Scanner suggestions?

[srca1941]

Long time no see, but that's been for a reason. A few actually. One, I've just been busy, but also I've had a series of computer crashes over the last few months that have probably claimed the life of my flatbed scanner. My scanner is now 16 years old and is probably long overdue for replacement anyway, but Windows 10 no longer recognizes what it is and will not let me assign a driver to it. Therefore, it is kaput.

With all that said, before I just go and buy a new one, I thought I'd ask and see if anyone has any recommendations. I'd like to spend $100 or less, but I might go a little over if there was something that would be significantly faster. Looking at some of the last RAW scans that I did back in January (and still need to edit and post), it looks like I was averaging a 300dpi scan every two minutes. Given that I had to turn pages/adjust the book and hit "scan" on the computer, the actual scan time was probably about 1 minute.

I'm sure that most scanners are faster these days, I was just checking to see if anyone thought there was one in particular that I should be looking at. Right now I'm considering the Epson Perfection V39: https://www.amazon.com/Epson-Perfection-V39-photo-Scanner/dp/B00SSXQ7Q2

-Eric

[Snard]

Hi Eric,

You've been missed! Sorry to hear about your computer and scanner woes. I just did some quick research on the Epson Perfection V39 scanner, based on some review comments. I own an older Epson scanner and am pretty happy with it. However, one comment I've seen about the V39 is that it uses CIS imaging, as opposed to the more traditional CCD imaging that most older (and more expensive) scanners have. The primary advantages of CIS are lower cost and power consumption - the V39 scanner actually runs off of the power from the USB cable, without needing to be plugged into the wall.  However, one of the disadvantages is that it has very shallow depth of focus, so your scans may be out of focus if the books aren't pressed all the way down to the glass. (This explains something that I have seen in scans from some people, that I couldn't explain before).  I would suggest you do your own research on this, and perhaps consider some of the slightly more expensive scanners  that have CCD sensors, or at least have the better depth of focus.

Take care,
a nonny moose

[JonTheScanner]

The Epson Perfection V370 is 4800 dpi x 9600 dpi - USB 2.0 and uses CCD for $129.  It's only 8 1/2 by 11 image size though that's fine for comics. But I see it supports WIndows 7.  It does not mention 10.

[srca1941]

Good to know about the CIS vs. CCD. That probably wouldn't affect most of my scans, but there is the odd squarebound book and water damage can warp pages as well. Inexpensive is good, but I'd rather have quality than just go cheap. This last scanner served my needs for 16 years and I was always very pleased with the scans. More so than my "all-in-one" printers, one of which I know is CIS. I'd like my next flatbed to hold up at least somewhat as well. I'm now looking at the Epson Perfection V550. It's significantly more expensive, but there is a refurbished one on Amazon which is more in line with the price range I have in mind. (I'm also needing to buy a new 4TB internal drive, so the more I can stretch my dollars, the better.)

I'm certainly open to more than just Epson, but that seems to be what is showing up the most and matching my requirements. This last one was an HP (HP Scanjet 3570c). I'd certainly buy one again based on the quality of this one, but it looks like HP has left the consumer level market and are only making higher end business models.

My computer woes really haven't been so bad. At least not thus far. I have Windows on a separate drive from everything else, so it's more of an inconvenience getting everything back up and running. The biggest problem is trying to figure out the cause. I've switched hard drives, swapped RAM, and done tests on the motherboard. From what I've read, if it's a hardware issue, then it's either a problem I've missed on the motherboard, or it could be the video card. Neither is a good option, but I guess if I had to choose, the video card would be the least expensive and least troublesome to replace. I'm hoping that it's just a series of software glitches with Windows. I've had no other symptoms of problems and it all began with a major Windows update in the fall.

-Eric

[Yoc]

Hi Eric,
Great to hear from you again, it's been a while!
Very sorry to hear about your computer woes.  I think we've all been there.

I own an HP Scanjet 4370 and it's Brutally slow scanning with it at higher resolutions!  Perhaps on a newer PC it wouldn't be so bad but I sure don't recommend that model anyway.

Good luck getting back to normal!
-Yoc

[srca1941]

Well, I just placed my order for the Epson Perfection V550 (refurbished) and should hopefully have it later this week. Thanks for the help!

Meanwhile, I'll try to get around to editing the last two scans I did on my HP scanner. One of them will go perfectly with all of the Fawcetts which have been going up lately...

-Eric

[Yoc]

Good luck with the new scanner Eric!

[Geo (RIP)]

Eric I have the V550 scanner, (bought it at Best Buy) and have been very happy with it. I use it on a Mac. It is very fast from my last scanner which doesn't work with my new OS. I use SilverFast  8 as my scanning software, have used them for years. You should be very happy with your buy.

- Geo

[srca1941]

I'm looking forward to trying it out. Hopefully by the end of the week. Nice to hear about it's speed. I didn't find much mention of that, so I was wondering, but I figured that anything new had to be faster than a scanner from 2002.

I've used VueScan for my scanning software since building my present computer and my old scanner software not working with Windows 7. I've been very happy with VueScan and would recommend it to anyone. It actually gave me more options than HP's software did which was designed for my scanner! Plus, by using 3rd party software and not what comes with the equipment, it shouldn't interrupt my workflow. That's always a plus.

-Eric

[srca1941]

My scanner came today and so far, so good. It's certainly faster. With my old scanner, I could do a 36 page book in about an hour without interruptions. Tonight I did 44 pages in about half an hour! The scan itself (at 300dpi) takes about 10 seconds. The rest of the time is me turning pages, hitting "scan," and updating the file name in the save box, so I doubt I'll ever be able to make the process much faster. I still have to do edits (on this and the last two books I did on my old scanner), but pretty soon there should be a new, larger (but still coverless) scan of Exciting Comics #50.

-Eric

[Snard]

The rest of the time is me turning pages, hitting "scan," and updating the file name in the save box, so I doubt I'll ever be able to make the process much faster.

I have a different model Epson scanner, and it will auto-increment a number at the end of the file name when you do consecutive scans (and you can suppress the "save as" box when do let it number the scans for you). This should speed up your process a little, if you enable that option.

[bminor]

No matter which scanner you end up with you should try this scanning software that I have been using for the past ten years.

VueScan, by Hammerick Software.

It literally will work on ANY scanner. Thousands of scannners are supported. If it doesn't, let him know and he will probably make sure that it will in future.

The software is free to download and try before you buy. Your scans will have "$" signs through them until you register and get your serial number.
You can get either the Standard software for $39 or the pro version for $99

So many scanners out there work fine, until you upgrade your operating system. Then it doesn't work because the scanner manufacturers do not update there software to run on the new OS.
This happened to me with my tried and true old HP scanner. Which works fine now with this software.

Pretty cool software!
Yours
Brian Minor


He is always updating it.

https://www.hamrick.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=&utm_term=vuescan&utm_content=&matchtype=b&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIkJyo1ovl2wIVBcJkCh0UFgUVEAAYASAAEgK83fD_BwE

[Yoc]

Thanks for the pointer B!

-Yoc