rpllingrock's Full Review: Visioneer OneTouch 8100 Flatbed Scanner
After retiring my old Mustek 600 SCSI scanner, I went on a search to purchase yet another item at the end of it’s retail life, so I picked up this Visioneer 8100 scanner for under $30 based on the mostly favorable reviews here on Epinions.
My main need for this scanner is to archive old paper documents (about 2,500) to TIFF image and PDF files for safe keeping. Also throw in a few image scans, and the kids playing around.
Also, the inclusion of this USB scanner allowed me to move it from computer to computer without much hassle. Something I wasn’t able to do before. Unplug the USB and power cord and off you go to the next computer. Of course you always run the risk of damage when a delicate piece of equipment is moved from place to place. (so I purchased a 2nd scanner after about a month! ;) )
This opinion is based on Windows XP Pro/Home 512/256 MB RAM @ Athlon T-Bird 1.33 GHz/Celeron 1.2 GHz, and tested on Windows 98SE 128 MB RAM, 400 MHz Celeron.
Before I even get started, I will tell you that I run this scanner bare-bone on both XP systems. I only have the necessary drivers installed without any of the included software, although I did test PaperPort on both XP and 98.
Features
• Accepts both parallel and USB connections. Stick with the USB option, parallel ports were meant for one thing, printers.
• 600 X 1200 dpi Optical resolution.
• 1200 dpi Hardware sampling and 2400 dpi max interpolated.
• 42-bit True Color
• Includes both a parallel and USB cable.
• Software includes, PaperPort Deluxe 7 (although the packaging says v6), Text Bridge OCR v6, PictureWorks Photo Enhancer, and MGI PhotoSuite 2 SE. As I said earlier, with the exception of the drivers needed to run the scanner, I’ve only tested PaperPort 7 on my system.
• One Touch scan buttons. Four buttons located on the front panel, Email, Copy/Print, Scan, and Custom. All are associated with PaperPort. Pressing the corresponding button will bring up the Visioneer One Touch 3 control panel.
For instance we want to e-mail a photo to someone. Place the photo on the flatbed and press the e-mail button (or from the One Touch icon in the tray). The scanner does its thing and depending on your configurable settings, it’ll automatically crop the image and you’re prompted to send it via your e-mail client.
One of the settings that should be changed for e-mail is the default being Windows Bitmap. These files can get huge and you wouldn’t want to be the recipient of these. ;)
Installation/Configuration
After unpacking the scanner I immediately downloaded the updated certified XP drivers from the Visioneer website before attempting to install.
At the very least, you may want to install PaperPort in you want to utilize One Touch scanning. I find it easier to do this manually using XP’s built in scanner interface and Visioneer’s drivers. Then just import into your favorite image manipulation package for cropping etc.
Configuration of PaperPort is a nightmare. This is the one time you wish the vendor utilized pop-up balloon tips because you’re left scratching your head clicking on every option to find what you’re looking for. The interface isn’t very intuitive. The included paper documentation is helpful in this respect, but not enough detail is given about each option.
Scan Speed and Quality
One thing you’ll learn is your output will never be as good as the source. That said, the quality is far superior to scanners I’ve used at work that cost 10 times as much.
Speed on the other hand is another issue. A full page scan at 600 dpi color can take what seems forever, but the end result is fairly representative of the source. The colors I’ve achieved were true to the original with little or no added artifacts. The only gripe is whites not being a true white, but a slight blue hue which can easily be corrected with any competent image program.
The scanner appears to respond much slower using the included software as opposed to using just the drivers and XP.
On the Windows 98 machine, frequent lock-ups were corrected by not allowing the One Touch software to load with Windows and depending on the twain drivers which worked well. This may not be an indication of how it may act on your system, but this only.
The construction of the scanner appears to be well built and not too shabby in my opinion. It’s quiet with only a slight hum as the motor carries the head across the glass.
Some Problems
• You can just about forget the software update feature. It would bring up a dead Web page at their site. After analyzing what the update was doing, it was being directed to a location that no longer exists to check for updated software and then defaults you to a page that doesn’t exist. How’s that for support?
• Occasionally the scanner would default to a setting other than what it was set to. Why? Who knows? This using PaperPort. As I said earlier, stick with the scanner interface with XP or ME.
Overall
After two months of steady use, I’ve been quite happy with my purchase of this 8100 scanner. If I had paid more that $50 for it, I may feel differently. For its intended purpose in my household, it has served me well and I have no complaints about that.
If you’re running Windows 9X, you will most likely be forced to use their included software or at least their twain drivers which appear to be tight and have caused little problems on both my 98 and XP machines.
42-bit color USB and parallel interfaces 1-button faxing, copying, e-mailing, and scanning Professional software bundle Easy to set up and use, Platfo...More at Amazon Marketplace
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.