Scanner Recommadations?

[xortam]

Thanks Maggi. I haven't used a scanner at home before so I doubt I'd suddenly start using it heavily. I would like to scan in some of my older photos. I can't see adding another SCSI controller just for the scanner though. I might test with a SCSI scanner and return it if it conflicted with my other devices on the bus. What is the difference in transfer time for SCSI vs. USB for say a 4x5 print at highest resolution? Are we talking seconds or a minute or two? Has anyone had any experience with scanning slides/transparencies?

[Maggi]

Well, for proper retouching and printing in bigger size than the original photo was, I usually end up with scans that are ~180MB in size (1200x1200 dpi optical, 42bit colordepth) ...

I used to work with a SCSI scanner (AGFA Arcus II) that was able to scan with 5MB/sec, my new USB scanner (UMAX Astra 4000U) crawls a little below 1MB/sec.

Cheers,
Maggi

[xortam]

Thanks, that's a big enough difference. Looks like I'd test out a SCSI version first.

[Wulfman]

how should it be faster with the USB bus limited to 11mbit?

I have to return my Umax 4000U because of some problems with the CCD...

but I am still happy with it

mfg
wulfman

[GT98]

I was doing some looking around on some Online retailers and ran across a Umax Firewire Scanner that was only $150 bucks...anyone have any experance with Firewire?

Scot

[Snake-Eyes]

Not with Umax firewire scanners, but I've got a Microtek Scanmaker 5700 that is connected using firewire and it's working fine (and fast).

On a side note, I'm trying to get rid of an older Microtek SCSI scanner, as well as a couple other SCSI items (adaptec and CDRW burner), since I no longer use them. More info in the Murc's Happy Shopper:
Couple SCSI devices and cards gotta go

[RichL]

Beware UMax support!

They might have fixed it by now, but their support sites suck rather.

I had to download an updated Win2k compatible driver for my Umax Astra 1220p last week. The UK site hadnt been updated since June and all its FTPs were dead. The German site was working, but downloading was running at 1k per second and kept failing.
The USA site worked and was quicker, but all the software appeared to be at least 2 minor revisions older than that listed on the European sites (eg 4.32 rather than 4.35).

Having said that my Umax scanner does give good quality scans - albeit a bit slow via the paralell port.