000 Pro, so I do not know if these are USB problems or printer problems. Regardless, the printer would frequently freeze up to a point that it had to be physically unplugged from the wall before it would function. The soft power up and down button on the front would either not work, or would power it off but not reset it internally, I think. Until I yanked the power cord, then turned it back on, the computer would insist that there was no communication between the two. When power is cut off in such a way, the printer does some sort of head cleaning when it is powered back up. It takes close to three minutes and I figure uses 3-4% of each ink cartridge. I suspect it is a problem with the printer, as I now use a Samsung ML-1210 in USB mode with no problems.

I keep it attached to my system solely for the occasional color page, and for scanning. The print cartridge yield is very low - 400 pages at 5% coverage. With constant reboots required, only moderate quality, and very slow print speeds, I cannot recommend this printer for anyone. Mine was ... new (not refurbished & sold as new) and I was taken.

I have had this machine since 1999 and it has not fail. Used for desktopp publishing the key is not to leave the cartridges go totally empty. I find I get 750 sheets from the black cartridge and over the expected limits on the heads. It is used primarily as a copier or attached to a sytem running win 98 SE. For the money I found it to be very practical. I wish Xerox would continue to make inkjet multi-function machines like this.

I wish I read these before I bought one Amazon last year. It was in very very light use (maybe less than 20 uses!) in less than 10 months and now it's dead.

This is ridiculous. A 90 day warranty on their crappy items and they give one year warranties on their overpriced ones.

I will never buy anything from HP ever again.

I am very disappointed with the quality of their entry-level items.

From a big name like HP (well Compaq) and the millions of dollars their execs are getting....

NO RECOMMENDATION. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

My HP Scanjet 4200C was operated successfully for 2 years using Windows 98SE. I upgraded my PC which came with Windows Xp Home edition. Windows XP does not support the HP Scanjet 4200C software. Also, unable to find a WEB site to download HP 4200C drivers compatible with Windows XP. What is my next course of action?

Simplicity in use, a snap to set up, and beautiful scan results make this the perfect scanner for home or home office. I had the first scan saved on my hard drive 15 minutes after carrying the box in my house.

The three-button controls are all you need and the scan speed is fast and smooth. USB connection could not be easier. The software enables you to send the scans directly to imaging programs, email or documents (and optimize them before sending or saving them).

Using the scanner as a copier is a snap, too. The only thing that is a little strange is a series of tentative starts before the first scan after several days of inactivity. This must be a reset of some sort, as my mother has the same scanner and hers does the same thing. After the first scan, however, all subsequent scans happen the first time every time.

The HP 4200 Cse is not the cheapest scanner on the market for the same resolution and features, but it gives great quality output and, I have to say it, it is a Hewlett-Packard product.

Having used two different 4200 Cse scanners for the last six months, I would recommend this model to anyone who needs a consumer-level scanner.

I bought the 2400 FS Film Scaner( Tamarack) two months ago, since very begining it hasn't work properly. I use DocuMan 2.07 and I'm searching for a version 3.0. I have scenned 300 slides with quite good result but negatives are unacceptable! Maybe version 3.0 will help? Where can I find it? I would be pleased with any help. Is the problem of dark edges tipical ?

I bought mine from Amazon for about three weeks ago for justunder $200. Considering that ProLab here in Seattle charges $3 perpicture scanned, it seemed like a good deal in the long run.

Myexperience with it so far: the scanner does a great job with photostaken in bright, even sunlight but has a tougher time withhigh-contrast pics -- especially those with big patches of black. Trueblack on a color slide often comes out filled with rainbow splotcheson the scan. (I haven't scanned any color negatives yet.)

On theupside, the scanner comes with Adobe PhotoDeluxe, which is a choppedversion of Photoshop. It's pretty good for fixing defects like theabove. A guy I talked to at Prolab said even the high-end scanner theyuse doesn't render slides/negs perfectly, and that you still need somesort of photo software. So the Tamarack's shortcomings may be commonto all analog-to-digital transfers. PROS:

* Scanner pays for itselfonce you get beyond 60 photos

* Small footprint; about the size of abrick

* Good choice for pics that will end up on the Web

* UsefulAdobe software

CONS:

* Doesn't handle true blacks well

*Documentation is atrocious, very badly translated from Chinese END

The quality difference between this scanner to the high end ones is similar to the difference between Toyota Camry to Lexus: similar good hardware but different level of luxury. The Tamarack scanner worked very well without problems but the software needs to be improved: scanned images most of time were washed out and pale, they also weren't focused accurately. My protocol is: read the enclosed mannual and the FAQ on the Tamarack website carefully before installation, then hook up all the plugs except the USB. Turn on computer then connect the USB to the computer.A pop up menu will then ask you to insert the driver, load the Documen 3.0 to the CD-ROM and then the install process goes smoothly. I threw the Docupal into the trash can - My Microsoft Office does a better job than it. Then I turned on my scanner, started my Photoshop 6.0 (you can install and start the bundled Adobe Photodeluxe or any other twain supported image editing software in similar way), went to file, import, then click Filmscan Twain32; the documen menu lanched automatically within the photoshop. I clicked SETTINGS first to get 2400 resolution for a letter size photo quality image, 1200 for 5x7..., then went to image select, then chose FILTERS and set iso from 100 to 400 (the single most important measure to affect image looking), adjusted bright and contrast, and clicked preview. After seeing the preview images you may need to readjust the filter and scan image individully - the filter is batch adjusting only. At this time you click on the scan button and the selected images will be scanned into my photoshop work space, and then I retouch the image by adjusting level, contrast, color balance, saturation and hue - an excellent picture is done. Criticize: The Documen 3.0 need to be improved in color intensity - the scanned images are too pale a lot of time, if they can add another step of iso setting to 800 in the FILTER then the problem should be solved; the focus is not too good,adjusting contrast with photoshop helps a lot; and the FILTERS adjustments can not be set to each individual pictures and so was the resolution SETTINGS - this led to difficulty scanning all the 6 pictures at one time, instead you may need to scan 6 times for each picture due to different exposure on the negatives. The Docupal makes the whole product look cheap; it should be disregarded. In general this is a very good product at it's price. If the Documan 3.0 can be improved as I mentioned above, this scanner should be a supervalue!

The Microtek 3700 works fine and has some nice extras. Scan speed for a color image at medium resolution was about 90 secs. That's pretty typical these days. Scan speed for 300 dpi B&W Line art (i.e. text for OCR) was a VERY fast 30 secs. TWAIN software has many nice features and a few rough spots. Somehow I entered some bogus combination of preferences (line art & descreen?) that caused an error like "User has hit cancel button to abort scanning"! When I blanked out the settings and started over all was well. My scanner also came with a slide/film illuminator so I can scan them as well. This worked okay, but the color wasn't quite right. It certainly worked better than my home-made attempts at scanning slides on my old scanner. I have not seen slide scanners at any where near this price range before. Image detail was good, but not as good as I've gotten using my 2 megapixel digicam to photograph slides on a light table. But if you don't have a good digital camera that can focus close, this is definitely the best alternative. Overall I'm pleased with this unit.

I received the scanner a few days ago, and I got it hooked up without a problem. My Windows 2000, Dell PC found it right away, and I was scanning in no time. Besides the expected scan wizard software, it comes with several different third-party sofware packages for organizing/storing images, modifying images, etc. It was rated well in Consumer Reports which was my main sorce of evaluation before buying it. As writtin in CR, it does have a pretty large footprint. I am happy with the scanner and the quality of the scans.

The only thing that is goofy with it is that the scanning lamp stays on all the time. The only way to turn it off is to turn the scanner off. I have never seen that in a scanner. I confirmed that the unit was operating properly at the Microtek website. I also e-mailed the company asking them about it. They replied with a recommendation that I turn the scanner off when not using it to save the lamp. I leave my PC and all peripherals powered-up all the time, so I will have to remember to turn the scanner off when not using it. No big deal, its just an odd design "feature".

The main thing I wanted to do with this scanner was to scan and then email my pictures to friends and family. This scanner is USB and under $... many stores!!! It's quiet and the picture quality is great for it. I have no complaints yet on it, works like a charm. Setup instructions and software were included so with most any USB you just plug and play!

The mission: archive old family photos before my lil' daughter tears them up.
The obstacle: very little desk space
The solution: not this.

First, the USB interface is far sub-par. Check HP's troubleshooting on their web site; their solutions to communication problems range from "use a powered USB hub" to "never use a USB hub." Very helpful. As I'm writing right now I'm hearing the USB interface bob up and down as it tries to connect with the scanner. Not working. Plus not only can you not use a hub (I tried a D-Link USB2.0 4 port), you can't connect even to the same USB bus. So unless you've got a spare USB header free from your motherboard, you probably can't connect at all (Amendment: After several hours I discovered the problem - for me, the scanner had to be on a powered hub but my Logitech USB mouse could not coexist on the same hub. Now things appear to be working since the scanner is on the hub all by itself and the mouse has been plugged directly into the workstation. Still a bad USB implementation, tho).

Image quality is so-so. Not the greatest... flesh tones are too warm. I used Photoshop, WinXP's Scanner Wizard and HP's prepackaged software - the best results being the TWAIN driver in Photoshop.

Speaking of which, the bundled software was harsh to use. For some reason it decided I wanted to scan my text documents as embedded objects in RTF's. Wha? The HP software was not good at all. The actual TWAIN Photo & Imaging Directory scanning interface was fine however - just the actually document management software was clunky.

Beautiful looking and a real space saver, but if it doesn't work well then it's just an expensive window.

Every photo we tried had speckles/dust all over them. I had no problems with the setup or banding (as others here did) but am returning the scanner because of pure quality issues

I have an HP Scanjet 4C that has been a workhorse for the past 4-5 years (It still works, but my new Macintosh doesn't support SCSI devices). So, in deciding on a purchase I chose HP again out of loyalty. Set-up on the 4670 was easy, the software acceptable (typical of HPs), and the scanner itself was beautiful. Unfortunately all images that I scanned were plagued with 1/2" tall bands of light and dark areas. I found no way to remedy this and was forced to return the scanner for a refund.