Rating: 
Summary: Simple and Easy to Use
Review: It's not very often that I buy something that works as is advertised. So I was pleasantly surpised when I was able to open up the box, put in the cd, reboot my computer and plug in the USB plug in the front of the computer. After that I was able to scan my grandkid's photos to email to my friends which is simple to do. You just open up the software and it automatically puts up a sample image of what is on the scanner. You just click the scan button or email button and you're done. Simple and effective is all I ask for and this proved to do both.
Rating:
Summary: Simple and Easy to Use
Review: It's not very often that I buy something that works as is advertised. So I was pleasantly surpised when I was able to open up the box, put in the cd, reboot my computer and plug in the USB plug in the front of the computer. After that I was able to scan my grandkid's photos to email to my friends which is simple to do. You just open up the software and it automatically puts up a sample image of what is on the scanner. You just click the scan button or email button and you're done. Simple and effective is all I ask for and this proved to do both.
Rating: 
Summary: If You Want To Scan Film - AVOID THIS!
Review: One of the ways my wife and I kept down the costs of photography at our wedding was to use a photographer who gave us the proof prints and negatives and let us make the albums ourselves.I'm a photo editor for a major web site, so I felt comfortable with this arrangement. I've scanned thousands of slides, photos, and negatives in my time... of course with my employer's fairly expensive equipment. I was at [store], just browsing, and the advertising on the box said this could scan negatives and slides at 2400 DPI. Ummm... yeah. When I started trying to scan negatives they came out horribly. The color was terrible, even with manual adjustment, and the images came out extraordinarily grainy. I went to Microtek's support web site to see if maybe I was doing something wrong without realizing it. The support form made me state the problem in 250 characters (approx 42 words) or less. I described the poor quality issues as best I could. Microtek advised me to use certain settings... the exact settings I'd been using, but couldn't include in my 42 words or less. I told them that's what I was doing, but they still came out poorly. Microtek's response was that I should buy a dedicated film scanner, like their ArtixScan, if I wanted better results. Let me say that the flatbed scans of regular photos came out just fine. But you're paying extra for a transparency adapter that will let you scan slides and film, and then does a poor job of it. If you just want to scan prints and documents, buy a less expensive scanner without this half-baked feature. I did a LOT of research on flatbeds that could do good film scans, accomodate multiple film sizes, and do it at a decent price. I finally settled on the Epson Perfection 3200, though the price at [store] was a bit more than double the price of the Microtek. I have since returned the Microtek and am very happy with the test results I've had from the Epson so far.
Rating: 
Summary: Great system if
Review: This would have been a great scanner for the money. I could not get it to scan one picture after the other. The scanmaker program would freeze up on the second scan. Loading the software also created problems on my machine. Connections to the USB port would not stay connected, the computer lost knowledge of the scanner being connected. I worked through all their solutions to the problems, but could not cure them. The scanner has excellent features and seems to be built very well. I have had two other Microtek scanners in the past that worked great, but had to return this one after a month of trying to remedy the problems. It is very possible it will work great in other systems than WIN 2000. Good Luck
Rating:
Summary: Microtek 5900 scanner
Review: Well, recently I purchased the Microtek 5900 scanner because I need a transparency scanner to handle my 35mm, 120, and 4x5 films. I went back to scan some film I took as far back as 1966 (b&w) and also tried out some 6x7 negative and positive film (6x7 slides), and 4x5 negs. I opened the scanning program and found the "simple" settings not to my liking and switched to the advanced settings where I could scan for various outputs: desktop printer, web, print (such as brochures, postcards, etc.). I was very satisifed until I ran across problematic review on the scanner. I went back to check out some of the things the reviewer mentioned, "The scans were littered with red pixels (in a moire noise pattern)! They were also INCREDIBLY blurry." I found that by having the proper settings there was no problem such as the reviewer mentioned. I did notice some differences in the quality of the scans but, I also noticed the worse scans came from the film that was not developed very well. I made the original mistake of not taking the film to a professional lab for processing. In addition to the normal type of scanning you do I eventually got around to scanning text. This scanner allows to scan text and then manipulate it in several forms: html, pdf, and plain text. I did find the text scanning did have some problems diacritical markings of French, Creole, and Yoruba (three languages I work with in my work). However, even with those limitations I felt it was worth having most of my scanned text editable. To sum up, I think this scanner is just fine. I'm sure there are better scanners out there but, for the price, this one is among the best I've seen and used. I've used several different flatbed/transparency scanners in this price range over the past several years but decided to purchase my own instead of using ones in an educational graphic labs at the three colleges I have access to.
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