Rating: 
Summary: The perfect scanner for the photography hobbist
Review: "~The HP scanner is amazing. Color from negatives and even prints is clear, sharp, and accurate. I originally bought the Olympus ES10 and returned it because it was very finicky with certain negatives. It seems to really exaggerate negative that were slightly overexposed and created very blueish scans from certain negatives which were hard or impossible to correct through the clunky Olympus scanning software."~ for a wide range of under/overexposed shots and color biases.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Hardware, lousy Software
Review: After 5 months of experience with this machine, scanning 500+ slides, I have several things to say about this devcice:The Hardware is basically OK, also the results are satisfying. The way to achieve the results is another story. The software is cumbersome. My primary application is to scan unmounted slides. 1.) The algorithm to find the pictures' boundaries produces random results in 50% of the cases, meaning that you always have to check and manually adjust. This is especially true with Kodachrome film. 2.)There is no 'quickscan' option, in the sense that you can scan a strip of slides without preview for bulk scanning. Meaning if you want to do a whole role of film you need time. 3.) Third, the USB implementation of HP seems not to be as clean as sony's and causes trouble every once and a while (same applies to my HP Scanner, Printer) The most important thing is, that the result is really good, but the way to get there is not a quick and trouble free one. Therefore three stars.
Rating:
Summary: Easy and great scan quality
Review: After wistfully wanting a slide scanner but knowing they were out of my price range, I jumped at the chance to get one under $500. Normal scanners just don't have the resolution to do slides or negatives. I was expecting a lot of hassle, as is typical with periperhals, but this little scanner was really easy to set up and use. It lets you make corrections to contrast, color level, brightness, etc., before you actually scan. I take a lot of slides and can finally make prints from them easily on my printer (before i had to pay big $$ to have slides printed, since they have to make a negative and then print from that, resulting in major quality loss). I also take a lot of black and white portraits, but don't have a darkroom. I can finally tweak the image just like I'm developing it myself with chemicals. Scanning is fast and the results are sharp and colorful. It's pretty amazing for the price.
Rating: 
Summary: HP forgot XP
Review: Although my S20 worked fine with Windows 98 on my previous computer, I was not able to find any drivers from HP when I bought a new computer running on XP. HP should be ashamed of itself for treating their customers in this manner. I will never purchase another HP product.
Rating:
Summary: Top quality professional-level scans
Review: Although the cost of this scanner is still prohibitive to some, the fact is that this is a professional-quality film scanner at an excellent price. Initially I purchased the much cheaper Epson Perfection Photo 1200. It had dead spots along the scanning array - turned out the entire batch of a few hundred scanners was faulty. I then decided to splurge and got the HP S20, and I have not looked back. Installation is tricky - so be sure to read the instructions in the (VERY POOR!) manual. Once you have that going, the rest is a breeze. The included software is fantastic in that it's analysis of the image and automatic adjustment of colour, balance, exposure, etc, is dead right 9 out of 10 times. Under- or over-exposed slides and negatives are no longer an issue. I love the exposure control, which allows to adjust exposure separately for light, medium, and dark regions - most scanner software only has a single exposure control. This allows you to make excellent repairs to a face that came out too dark in a sunny picure. Resolution of course is spectacular - a bit too spectacular perhaps since every single microscopic dust particle gets duly represented on the scanned image :-) Seriously though, the results of blowing up about a fifth of a slide and printing it as a full page on an HP PhotoSmart P1000 printer were excellent. The scanner is a bit noisy, and also very slow - especially at the high resolutions, as can be expected. Slides, negative strips, as well as photographs are dealt with relatively easily. The only problem that I see is that the scanner is unable to scan a single frame of a negative (only strips of two or more). This is an issue with slides when you want to scan the maximum frame area - i.e. scan the slide without the mount. I think the solution will be to buy a slide mount that is easily re-openable, and use a craft-knife to cut out a larger viewing area. In summary, if it is convenience and speed you want, then perhaps this is not for you - however if scan quality is the overriding priority and you take your hobby seriously, then this is it.
Rating: 
Summary: Do NOT get this. Go for a Minolta Dimage scanner!
Review: Do NOT get this scanner. Get the Minolta Dimage Scan Elite (or the slightly lower end if you want to spend same price as this one.) I did quite a bit of research before deciding on this scanner, so I'll sum up for you what took me many hours. I also considered a couple of the lower end Minolta Dimage scanners, as well as the Nikon Coolscan and the HP Photosmart S20. Essentially, they all promise to scan 35mm film, and with an adapter, it can also do APS. However, promises are just that - empty for most of these scanners. The problem with the Photosmart 20 is that it doesnt have a proper ICE image cleaner and film scans poorly. The Minolta line is MUCH better. This one is OK if you dont mind some bad scans and a SLOW SLOW tiem for each scan. Go for a Minolta, in my opinion.
Rating: 
Summary: I love this scanner
Review: Have had the S20 for a month and find it produces excellent JPG files. The best part is the software - easy to use - allows changes - enhancement before you scan - save in any folder - etc. Amazon was prompt and kept me informed about shipping status.
Rating:
Summary: I love this scanner
Review: Have had the S20 for a month and find it produces excellent JPG files. The best part is the software - easy to use - allows changes - enhancement before you scan - save in any folder - etc. Amazon was prompt and kept me informed about shipping status.
Rating:
Summary: 5 star scanner for slides, negatives, photos, etc.
Review: Hewlett Packard's PhotoSmart S20 desk-top scanner is a wonder. It is easy to set up and easy to use. Our biology department owns the one that I use. It's ease of set-up is therefore important. When I need to use it, I just go pick it up (it's light enough to carry easily), plug it into the USB port on my office computer, and it's ready to go (once the software is installed). I have tried a number of different ways to transfer my 35mm slides (I have 1000s of them) to a digital format with only marginal success UNTIL I found this little unit! I routinely use 35mm slides as I teach my biology and environmental studies courses, and with the advent of better and better presentation software (e.g., PowerPoint), I wanted a way that I could use my slides in making presentations and digital slide shows for my classes...this is IT!! I also use images digitized via this unit to support web page development for my courses, etc. This little unit (12"x8"x4") is does a great job of digitizing mounted slides, images from negatives, and from prints and anything else about that size. This scanner lets you determine the size of the image, the quality of the scanned image, and provides some on-screen editing capabilities. After a preliminary scan you are shown an image that you can edit (blocking, brightness, contrast, sharpness, etc.), name the file, and then tell the scanner to run a final scan and it generates a final image. That who process takes a couple of minutes per image. I must confess that I use this gadget primarily for scanning, but for editing my images I usually use Adobe Photoshop (another wonderful tool!). The operation of this scanner is largely intuitive. I like that. There are only two buttons on the front of the unit. The first one tells the unit whether you want to scan a slide, a negative, or a print. The second one is an eject button if you need to get the original out before it would normally come out. And that's it. I highly recommend this piece of hardware to anyone who is looking for a good method for converting their collection of slides into digital images. 5 stars for ease of use and for quality of results! Have fun! Alan Holyoak
Rating:
Summary: High Repair Costs
Review: HP will not supply parts to anyone for repair of this product. They have chosen to do this on some of their products. If something goes wrong with this product it will cost you $216.00 plus shipping to get it repaired. Before purchasing any HP products we will be asking if HP will supply parts. If not, we will go to another manufacturer.
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