Guide to choosing a scanner

[Sukhipanna]

Got an offer to buy a second-hand HP flatbed scanner at Rm120. Original price is over RM300.

Read some sites on what to look for when choosing a scanner. But want to also seek your advice/opinions - based on your experience.

Suppose to collect the scanner today if I want it.

[VeeJay]

It would have been helpful to comment, if you had mentioned the model of the HP scanner, and age.

But purely looking at the price..it seems to be a good buy, assuming its less than a year old.

[Sukhipanna]

It's HP Scanjet 3500C. Thanks for answering to this thread.

[cactuc1]

Scanner...

I guess the more pixer it can scan the better..and must be within your budget..
Scanning time should be fast..I think HP is fast?...
The features?...Fast buttons?...Bundled software?...

My one cheap one and ok pixar.. but slow scanning...:(

However , if printing is involve...good scanner without a good printer is no use also..Since 2nd hand, hope the light bulb inside will not burn...

Have u heard a feature in a scanner that can scan film negative into a coloured picture..So can print out coloured pic?...

[VeeJay]

Sukhipanna, here is the spec for the unit...seems okay for the amount. The market price is about RM150...so what you are paying is a fair price...but take note its a discontionued unit from HP, so getting parts replacement would be difficult ...which is what I normally say, but in this case I would say...it doesnt matter, because the repair cost would be more than the unit cost, so just throw and buy a new one, if this goes faulty... ;-)

Oh ya, ensure to test it before purchasing, make sure it scans properly with no missing images and the color comes out good too...good luck

The spec

# Scanner type: Flatbed
# Scanning area: 8.5" x 11.7"
# Resolution: 1200 x 1200 dpi
# Color depth: 48-bit
# Gray scale: 256
# Scanning speeds: 50 secs, OCR letter-size black and white text to MS Word; 38 secs, 4 x 6 inch color photo to MS Word; 27 secs, black-and-white bitmap to MS Word
# Light source: Florescent
# Operating systems: Windows 98, 2000, Me, XP Professional, XP Home Edition, and Mac OS 9.1 and higher and OS X 10.1 and higher
# Interface: USB 2.0 full speed
# Software: HP Photo and Imaging software, IRIS OCR, ReadIRIS Pro 7.5 including Hebrew OCR (opt. 730), ReadIRIS Pro 7.5 including Arabic OCR (opt. ABB, ABU), Hemera Jigsaw Puzzler and CD Designs Creator (Win only, opt. AC8, ABM, AKV, ABD, UUR, UUZ, ABB, ABU, ABE, 730, 720, 710, UUW), Hemera Greeting Card Creator (Win only, opt. A2L)
# System requirements: Windows 98, 2000, Me, XP Professional, XP Home Edition; Pentium(r) II, Celeron or compatible; 64 MB RAM; 300 MB hard disk space; SVGA 800x600, 16 bit color monitor; CD-ROM drive; IE 5; HP Memories Disc Creator software requires CD-Writer and 700 MB additional hard disc space
# Width: 19.7 inches
# Height: 2.6 inches
# Depth: 11.8 inches
# Weight: 5.9 pounds

[Sukhipanna]

Veejay, thanks for your input!

Got the scanner. Work perfectly!! Use it to scan docs which I could archive in digital format and of course some designing work.