>    I think that Microtek is a very good scanner and fits the requirements
>that you have.  I am testing various models and the Microtek Scan Maker E3
>Plus is very very cheap.  Scans maybe a page a minute with good graphics and
>has a lot of software.  It is very very easy to use.  I think that would be
>a good start off scanner for you.  I mean, this is all you will ever need
>unless you use it professionally.  You can buy one for 100 dollars or less!
>Good Luck

I agree totally. I tried 2 scanners (microtek 6elx (?), umax 1200s) during
the Christmas. Microtek had much less problem to setup. The scanner
software was nicer too. The image looked as nice as umax's and the default
color and brightness was better that I didn't need to retouch or modify in
Photoshop to get the quality I wanted. The only drawback, the microtek
model I tried was much slower and noiser than Umax 1200s. If you do OCR (to
scan text) a lot, this makes a huge difference.

After the testing, I found, there isn't too much difference between 30-bit
and 36-bit scanner. All these 1200 gradients features are really useless to
most users. It creates bigger file, and when I change it to 256 grays and
compare it with the original 1000 or so grays side-by-side in enlarged
mode. I couldn't tell the difference. Same with color (billions vs.
millions) I guess I was comparing cheap scanners (below $250), 36-bit
probably didn't work that well at this price range.

I think both umax and microtek are ok. If you want speed, go with umax. If
you want better scanning software, go with microtek. They're probably
comparable in scanning quality. In terms of tech support, I have not tried
microtek. Umax web site has been problematic recently. I have tried to
download a driver update for over 3 weeks in vain. It stopped half of the
way. They replied my complains after 2-3 days but never fix the problem.



Hope this helps,


Changhsu Liu

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