Scanners

I would recommend Canon. Canon is a great company that I use for all of my digital imaging needs. I have a 8800F, which I bought because of the Consumer Reports review here:
http://www.consumersearch.com/scanner-reviews/canon-canoscan-8800f

It works fast, has really high quality scans, and the bundled software is great. Plus, it is fairly cheap at $USD 180.

HP is also good for all-in-ones(Canon Pixma rates higher though...).

I hope this helps,
~schmatz

Usually, I simply avoid installing the bundled software. The driver's on the CD somewhere - if it's even required at all - and if you poke around a bit you can hand it to Windows directly, bypassing the bundle installer.

I've done a bunch of scanning via Paint.net and is worked out pretty well.

I've recently bought a Canon LIDE 25. Extremely cheap ($50), Linux-compatible (through SANE) and with a fairly decent resolution. I have no idea how the software works on Windows, though, but I could suggest using a Windows port of SANE.

If your primary application is scanning slides, a flatbed scanner is a poor choice, even if it theoretically can do it. See this page for comparisons: http://www.andromeda.com/people/ddyer/photo/albums.html Even if you must have a flatbed, you're probably better off with a separate scanner for slides.

A lot of scanning software does really suck. Most bundled software is implemented as a "twain" driver, which in practice means that you're stuck with whatever they provide. I recommend vuescan http://www.hamrick.com/, which is independent of the manufacturers software, and supports every scanning device
you've ever heard of.

Quote:

Original post by bulletthebluesky I would recommend Canon. Canon is a great company that I use for all of my digital imaging needs. I have a 8800F, which I bought because of the Consumer Reports review here: http://www.consumersearch.com/scanner-reviews/canon-canoscan-8800f It works fast, has really high quality scans, and the bundled software is great. Plus, it is fairly cheap at $USD 180. HP is also good for all-in-ones(Canon Pixma rates higher though...). I hope this helps, ~schmatz

I recommend this one too. It has the ability to scan slides and film and does an excellent job at it. It comes with some decent software but I just use the version of photoshop elements that comes with it.

Rah! Forgot to reply to this. I'll have to bump it.

Got a Canon 8800f, as you guys recommended. I'm very happy with it.

The scanner software itself is generally passable - it could be better but it's not glaringly bad. UI is meh. Actual functionality is terrific (yay automagic slide cropping, dust removal, etc).

Although not being WIA2-compatible, it won't work with Paint.NET. The GIMP suffices for general image work, but crashes when the scanner gives it four images (one for each slide) - which means using the bundleware (bungleware?) image editor for slides - which is pretty horrid. Although I haven't gotten around to trying that Photoshop Elements disk yet.

Oh - and - it added a startup item that was essentially a dirty great box that covered the top left quarter of the screen on startup with two buttons - essentially: "Scan" and "Help" - along with detailed instructions on how one might go about clicking aforementioned buttons with their mouse. I pity the folk who don't know how to turn that shit off.

Anyway - thanks for your advice, folks!