Rating: 
Summary: Great for Transparancies -- not as good for photos
Review: Ok, this is awesome for negs and slides (but only can use 35 mm, no medium and large format need apply). The resolution is terrific and results are good. The software is OK in pre-scan mode, but the size displayed is pretty small, you would think they could accomodate larger screens.But for photos you are limited to 300 dpi. I can do much better than that with the Epson Perfection 1200 at half the price. But the transparancies on Epson are a pain because you have to install a bulky lid for the scanner. But the Epson supports larger format. Ugh decisions. So I actually ended up getting this HP S20 for negs and slide since I only have 35 mm work. And I also got the Epson and use that to scan photos at 1200 dpi! Also the Epson allow 8.5 by 11 as compared to only 5 x 7 for th HP S20, so I really have a high res color copier, too. Still all in all this is a killer setup. I can always add the tranparancy adapter to the Epson if I ever get into larger tranparancies. Best of both worlds.
Rating: 
Summary: Kudos to H/P
Review: Thank God for H/P! I do a lot of photography and being a purist (using film and a darkroom) I resisted the move to digital imaging mainly because I couldn't find what I needed without a second mortgage on my condo. I needed to be able to scan negatives mainly because the scan quality is higher resulting in better print quality. When I saw the S20's bang for the buck, I knew that my digital imaging time had come. This scanner is the greatest thing since sliced bread as far as I'm concerned. And knowing H/P quality to be what it is, I bought my S20 with every confidence and not a second thought. My faith has been well-rewarded. I couldn't ask for more for what I have invested. Anyone planning to scan photos, slides, and negatives need look no further than the S20. Thanks H/P!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Color Negative Scanner
Review: The S20 can scan a strip of upto 4 or 5 images nicely in one hit! I have no idea about scanning prints as I don't use it for this. 300dpi for scanning prints isn't high. 2400dpi for scanning slides and color negatives is awesome! There have been reviews previously at various places that complain that the S20 cannot batch process a whole negative strip. Wrong!! Use the twain driver though Photoshop, PaintShopPro CorelDraw, etc. When the preview is done, adjust each image shown as you wish, set your scan resolution, and then HOLD DOWN the CTRL key and select the images you want to scan. Press Final Scan. Done. Images all arrive nicely separately in Photoshop, etc. Simple. Contrary to other reviews, you can scan every image shown WITHOUT having the remove and re-insert the negative strip for each photo as others have claimed. I have tried using Vuescan with the S20. I have found that the HP's twain driver is more than enough to scan high res (3300x2200) images into Photoshop. Vuescan is very nice, but not needed. The S20's HP drivers are actually pretty good. Very easy to use. The image levels are automatically selected by the scanner, but you can opt to over/under-expose, resize, re-crop, re-color, etc yourself prior to the final scan. The S20 is an excellent color negative scanner for a fraction of the Nikon LS-2000 price! I keep a can of compressed ait handy for cleaning negatives and occasionally the scanner itself.
Rating: 
Summary: hardware works ok, but terrible drivers and support from HP
Review: The S20 scanner was my first and will be my last purchase ever from Hewlett Packard. I should have known better than to buy optical equipment from a printer manufacturer. The hardware is OK. When the scanner works, it does OK scans. My biggest complaint is shadow noise, which is very pronounced. But the drivers are terrible. I run Windows 2000 and can only get the scanner to work every once in a while, requiring frequent reboots, reinstalls and all kinds of other tweaks in other to get this scanner to work. This gets really annoying after a while. HP tech support is useless. The drivers haven't been updated for over a year, and their rep could not help me, instead blaming Dell for all my problems. Well, I have more confidence in my Dell laptop than I do in HP's ability to write software drivers, and in any case will not buy a new computer simply to get this scanner to work. Save your money, or rather, spend some more money and get a Nikon Coolscan instead. It will be well worth it.
Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: This is one of the most versitile and easy to use scanners from the beginner to the advanced photo hound. This along with a good photo editing program will get you on your way to scanning photos, slides and negatives!
Rating:
Summary: A superb product!
Review: This is really an excellent photo scanner. If you have tons of photos, slides, or negatives, this product will really aid you in transfering them to CD for safekeeping, etc. Before I bought this scanner, I was attempting to scan all of my photos using a flatbed scanner, but the work was exceedingly tedious. Now, since I have the ability to scan the actual negatives, the process is going much smoother. Additionally, the scan quality is superb. You can scan negatives up to 2400 dpi, and photos up to 300 dpi. The only slight drawback that I have with this product is that it is somewhat slow. However, if you only intend to use the scanner for personal use, I don't imagine that it will bother you.
Rating:
Summary: One half of a dynamic duo!
Review: This is, without a doubt, one of the coolest, most-used computer gizmos I've ever owned. HP has a great reputation for making quality products, and the PhotoSmart scanner doesn't disappoint. I love shooting photos with my digital camera, but there are just some situations where "old fashioned" is better (unusual lighting situations, manual adjustments, special effects filters). Most inexpensive scanners either lack the ability to scan negatives/slides, and/or the resolution to make them look good once reprinted. This scanner does both, and more, and does them extremely well. Setup was, as with most HP products, quick, easy, and painless. The scanning software included is probably more than adequate for most users, but hard-core amateurs and pros will want to use a higher-end image manipulation package to acquire and tweak photos. When you combine the ease of use and resolution with a reasonably-good photo printer, you just can't beat the results (and the price!).
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Color Negative Scanner
Review: This scanner worked really well for me (I scan a LOT of negatives). The only complaints are:
-noisy scan
-DONT WORK WITH WINDOWS ME! There are no drivers and this makes it very hard when I depend on this scanner for work! So I need to get a new scanner now :(
Besides that it scans well
Rating: 
Summary: no win ME
Review: This scanner worked really well for me (I scan a LOT of negatives). The only complaints are:
-noisy scan
-DONT WORK WITH WINDOWS ME! There are no drivers and this makes it very hard when I depend on this scanner for work! So I need to get a new scanner now :(
Besides that it scans well
Rating:
Summary: Who needs a digital camera!
Review: We got this scanner because we were just not satisfied with the results from trying (reasonably priced) digital cameras. Plus we had several very good standard cameras at home. Digital cameras are fun and have some specific uses (quick shots for websites, snapshots at parties) but for really good quality photography, we didn't want to spend the money on a top end digital camera when we had a good SLR already. This scanner is the perfect way to get digital photos from your camera. We take our film to the photoshop and for a few bucks, we have it developed without prints. Then we scan in the negatives and get remarkably good, digitized photos. Some places will develop the film and make a thumbnail index for you. This is helpful for choosing which negatives to scan in first. Plus points: This scanner has a reasonably small footprint so takes up little space on the desk. It isn't hard to install. The software is easy to use. It can do prints, negatives and slides. While standard flat-bed scanner can do prints, it doesn't do negatives or slides. Also, you have the flexibility to make regular photo paper prints from the negatives, or just transmit your photos digitally. This is nice. We store our negatives scanned in as a reference and can quickly see which photos we really want to print. The others are stored digitally and we don't have shoe boxes full of prints cluttering up the desk drawers. Negative points: We get streaks when scanning a print. The negatives come out clean. Don't know why this happens. But since we just use it for negatives, we don't care. It is also a bit slow to scan in each negative. So a thumbnail index is helpful to decide which negative to scan in first. Doing a whole roll of 36 exposures takes some time. But we can UNRESERVEDLY recommend this scanner. It works, it's great and it gives you so much more from your camera.
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