Microtek Scanmaker i800

[Mike]

Any word on this new scanner? I've got an Epson 4990 ordered and on the
way, but the specs look good on this machine.

 

[Martin Trautmann]

Any word on this new scanner? I've got an Epson 4990 ordered and on the
way, but the specs look good on this machine.

1) don't believe any specs.

If there's any claimed resolution, never expect this as a real result.

If they named 4800 dpi - how much is the usable resolution? Check about
third party tests about their relative comparisons

2) Microtek has the worst support ever - that is: none.

3) Microtek has the best software...

.... as long as it runs without flaws. Some tester claim that ScanWizard
is easier to use than e.g. Software from Canon or Epson

4) Microtek has the worst software...

.... since it's ok as long as it works. However, it's very unreliable and
unstable. Don't rely on any updates whenever your system changed.


Personally I had both positive and negative results: a first
installation worked surprisingly well. OCR offered reasonable results.
The software crashed sometimes while working in the background or while
the main disk was full (that is: less than 3 GB disk space left), while
the external disk space was unused. I had major trouble after a
reinstallation until I got a working system again.

The scanner buttons never worked for me. I doubt the given speeds.

Concerning the i800: I wonder what the usage could be to interpolate
from real 4800 dpi (claimed) to an interpolated value of 65 535 dpi.
Why do you feel it's better than the Epson 4990?

Maybe the repair options are better - I don't know them.

- Martin

 

[jefflaw]

The i800 looks very promising. I'm waiting in eager anticipation of
its arrival so I can try it out and compare it to the i700 and i900.
I'm not sure what problems Martin is having specifically but if you
scan a 8x10 for example at 4800 ppi/dpi the size of it is simply
astronomical and there should be sufficient space to hold the swap file
as its being transferred from the scanners buffer directly to the
computer. If your computer does not have adaquate specs, (P4 2.4 or
higher with 1 gig of RAM or higher and a fast, large HD) then I would
look at moving down the resolution. This is true for all scanners, not
just Microtek ones. As far as technical support goes I personally have
never had a problem. I get through to a live agent within probably 1-4
minutes of calling which is pretty quick. They are knowledgable about
the product unlike some places I've called and you get the feeling that
they've never seen the product, let alone used it. Hope this helps!