|
24 Jan 11 - 05:28 AM (#3081246) Subject: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: Bonnie Shaljean Yes, it's me again, asking Windows 7 questions again. But this one is far simpler. I have a perfectly good Canon flatbed scanner which has always worked fine, but Windows 7 is not on speaking terms with it. So now I have to buy a new one (grrrrrr....) I googled around and have found that quite a few other scanners don't connect with W7 either, so I need some feedback from folks about what's best to get. I'm looking for: A relatively inexpensive flatbed scanner which will take A4 (American-Letter) sized pages. I also want to get either a HEWLETT-PACKARD or a SONY - not because the other brands are inferior but because those products are well-supported where I live (the south coast of Ireland). I have learned the hard way to only buy hardware that the repair people can get parts for, and it's often very limited here. So can anyone recommend a HP or Sony flatbed scanner which they know will work with Windows 7 (64-bit, Home Edition)? I've been on the HP website, and the most they will admit is that various scanners are "Windows 7 'ready'" - whatever that means. They then say that "certain features may not work" (like... erm... which ones f'instance?) and direct you to another page for "further information" which tells you absolutely zilch. This kind of behaviour always makes me suspicious. There are several scanners there which might do, but they're all just a maze of letters-&-numbers to me. I don't want to pay in the hundreds just to duplicate a machine I already have, which only needs to do A4 black-&-white pages; so it means the fairly budget end of the range. And: Which features "may not work", I wonder? Any suggestions/experience out there? Thanks! |
|
24 Jan 11 - 12:46 PM (#3081499) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: GUEST,DWR This is something I am REALLY interested in as well. I also want a flatbed and not a 3 in l as most scanners are now. A dedicated scanner with above average results and fairly simple controls is what I have in mind. Not asking too much, are we? |
|
24 Jan 11 - 02:51 PM (#3081570) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: The Fooles Troupe If you dual boot your PC with one of the popular Linux Distros, you may find that old HW that new versions of Windows rejects, works fine. That is a generalization - one can try one of the Live Distros - you don't need to install, it just runs from the CD or DVD - and save the scanned files to a USB stick or USB portable HD. At least you don't have to trash a perfectly working piece of hardware, and it costs little but time. Manufacturers are reluctant to create drivers for old HW - of which there will be relatively few - for new OSes. They would prefer to sell a new item anyway. Linux often has people who write their own such drivers and share them. They then usually continue to work with new versions of the OS. |
|
24 Jan 11 - 03:19 PM (#3081590) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: DMcG I can't tell you of a flatbed scanner as such, but the HP all-in-one printer and scanner combination works with windows 7. |
|
24 Jan 11 - 03:23 PM (#3081596) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: artbrooks I wish you luck, Bonnie. Stand-alone scanners are few and far between. I did some looking at the PC Magazine reviews and at Amazon, and couldn't really see anything that didn't either cost over $500 (US) or predated Win-7, and nothing at all by Sony. You may end up with a 3-in-1...if that's acceptable, you might look at the HP Deskjet 3050 All-in-One Printer. It's currently $69 (US) from Amazon and has decent reviews. |
|
24 Jan 11 - 04:11 PM (#3081627) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: Grampus FWIW I am using an Epson Stylus SX515W Colour Ink-jet - Printer/copier/scanner, with Windows 7. It's an all in one scanner/printer/copier. As it's wifi enabled, I don't need to connect it directly to my PC (can if PC not wifi enabled). It can also be used as a stand alone copier, B&W or colour, without the PC being turned on. It has a reasonably good scanning capability (not quite as good as a stand alone though) and my A4 B&W scans are most acceptable. Prints are equally good. As it takes individual colour cartridges (I use cheap compatibles purchased over the internet) it is very cheap to run. A quick Google search brings the cheapest in at £50 GBP. I don't know of the availability in your part of the world, but at these prices it's almost a consumable which can easily purchased over the internet. If I can set it up/use it, it must be quite simple and easy. As I've had this for 12 months now, with no problems, there may be an updated model with even better capabilities, but my 515 still appears to be available. HTH G. |
|
24 Jan 11 - 05:09 PM (#3081661) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: Andy Jackson In this so called new green world why do we seem to accept so readily the throwing away of perfectly good equipment. I must have half a dozen scanners of variuous ages , all in perfect order when last used, just outdated by "improved" computers. |
|
24 Jan 11 - 06:09 PM (#3081734) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: JohnInKansas Scanner technology has advanced significantly in recent years, and almost any manufacturer is going to use the same parts and offer very similar performance. With a flatbed scanner there's little to go wrong, but you are likely to have difficulty finding a "scanner only" configuration as cheaply as you can get a "printer/scanner." At retail outlets here, it's currently almost impossible to get anything other than a "multipurpose" printer/fax/scan machine in the "consumer department." You have to go into "business grade" at somewhat higher price for a dedicated scan-only machine. We have a Canon print/scan unit that is ours only because it was "free" with a laptop we bought about three years ago. It's still running adequately for our purposes, and has an excellent TWAIN interface that I generally use to scan directly into PhotoShop Elements. It's about three years old and has made several "camping trips" (as a semi-portable, since it's fairly small), so it's been "mildly abused." We also have an older model HP multipurpose that has worked okay for about 6 years. We bought it for "campground use" because it was very small and used the same ink cartridges as another HP printer we had. It gets very little use for scanning because the TWAIN interfaces I've seen for HP scanners are all CRAP. With the Canon, I can open the scanner interface and scan "until the computer gets full." Actually, I've never overloaded, but 180 scans of A-size (letter) pages at 300 dpi is "ordinary." When the scanning is done, all the images are open in my editor, for sorting, naming, and saving. (We do little printing with the Canon because Canon ink is not stocked by many local outlets.) With the HP, the scaning interface closes after each scan, and does NOT retain settings, so the entire "setup" process has to be repeated for each scan. I find that annoying. The "setup" for each scan is definitely "tedious." An Epson flatbed that's in the box out in the back shed gave excellent performance, with an interface almost identical to the Canon but with more choices, ran just fine for about 8 years, but my switch to Vista made it unusable due to no new driver. (After 8 years, it's not as annoying as when driver support goes away within something less than a year as it did with HP on one printer.) Our first "Laser" printer was an HPIIIP purchased specifically because we had to have PostScript printing capability for LiK's work. In 1982 that was not a common feature, and with the necessary "add-ins" for the PostScript it was about $3,000. It ran reliably until 1992 (over 200,000 pages printed according to the last test sheet). It was replaced with an HP1200 that still is in good shape, although it shows only 54,000 pages through it thus far. HP probably would still be my first look for a replacement laser, but I've trashed FOUR HP Inkjets simply because of total lack of accessible support in my area. (All 4 were "super B" 13"x19" printers at about $400 each.) All of the large format printers would have been repairable quite economically (with a pair of pliers and a screwdriver) if I could have bought the parts, but HP will not identify a part number unless you PURCHASE their $800 DVD "Parts Manual" and you can't order a part from them without a part number. John |
|
24 Jan 11 - 06:20 PM (#3081741) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: GUEST,Jon It does't seem to be a problem in the UK, John. I'm about replace our scanner as the old Epson is a bit tired now. I think this Epson for £90 (if I shop around I'll find it cheaper on line somewhere) should do me nicely as it seems the latest epkowa (Linux drivers for Epson HW) supports it. |
|
24 Jan 11 - 08:33 PM (#3081809) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: JohnInKansas My latest HP was an HP8500 multipurpose that I bought specifically to get the automatic document feeder. We moved a little over a year ago and don't have room for all the paper, so I've been going through the old stuff (mostly 50 years of engineering papers) and saving digital copies of what might be worth keeping - for sentimental reasons(?). A "feature" was that the ADF advertised the ability to scan both sides of a stack of pages. It was somewhat disappointing to find that scanning 2-sided took 3 times as long as scanning 1-sided, and the ADF invariably jammed on 2-sided scans of anything less than 8" x 10" pages (not as advertised). A jam also invariably "completely destroyed" the original, and clearing a jam required exotic tools and lots of "careful but forceful" yanking and tearing. It was replaced once under warranty, but the scan bar failed a couple of weeks ago, and it's not worth fixing with no local support. The printer seems to be possibly the best HP inkjet we've had, and is extremely economical on ink. I'd give a qualified recommendation for the HP8500 printer for a small business - without the ADF, but it's a bit more machine than most individuals would find useful. Ink costs - with color - are quite comparable to B/W laser so it might be a good choice for someone who produces a newsletter with reasonable numbers of copies. I did manage to get about 8,000 pages through the scanner before it died, although it took about 4 months to do it. Since the HP wouldn't scan 2-sided on smaller pages, I figured out that if I scanned to JPG instead of directly to PDF I got a separate jpg file for each page. Scan one side, batch file to renumber odd. Scan second side and renumber to even, and drag the files onto my PDF converter to make documents out of it all. I'm currently trying out a new Epson GT-S50, that promises to be a lot more efficient. It scans only one-sided, but I already had my batch files set up to flip the pages into order; and it runs around 17 pages per minute through the ADF instead of half-a-page for minute for the HP. (Although associated software on both take a surprisingly long time to "process" the output.) Thus far the Epson has "wrinkled" two pages (out of about 3,000 - in less than 2 weeks) and the entire machine "opens up" so that jams just fall out; and the couple that got wrinkled ran through faultlessly on the second try. The Epson doesn't include a flat bed, but I have two others (working) when that's needed. Most of what I've been scanning recently gets shredded. My only complaint about my latest shredder is that the bin's too small, but it's not too much problem to dump it into a 36 gallon trash bin as needed. (Two previous shredders that wore out on me were easily adapted to drop directly into the trash barrel, but that was before I started my current archiving project.) So far I'm on barrel 25 of shreds, almost full, (750 gallons?) since about mid October. Unfortunately my area has no place to recycle shredded paper. I expect to be done with my "archiving" by about 2014, and then I'll get back to a better photo scanner. John |
|
24 Jan 11 - 09:54 PM (#3081848) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: IvanB I have a Primascan Colorado 2400U scanner that I bought about ten years ago to hook up to a computer that was probably using Win98 at the time. It was selling at our local discount store for $24.95 and I didn't expect much out of it, but it did a great job of the project I purchased it for as well as a couple more. Then, I got an all-in-one printer and, since I had no large scanning projects, the Primascan went to the basement (about 2003). In spring of 2008, we had a pipe burst in the house while we were away and 150,000 gallons of water washed through the house from the second floor to the basement, pretty much destroying everything in its path. The salvage people took everything out of the house and discarded only those things that were obviously ruined, making photos for us of everything they discarded. Among the stuff piled on tables in the garage was the Primascan minus its box in which it had been stored. To make a long story short, I bought an Asus netbook last summer and decided to use it to do some music scanning. Since, a lot of the music I wanted to scan was in the basement (and because I could set up a dedicated space for scanning there) I hooked up the Primascan, figuring it would prove to be shot from water damage. Lo and behold, the system recognized it right away through its Twain interface and I had no problem scanning with no scanner drivers installed at all. This was with Win7 Starter edition. I haven't yet installed my Win7 upgrade, so I don't know if it will work with that, or with my desktop which has Win7 Home Premium x64. All this probably doesn't answer the question that started this thread, other than to make the point that not all old scanners will fail to work with Win7. All I had to do was tell my scanning program that I was using a Twain compliant scanner and it found mine with no problem. |
|
24 Jan 11 - 10:21 PM (#3081857) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: Joe Offer I have a Canon LIDE scanner that I loved. I never, ever had a problem with it - wish I could say that for HP scanners. The Canon even worked with Windows Vista, so I expected no problems with Windows 7. It's supposed to be compatible with Windows 7, and I'm sure it is - but only with the 32-bit version of Windows 7. I had hoped that by now, Canon would have a 64-bit driver for my beloved scanner, but so such luck. Why is it so difficult for them to come up with such a driver? -Joe- |
|
24 Jan 11 - 10:27 PM (#3081858) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: artbrooks Joe, it's because the driver writer at Canon visits here once in a while as ANON.GUEST, and you keep pissing him off! |
|
24 Jan 11 - 11:35 PM (#3081878) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: Taconicus I got a cheapie Canon Lido 200 and it works just fine with my 64-bit Windows 7. |
|
25 Jan 11 - 02:15 AM (#3081911) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: Stilly River Sage I had a finicky HP scanner and when I replaced it I realized I should have done it much earlier. Took forever to get it started, if it started at all. I have a Canon Canoscan 4400F that works with my Win7 Ultimate. They discontinued this particular scanner (I think Raparree was in the process of buying one just when they closed down this line, but he also has the same one and has similar reports of liking it.) There should be something comparable out there now, probably with a higher number. This is a 64-bit system and the difference is that I cannot use the Twain scanning software I've always used. You can use it in a 32-bit version of Win7, but have to switch to a different system. Did you visit the Canon site to see if they have any updated drivers? And have you tried reinstalling the scanner and see if there are different settings that you can choose that will work? I have several devices that Win7 won't play nicely with. They had to be retired to use with older systems in the house, so I understand that it may have flat-out rejected the scanner. But check the web site, the fora for equipment and software, and see if someone has worked it out for your device. SRS |
|
25 Jan 11 - 04:25 AM (#3081940) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: JohnInKansas In past centuries, I found that when a manufacturer didn't have a TWAIN driver, occasionally one could be found at Adobe. I didn't have any luck with Epson or Adobe for my Epson 1200 flatbed when Vista killed it, but it's sort of like panning for gold. Sometimes you're lucky but mostly it's just gravel. John |
|
25 Jan 11 - 06:03 AM (#3081966) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: Bonnie Shaljean My current scanner is a Canon, and I too have never had a problem with it and like it just fine. Yes, I've been to every website known to humanity but Canon simply don't make the driver and I have not been able to make the Twain thing work either. Interesting to note that people seem to be less than enamoured of HP's, which is something to bear in mind. I love my reliable old workhorse HP duplex printer, and my old HP laptop still works though it's very slow these days; but it always performed like a Trojan. I don't have a prejudice against a 3-in-1 itself, just at paying for capability that I don't need. But it sounds as though I should look beyond HP. I had a Canon photocopier which was OK but pooped out sooner than it should have. Took it to all the repair places (remember there is not a huge amount of choice locally) and was told by all of them that they couldn't get parts because Canon was not well supported here. That's what they SAID, however true it is or isn't, but the net result was that I couldn't get it fixed. So I'm not anxious to repeat the experience of investing in hardware that gets left high and dry if it goes wrong. Will look into Epsons and some of the others tho. Very helpful thread, thanks folks! |
|
12 Feb 11 - 12:45 PM (#3093866) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: GUEST,Jon We went ahead with the Epson scanner. Works OK with the iscan software on Linux. One task with it will be to get about 1000 slides taken with a 50s brownie/ 127 film. A scan using the built in overhead unit only produces a strip containing 4 slides and I can't seem to use any resolution between 600 (smaller than I want) and 2400dpi without the images being way out of proportion (stretched vertically by miles) and 2400 is a bit slow (3-4 minutes per scan). That said, with a bit of php, scanimage and imagemagick (to extract the 4 images from the strip the scanner produces) and mysql I can automate a fair bit - just 2 buttons, scan and save on a web page. By no means perfect but I will settle for this |
|
12 Feb 11 - 01:45 PM (#3093893) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: Bill D I JUST got a Canoscan 9000F because it has templates for scanning slides also... it seems to be excellent so far...(One place has it for $84)!! We also have an HP OfficeJet R80 all-in-one, which has performed flawlessly for 6-7 years! But I am told "they don't make 'em like that anymore". This is a real workhorse. |
|
12 Feb 11 - 02:03 PM (#3093902) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: GUEST,Jon Sounds good Bill and especially so at $84! - They seem to be around £150 in the UK. I'm not quite sure how the Epson Windows software works with slides. It produced thumbnails for the 4 slides the holder takes but it wasn't obvious to me how to get save them as full size images. I only spent a couple of minutes looking though as all I really wanted to do was confirm the scanner itself worked before using it under Linux. |
|
12 Feb 11 - 02:23 PM (#3093912) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: MikeL2 hi Like SRS I have a finicky HP scanner. It is the most stubborn piece of equipment to get working that I have ever had. I have used TINY, Epson Lexmark Canon over the years but I recently bought of cheap Brother. A three in one. Best thing I have used. It works well on my desktop XP machine and also on two of my laptops using Vista. It works well on my Windows 7 laptop which is back at the supplier's but not for any problems with using the Brother set up. The model is Brother MFC235C. I got it cheap - just over £50 and it does everything that I want. However these days I don't print photographs any longer so I am not sure if it prints at photo quality. It also has useful software that my wife uses frequently that lets her photocopy and send Attached to Email all in one instruction. Has three separate colour inks plus a B&W that I get very cheap cartridges which are fine. Cheers MikeL2 |
|
12 Feb 11 - 02:54 PM (#3093935) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: GUEST,Jon I don't have those bits under Linux but some are really easy to make into icons to click, eg. here are the icon programs for my b/w and colour photocopy commands. scanimage | lp -o fitplot scanimage | lp -d XeroxColour -o fitplot The slide one is a bit longer but using php, etc. gives something that can (except for loading the slides into the scanner) be used from any room in the house. It's crude but will do... the scan page simple browser alowing sorting group. |
|
12 Feb 11 - 06:15 PM (#3094053) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: dick greenhaus Before you do anything drastic, check out Canon on the net and see if they have a driver for Windows 7 for your scanner. |
|
12 Feb 11 - 08:18 PM (#3094116) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: Bonnie Shaljean Don't know if you're talking to me or not, but if so... that's the first thing I did. No joy. That's how I know my scanner is not on speaking terms with Windows 7 64 bit. |
|
13 Feb 11 - 03:35 PM (#3094548) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: Edthefolkie I've just managed to get our 9 yr old Epson 3170 scanner to work OK with Win7 64 bit. I've seen stuff all over various forums saying "Oh no, you won't be able to use the Epson software, no drivers for Win7, you'll have to buy the Silverfast s/w or whatever, and it's a steep learning curve blah blah blah". Not true! I think this stuff is a symptom of the modern tendency to jump in with both feet instead of doing a bit of research first. In fact the Epson Scan & Scan and Save programs (maybe I should be cool and say apps), also the TWAIN driver, are written and supplied by a third party, NewSoft - when I looked on Epson's website I was redirected to them. I downloaded everything for free apart from Scan and Save which cost me £8.20 - the scanner was up and running within 10 mins. I would think therefore that any recent Epson scanner or all-in-one should work OK with Vista, Win7, and Win7 64-bit. There's an enormous list of peripherals on the Epson website. As an aside, there are no Win7 drivers listed for our even older Epson Stylus Photo 870 printer, but I just switched the thing on and MS found one instantly! As to Canon, surely they support old kit as well as (or better than) their main competitor Epson? |
|
13 Feb 11 - 03:38 PM (#3094549) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: Edthefolkie Sorry, should have said that the driver etc should be in place BEFORE the scanner is connected and switched on. Obviously it's different if you can't find a compatible driver, you'll have to trust to Microsoft. |
|
14 Feb 11 - 12:09 AM (#3094799) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: JohnInKansas ... if you can't find a compatible driver ... may be a useful key for an older printer. One of the main functions that a driver specific to a particular printer performs is to show you the options available with the printer it's paired with, and once you've made your selections to tell the printer which options to use for the print job. Once that's done, the actual document is sent in a language that the printer understands. There's been little real change in the "printer languages" in use by any given printer line. If you can find a printer sufficently similar to one you have, you can often install the old (incompatible with the OS) printer to use the "wrong" (incompatible with the printer) driver and still get most functions. The "new" driver may show you options that the old printer can't use, and may not show options that the old printer could use; but at least the document can be sent to the printer in the appropriate "printer language" and will be printed with "default-or-the-ones-that-work" options. Although it's rarely found, occasionally a printer manufacturer may suggest an "alternate driver" for a printer for which they don't intend to produce a current driver, and HP did make such a suggestion for my HP 9650 (a $400 Super B printer) when Vista tried to kill it. The substitute driver worked mostly okay, but every time the computer booted Vista attempted to kill it again by f*k*ng with the driver. I don't know how successful one might be with alternate scanner drivers, but it might be worth an attempt if someone has the time to mess with it. My current quest is to find anything with a flatbed that will scan more than 8.5 inches wide x >10 inches long. I think I've found at least one multipurpose with a "Super B" (13" x 19") bed but it's another $300 machine and the "specifications" aren't really clear. (It's also an HP, and I've commented above about their support in my area.) The cheapest plain flatbed scanner I've found that's even that big is around $2,000 (and I don't really need 24,000 dpi resolution for anything that's already big enough to need a bigger bed). Cheaper scanners will often print longer than the 11.3" A4 if you feed through the ADF - up to the 14" needed for US "legal" size documents, but nothing wider than 8.5" will go through the ADF. Much sheet music is at least 9" or more wide, so on a "letter size" scanner it takes four scans and "photomerge" to get a full page. While my Photshop Elements does a great job on merging pictures where a bit of "warp" is acceptable, for text or "line art" prealigning the pieces is critical (and very time consuming) to get good alignment in the merged pages. John |
|
23 Feb 11 - 04:48 PM (#3101462) Subject: RE: Tech: What scanners with Windows 7 ? From: Joe Offer Well, I broke down and bought a CanoScan LIDE 700F for about $115. I could have gotten one much cheaper, but this one has a very nice feature that allows me to scan 35 mm negatives. It has a plastic film-holding rig you place on the scanner bed, and then a little box that appears to be a light, that you place directly on the film. Very simple, and very effective. The scanner itself is very simple and it's about an inch thick, so it stores very nicely beside my computer. It takes its power from a USB cable, so there's no power adapter to take up space. It works almost exactly like the 32-bit scanner that I like so much - and I've been so frustrated trying to get scans from my HP 8500 all-in-one. HP used to make terrific, reliable equipment - but that was long ago. -Joe- |
