On Sunday 01 September 2002 11:19, 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 the list is a little out of date (kind of hard to keep up with 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
I'm also in the camp that says Epson is the best on price points vs performance and I own a 1250u that sells for a hundred dollar bill at the local office supply vendor. There are 2 drivers for it, with the plustek backend being a bit more versatile than the epson supplied linux driver, but the image is a bit better (not much really) when the epson driver is used. Its obviously a USB model, and some earlier motherboards WILL have trouble with any usb item that generates more traffic than a mouse. My TYAN S-1590 locks up needing a power switch cycle solid but my biostar M7VIB works great however. And forget that 1542 scsi card, its *only* good for scsi hard drives, failing miserably when a tape drive or scanner is attached. Personal experience. Ebay flooded the market with those things for way way more than the card was actually worth. -- Cheers, Gene AMD K6-III@500mhz 320M Athlon1600XP@1400mhz 512M 99.13% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly
