Get an Epson instead
Written: Apr 20 '04 (Updated Apr 20 '04)
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Pros: Great looks, awesome styling. Easy setup. Small footprint.
Cons: SLLLOOOOWWWW. Horrible software. Less than stellar images. High price.
The Bottom Line: I wouldn't waste my time again, and I'll try to avoid wasting yours. Not worth the money, although it's the coolest looking device out there. Get something else.
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| rolncode3's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Scanjet 4670 Flatbed Scanner |
I purchased this at Fry's as kind of an impulse buy. I had always wanted a scanner, but hadn't done any research recently. I saw this, and remembered reading about it, but couldn't remember what the reviews said. So, I bought it. This was the first scanner I'd ever owned, so I didn't have anything to compare it to. I paid $200 for it. In retrospect, if it had been $100 I would probably give it more credit and would probably have kept it.
Got it home, set it up. Looked great. Loaded the software, plugged it in, and everything worked correctly, first try. Real simple setup. I'm running Win XP, with all the updates in place. I read that others say it's "buggy" with XP, but I didn't have any strange problems. I hooked it up via USB 2.0, and got wonderful transfer speeds. I believe it will also work with USB 1.1. The cables are nice, as the power and USB are bundled together, so you only have one cable running across your desk.
Then I started scanning some photos. Had lots of problems with the software, as it's basically crap. The software that comes with the scanner is HP's proprietary software. It includes the scanning software, an editor, an "album" (for lack of a better word) where you can see all the images in a folder, as well as a few other items. It comes as a bundle, and includes a few pieces that I can't remember now. HP also sends ReadIris Pro 8.0 for OCR (text recognition), and that seems to work pretty well. They give you software to upload photos to HP's website, but not an easy FTP for your own server. There is also a "HP Memories Disc" which allows the easy creation of Video CD's, I haven't made a CD, but did play around with it and it looks like a good piece of software for sharing photos. Creates a photo show set to music.
I've read other places that the scanning software has been around for a while and is one of the biggest problems with HP products. It would continually freeze up on me. The scanner software has a rather cumbersome interface. In order to scan multiple items, you are continually saying yes or no to something, and you always have to do a preview scan because the software was not very good at picking the image up. Most of the time I had to tell the software where the image was on the platen, and readjust the scan border.
The scanner itself is also very slow. A time from power-on to first scan complete was probably about 45seconds-1 minute(200dpi). The time between preview and actual scan is unnecessarily long as well. After the scanner does a preview pass (at decent speed), it then returns to the beginning position very slowly. Not sure why the return pass isn't faster, as it isn't scanning at that point. Then, even after it returns to the beginning position, there is another 5-8 second pause, for no reason that I could see. Then it begins the actual scan pass. All of these times are at 200dpi (which is fairly low, just a little above being able to read black&white text). In fact, to read B&W text, I could go to 150dpi, and that was it. The scanner is decent at that resolution, maybe 20 seconds start to finish for a full page.
However, if you bump the resolution up (600 dpi or so), you can multiply these times, maybe by 3 or so. So, instead of a 20 second scan for a picture, you're now at a minute. I read an article which said to preserve pictures, scan at 600dpi in TIFF format. I tried the 600dpi, but high quality JPEG, but became frustrated by the long scan times. I have photo albums with about 300 pictures that I was going to scan. I did not want to spend that much time. The scanner claims to go to 2400X2400dpi resolution, although I didn't try it. I imagine you could go out to dinner while scanning a small photo at that resolution (based on lower dpi speeds).
The images themselves are average in quality. They can sometimes looked "washed-out" or overexposed. Other than that, the images weren't too bad. Definitely not the greatest, but I didn't have too many complaints about the image quality.
There is an external slide/negative scanner which connects to the main scanner via some port. It looks like a great idea, but you can only scan one image at a time. I guess being able to scan multiple slides/negatives at a time is a common feature, and the HP was lacking here. It looked really cool though.
All scanners have a problem with dust, but I think this one might be worse than most as it stands upright (I assume dust falls down). I was never able to keep the dust out, and had it in almost all of my scanned images.
One of the cool things about the 4670 it is that you can place it on top of object to scan them. You can remove the actual electronic part from the stand. You can then place it on top of objects, and scan the object. The moving lamp is between the two pieces of glass, so you can place it on objects, and it has small rubber bumpers to prevent scratching the glass. That was quite useful.
I read a review on TechTV which compared the 4670 to the Epson 1670, and it basically said not to waste your time. That was what led me to take it back. See:
"http://www.techtv.com/freshgear/products/story/0,23008,3599224,00.html"
For more info.
With the 4670, you get style. This was probably the best looking thing in my whole apartment. But style is about all you get. The 4670 lacks behind other products in almost every aspect.
I took the 4670 back, and got an Epson 3170 Perfection. I now have a comparison, and this thing rocks. The software is MUCH better, scanner much faster, and better looking images. For the exact same price.
You'll be better off getting something other than the 4670. I don't recommend this product because of the software that comes with it, the slow scan speeds, and high price.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 200
Interface: USB
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Epinions.com ID:
rolncode3
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Location: Folsom, CA
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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