Anyone contemplating buying one of these scanners should be aware that part of the software ONLY works with an Epson printer.
The utility to make the scanner work like a photocopier would only recognise my HP printer after I had downloaded a patch.
I am unable to use a PhotoPrint facility as an Epson printer is required for this. What a ridiculous situation!. I have been told by Epson that they have been waiting for 4 months for the patch and have no idea when it will be available.
You have been warned.
Otherwise its a darned good scanner.
I think that the photocopying facility would be the last thing I would look for in a scanner, the hassle that is involved in turning on your computer, waiting for it to boot, turning on the sacnner and the printer waiting for them to warm-up, all just to do a photocopy. It would be easier just to buy one of those all-in-one jobbies to do it for you and probably cheaper in the end.
Regards
Lui
John,
Thanks for the warning, its not the sort of thing that appears in reviews.
I have a 1240 OU scanner, but fortunately I bought an Epson Stylus 870 photo printer at the same time, so never noticed any problem. Mind you, I do get problems with Epson's "Scanner Smart Panel" which is the source of most of my Mac 'freezes'.
As for photocopying, as I never turn off either scanner or printer, and I rarely turn on my photocopier (big old noisey thing) I find the scanner/printer is usually the quickest way to make a copy, and no contest if colour is needed.
John F
Thanks for your replies. As a 'home'user I do not want to go to the expense of buying a Photocopier, and as the PC would be running anyway.....
Since my last post I have borrowed an Epson Stylus 870 and the output is amazing. Of course, the Photo Print function now works and I can see how good that is. I put a 35mm trannie in the scanner, 4x6 photo paper in the printer, clicked a button and out came a brilliant picture from the trannie.
Not to have that facility with my HP printer is annoying in the extreme. In fact, I really think this should be brought to the attention of the Trading Standards Authority as there is no mention in their literature that some functions ONLY work with Epson printers attached.
My £60 HP scanner could communicate quite happily with other printers besides HP so why not this one, which cost 3 times as much?. You'll guess I am pretty annoyed at this.
[This message has been edited by John Farrar (edited 28 March 2001).]
John
Depending on how long you have had the scanner you may be able to return it as 'unfit for the purpose' if the documentation available before opening the box made no mention of the limitations and played up the features.
Worth a try if you can't get what you expected out of it.
Hi Keitht
Yes I suppose that is an option as I got the scanner last Friday! The problem is, it is such a good scanner in all other respects that I am loathe to change it. If Epson had allowed me some discount on one of their printers I think that would have been a good gesture on their part, but they will not do that.
Thanks for your response.
Luis,
I don't normally find much to argue with in your postings, but I would disagree here.
The one time I actually had a chance to use a scanner with this feature (a HP SCSI model a few years back), I was mightily impressed with what was, effectively, a useful function (that worked well), and was thrown in for free.
Soon after, I got an Epson model which has been just fine but I REALLY missed that photocopier software.
I'm not saying that a dedicated photocopier wouldn't be better, nor that for some people, a combi model mightn't be even more appropiate.
However, if your requirement for photocopying is quite light (and if you already have a decent printer - ideally two, a colour inkjet, say, and a mono laser), then a scanner with a photocopy facility is a mighty useful thing, and most welcome if you've not had to pay a lot for the scanner.
Cheers
Bob C
quote:Originally posted by Pierluigi:
I think that the photocopying facility would be the last thing I would look for in a scanner, the hassle that is involved in turning on your computer, waiting for it to boot, turning on the sacnner and the printer waiting for them to warm-up, all just to do a photocopy. It would be easier just to buy one of those all-in-one jobbies to do it for you and probably cheaper in the end.
Regards
Lui
I'm with Bob on this. I bought an Epson Stylus 750 first, then a Umax scanner. I surprised to see the photocopy facility, but pleased with it. In the past year, I've used it in that mode no more than half a dozen times, but it was very handy on those occasions.
Like Bob, says (or would have if he'd though of these words) all tools are useful at some time. (And I've got a garage full of assorted tools that might come in useful if ever I work out what they all do).
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