Epson Perfection 1260 Photo Scanner

Rating:
Summary: Don't buy this!
Review: This will be the first and last Epson product I will ever buy. I've had nothing but problems with this scanner since I bought it.

Their copying program has to use a Generic printer driver unless it's an Epson printer. I had to write a program that would switch my print driver to a generic one every time I copy something, otherwise it wouldn't copy, or I would have to manually change the default print driver every time I scanned something. That, or deal with a featureless printer.

And half the time when I try to just preview a scan before scanning it to a file, it says "Pre-scanning in progress" for about 10 seconds, then it says "Could not read from scanner".

They don't even offer a way to contact their support other than a long distance telephone number! Well... That and a regular mailing address. They don't offer any type of web or e-mail support contacts! This is pathetic! Epson has the worst tech support I've ever seen!

I'm a computer technician, and I've tried just about everything I could possibly think of to fix this, but nothing has worked. And I have gotten no help whatsoever from Epson's tech support. Now I wish I had just returned it when these problems started. My six year old Canon Parallel scanner was 100 times better than this! I bought this thinking Epson was a good brand, but I've learned my lesson on that.

Rating:
Summary: What Junk-Software Sucks
Review: What a waste of money. Purely a disaster. Lucky to get 2 scans without errors. Total frustration. messages:Scanner busy, scanner warming up; scanner not ready; scanner not available.
This makes the old Microtek look like a dream machine.
I have another Epson at home and the Smart Panel software is not so smart- there too- errors, lockups. I hope nobody else buys this garbage. Poor support terrible software.

Rating:
Summary: Beware...
Review: When my HP Scanjet 3200C refused to work with Windows XP on my new computer, I decided to try the Epson Perfection 1260. The installing the scanner drivers were extremely easy. I didn't bother with the additional software since I have Photoshop 7. After quickly getting the scanner up and running, I noticed problems.

When pictures or color documents were scanned, they were usually a bit blurry. Sometimes they had a red line going through them, however, I didn't think much of it. I pretty much used the scanner for line art. That however should have been a warning sign as the quality of photos, magazine articles and covers I scanned seemed to get progressively worse. To make them look clear, I often had to clean up the lines in Photoshop.

Then came the final straw, when trying to scan a color drawing, the scan came out way too dim. Instead of a clear picture (or even a slightly blurred one) all I got was grayish fuzz. When I tried to scan a DVD cover as a test, all I got a lot of red and no color. All of this, and I've only had it for a few months, moderately using it from time to time. All in all, I'd say my money was wasted.

So far I'd say if you're looking for something easy to install and use, that also scans clean line art, then go for it. For anything and everything else, the low price isn't worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Beware...
Review: When my HP Scanjet 3200C refused to work with Windows XP on my new computer, I decided to try the Epson Perfection 1260. The installing the scanner drivers were extremely easy. I didn't bother with the additional software since I have Photoshop 7. After quickly getting the scanner up and running, I noticed problems.

When pictures or color documents were scanned, they were usually a bit blurry. Sometimes they had a red line going through them, however, I didn't think much of it. I pretty much used the scanner for line art. That however should have been a warning sign as the quality of photos, magazine articles and covers I scanned seemed to get progressively worse. To make them look clear, I often had to clean up the lines in Photoshop.

Then came the final straw, when trying to scan a color drawing, the scan came out way too dim. Instead of a clear picture (or even a slightly blurred one) all I got was grayish fuzz. When I tried to scan a DVD cover as a test, all I got a lot of red and no color. All of this, and I've only had it for a few months, moderately using it from time to time. All in all, I'd say my money was wasted.

So far I'd say if you're looking for something easy to install and use, that also scans clean line art, then go for it. For anything and everything else, the low price isn't worth it.