My 3rd scanner in the past year,...

[FFB]

Brother scanners are lousy with slabs. I have the following Brother All-In-Ones for my office: MFC-7840W and MFC-8680DN. Neither one can scan a slab worth a damn. They are great All-In-Ones for a small office, however, unless your small office is in the business of online comic sales.

 

A Brother, while a decent machine, will use more ink than any other brand in the industry. I looked at those HP's you are looking at now, last week, because I needed a legal size scanner for slabbed comics. However, i couldn't justify the price just to upgrade my Epson 8.5 x 11 scanner, Which I am keeping because my all-in-one Hp scans arent near the quality of my Epson stand-alone scanner, I dont know what the scan quality is like on those HP's you are considering, but I have found that unless you spend about $800 on a all -in-one then the quality is not near the quality of a stand alone flatbed (The newer all in ones may be different).

[nearmint]

They don't make them anymore, but I bought a brand new Microtek i800 off eBay, and I'm very happy with it.

 

 

[comicdonna]

I use a camera.

 

[mysterio]

Brother scanners are lousy with slabs. I have the following Brother All-In-Ones for my office: MFC-7840W and MFC-8680DN. Neither one can scan a slab worth a damn. They are great All-In-Ones for a small office, however, unless your small office is in the business of online comic sales.

 

I totally disagree. I have been using a Brother for 2 years now and am very satisfied. As for scan quality, see my scan example on the bottom of page 2 of this thread (post 20 if your settings are non-standard). I agree that scanning with the factory setting for the Brother gives unsatisfying results, but they are easily tweaked to provide good scans of slabs.

[fastballspecial]

CanoScan 4400F 1000s of scans and still going

 

 

[HemiGTX]

They don't make them anymore, but I bought a brand new Microtek i800 off eBay, and I'm very happy with it.

 

 

 

Nearmint -

 

Just bought my first Microtek off of ebay last week. Very excited to use it as it appears to be the scanner people prefer most.

 

Are you using the software that came with the unit? or Vuescan?

 

Any special settings that you are using?

 

Thanks..............

[Boba]

...OK,...I've bought 2 scanners already this year and they both blow,...the first was a cheap cannon,..and the second was a HP scanjet 8500 that has horrible glare,...

 

I wanted a microtek 1800 but they dont make them anymore, and i dont want to risk the new model,...

 

so I'm narrowed my choices down to a hp scanjet 8300 or a brother all-in-one MFC-8480DN ,...

 

Can I get some feedback on which is better for slabs please?

 

I have the Microtek 1800f, and it's quite amazing. Besides scanning off the flat-bed, it can do transmissive scans (light passing through) film negatives, chromes and even the old-fashioned glass negatives. For slabs it's fine. I recently changed computers and have to find a driver for that runs on OS 10.7 (Lion). I was looking at the Vuescan product. Anyone have experience with this program?

[Ghost Town]

I recently changed computers and have to find a driver for that runs on OS 10.7 (Lion). I was looking at the Vuescan product. Anyone have experience with this program?

Yes, I think VueScan works well with scans of CGC books. It took some experimenting to find settings I was happy with, but I think the scans are better than what what Microtek's software gave me. (They are horrible at updating ScanWizard for Macs. They takes months and months, if they ever do it at all.)

 

That said, I have had problems with the software and/or scanner (Microtek i800) losing their connection needing to restart the scanner and Vuescan program. Although when I asked on boards if anybody else was having that problem with Lion and Vuescan, I seemed to be alone with that.

 

Here's a sample scan made at 150 dpi and saved at 112 dpi.

 

[nearmint]

They don't make them anymore, but I bought a brand new Microtek i800 off eBay, and I'm very happy with it.

 

 

 

Nearmint -

 

Just bought my first Microtek off of ebay last week. Very excited to use it as it appears to be the scanner people prefer most.

 

Are you using the software that came with the unit? or Vuescan?

 

Any special settings that you are using?

 

Thanks..............

 

I'm using the software that came with the unit, which isn't compatible with my Mac desktop, but works fine with my PC laptop. I do have the settings tweaked a little. I'll check them when I get home from work tonight.

[Dr. Balls]

The difference is CCD vs CIS. CCD is better than CIS for depth-of-field.

 

Most HP all-in-ones now use CIS. The older models like the HP 7310 used CCD.

 

3-D scanning

 

CCD (Charge Coupled Device)

CCD scanners use mirrors and lenses to capture optical information, which the scanner then converts into digital data.

 

They are able to capture a greater depth-of-focus than CIS scanners, making them more suitable for heavy and detailed 3-D scanning or double page spreads to minimize visible black lines at the binding.

 

HP dedicated scanners and most HP LaserJet MFPs use CCD technology for optimal color and depth of focus.

 

 

CIS (Contact image sensors)

Lighter-weight than CCD technology, CIS technology uses LEDs placed near the scanning glass to capture an image and are perfect for HP All-in-Ones. HP All-in-Ones featuring flatbeds and CIS technology are also capable of scanning 3-D items and are available with up to a 48-bit color bit depth.

 

This could possibly be some very priceless and useful information. I am lugging home an old Epson scanner from work that utilizes CCD tech, and we'll see how that works. Thanks for the info!

[HemiGTX]

They don't make them anymore, but I bought a brand new Microtek i800 off eBay, and I'm very happy with it.

 

 

 

Nearmint -

 

Just bought my first Microtek off of ebay last week. Very excited to use it as it appears to be the scanner people prefer most.

 

Are you using the software that came with the unit? or Vuescan?

 

Any special settings that you are using?

 

Thanks..............

 

I'm using the software that came with the unit, which isn't compatible with my Mac desktop, but works fine with my PC laptop. I do have the settings tweaked a little. I'll check them when I get home from work tonight.

 

Thanks Nearmint, much apreciated...................

[Dr. Balls]

I picked up an old Epson V200 scanner - it's not legal-size, but it scans beautifully. Problem solved. If anyone is looking for a Microtek scanner, there is one on Ebay I was going to bid on, but don't have to anymore.

 

Check it out here.

[Boba]

I picked up an old Epson V200 scanner - it's not legal-size, but it scans beautifully. Problem solved. If anyone is looking for a Microtek scanner, there is one on Ebay I was going to bid on, but don't have to anymore.

 

Check it out here.

 

gone is sixty seconds

[Rocketeer]

...For what it's worth I went with the HP-Scanjet 8300 legal size, and I'm very happy with it,...I'm still playing with the color controls,..but here is an example of what I've been able to do so far,...

 

[Hoarder]

for those of you w/the microtek and vuescan, any idea what are the best vuescan settings to use?

[Ghost Town]

for those of you w/the microtek and vuescan, any idea what are the best vuescan settings to use?

If you like this scan and pm me your e-mail, I can send you the file with my settings. I wasn't happy with any of VueScan's existing settings and tinkered for awhile. You can load the file within VueScan and use them as your settings. Go to "Load options" in the file menu and select the settings file.

 

[8milemax]

I have a question about my scanner, what am I doing wrong?

 

I have a HP Photo smart premium c309g-m

 

Here's a scan i just did

 

[ydanusas]

Here is my contribution. Just bought a Microtel X12USL off of craigslist for $35 and here are the results. Needless to say, I'm happy with how the scans turned out

 

 

 

[Dr. Balls]

I have a question about my scanner, what am I doing wrong?

 

I have a HP Photo smart premium c309g-m

 

Here's a scan i just did

 

 

Read this thread in it's entirety, and you'll find the answer. I had a scanner doing the same thing...

[8milemax]

The scans is from my new brothers all in one Laser Printer " I needed it for union stuff" and I was surprised how this turned out.