Plug and play
Written: Sep 22 '00 (Updated Sep 28 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: good price, easy setup
Cons: possible USB placement problem
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| gerstein's Full Review: Umax Astra 3450 Flatbed Scanner |
Bought this for work, and it's very small - much smaller than I expected. I tried doing a transparency scan, and it came out fine,with one small exception: a piece of dust in the scan. No problem, I thought, I'll just clean the glass. Good thought, except the dust is on the INSIDE of the scanner. I called support to see if there is a way I can clean it myself, and was on hold for about 3 minutes before I talked to anyone. After explaining my problems, I was put on hold again, then given vague instructions on how to open the scanner up since it's "user servicable - but watch out for the cables when you have it open".
I wrestled with the scanner for a few minutes, but didn't manage to get it open - I believe it would have involved using screw-drivers for leverage, and quite possibly breaking it in the process. Besides, all my wrestling actually moved the dust, so it's now closer to the corner, where it really shouldn't matter much.
This morning, I was asked to scan something in. I previewed the page fine, but when I went to do the actual scan, I got just white. I checked everything to make sure it was all lined up and tried again - still nothing. Except now I was getting nothing in my preview images.
Troubleshooting via the FAQ on their website suggested a possible corruption, so I removed all the copies of the driver and preferences and re-installed. Still no go. I finally had to plug it directly into my computer to get it to see the scanner properly again. I haven't tried it again since then (10 minutes ago), but it's incredibly inconvenient to have to crawl under my desk to disconnect things and then scan with the scanner on the floor, at my feet.
I'll be trying it on another computer, but so far, I'm not going to get my hopes up.
On a better note, the scan quality is pretty good. It's got a good resolution to start with (600 x 1200), and scales up pretty high (24000, if I recall). Ours came with the transparency adaptor, which is nice - we're able to scan negatives and transparencies without having to buy/configure anything extra.
I'll update this review sometime next week with how it works with a new computer I'm setting up, as well as some sample scans.
Update: 9/25/00
Tried it again with my primary computer, and everything is now fine, despite the fact that the scanner is plugged into my keyboard (via the USB port).
I found another cool feature of the software: you can scan to disk, printer, fax, email, or to an application. This would be handy to scan stuff just to email it - you can just use the VistaScan application and have the image automatically be added to an email. Or, if you don't have a photo copier, you can just scan/copy at the same time. Very cool.
Update: 9/28/00
Tried again on the primary computer, and it's still working like a charm. Guess maybe something was amiss, but as long as it keeps working, I'll be happy. One of my non-computer guru co-workers borrowed it, and managed to have it up and running in about 10 minutes. She did have some trouble with the slide scanning portion, but it's easy to miss that setting, so I don't see it as a problem on her part - just a minor change needed for the software.
Anyway, I scanned some stuff on/around my desk, and here are the images:
http://204.249.215.190/~adam/epinions/astra.jpg - astra ad in a catalog
http://204.249.215.190/~adam/epinions/manual.jpg - astra manual
http://204.249.215.190/~adam/epinions/os_x.jpg - Mac OS X Cd
http://204.249.215.190/~adam/epinions/seagate.jpg - A dead Seagate hard drive
http://204.249.215.190/~adam/epinions/phb.jpg - Pointy-Haired Boss
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
gerstein
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Member: Adam Gerstein
Location: Milford, CT
Reviews written: 110
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
Father of 4. Computer geek. Opinionated. What more can I say?
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