Scanner Advice?

DifferentSeed

Hi,

I find myself once again in need of a scanner. Haven't had a dedicated scanner for years... but... now I need one again. I have an old (2 years-ish) all-in-one HP printer/scanner/copier that I only use for quick one-off copies these days. It's not even used as a printer anymore (slow). As for scanning it was only mediocre quality at best. Always looks grainy and colors are so far off it's not worth the trouble.

So.

In the past I've loved Logitech, but it looks like they're outta the scanner business.

I need it so that I can:

- scan old photos from the distant past;
- scan new photos for inclusion in a newsletter (printed at 600 dpi, normally B&W);
- OCR would be nice too.

Any suggestions without breaking the bank? The cheapest I saw at best buy was a Canon for $154!!! I was hoping to stay under $50 if possible

David_S85

Bump.

CavalierPhoto

You might want to check with Best Buy online, or any other online retailer. I saw a Canon LiDE60 which will do what you are looking for listed at $79.99.

I use the LiDE80 at work and it functions well for the items you specify.

At home I've got an Epson Perfection 4180 which has much higher dpi and the ability to scan negs, both 35mm and 120mm, but it's a little pricier (closer to $200).

Pupator

I have an earlier model of this:

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=120&modelid=13977


I absolutely love it. I have scanned thousands of film negatives and slides for customers with great success.*


(This scanner, like most I have found, scans slides and negatives a bit dark. If you're going to scan slides and negatives get i2e and you'll have great success.)

jay

go with a cannon flatbed scanner end of story:D

claudermilk

Why? Which model? Don't get me wrong, I currently have a Canon flatbed--but it's not goping to fit the needs of high quality negative scanning. For that task it seems Epson is the class of the field with the 4990/V700/V750 scanners--and about $500.

cmason

Well, you get what you pay for. You can spend less, and get a scanner for the occasional family photo, or you can get one that will handle slides, negatives and highquality scans of photos. I doubt you need to buy a multi-pass high end scanner, but you will be hard pressed to spend much less than $100-!50 to get a decent scanner.

I don't have any experience with it, but I am seriously looking at the Canon Lide 600F. This is a new model, and it looks like the older Lide 60, but is a different beast inside. It has (well at least from the specs) the same guts as the Canon 8400, but in a thin, USB powered format, for $150. Perhaps this is the same one you saw.

(edit, note this model gets bad marks for slide scanning, but seems ok for negatives)

Lide at B&H $139

Poseidon

Is there a 12" wide scanner that could scan 12x12's? For my wife's scrapbook pages.

xris

Poseidon wrote:

Is there a 12" wide scanner that could scan 12x12's? For my wife's scrapbook pages.

Never seen one. But if there is one, yer talking dollars.

I agree with the Canon idea. Any model.

DifferentSeed

Thanks everyone! I generally agree you get what you pay for, and in this case, since I am only scanning photos for a newsletter and occassional family pics and maybe OCR work, I didn't want to spend a lot. My needs are minimal. so I didn't want to spend a lot (in this case)

I ended up getting a Canon LiDE 70 at Office Depot (of all places!) for $70. Decent price, it has a vertical stand, which isn't the most sturdy of stands, but let's me stand it up when not in use and scans pics okay. The software ain't half bad either with the one button PDF document creation.