Rating: 
Summary: Easy, smart and affordable
Review: Admittedly, my wife and I were fashionably late for the high tech party and had a lot of catching up to do. Every piece of hardware and software that we bought required a lot of reading or training from 11 year-olds. The Epson Perfection 2400 was happily the exception to this rule. We had it up and running in nearly no time. More important, once it was running it was easy-to-use and the quality of the scanned images was remarkably crisp. Amazon's price is more than a bargain--it's a steal!So if you're not so technically savvy but need a scanner that is affordable and highly-efficient, you can stop your search
Rating:
Summary: The best for the money
Review: After several scanners I chose the 2400. After reading some reviews I was expecting some problems. After some months now I have had zero problems. It produces very good quality from slides or prints. Sends to any file I want or directly to printer and faster than any scanner I have had. So far I am very impressed with the Epson 2400.
Rating: 
Summary: Superlative scanner, dismal software...
Review: After several weeks of research, I bought my first scanner, the EPSON Perfection 2400. My goal was to convert several decades prints, film negatives, and slides. In my move to digital, the price of this scanner seemed extremely attractive for all the features it offered. The package also included the venerable Adobe Photoshop Elements (Version 1). Right off the bat, the scanner would not install on my IBM Thinkpad T40, running factory installed Windows XP Pro. I would get a "Cannot Install Hardware. Data is Invalid" message when I connected the scanner even though the software installed successfully. After one week of research, including two one-hour sessions with EPSON support, I ended up reinstalling Windows XP. Epson support was unable to pinpoint the problem the first time but promised to call back within two days. They did not call. When I called again, I spoke to a "second tier support engineer" and she was able to identify a potential issue with my installation of Windows XP. Her recommendation was to re-install Windows XP. After I did that, the scanner was running within minutes. Hardware: The scanner is very fast, and the results look fabulous. On print scanning ability, I would give this scanner top grade even when pitched against the professional grade scanner I have used at work. The scanning of negatives is not that good. The negative scans do not seem to produce very accurate colors and the images don't look as sharp as direct scans. This is certainly a disappointment, because scanning 5 negatives at one time seems like a better idea than loading prints one-by-one. Perhaps I need a better negative adapter; so far I've only been using the one that came along with the scanner. Software: The scanner software leaves much to be desired. The installation of the software occurs in several steps, and it is impossible to intelligently choose the different components. If you have handheld software already installed, Presto! Pix software is installed without giving you a choice. Even though diskspace is not expensive, I think 150MB is excessive for the scanner software. Once the installation is complete, the Start-->Programs menu gets cluttered with about four or five items. The performance of the software itself is irratic and it is not always clear what it is doing. On several occasions, I have scanned a dozen or so images, and the scanner software just vanishes from the screen when I try to save to disk (the taskbar icon stays) and takes all my scans with it. I get the impression EPSON simply packaged software from multiple vendors and ended up in a tangled mess. The poor "Smart Panel" software is the only reason this review does not get five stars. The saving grace is the inclusion of Adobe Photoshop Elements. Adobe Photoshop Elements makes up for almost all the shortcomings of the other "Smart Panel" software; perhaps the high quality of Photoshop Elements accentuates the problems with "Smart Panel" ! Photoshop Elements includes a plethora of features, and the software is very stable and of high quality. Overall, this is a fine scanner and I recommend it without reservation. You can circumvent most of the poor "Smart Panel" software by using Adobe Photoshop elements.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent, but OS X is treated as a second class citizen
Review: Caution to buyers. Epson software on both Mac and Windows is questionable at best. Mac OSX
I started on my preferred platform, running Mac OS X 10.2.5. Right off the bat, I had to go to the Epson web site for compatible drivers as the Install disc software only supported OS 9.x. After installing the appropriate drivers, I opened Photoshop 7.0 and tried to initiate a scan of 4 slides from the Import menu item. Unfortunately, the manual option to scan slides was inexplicably greyed out. I rebooted and tried again. Still the scan slide option was unavailable. Did a cold-reboot and this time the option was available. It appears, that each time I try to use the scanner, the software behaves differently. Sometimes options are available, other times not. Sometimes the scanner "forgets" and scans slides as reflective art. Bottom line: Mac OS X support is terribly lacking. There is no stand-alone scanning application. You must use it within Photoshop or the included 1.0 version of Photoshop Elements. Windows XP
So abandoning the Mac, I tried to get it to work on my Windows XP Home laptop. Long story short, while the software support appears to be better on Windows, it still leaves a lot to be desired. Opening the Import menu in Photoshop Elements under Windows did not even provide an option to scan slides or film. But yet the Autoscan "senses" the film and does the right thing. Problem is, using Autoscan does not allow you to set the resolution or color correction parameters. You are left between a rock and a hard place. I've been using Mac and Windows PCs for nearly 20 years, and if there were a manual or decent help system included, I would even surrender to RTFM. But unfortunately, while the reviews on the scan quality have been good (which at this point is hard for me to confirm), the software cannot be defended. If you decide to buy this scanner, be sure to reserve some significant time working through all the software quirks - and maybe you'll be rewarded for your efforts. I'm not giving up yet, but I only have so much patience.
Rating:
Summary: No software problems here!
Review: Contrary to earlier reviewers, I found the software very easy to use and flexible. It has allowed me to adujust contrast, brightness and a whole slue of other aspects of the print with little effort. I've got thousands of positive slides, the product of 15 years of living abroad from Asia to Africa to S. America, and the the slides are on a variety of type and quality of slide film. I have been able to adjust for all imperfections. For the price, you can't beat it.
Rating:
Summary: WOW Scanner - POOR Software
Review: Great copies of my pictures, great copies of my negatives!! You can't go wrong with this awesome scanner. The only reason it gets 4 rather than 5 stars has been stated in other reviews; Epson could be more proactive with their help files and their software leaves much to be desired.
Rating:
Summary: Negatives
Review: I am dispointed. The software is limited for scanning films. You cannot select a picture of a negative film, it wants to scan the whole 6 pictures. That's a lot of memory and most of all a lot of time wasted. I had a green background with some negatives that I can get rid of with a manual corrections with the driver, but each time I pre-scan it forgets about the settings and do it wrong again. You can't have it do automatic color corrections with corrected settings. Also each time you go back and forth between the driver and the picture viewing tool it will pre-scan even if you don't want to. At last and not the least it won't detect films greater than 35 mm. I had a lot of frustration with the software and I am goind to try something else.
Rating:
Summary: Love it!
Review: I bought the 2400 after a recommendation at a retail outlet. It is truly an amazing device and a wonderful price. my only wish would be that the scanning table accommodate a full legal sized paper. The software that comes with it is easy to navigate and extremely versatile. One note: when you click over any button, my PC seems to do nothing for 20 seconds or so, then the program feeds the scanned info to a file or a thumbnail. Maybe my processor is slow, and my pics are high resolution, but my first thought was that it wasn't working...until the phone rang and while I was talking the images appeared. So, I'm impatient. Still, this is a great scanner for the money, and after almost a year of constant use, still works like new.
Rating: 
Summary: Good value with some big caveats.
Review: I bought this scanner having read the negative comments about the included software, but also the glowing reviews of the scan quality. At this point I would have to say I'm pleased with my purchase in general, but have been frustrated in certain ways. Overall I would have to say this scanner delivers at least fairly good quality in all types of scanning for the price you're paying, but it does not quite achieve professional or near-professional results. In the end, you still get what you pay for. My intended use for the Perfection 2400 was primarily as a high quality photo scanner and hopefully good quality negative/slide scanner (it's usually better to scan negatives if you have them, and have a scanner capable of it). My tests have shown this model far more capable with photo prints than negatives - the sharpness is not quite there on negatives, even with the resolution set to maximum (2400 dpi - the scanner will let you select higher resolutions, but they're obviously interpolated). Yes, I've made sure the emulsion side is facing the scanner. There is no available focus adjustment, and this may be the problem (this is one of the features you pay for in a dedicated film scanner, or high-end flatbed). Annoyingly, the negative attachment likes to move around on the glass simply from the vibration from the scan motor - I have to tape it down to the side of the scanner to keep it in place. Worse, the scanner driver (even the latest version from Epson's web site) does not support multisampling (scanning the same image multiple times to reduce random noise), so to get the best quality scans you will need to purchase an external program that's capable of it. There is also a serious problem with Epson's dust and scratch removal algorithm when making high-res negative scans, resulting in large blotches all over your images (especially if you're using older, dustier negatives). Again, you will need to either use a separate scanning program capable of dust/scratch removal, or do it manually in an image editor. For photo print scanning, this model is excellent, although the "auto" mode settings will not always give the best results. To get the best out of your scans you really need to learn how to use "professional" mode, and I was thankful that Epson provides so many advanced settings. With a minute or so of tweaking you can easily get a scan that looks exactly like your original photo, and displays every bit of detail. I had initially written that I had no problems with the included software, but now have to amend that slightly - the scanner has repeatedly hard-locked my PC during scans, and when it does the scanner will no longer respond even after a reboot (the scanner itself must be unplugged; there is no on/off switch). I've also become increasingly annoyed with the fact that you can't scan in the background - when doing a batch of high-res negative scans that take up to 5 minutes each, it's very annoying that you can't even realistically browse the web or do anything else in the meantime. Other than that though, the software does still work better than some people give it credit for - the one-touch scanner buttons all work for me, and each application functions as it should. The scanner driver itself is something of a weak link. This scanner is a worthy purchase at the mid-range of consumer flatbed scanners. I really wouldn't recommend this model if you're looking mainly for a negative scanner - get a dedicated film scanner instead. But for a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, it's pretty decent given the price you're paying.
Rating:
Summary: Good value with some big caveats.
Review: I bought this scanner having read the negative comments about the included software, but also the glowing reviews of the scan quality. At this point I would have to say I'm pleased with my purchase in general, but have been frustrated in certain ways. Overall I would have to say this scanner delivers at least fairly good quality in all types of scanning for the price you're paying, but it does not quite achieve professional or near-professional results. In the end, you still get what you pay for. My intended use for the Perfection 2400 was primarily as a high quality photo scanner and hopefully good quality negative/slide scanner (it's usually better to scan negatives if you have them, and have a scanner capable of it). My tests have shown this model far more capable with photo prints than negatives - the sharpness is not quite there on negatives, even with the resolution set to maximum (2400 dpi - the scanner will let you select higher resolutions, but they're obviously interpolated). Yes, I've made sure the emulsion side is facing the scanner. There is no available focus adjustment, and this may be the problem (this is one of the features you pay for in a dedicated film scanner, or high-end flatbed). Annoyingly, the negative attachment likes to move around on the glass simply from the vibration from the scan motor - I have to tape it down to the side of the scanner to keep it in place. Worse, the scanner driver (even the latest version from Epson's web site) does not support multisampling (scanning the same image multiple times to reduce random noise), so to get the best quality scans you will need to purchase an external program that's capable of it. There is also a serious problem with Epson's dust and scratch removal algorithm when making high-res negative scans, resulting in large blotches all over your images (especially if you're using older, dustier negatives). Again, you will need to either use a separate scanning program capable of dust/scratch removal, or do it manually in an image editor. For photo print scanning, this model is excellent, although the "auto" mode settings will not always give the best results. To get the best out of your scans you really need to learn how to use "professional" mode, and I was thankful that Epson provides so many advanced settings. With a minute or so of tweaking you can easily get a scan that looks exactly like your original photo, and displays every bit of detail. I had initially written that I had no problems with the included software, but now have to amend that slightly - the scanner has repeatedly hard-locked my PC during scans, and when it does the scanner will no longer respond even after a reboot (the scanner itself must be unplugged; there is no on/off switch). I've also become increasingly annoyed with the fact that you can't scan in the background - when doing a batch of high-res negative scans that take up to 5 minutes each, it's very annoying that you can't even realistically browse the web or do anything else in the meantime. Other than that though, the software does still work better than some people give it credit for - the one-touch scanner buttons all work for me, and each application functions as it should. The scanner driver itself is something of a weak link. This scanner is a worthy purchase at the mid-range of consumer flatbed scanners. I really wouldn't recommend this model if you're looking mainly for a negative scanner - get a dedicated film scanner instead. But for a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, it's pretty decent given the price you're paying.
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