Looking for a Scanner recommendation

[Ron]

I've never owned a scanner but would like to get one.
I have a 1 year old PC with both USB2 and Firewire and 1 GByte of memory.

I want to scan:
old black & white photos
color photos
color 35mm slides
plus be able to do general scanning of say a book page or a 11" X 8.5" sheet
of paper

I want to stay under $300. I'm located in the US.
My dad took 1000s of photos and I'd like to preserve them and transfer them
to DVD before they are lost to time.

Ron

 

[Dances With Crows]

Ron staggered into the Black Sun and said:

I've never owned a scanner but would like to get one. I have a 1 year
old [x86, running some version of 'Doze--which version?] with USB2 and
Firewire and 1 G [of RAM]. I want to scan old black & white photos,
color photos, color 35mm slides, [and arbitrary] 8.5x11" sheets of
paper. I want [my scanner to cost] under $300. I'm in the USA.

I'd say any recent consumer-level Epson or HP scanner would work for
your needs. They're selling Epson V100s for about $100 on newegg.com,
and 4490s for a bit more. You'll want some sort of image editor to
adjust color balance and so forth. Try Gimp first; it's Free and can do
most image editing tasks.

took 1000s of photos and I'd like to preserve them and transfer them
to DVD before they are lost to time.

Make sure you store the images in a future-proof format, then. TIFF
will remain readable for the forseeable future. If you have tons of
storage space, you may wish to archive each image in 16bpp format before
color correction, just in case. HTH,

 

[Roger Gelder]

Be sure you buy a scanner with correct drivers.
My provider set up a 64bit system for me and
supplied a scanner for which the manufacturer is
NEVER going to provide drivers. Now runs on
my 32 bit laptop! DuH!
roj

 

[CSM1]

If you have the correct Operating System installed, A 64 bit processor and
Motherboard is not a problem.

Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is loaded with problems.

Windows XP home and Windows XP Professional run just great on a 64 bit
computer.

Scanner drivers for Windows XP are everywhere. Pretty much all of the
scanner manufacturers have Windows XP drivers.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

But then you don't get the benefits of a 64-bit operating systems.

 

[Barry Watzman]

Benefits? You mean liabilities. For most users, there are no benefits
at this time. [Yes, there are a few exceptions. But they are
exceptions, and they are few. Very few users should install 64-bit OS'
at this time (may change in the future).]

 

[tomm42]

I've never owned a scanner but would like to get one.
I have a 1 year old PC with both USB2 and Firewire and 1 GByte of memory.

I want to scan:
old black & white photos
color photos
color 35mm slides
plus be able to do general scanning of say a book page or a 11" X 8.5" sheet
of paper

I want to stay under $300. I'm located in the US.
My dad took 1000s of photos and I'd like to preserve them and transfer them
to DVD before they are lost to time.

Ron

For a fairly good scanner check the Epson 4990, Epson clearance had
them for $299 a little while ago. They have been replaced with the
V700 which is an excellent flatbed, and not a bad slide scanner.
I'm in the parent picture conumdrum too, but looking through, do some
editting before you scan. Scanning can be slow work, especially with
the resolution needed for slides. I have to say I dumped a ton of pics
my mother hadn't filed, found some keepers but most were chuckers. Of
course there are some classics too.
Good Luck

Tom

 

[Ron]

Thanks for all the replies. I've narrowed it down to either an HP or Epson.

Epson Perfection 4490 PHOTO
HP Scanjet G4050

Both are about $200. Is it basically a tossup here?

Ron

 

[-]

HP hardware is usually decent. What has always sucked is their driver
support. Bad drivers and software and they often have asked people to pay
for major upgrades to the driver and software. I have never seen that with
Canon and HP! Customer/technical support can be terrible from both of the
companies most of the time, so that isn't much of a deciding factor in my
opinion.

Doug