Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I recently purchased a Scanmaker 3750i with the LightLid 35 slide scanner attachment. It appears to be this same 3700 but including the LightLid 35. The scanner is huge. There are several scanners that are much smaller that work better. If you plan on scanning slides with Microtek's optional LightLid 35, forget it. The quality is very poor. My suggestion is to buy another company's scanner.
Rating: 
Summary: Microtek Support Update
Review: I would like to add to my review above of this product after having a horrifying experience with Microtek support. My scanner lamp went bad a few months after I purchased the scanner. I returned the scanner to Microtek and they sent it back after about a week, "repaired". Turns out, they did not set the locking mechanism on the scanner and it came back with teeth missing on the gears that moved the scan assembly. They replaced that one with another broken one that would not detect via USB. They replaced that with a third one that worked, but did not include the light lid (even though they told me they were sending me a brand new scanner). Their support was difficult to deal with. I like the scanner and the software, but it loses two stars for their support being MISERABLE!
Rating: 
Summary: So far, so good
Review: I've had mine for about 6 months now and still now problems. I purchased this for my wife to use for school and she was so excited when it arrived that she set it up and had it running by the time I got home from work. If you knew my wife you would think this a minor miracle because she is NOT technically minded. This is my second scanner and by far the easiest and best one. The USB connection is great and the quick buttons on the front are awesome. It is the first scanner I've used which actually scans and sends a fax which was either typed or hand written and actually comes out legible.Hopefully I don't have to send it in for a new lamp head like the previous reviewers. If I do I'll definitely put a note inside to lock down the scanner head!! Only bad experience was the mail-in rebate. After two months I got a letter back saying I couldn't have it because I didn't enclose the UPC from the box or something. Thing is is that it didn't ask for it on the rebate card, just a receipt. Too bad, I'd already thrown the box away.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Scanner, Great Software
Review: Let's face it, about 50% of the value of a scanner like this is the TWAIN software that comes with it. The TWAIN software is the program that gets the image from the item you are scanning to the program you are scanning it into. I am a real Jeckyl and Heckle about TWAIN software. On the one hand, I want it to be really simple, so I can very quickly scan some cool picture for use as a background on my PC. On the other hand, I want to be able to tweak the stuff, so I can resize something, get rid of the moire pattern on printed material, and generally make a bleeping good scan of the photos in my photo collection. Well Microtek's implementation of TWAIN has got personalities for both of me. On the one hand, there's a simple mode, where I can tell it what the source is (photo, magazine, art magazine, film, etc.) and what I want to use it for (display on-screen, print to an ink jet printer, etc.) in english, and the little elves in the scanner run back and forth with the light and make it work. On the other hand, I can switch to advanced mode and fiddle with demoire patterns and lpi vs. dpi and filters and get exactly the scan I want. Who could ask for more! The scanner itself was a snap to setup. Since it's a USB device the PC found it, found the drivers on the CD (once I told it to look there) and I was scanning away. The light lid device for scanning slides and 35mm negatives is adequate. The couple of old slides I scanned were a tiny bit washed out, but a couple of seconds in a good graphics editor fixed that right up. I probably could have made the adjustments in the TWAIN software, but I was feeling somewhat Heckle that day. I love this scanner, it's got a great price, and the software with it is great.
Rating:
Summary: Avoid at all costs
Review: Microtek should be embarrassed to have ever brought such a poorly designed, poorly built scanner to the market. The bulb is unbelievably fragile and can only be replaced by Microtek, shipping prepaid, and they want nearly as much for the "free" replacement as the scanner cost. My experience matches others I know who bought this scanner: mean time between failures of the bulb is 30 days. Buy something decent, from a company other than Microtek.
Rating:
Summary: Weak scanning negatives and very noisy
Review: One of the reasons why I got this scanner (in fact one of the cheapest ones I could find) was the fact that it had a built in feature to allow the scanning of negatives. However doing this has proved to be filled with all sorts of "traps" requiring the EXTENSIVE use of image-editing software (such as Adobe Photoshop) to achieve a somewhat acceptable quality. Other than this, it's OK, but this was the most important selling point for this scanner to me, so it hasn't quite met my expectations. Also, I have been hearing the same weird sounds coming from it that another reviewer mentions, so I'm kinda concerned that I will be left with a non-working scanner in a short time.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad for the price, no problems yet.
Review: Since everyone seems to be complaining about parts costing a ton for this unit, may I suggest only plugging it in when you use it? Sure, it seems a bit too logical. This is my first scanner and my mother has the same brand. We have both been happy with the performance and found the software easy to install and use. Of course, I didn't read on of the items in the "installation" and for five minutes couldn't figure out why I couldn't scan anything. You have to "unlock" the scanner carriage by pulling out a lever. You get ScanWizard, Adobe PhotoDeluxe and the Microtek Software. I'm sorry, but if this goes out, I will just buy another one. I can't see spending 200 bucks on fixing it when it is only around 70 bucks. What was that person thinking???? Might not be for someone who scans a ton of photos, but for the casual user who doesn't want to make a big investment, I'd say take a chance. I've had good luck with this item. Maybe the world really is what we make it. Watch, it will break tomorrow. lol
Rating:
Summary: I suggest you buy it.!!
Review: The main thing I wanted to do with this scanner was to scan and then email my pictures to friends and family. This scanner is USB and under $... many stores!!! It's quiet and the picture quality is great for it. I have no complaints yet on it, works like a charm. Setup instructions and software were included so with most any USB you just plug and play!
Rating:
Summary: Scanner works well
Review: The Microtek 3700 works fine and has some nice extras. Scan speed for a color image at medium resolution was about 90 secs. That's pretty typical these days. Scan speed for 300 dpi B&W Line art (i.e. text for OCR) was a VERY fast 30 secs. TWAIN software has many nice features and a few rough spots. Somehow I entered some bogus combination of preferences (line art & descreen?) that caused an error like "User has hit cancel button to abort scanning"! When I blanked out the settings and started over all was well. My scanner also came with a slide/film illuminator so I can scan them as well. This worked okay, but the color wasn't quite right. It certainly worked better than my home-made attempts at scanning slides on my old scanner. I have not seen slide scanners at any where near this price range before. Image detail was good, but not as good as I've gotten using my 2 megapixel digicam to photograph slides on a light table. But if you don't have a good digital camera that can focus close, this is definitely the best alternative. Overall I'm pleased with this unit.
Rating:
Summary: Scanner works well
Review: The Microtek 3700 works fine and has some nice extras. Scan speed for a color image at medium resolution was about 90 secs. That's pretty typical these days. Scan speed for 300 dpi B&W Line art (i.e. text for OCR) was a VERY fast 30 secs. TWAIN software has many nice features and a few rough spots. Somehow I entered some bogus combination of preferences (line art & descreen?) that caused an error like "User has hit cancel button to abort scanning"! When I blanked out the settings and started over all was well. My scanner also came with a slide/film illuminator so I can scan them as well. This worked okay, but the color wasn't quite right. It certainly worked better than my home-made attempts at scanning slides on my old scanner. I have not seen slide scanners at any where near this price range before. Image detail was good, but not as good as I've gotten using my 2 megapixel digicam to photograph slides on a light table. But if you don't have a good digital camera that can focus close, this is definitely the best alternative. Overall I'm pleased with this unit.
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