Agfa SnapScan
Written: Apr 27 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Easy to install and use.
Cons: Price competition should be the determining factor.
The Bottom Line: The low end of the scanner market offers products of satisfactory performance at reasonable prices. This Agfa unit is another of many viable choices.
|
|
|
| lucie30's Full Review: Agfa SnapScan 1212p Flatbed Scanner |
AGFA is a venerable name in the photography business. Now they are producing consumer products for the digital age and their quality and experience shows. AGFA’s SnapScan , a satisfactory, low cost, flatbed scanner for the home user or SOHO. Scanners have benefited from remarkable technological advance in both hardware and software while prices have been dropping at an amazing rate. You no longer have to invest thousands of dollars to procure a superb color scanner, nor do you need to invest huge amounts of time to learn how to use them. This AGFA scanner has a suggested retail price of under $100. The software package that comes with it would cost more than that if bought separately.
But that’s not all, this scanner operates through the parallel port so you do not need to open the case to install it. Truly a great feature for the technologically challenged. Even more surprising, the manual is clearly written in a step-by-step manner. Even I, well renowned for having two left thumbs, was able to install and run it on the first try. Despite the fact that AGFA is a division of Bayer, you will not need any aspirin during the installation process.
The minimum installation requirements are: Pentium processor and Windows 95. My Pentium was more than enough. One thing that the manual emphasizes is that this scanner be connected to Parallel Port 1. The scanner has two connectors on the back, one to the PC and the other is a pass through for the printer. Here is a real test, my HP DeskJet printer cautions about being located on a port with any other device, and since I had some initial problems getting it running, I never even considered port sharing. Curiosity got the better of me so I decided to go for it. I plugged the printer into the port on the scanner and the scanner direct to the PC. I then plugged the scanner power transformer into my power strip and the scanner. The hardware installation took less than two minutes. This includes the few seconds to unlatch the scanner transport latch. I powered the scanner and ran the self-test, all went fine. I then powered up the system and installed the software called for by the manual. Again, no problem. I then installed the second set of software cited by the manual and was soon ready to test. Software installation time was less than 5 minutes, a good deal of which was spent checking the steps in the manual. I placed a colorful magazine cover on the scanner, and scanned it. Now comes the interesting part, will the printer work? Surprisingly, I soon had a full color replica of my test page, and it was hard to tell it from the original. I was impressed. One more significant test, I used the on/off button on the front of the scanner to turn it off and then tried to use the printer. It worked just fine. This is significant, since many low priced scanners do not have an on/off switch so they stay on all the time, keeping the scanner lamp lit and thereby reducing bulb life.
The scanner uses the CCD (charge coupled device) technology and is a one pass scanner. The maximum optical resolution is 600 x 1200 ppi with the potential of 9600 x 9600 ppi through interpolation. The internal sample depth is 10 bits for gray and 30 bits for color. The scanning area is 8.5” x 11.7”. There is a power switch and light on the front face of the unit. This is a TWAIN compliant device, so that it is compatible with standard peripherals.
The included software bundle would cost more than the total selling price if purchased separately. These come on three separate CD-ROMs. Each has a choice of English, French, Spanish, Italian, German or Dutch language. The scanner driver software is FotoLook and FastSnap. The image editing software is iPhoto Express. This is a light version of the Ulead PhotoImpact software which by itself sells for $99.95. The light version contains the key features of the full product, but not all the bells and whistles, which most people would not use anyway. The Text scanning software is a light version of Caere OmniPage. There is also the Visioneer PaperPort software for document management. This software bundle contains Windows 3.x/95/NT as well as Macintosh versions. This software package permits great control over color characteristics, and conveniently shows side-by-side views of before and after correction so that you can see exactly what you have done. There is also the full capability for image manipulation, cropping and sizing. There are also templates for using the images in many diverse applications such as web graphics, greeting cards, business cards, invitations and newsletters. This is just a sample, not a complete list. You may also export to the web, a fax or any document. You now also have a copy machine when you have a printer attached. The software package allows import from just about any source such as a video image, a digital camera, a computer file or the printed page. You can export to just about any device attached to your PC that stores data.
One interesting feature of the installation program is that you are offered the choice of installing FotoLook (the professional scanner driver) or FotoSnap (the easy-to-use scanner driver). Since I have had some experience with scanners I chose the FotoLook option. For those new to graphics and therefore unfamiliar with the jargon, the manual provides instructional material and help on scanning and definition of technical attribute terminology. You will be successfully making scans almost immediately and will very shortly be optimizing (to your own criteria) images. This is indeed a “comfortable” system, even for rank beginners.
It is hard to believe, but quite true that this scanner and software bundle gives you tremendous graphics capability for such a low price. Now you can readily share photos, newspaper clippings and just about any type of image with friends and relatives worldwide on an almost instantaneous basis by shipping these images via the Internet. The kit is quite complete, it includes the scanner, the cited software, the power supply, the manual and even a parallel cable.
Scanner prices have really dropped recently, and the capabilities among the major brands are quite similar. Price should be the deciding factor.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 95
Interface: Parallel
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
lucie30
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Location: A small island in the Intercoastal.
Reviews written: 252
Trusted by: 53 members
About Me:
3 University degrees. 30+ years in Electronics R&D. Registered Professional Engineer. Graduated USAF Flying School.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.