The faded glory of oversized scanning.
Written: May 29 '01
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Pros: Excellent for scanning large pictures, especially comic book art.
Cons: Out of production, can't find it anymore
The Bottom Line: It's the best, if it were only still available to buy.
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| xadrian's Full Review: Mustek Plug-n-Scan A3 EP Flatbed Scanner |
Man, this is a true tragedy. I'm a comic book artist, and like other artists in my field, I'm constantly looking for a way to get my art online in a timely fashion. I started with a Canon BubbleJet printer with the scanning cartridge to get my artwork scanned and stored. Unfortunately, it had to be art done on typing paper, not something I do all the time. The beauty of the Mustek is that it allowed for slightly oversized scanning. The average comic book board is 11x17 and with most scanners you have to scan the top then the bottom half, then splice them together. Most scanners come with some hinkey photo edit program that will allow such splicing, but after you've spent hours, or days on a picture, it's almost insulting to have to do this. It's much easier for boards and sketch pad scanning and it makes for faster uploads to websites or storage on the hard drive.
The software that came with this, iPhoto plus or something, isn't bad. Mustek is assuming that you'll use this monster size scanner to scan 4x6 prints of your last trip to Botswana or something so most of the options in here include De-Red Eyeing, Focus, Lighting and Croping adjustments. As well, you can create cards, announcements, boarders for pictures, and on and on ad nauseum. It's no better or worse than any creative software included with printers or other scanners. However, you can get the same affect by using PhotoShop and the Acquire, TWAIN option (for you artists out there.)
Now to the bad part. THEY DON'T MAKE THIS ANYMORE!! I was trying to help a few artists out by recommending sites or stores that carry this (including Mustek's page) and guess what? It's a dinosaur!! It's extinct!! They don't make it anymore. There's no retail shop on the planet, aside from a refurb or used PC store that you can find this. I think i got the last one!! I'm scared that if it breaks I will have no recourse but to by an inferior sized scanner.
So to all you artists out there, hunt this bad boy down. Call around, make some connections, but get a hold of this scanner. It was $135 and worth every penny. To get a comparable scanner now you have to pay $1500 at the very least. I'm very sorry this is out of "print."
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 135.00
Interface: Parallel
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Epinions.com ID:
xadrian
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Member: Ben Rollman
Location: Pflugerville, TX
Reviews written: 79
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
IT monkey by day, artist and LEGO builder by night.
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