Still A Place For The Flatbed Scanner

Has the day of the flatbed scanner gone? After all so much of the market has been overrun by combo printer/copier/scanner combos that you might think so. But the scanning capability and quality of some of those offerings leave a lot to be desired, so you may want to think again.

I know I prefer to keep my scanning capability separate. If the scanner segment dies in one of those other monsters then you've got to throw the baby out with the bath water to replace it. Irritating and costly! The right machine for the job is really the key to the decision anyway. If you're someone who scans some documents, some newspaper articles, a few old black and whites and not much else, you really don't have much to consider other than reliability and price. On the other hand if you're in a pre press situation with several hundreds/thousands of pages to scan and arrange, then you need to be careful in your selection.

Your choice of a flatbed scanner really depends on what you want to use it for. If you have a semi pro application and need high quality photo duplication and size and portability are not important to you, then one group of scanners. If you want a slim, light, portable unit that can stand some handling in a backpack or whatever and quality of image is not all that important then another choice will be better for you.

It's not possible to wrap all these desires in one product. In fact the more manufacturers try to accomplish that impossibility, the worse the result will be. So sit down with a cup of coffee and a sheet of paper and jot down what you want in a flatbed scanner, which features are must-have and which are nice-to-have and which don't really matter and arrange the result in your personal order of priority. Then go to a few sites online like CNET or Bizrate and get a list of the products which seem to fit your bill.

When you have a short list of the offerings that suit your needs, list the features flagged by online reviews and rank the products for each of your must-have features. Pretty soon, you'll have a list of products, hopefully only a few items long. Run over to your local staples, OfficeMax or whatever and take a good look at the units you have on your short list. Ask the customer service people for a full demo with different media. Compare the results. Make a selection and buy at the best price you can find. Use a reputable outlet particularly if you buy online.

Some recent listings of flat bed scanners contain these results:

Epson Perfection V700 Photo for the photo hobbyist or a pro who needs to scan originals in a mixture of sizes. Specs: Flatbed scanner, Desktop, 6400 dpi x 9600 dpi, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), Single-pass $550

HP Scanjet 5530 Photosmart If the requirement is to scan many photos and negatives. 2400 dpi x 4800 dpi, Hi-Speed USB, Single-pass $279

HP ScanJet 4400cse Home scanner with good scanning quality. Short warranty and low grade software bundle. Specs: Flatbed scanner, Desktop, 1200 dpi x 1200 dpi, IEEE 1284 (EPP/ECP), Single-pass $84