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Anybody know of a nice scanner?

post #1 of 26
1/18/03 at 1:15pm
Thread Starter 
I need to buy a scanner to scan a LOAD of pictures...I would say at least 1,500 pictures. This is a long term project and a goal of mine, to bring in all of my pictures and organiize them and then archive all of it.

Can anyone reccomend a nice scanner...I would say the budget for one is no more than $250.

I really want a digital camera too but I want to archive all of the old photos before I start adding new ones. I look at it two ways...you pay a lot for either a scanner or a digital camera but you take a functionality hit either way you go. Only take pictures with a camera...only digitize old pictures with a scanner.

Any ideas?
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post #2 of 26
1/18/03 at 3:28pm
Macworld recently published a cool "OS X only" gear "round-up", where they rated and profiled tons of gear: printers, digital cameras and camcorders, scanners, etc.

I couldn't find the exact issue online, but I did find this link at Macworld's website:

<a href="http://www.macworld.com/subject/scanners/" target="_blank">http://www.macworld.com/subject/scanners/</a>

That might get you started?

If you look around Barnes & Noble (where I bought mine) or other bookstores, you still might be able to find that OS X Buyers' Guide. Can't miss it: says "Macworld SPECIAL ISSUE" at the very top and the title (where the word "Macworld" usually goes) reads:

MAX OS X
BUYERS' GUIDE
A Complete Guide to Mac OS X Products from the Mac Product Experts

Hope this helps...
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post #3 of 26
1/18/03 at 3:32pm
Also, from Apple's site:

<a href="http://guide.apple.com/uscategories/hwinput.lasso" target="_blank">http://guide.apple.com/uscategories/hwinput.lasso</a>

Choose the "Scanners" button and click "Find". Came up with 139 scanners, many OS X ready.
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post #4 of 26
1/18/03 at 6:22pm
I've been extremely pleased with my Epson Perfection 2450, but that's more than $250. The Perfection 2400 is very similar though, and it's listed for $229 MSRP.
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post #5 of 26
1/18/03 at 7:09pm
i have the epson 1660U and its awesome... great quality, slide adapter, usb, rock solid OS X support.

Canon has a cool feature that scans like 3 4 X 6s at once and saves each seperately automatically but i dont think that works in OS X yet

[ 01-19-2003: Message edited by: applenut ]</p>
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post #6 of 26
1/18/03 at 8:05pm
Thread Starter 
HELP!!!

I should have done my homework...I went to Circuit City and bought a printer and a scanner.

The printer is a Cannon S330...works perfectly with OS X.

I bought an Epson 1260 Perfection PHOTO...seems to have trouble in OS X...I dont know what to do...if it is supported or not <a href="http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1979847264.10429472 48@@@@&BV_EngineID=gadcgejlhhfjbfdmcfjgckidnk.0&oi d=14554&infoType=Downloads" target="_blank">IS IT SUPPORTED???</a>
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post #7 of 26
1/18/03 at 8:27pm
Have you tried scanning using Image Capture? I think many Epson scanners are TWAIN-compliant and can work through it.

Make sure your software is up to date too:

<a href="http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0228700242.10429503 65@@@@&BV_EngineID=cadcgejlhgfgbfdmcfjgckidnf.0&in foType=Downloads&oid=14553&prodoid=21643923" target="_blank">Epson Support</a>

[ 01-19-2003: Message edited by: Amorph ]</p>
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post #8 of 26
1/18/03 at 8:48pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks bro, Image Ready did the trick.
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post #9 of 26
1/18/03 at 9:00pm
Thread Starter 
<a href="http://homepage.mac.com/belushi1/PhotoAlbum5.html" target="_blank">An example of an Epson 1260 Scan...I love it!</a>
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post #10 of 26
1/18/03 at 9:25pm
epson makes a damn fine scanner.
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and suffer the loss of his soul?"
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post #11 of 26
1/18/03 at 9:36pm
Thread Starter 
[quote]Originally posted by mac's girl:
<strong>epson makes a damn fine scanner. </strong><hr></blockquote>

Why the sarcastic tongue? Isnt it good quality?
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post #12 of 26
1/19/03 at 4:39am
get a digital camera and take a pic of ur pictures (assuming they are arn't portraits)

i have a $250 canon a40 (2MP) and i take pictures of homework all the time adn then just look at it on the camera, because its good enough quality to do that...

...1600x1200 @ 200ppi


and it would probably be faster like that too
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post #13 of 26
1/19/03 at 5:11am
um.... are you kidding?

how do you take a pic of ur pics and it come out good? what do you do for lighting and glare and the curvature of the lens and....uhg...JUST EVERYTHING

really.... i dont understand how that would produce decent results at all
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post #14 of 26
1/19/03 at 7:29am
Thread Starter 
So, is the scanner good quality, can you tell from my example scan?

I think it is good quality, but now I am going to start archiving photos...I thought a scanner was the only way to do this?

I am confused by the statement above about taking pictures of pictures? I think that would be like taking film of a movie...it just wouldnt be right.
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post #15 of 26
1/19/03 at 7:44am
[quote]Originally posted by applenut:
<strong>um.... are you kidding?

how do you take a pic of ur pics and it come out good? what do you do for lighting and glare and the curvature of the lens and....uhg...JUST EVERYTHING

really.... i dont understand how that would produce decent results at all</strong><hr></blockquote>

yeah, it would be harder i guess because you are working with glossies probably, but it can be done

i am just saying this is a solution get good looking pictures onto ur computer, if u plan on replicating them, then i probably wouldn't do it this way

but if i was going to, you would just have to set up the right conditions. it would be a hassle but if u want a digi cam and to scan in a picture and you don thave the money for both...well sometimes u are desperate

i would probably put up a white sheed or somethign to block out excess ambient light around the picture. the camera would need to be on a stand with a timed display to stop movement from occuring. also you would need even light distribution.

i wouldn't go about it like this because i have a scanner, but if i wanted a digi cam but needed to do this, i probably would be desperate enough to go about it this way
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post #16 of 26
1/19/03 at 7:46am
from what i have read the scanner tends to be slow and the slide/film scanning is a bit crappy but good quality otherwise.

not sure, havent found a detailed review of it yet..... im sure its fine.... hard to tell from your scan.... i think that scan would look the same on about any scanner
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post #17 of 26
1/19/03 at 8:47am
Photographing "hard copy" work is used commonly for professional portfolios and stuff like that. But the lighting and distortion is a tricky issue, which is why it costs a lot to do it right. Scanners eliminate most distortion and provide better lighting. It's the easiest solution IMO.

The scan looks fine. It shows a common problem of scanning printed matter that uses a half-tone pattern. The half-tone pattern of the original print combines with the scanner's dot pattern it scanned it with, producing an interference pattern, a moire pattern. What's good is that it's not pronounced in that scan which means you scanned it at a good dpi and you kept the original straight on the scanner bed. Higher-end scanners can eliminate this interference pattern at the source, but you can also use Photoshop to minimize it afterwards.
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post #18 of 26
1/19/03 at 11:42am
i was just saying it can be done, not that its better or even easy. i was just giving him an out if he wanted to to get the pics on his computer but didn't want to buy a scanner.

and with the a40, i'm not quite sure, i've never taken shots that have gotten curvature, or distorded.

i normally hold the camera farther away and then use optical (careful to not use digital because i want proper quality)

the a40 has settings to take close ups, medium distance or far to infinity setting that work on how the camera is to focus.
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post #19 of 26
1/21/03 at 4:25am
what about the canon lide 30???? small compact, no power cord apple store guy ravs about it. iam looking for a new scanner also, like the compactness
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post #20 of 26
1/21/03 at 6:27am
Canon LiDE scanners are nice, not great. It's a pain to install the driver and Toolbox software. If you already have an app that reads Photoshop plug-ins, the driver works very well. If you don't, you can use the crappy Toolbox software they provide. Using the driver's ColorSync profile gets you the best color accuracy (it has custom tools too), but there's a slight shift towards blue/cyan at its white point. You notice it in shadows, but it's easily correctable.
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post #21 of 26
1/24/03 at 4:58am
My nikon camera has a transparancy adaptor to "shoot" the negs to digital

Also witht he LIDE scanners you can use grphic convertor with the twain support for the plug in

[ 01-24-2003: Message edited by: Aussie John ]</p>
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post #22 of 26
1/24/03 at 6:29am
Epson 1260 Photo is the best. I haven't bought a scanner since my Umax 2100U (a few years back) but this scanner is awesome!

It has a slide adapter with a holder for film negatives and slides. I never used a film scanner before, but the scanner scans the negative and automatically inverts and adjusts the color.

The scanner is sweet. If you put, say, 5 pictures on the flatbed. The scanner will scan to 5 separate files automatically. Works flawlessly with Photoshop Elements.

The front panel buttons don't work yet, but the vendor is writing drivers for the buttons. They told me they would send the driver to me in February when they send it to Epson:
[quote]Indeed we are developing a OS-X compliant smart panel and in fact it is in beta testing as we speak. As for the release date I am not sure but if you check back with us in a month and it is available I will give it out for free.<hr></blockquote>
$129 at Circuit City. With the $30 rebate, it's $99.
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post #23 of 26
1/24/03 at 1:05pm
[quote]Originally posted by gordy:
<strong>
The scanner is sweet. If you put, say, 5 pictures on the flatbed. The scanner will scan to 5 separate files automatically. Works flawlessly with Photoshop Elements.

The front panel buttons don't work yet, but the vendor is writing drivers for the buttons. They told me they would send the driver to me in February when they send it to Epson:

$129 at Circuit City. With the $30 rebate, it's $99.</strong><hr></blockquote>

what? I have the 1660.... where is this feature to save to different files!? I want that!
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post #24 of 26
1/24/03 at 1:25pm
[quote]Originally posted by Mr. Macintosh:
<strong>

Why the sarcastic tongue? Isnt it good quality?</strong><hr></blockquote>

this is really not a sarcastic tongue smily. i was serious about what i said. epson makes some great scanners (i still have one, but dont have a SCSI anymore so cant use it.) . btw, i have the canon LiDE30 and i do not recommend it for the user who demands a little exta quality. it does the job, but it is far from pro. it's good if you use a scanner only on occasion, and for emailing pics to friends or posting them somewhere online. besides...it's sooooo slow. you'd be there for 10 years with 1,500 pics to scan.
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post #25 of 26
1/26/03 at 5:08am
I'm looking for a flatbed scanner that also supports slide scanning in the ~$250 price range.
The Epson 2400 Photo looks interesting, but I'm not sure about the state of the MacOS X drivers. There seem to be drivers for 10.2.1-10.2.2, but 10.2.3 is not mentioned. Does anybody have this (or a competitor) scanner and can comment on features / stability etc. of the OS X driver?
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post #26 of 26
1/26/03 at 7:00am
[quote]Originally posted by GSpotter:
<strong>I'm looking for a flatbed scanner that also supports slide scanning in the ~$250 price range.
The Epson 2400 Photo looks interesting, but I'm not sure about the state of the MacOS X drivers. There seem to be drivers for 10.2.1-10.2.2, but 10.2.3 is not mentioned. Does anybody have this (or a competitor) scanner and can comment on features / stability etc. of the OS X driver?</strong><hr></blockquote>


i have the 1660U as stated and use the epson driver under 10.2.3...... rock solid... very nice
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