Scanner Reviews

I bought a 7490c scanner mainly because I needed to convert paper documents to PDF files.

Unfortunately, even if the scanner works quite well without using the ADF or preparing PDF documents, I could not succeed in doing what I needed.

The Automatic document feeder is not reliable for scanning A4 papers, since while taking the papers it often rotates them giving a rotated image as a result.

Moreover the Hp precision scan pro 3.0 software has a bug in producing black and white PDF files , and HP does not know how to fix it.

Therefore, if you need to have a large number of pages scanned , avoid this scanner and go for a fujitsu.

Go with the Canon DR-2080. This is one of those scanners, although attractively priced on Amazon.com, is still TOO [spendy] for its size (HUGE footprint).

The Scan drivers are difficult to install and are NOT user friendly.

Bottom line: go with the Canon DR-2080. Although the Canon is a path through, its quality and ease of use is FAR superior to this Ricoh behemoth.

This document feeder works well; it comes automatically attached to the Microtek ScanMaker 5950. You can buy the Microtek Scanmaker 5950 for less than you can buy this attachment. So while this is a good unit, you can buy the unit and a scanner for less than the unit. Do that instead.

Pro: Does scan text well Con: translates one word at a time even though it scans a whole sentence. You have to figure out what the sentence means by piecing together the definitions of each individual word. This is difficult to do when you don't know the language you are trying to translate.

Product does not load easily, even if you are using xp pro, sp1. Once working only 20% of the cards entered were completely read, all the others ranged from name only to complete errors on the input. Standard cards were tested with only minimum logos. It would be faster to enter data manually.

Sorry but I would recommend attempting another product, not this one.

This is neither a satisfactory product nor a helpful organization. The company is a study in mediocrity. Their website, although newly redone, ultimately isn't helpful at describing products or distingushing between products, their salespeople hardly know their product, their technical support are unhelpful novices. The better news is that the product somewhat works. On clean print, the product did scan well. Practice helps but you still need to concentrate on a perfect swipe. I was suprised that it scanned very small print and even worked with fast swipes. Ultimately between the futzing around with trying to get a perfect swipe, incomplete dictionaries, frequent pen reboots, I decided to return the product. In its present state, this pen is only good for a narrow group of uses. I am hopeful that a future generation of product will scan with less effort and have a complete dictionary. Bluetooth instead of IR would be very desireable. Hopefully they will get staff 2.0 too.

I bought this scanner over a year ago, and although it was difficult to install, and keep running I did get some good scans. Then, out of the blue, it started getting this overlay of a wavey rainbow effect over the entire scanned surface. Customer Support is worthless if you can get to them. The warranty expired after a year, and they won't do a thing. They want me to trade it in on a new one, but that's not going to happen. I've visited several other sites, and I'm one of many who have had this problem. DON'T BUY ANOTHER VISIONEER PRODUCT. You won't be happy in the long run.

I frequently had a problem with the installation and software (it would often crash), but I could usually complete a scan. I made a total of less than 50 scans over three months before the Visioneer 8820 started producing a multi-colored grainy background in color scans and a grey grainy background in black and white scans. Customer support was little help. Over an hour on hold on a toll-call, followed by rounds of worthless email exchanges, and finally a 45-minute on-hold and 90 minute troubleshooting call with their technical "support" guy. He gave in and let me exchange the scanner for a new one.

The new scanner arrived and lasted about 25 scans before it started doing the same thing. Don't waste your money on a Visionneer.

I got this scanner on special at BestBuy for ...(way less than the normal price)! But even at it's current price it's worth looking at. This scanner is FAST, even at 400 DPI it blazes through scans quickly. I didn't have any regular 35mm slides to test the scanner with but I did get some amazing results (with a little tweaking in Photoshop) scanning from 40+ year old Kodak stereoscopic transparencies (these transparencies are about the size of a dime each (two per slide)) when scanning at the recommended 400 DPI. I was even able to reproduce a few acceptable, though not fantastic, images from 8mm film (yes, 8mm movie film!). My only complaints with this scanner are the software is buggy, it's crashed several times on me ... All in all, it's one worth considering.

I tried to install the drivers to 3 computers with OS's ranging from Win 98 to XP. They would not work. The only support I was able to get from the manufacturer included driver downloads and emails with troubleshooting info. Neither of these helped. My scanner still does not work and I cannot get any tech support from Mustek. This scanner I purchased is virtually useless to me and I will probably return it.

This scanner is total scrap.

Amazon says: "Easy to install and use" - it's not true. Driver installation program is random, behaves really funny on different machines.

OCR software (TextBridge) does not work at all. Well, it simulates that it's working, simulates that it's trying to recognize text... In fact, it's not recognition, it's guesswork.

I used ABBYY FineReader demo version with the same scanner and Wow! that's what I call recognition.

Dear Mustek, I do not like to pay extra dollars for scrap. Please, do not bundle such stuff anymore

Output image quality is really poor. I wish I could read somebody's comment before buying this item.

Scanner "swallows" highlites but reproduces shadows and midtones normally.

If you plan to scan fotos, but not text, forget about this scanner and avoid buying this mysticism.

If you are buying this scanner to recognize text (as I do), consider buying ABBEE Fine Reader. But, buying scanner and OCR separately doen't make sense, does it?

Isn't it wiser to search for better offer?

I don't know if it's the printer or bugs in the driver, but I waste more paper in effort to get a letter quality document without a bunch of ASCII characters in the footer. I wish I had my old Xerox Docuprint back. It's so frustrating; I can't wait to replace it. HP -- If you are reading this, why don't you offer your "valued customers" a pathway out of this bum product????

I am a big fan of HP products, but I am giving up on HP 3200's. We bought a brand new 3200 for a construction jobsite two years ago for faxing, printing and scanning. The print engine is beautiful and the features are great - group dialing, fax confirmation sheet which includes the first page transmitted, speed dials, and so on. But we often got "Communication Errors" when trying to fax, and the machine would hang frequently. We would unplug for a minute and the machine would reboot and work for a while. I logged onto the HP website and reflashed the firmware, but the problems persisted. Finally one day the machine would not restart. I must say that tech. support at HP was outstanding. I was talking to a real person within minutes, and she spent 57 minutes on the phone with me going deeper and deeper into the machine's memory trying to get it to work. Finally she had me hold a couple of buttons and do something else to totally wipe the memory clean, and she guided me through getting the machine running again. This made no difference.

I was transferred and am now on the third HP3200 on a different site. This time we used the 3200 as a stand-alone fax machine. We kept sending them back and they kept sending us new ones, but always the same problems. Who has time for this?

We're getting rid of the 3200 and buying a fax machine that works. The real disappointment for me is that HP hasn't acknowledged the problem.

Stay away from these machines!

I have owned this printer/fax/scanner/copier for just under two years. Today, the fax finally wouldn't work anymore. I have always had problems with the fax not being reliable, just like other people have stated in other reviews. I would have to keep unplugging the unit. I am glad I bought the extended warrenty on it. I took it back to the store today. I'm waiting to see what they'll replace it with. It's a good thing HP doesn't sell this printer anymore. I liked the printer part, it scanned well, and copied well also. I run my own construction business and needed a reliable FAX. Very Disappointing, at least it'll be replaced. I'm glad to hear that other people experience the same exact problems I did.

I've owned, recommended and used HP products for many years and am a business systems consultant. I have written and designed systems software and application software as well as sold software. Most of my experience has been in technology and sales management.

Do not buy this scanner. The software is worse than bad. I too could not believe the other reviews and wanted the ADF so bought it anyway. Normally, HP does quality work, but not this time.

If HP had any decency, they would create a new version of the software and release it to the owners of this product along with an apology. In my many years of work in the information technology sector and considering the current state of technology, I cannot remember a product this poor from a major vendor.

I should say I didn't believe that this product is as crappy as other reviewers described. Because I really like some of HP products, especially HP has been in ADF scanner business for so many years.

So I went ahead and bought a HP 5550C with thoughts that I (as a computer professional with 12 experience and a former HP employee) can manage to make it work.

But clearly I'm wrong, and so wrong that the 5550C software is by far the worst software I have ever seen!!! I really do not understand that why HP even bothers to release this product to market, and HP should really "fire" the software team and the QA team for doing nothing but damaging its reputation.

I agree with other reviewers completely. The 5550C hardware looks well constructed and sturdy. The problem comes from the software piece.

Sigh ....

I use the scanner everyday for everything from documents to photographs. It is actually capable of scanning a stack of pages in the ADF very quickly into B&W PDF files. Unfortunately, as other reviewers point out, the HP software is mostly useless for this function. There is a trick that I will point out to everyone with this scanner or considering it if they can pick it up cheap from others who have given up: if you use Paperport or similar software and set the driver to windows WIA (rather than the HP driver), then set Page Size to "Quarto" when scanning from the ADF, then it works great. This is bizarre, and I have tried all the other page size settings and Letter will not work--you must use Quarto. Anyway, this proves that the machine is capable of good performance. It is alas software that limits the performance. Perhaps better WIA support will come in the future. In the meantime, despite the bad software, I found this machine to be the best value for a combo flatbed/ADF scanner that could take at least 35 pages. There are other choices like the Fuji if you want ADF without a flatbed, but it's still more expensive.