Good cheap scanner
Written: Mar 30 '01
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Pros: Cheap, fairly fast
Cons: Color accuracy slightly off, software slow
The Bottom Line: Good deal for the price and for low-end uses, but not good enough for heavy duty photo editing. I bought it for the occasional copy, web page image, etc.
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| clicq's Full Review: Visioneer PrimaScan Colorado 2400u Flatbed Scanner |
I bought this scanner when it was on sale at Staples for $10 after rebates. So my review is based on what I paid for it. With that out of the way, here are some of the basic specs: It's USB, 600x1200 dpi optical resolution, 36 bit color, software includes Pagis Pro and TextBridge 9. If you're comparison shopping, this scanner, at least hardware wise, is nearly identical to the Visioneer 4400USB (I have both scanners, I know).
For those picky people, all the wires attached to the scanner are detachable (no wires that are permanently attached, I prefer it this way). Also, one anonyance is the lack of a power switch. Also, this scanner is pretty small and light, so it slides around a lot, especially since it only has two rubber "feet" (the other two are plastic).
Anyway, onto the quality. The quality is good, especially considering it only cost me $10. Detail is sharp, especially at higher resolutions. However, there are a few problems. First of all, along the edges of paper, when scanning in color, there's a slight "halo" effect. This seems to indicate a slight convergence problem. The color accuracy is a little bit off too; the colors are a little pale, and there seems to be a bluish shift. However, most of this is correctable through software.
Speaking of software, PagisPro is a really nice program. It can do all sorts of automagical image corrections, like rotating crooked pages, fixing colors, auto-cropping, etc. The only problem is, if you scan at any resolution above, say, 100dpi, when the file sizes get big, the program takes FOREVER to process. I thought it crashed a few times. The software is like a more user friendly version of Paper Port (made by same company). Text Bridge is a decent OCR program; on the material I tested it on, it was fairly accurate. Formatting isn't too good though; things are shifted around, so I end up reformatting it anyway.
As for performance in general, one nice thing to note is that I can scan and keep playing and mp3 at the same time. My old parallel port scanner would freeze my computer for the duration of the scan. In grayscale, the scanner can do a full page in about 30-40 seconds at 300 dpi. Higher dpi and color takes longer.
This scanner includes support for Win98/Me/2k on the CD. I've used both Win98 and win2k with no problems.
In summary, this is a good scanner especially considering the price. If you're not going to use to do intensive photo editing, it's a good deal. If you really, really care about quality, you're going to need a better scanner. But for the typical web page posting or email, it's good enough.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 10
Interface: USB
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Epinions.com ID:
clicq
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Reviews written: 54
Trusted by: 4 members
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