Love it!
Written: Feb 19 '02
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Pros: Scans larger format transparencies than 35mm, easy to use, good price/quality ratio.
Cons: Faint lines from transparency adapter at certain resolutions, scanning software not very intuitive.
The Bottom Line: The best you can get in features for a reasonable price.
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| brandyalx's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Scanjet 5370Cse Flatbed Scanner |
This scanner is unfortunately discontinued; however I found mine on eBay and didn’t consider anything else.
I sought out this scanner due to the transparency adapter, which allows scans up to 5" x 5" instead of just 35mm slides. In my former career, I had a lot of 2.25 and other larger format photography done on me that I wanted to be able to scan in addition to preferring to shoot on slide film instead of print. I kept waiting for the average price of $249 to go down, and instead of going down it was discontinued all together, which sent me running to eBay. I won the auction of my choice, but they didn't have the software for it. I ordered it for $9.95 from Hewlett-Packard without a problem.
Setup and software installation was very easy, but the software bugs me a little. The software for my old cheapo Scanport scanner was more intuitive, in that is had feature to "descreen" scans to three different levels, meaning it could compensate for the "moiré" effect you get when scanning something from a magazine or newspaper. I thought I saw something in the Caere Photo House program that came bundled with it, but that's not the program I use for my images. Plus, it only saves (as far as I can tell) in the .bmp format rather than the space saving .jpg format. I use Photoshop and found a plug-in to handle this, but it would have been a lot nicer to have it as part of the scanning process.
The transparency adapter is a marvel. I scanned a small portion of a 35mm slide of my mom's cat, Cocoa, and it looks beautiful. I did discover, though, that depending on certain resolutions and output sizes there were faint lines through the image. I found out this was some kind of reflection in the adapter itself. I haven't pinned down what exactly avoids this, but it is avoidable. You just have to tinker and then remember. I did the tinkering, just not the remembering. :)
Overall, I am very pleased with this scanner. I think it's the best you can get with its features for the price. It has a larger footprint, but then I've conceded to the overrun of my apartment by computer stuff. I saw in the other review that he provided a sample of a scanned slide. I will try to make one available as well and update this review.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150.00
Interface: USB
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Epinions.com ID:
brandyalx
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Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 2 members
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