Better than nothing; wish there was a cost-effective alternative.
Written: Mar 14 '05 (Updated Apr 13 '06)
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Pros: User friendly, only large format scanner on the market for under $200.
Cons: Unfaithful color representation, cloudy image, noisy machine.
The Bottom Line: Either invest your money in a better, regular format scanner or be prepared for a lot of post-scan image work.
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| missjen's Full Review: Mustek ScanExpress A3 Flatbed Scanner |
I run a scrapbooking for others business and thus scanning my 12x12 pages on a smaller scanner and stitching two images together became cumbersome and did not produce as clear of images as I desired. I searched for a 12x12 scanner and found none in a reasonable price range. The next closest option was this one, which I purchased from staples.com for about $160. My original purchase was from provantage but I would encourage readers to stay away from them (but that's another review altogether!). While this scanner is better than the alternative, this scanner has left me sorely disappointed.
Its construction is poor; my first arrived in the mail broken because the heavy light bar is not held in place at all and thus in the mail the bar slid (crashed) from end to end of the scanner and when it arrived, internal parts had broken off. I returned it and got another from a more reputable source, so this may have been a fluke with the first one, or the fact that I knew to handle the second one more carefully. The original company sent me a third one (instead of refunding my money) which my husband's company ended up purchasing from me rather than dealing with Provantage, and because I have tested that additional scanner, I know that the problems I have detailed herein are applicable to both working scanners.
The scanning process itself is slow and noisy. It is far noisier than any other scanner I've ever used and even on 72 dpi resolution, it operates considerably slower.
The glass itself on both scanners was cloudy on the inside. Mustek's "solution" is to unscrew the entire machine and clean the glass with windex, which doesn't really help the problem. The exterior surface of the glass scuffs easily. Though it is easily cleaned with Windex, whatever finish they have put on it makes it more sensitive than the glass on other scanners I've used; I find myself having to clean this nearly every time I want to use it.
The scan quality is poor at best. While the resolution is good, the color representation is VERY unfaithful. One of my biggest frustrations is trying to "tweak" the image later to make the colors more vibrant and more closely matched to the hue of my original. In addition, some parts of the image are cloudier than others. In talking to other fellow scrapbookers, I know that these are not problems that are unique to my machine. I suppose Mustek's effort to help solve this problem is that they include a limited edition of Photo Shop as their "driver." An experienced Photoshop user will find the limited features frustrating, but most likely has their own more complete copy of the program. An unexperienced user finds the limited edition not user-friendly and difficult to learn. I found this to be a poor choice of imaging softwares when more user friendly alternatives are available and more appropriate for the mass consumer.
The scanner itself is quite large, but not cumbersome. I don't see any of the size as unnecessary for accomodating the bed size.
The driver has a few bugs insofar as the program does not always recognize when the scanner is plugged in.
In terms of ease of use, this really is pretty user friendly. The scanner easily interfaces with multiple imaging software programs and so a consumer can easily scan through a program they are already familiar with. Capturing the image is really very simple. Where use gets tricky is manipulating the scan once it is completed and then requires a bit of graphic manipulation know how, if you're picky about the faithfulness of your scan.
There are no external buttons. Cutting the power means unplugging the machine. This is potentially inconvenient, depending on one's work station configuration and ease of access to the power source or back of the scanner. On the other hand, the fact that there are no external buttons is nice insofar as there is nothing to accidentally bump in to and trigger the machine to start scanning. I think the button thing is really a matter of preference.
The primary advantage to this machine is that it is really the only affordable large format scanner on the market. Though I am glad to have it and it is slightly better than the alternatives of stitching or nothing at all, I would hope future models would have marked improvements in image capturing faithfulness. My advice is that if you have the time, patience and know how to stitch images together well, spend your money on a really good regular format scanner. If you insist on having a large format scanner, save up several hundred more dollars to buy an Epson or HP, or purchase this one and be prepared to work with each image that is scanned to get it to resemble the original.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 160
Interface: USB
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Epinions.com ID:
missjen
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Member: Jennifer
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Reviews written: 18
Trusted by: 1 member
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