scanner recommendation for OS X?

L

leonw

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Someone I know is about to purchase a new scanner for her Mac running OS X. Does anyone have recommendations on what brand and model to buy or not to buy? Thanks in advance.
 
I have a Hewlett Packard ScanJet 5300CXi. I purchased it 2 years ago for ~$300. It came with software that only works with Mac OS 9, BUT I downloaded the shareware utility VueScan (search http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/) and it works better than HP's own software. I was very skeptical of shareware, but VueScan REALLY does a good job on image quality and it's only $40.00, and it works with A LOT of scanners, not just HP. Not only is there the ability to change preferences for novices, but for advanced users who know a lot about image quality. You can do SO much with VueScan. I know it works with HP scanners very well. I'm a very satisfied customer.
 
I agree, VueScan is a great app and works with my dad's HP scanner as well. I'm going to get him to register it so I can actually save images without the water mark thingy.
 
After all the grief HP software (scanners at school and Kinko's, print drivers, utlities, etc...)(Note: this rant does NOT apply to HP-UX. HP-UX rocks!) has caused me, I want to take Carly Fiorina by her prissy hair and dunk her head in DeskJet ink. Seriously, tho', the companies that make dominant hardware almost always make lousy software.
 
you complaining about HP software?!?!?

obviously you have not had the pleasure of using UMAX's software...:D

Not only did a 5 year old design the interface, but once I had to do a batch of 250 scans in a hurry. With UMAX's software I scanned and archived everything. I burned a CD and then I got burned... :mad:

About 10% of the images had portions which were nothing but random noise!!!

I've been putting off buying VueScan until that moment. The $40 I spent on VueScan was some of the best money I've spent on my computer.

but getting to the point... When I needed a scanner, I only had 1 requirement: FireWire

If you think about it, at 12Mbps you might as well be scanning over an old ethernet network! :confused:

I ended up with an UMAX 6400 because UMAX had the only *reasonably-priced* FireWire scanner. I've been extremely happy with the scanner since I bought VueScan.
 
I just bought an EPSON Perfection 1250 and downloaded the "trial" drivers from EPSON's website:

http://www.epsondevelopers.com/macscan/scantofile.jsp

It works great in OS X using these trial drivers.

The only problem I've had is launching the TWAIN driver from inside GraphicConverter but Mr. Lemke himself said in an e-mail to me that he's never test the TWAIN support in the carbonized version of GraphicConverter in OS X.

Kent!
 
Javintosh: Would you not agree that, in the professional space, Umax also makes dominant hardware? What did I say about companies which make dominant hardware?
 
I *think* you are right about UMAX being dominant in the low end of the professional scanner market (under 5K). I don't know how they fare further up, but I think the PowerLook line is very popular.
 
I'd say, yes, from the top of consumer to around 5k, yes, Umax is the ticket; Heidelberg takes over from there. Incidently, this discussion has ignored film scanners; Polaroid RULES this area with the SprintScan 120, but Nikon and Minolta also have strong entries in the medium format arena, which, of course, also covers small format stuff (35mm & smaller).
 
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