[sane-devel] Scanner recomendation

Sun Sep 1 19:07:15 BST 2002

It's hard for me to be impartial, I am responsible for the EPSON 
backend, I have five EPSON scanners, and I think they are
simply the best ... :-)

With that out of the way, I would recommend a UB scanner, it's a
lot less hassle than a SCSI scanner. If you can find something
in your pricerange that supports IEEE-1394 ("Firewire"), this 
would be a good (and faster) alternative to USB. It comes with
all the benefits you have with an USB scanner, but gives you
the advantages of a SCSI system. 

I did some negative and slide scans on the EPSON Perfection 2450,
and the image quality is great. I actually prefer the scans to
the ones from my (dedicated film scanner) Canon FS4000 - as long
as I don't need the max. resolution that only the Canon can 
provide.

I have tried to use the Adaptec 1542 (I think it was the "B" model)
in two different PCI motherboards, and none of them was able to 
work with this SCSI adapter. Since then I've heard more of the
same from other users. It may work, but a lot of boards (or to be
more specific, the PCI/IDE bridge) have problems with bus master
devices on the IDE bus in general and more specific with this controller.

EPSON just released (not sure if they are already available in the US,
but you can definitely get them in Europe) two new scanner models that
work with the current version of Sane: The Perfection 1660 and 2400.
Both work just fine with Sane. The 2400 is the cheaper version of
the 2450 (only USB instead of USB and IEEE-1394, but you get USB2 instead
of USB1.1). I was told that the scanner does not feel as sturdy as
the 2450, but the scan quality should be the same.

Hope this helps,

Karl Heinz

On Sun, Sep 01, 2002 at 09:19:29AM -0600, Dwight Tovey wrote:
> I'm sure I just heard a collective groan from the list as yet another
> newbie asks for a basic recommendation.  But after looking through the
> archives a bit it looked like the only recommendations recently have
> been about film scanners, so I thought I would ask again.
> 
> I'll admit to being fairly ignorant about scanners.  I used to have an
> old Umax 1200S scanner that I used on an old Win95 box, but I didn't use
> it much and I got rid of the whole package a few months ago.  I now have
> a need for a scanner for both the kid's school projects and so that I
> can archive old photographs.
> 
> I have a system running Red Hat Linux 7.3, as well as my laptop (also
> R.H. 7.3) and the kid's system running Win2K.  What I think would be the
> ideal setup for us would be to have a scanner connected to the first
> Linux system and the other machines accessing it over the network. 
> Looking through the Sane documentation I get the feeling that this would
> be fairly easy as far as Linux <-> Linux is concerned, but there might
> be some issues with Linux <-> Win2k.  For that reason I think that I
> will probably want a scanner with a USB interface to make it easier to
> move the scanner between systems when necessary.  I do have an Adaptec
> 1542 SCSI card that I can install in the main R.H. system dedicate to
> the scanner.
> 
> As far as scanner properties, I figure I want the highest resolution
> that I can afford (I'm currently thinking around $300).  I think that I
> would like to be able to scan film negatives (using a scanner with a
> built-in film adapter) as well as prints.  I realize that the quality of
> negative scans won't be as good as would be possible from a dedicated
> film scanner, but will it be acceptable?  Should I just forget about
> scanning negatives altogether unless I'm willing to shell out big bucks
> for a dedicated film scanner?
> 
> It looks like Epson and HP scanners would be the most compatible with
> Sane.  How about Canon?
> 
> >From looking at the compatibility list, I have the feeling that the list
> is a little out of date (kind of hard to keep up with all the new stuff
> coming out all the time).  Will I have any luck if I get a new Epson or
> HP scanner even if it isn't listed?  Are there really any "new" features
> in these scanners?  On the other hand, it may be difficult to find some
> of the older models without hitting the used market.
> 
> As I said, I'm completely new to scanners, so I would appreciate any
> advice that you all could give.
> 
> Thanks
> 	/dwight
> 
> 
> -- 
> Dwight N. Tovey                          Unix SysAdmin / Developer
> League of American Bicyclists            Idaho Transportation Dept.
>        Certified Instructor #750-K-C     3311 W. State St.
> Email: dwight at dtovey.net                 Boise, ID.  83702
> (208)334-8166 / fax: (208)334-8121       http://www.dtovey.net/dwight
> ---
> Over the Hill?  What Hill?  I Didn't See Any Hill!
> 
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-- 
Karl Heinz Kremer                                  khk at khk.net
PGP Key at                 http://www.khk.net/download/khk.asc
EPSON Sane Backend:                         http://www.khk.net
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