Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic Scanner Fantastic Features!
Review: The Microtek Scanmaker 5950 is a dual purpose scanner. It can serve as a document feeder, where you can simply feed it sheets of paper to convert a scanned page of text into text you can bring into a word processor. This is done using the OCR software ABBYY Finereader which is provided by Microtek with the purchase and is very good. The nice thing about this scanner if you are using it for this function is that it also is capable of feeding in large paper such as legal sized 8.5 x 14 paper that we use here around the office. Microtek claims that the scanner does 50 pages through the document feeder but if you have more than that you can simply feed in more pages once it feeds through a few pages. It also serves as a flatbed scanner for photos, as you can simply lift up the lid on the 5950 and place photos or anything that will fit on the letter sized bed to scan. This dual purpose function enables you to save space by not having to have two separate devices. I think of it like my multi-function fax/printer/phone combo that I have on the other side of the office. The scanner itself uses the new USB 2.0 connection. This allows a hypothetical 480 MB/sec transfer rate, which is substantially faster than the USB 1.1 rate of 11 MB/sec. If your computer was built within the past 2 years or so it should have this USB 2.0, otherwise the scanner will default to USB 1.1 speed. That means it's fully compatible with computers that do not have USB 2.0 and operates just the same, just slightly slower on large scale scans. If you do have USB 2.0 then I would recommend plugging it directly in there as it is only beneficial to you to take advantage of this. If you do not have USB 2.0 and would like to use this feature than you can purchase a USB 2.0 card for around $20. You simply slide it into the side of your laptop via the PCMCIA slot or install it in an open PCI slot if you have a desktop computer. All of these features provide everything you would need in order to create PDF's or scan into your favorite OCR program. You can also use it for scanning photos or text as a flatbed scanner, making it dual purpose. The USB 2.0 is just icing on the cake as it provides lightening fast scans. Overall I'm very pleased with my purchase and look forward to investing in future Microtek products.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor software
Review: The software that comes with it is buggy, and their tech support is far from helpful. The earlier version that came with the scanner would scan in 3 pages, and then say that it was out of memory and to close programs and free up disk space. This was on a computer that is fairly new (with lots of memory and LOTS of disk space), and there weren't any other programs running. Tech support said to install the software while in safe mode. That didn't fix the problem. They sent the newer version of the software and said to install it while in safe mode. THAT didn't fix it. It will now scan in a whopping 4 pages before it craps out. And right now I still haven't fixed it.
Rating: 
Summary: Trouble from the get go
Review: Very excited about a higher resolution scanner with a document feeder at a fair price. Excellent packing so no shipping damage. But it would not scan beyond the first 1-2 inches on its first and subsequent tries. Discovered their tech service e-mail addresses do not work and no info in the tech help section of their web-site. Sending it back without being able to comment on whether it was anything other than a waste of 3 hours.
Rating:
Summary: Trouble from the get go
Review: Very excited about a higher resolution scanner with a document feeder at a fair price. Excellent packing so no shipping damage. But it would not scan beyond the first 1-2 inches on its first and subsequent tries. Discovered their tech service e-mail addresses do not work and no info in the tech help section of their web-site. Sending it back without being able to comment on whether it was anything other than a waste of 3 hours.
Rating:
Summary: "Out of Memory"? I don't think so.....
Review: Well, after reading around the net a bit, I finally bit the bullet and bought the ScanMaker 5950 and the results were poor. My sole purpose for purchasing this scanner was to have the ability to archive many paper documents I have in my office. I need to scan reasonably quickly and in an "automated" manner, which made this scanner a smart purchase, or so I thought. The scanner, by itself, worked fine. Also, I had no major problems with the ADF and the general functionality of the scanner was good. However, my trouble started when I tried to scan more then one page. Immediately after the first page, I got an "out of memory" error. The prompt told me that I needed to shut down some other programs to continue. I know this is a bunch of junk because I have ample memory and disc space (1G of memory and 60GB of free space). In light of that, it has to be a software issue. The enclosed software (TWAIN driver) ScanWizard really is awful. The interface is clunky and it doesn't remember prior settings. I downloaded the updated version of the software from the Microtek site and the same problem existed with the "memory" prompt. Concerning the "memory" issue, I noticed that a number of other users have experienced the same issue. Microtek doesn't have a toll free number for tech support and I'm not going to incur the additional cost to arrive at the revelation that this product simply does not work in the manner it's supposed to. Again, the hardware is fine, it's the software that makes this scanner a "no go". I highly recommend you skip this one and keep looking (as I will be once I return it to Staples)!
Rating: 
Summary: Great scanner with software and documentaion issues.
Review: When you purchase the scanner, you get the following items:
- Microtek ScanMaker 5950 with built-in document feeder
- USB 2.0 cable
- Power Adapter
- Microtek Software
- Adobe PhotoDeluxe
- ABBYY Finereader There are also instruction manuals and warranty cards. The instruction manuals have minimal information and are difficult to use because they must be for prior versions of the software and therefore do not match what you see on the screen. The online help is not much better and has even less relevant information if that were to be possible. I purchase the scanner because I wanted to create electronic files for all of my school notes. My school notes were on A4 paper which is why I chose this scanner in particular since it does fit A4 paper. You most certainly can not put photos in the document feeder, so if that was your intention, this scanner is not for you. When you scan a document using the Microtek software, you have the option to save the file as a PDF, JPEG, GIF or other image files. Multiple images can be saved as one file which is particularly useful when creating PDF documents. However, you can not import handwritten notes directly into Word as images, unless you scan the whole document and save it as an image file which is then inserted into Word. You can scan directly into Word if you use the Finereader software which converts the scanned image into editable text. However, this only works with typewritten documents and handwritten notes will not work. The Finereader software is pretty good at guessing correctly at words, but careful proofreading is required. Mechanically, the document feeder is good. The only flaw is that you can not free the feed mechanism if there is a jam which means that you must tear up your original to get it out of the feeder. In the course of normal scanning, there are no marks left on the paper other than small creases which are barely noticeable. In theory, one really could leave a stack of 50 pages in the feeder and walk away. However, the paper guides for the feeder are far from precise. I spent hours trying to learn how to insert the paper correctly to prevent the scanned image from coming out crooked. Another problem is that I have had nothing but trouble with preventing the scanner from cutting off part of the scanned image. The image which is created is the correct size, but the bottom centimeter is just a black band instead of the image. Changing the size of the scanned area does not seem to mater, the scanner consistently cuts off the bottom of the page. I believe that this is more of a software issue than a mechanical issue. I have spent hours trying to play with the limited settings to make this work without a lot of success. The only way that I could fix the problem was to scan the entire scanner bed and then crop the image in Acrobat which requires the full version of Acrobat to do. Otherwise, you would just have to settle for images that have any text near the edges of the paper cut off. In summary, I think this is a very good scanner that unfortunately is crippled by inadequate software and documentation. I can not recommend it unless you have the hours of time required to play with the settings to make it work for you.
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