Rating: 
Summary: Does descreening on magazine pics as well as slides
Review: A great scanner, but it took a little time for me to set it up with the software. Called service at Epson and was so impressed with them. Problem I had with setup was that I had not uninstalled my UMAX software (previous scanner) and there were conflicts. Once I took it off, no problem. Called Epson service later to find out how to use the descreen function in order to scan pics from magazines without getting a moire pattern, but the tech guy said he'd have another more knowledgeable guy call me. The new service tech was top notch and spent (his dime) more than an hour with me on the phone showing me how to set up the scanning for special effects, color adjustments, descreening, and so much more. I recommend you use the "manual" setup rather than the automatic scan setup, and if you have Photoshop you don't need to install their image editing software. Great service. Great scanner. They have a newer one now, model 1660, which I assume is even better.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Quality Scans vs. MOST EVERYTHING ELSE STINKS
Review: After researching flatbed scanners for several weeks, I determined that, based on specifications and reviews, the Epson Perfection 1650 Photo Flatbed Scanner was the best on the market. After purchasing the product on the web, I eagerly set it up, expecting an amazing product that I would love. I scanned several pictures, finding the quality amazing, but there were many problems. It cut of parts of each picture, sometimes the scanned picture would look cockeyed even if it had been placed on the surface perfectly, and scratches and dust were seen everywhere. I tried to call technical support, but I did not get anywhere, and I was annoyed at the fact that Epson doesn't have a 1-800 number to call. Epson Smartpanel is decent, and Adobe Elements is a wonderful program, but the others included are poorly designed, and, in my opionion, are not satisfactory enough to use.
The bottom line about this scanner is that despite the fact that the images it scans are of optimal quality, the problems with it that I've had have not made the scanner worth it. I would suggest looking at products in the Canon Canoscan series, which are very small and are loved by most that use them. Although most people have not had the same problems with me, you should still think twice about getting this scanner: if you end up NOT getting it, you will save yourself from having several headaches.
Rating:
Summary: the sweetest midrange scanner...
Review: Before I purchased, I researched. First I read magazine reviews which I found online via my favorite Mac magazines websites...then came here, among other places to price the one I wanted. The Epson Perfection 1650 Photo Flatbed scanner. I read ALL the reviews here and though I found a few people who seemed to have problems (mostly Windows users) I found the rest to be fair to great. So I decided to take a chance and it was a chance worth taking. This scanner, scans in clean, clear and sweet. No shadows, no problems. And though I am a photoshop Queen, I also enjoyed the software which comes with the scanner. I haven't tried scanning in a strip of film yet, but I expect no problems from this dream machine.
Rating:
Summary: Does descreening on magazine pics as well as slides
Review: Bought for scanning several family photo albums onto CDs for members of the family. 800+ pictures later, the 1650-Photo is still buzzing along without any gliches.
Installation was easy, done with clear printed directions (onto a Mac G4 running OS 9.2)
The scanner does a quick pre-scan to produce an image you can see to make whatever adjustments for framing, color, contrast, shadow & highlight levels you desire. If you use the Auto mode instead, the software is so "smart" that it will usually produce results as good as you can do using the adjustments mode.
Once you are satisfied with the pre-scan image, you click on "scan", which the 1650 does in about 4 seconds. Thumbnail images of each scanned photo are displayed, along with the option to type in a name for each.
The picture files can be saved into several file types. If you chose .jpg you can adjust the file size, going small for e-mail use, to large for making paper prints.
I have not yet made any scans of photo negatives, but have of jewelry and maps and they turn out great! An excellent product at a very reasonable price.
Rating:
Summary: great quality scans
Review: Bought for scanning several family photo albums onto CDs for members of the family. 800+ pictures later, the 1650-Photo is still buzzing along without any gliches.
Installation was easy, done with clear printed directions (onto a Mac G4 running OS 9.2)
The scanner does a quick pre-scan to produce an image you can see to make whatever adjustments for framing, color, contrast, shadow & highlight levels you desire. If you use the Auto mode instead, the software is so "smart" that it will usually produce results as good as you can do using the adjustments mode.
Once you are satisfied with the pre-scan image, you click on "scan", which the 1650 does in about 4 seconds. Thumbnail images of each scanned photo are displayed, along with the option to type in a name for each.
The picture files can be saved into several file types. If you chose .jpg you can adjust the file size, going small for e-mail use, to large for making paper prints.
I have not yet made any scans of photo negatives, but have of jewelry and maps and they turn out great! An excellent product at a very reasonable price.
Rating:
Summary: Easy setup and easey to use
Review: Epson has produced an excellent and fast imaging scanner that includes easy setup and easy utilization. The results are crisp and do not require PhotoShop enhancements (unless, of course, the original image was impoverished).Makes me look at my old Umax SCSI scanner with absolute disgust.
Rating: 
Summary: Do Not Buy Products from Epson
Review: Epson may have a reputable name, but as a technology company,
they leave much to be desired. I can only speak of the
poor quality of their drivers under Windows 2000 and the
utter lack of drivers for Windows XP (which went into BETA
over a year ago, was released in October and for which they
still have no WinXP certified drivers for the majority of
their scanners including the 1640SU predecessor to this 1650
that I purchased here just 4 months ago). Further, their tech support is laughable. If you go to their
website, you will find that nowhere does it list an e-mail
address for tech support. Further, while it does list a
non toll-free telephone number, the 4 times I have called it,
I was unable to talk to a human being to even inquire when
and if driver support for Windows XP would be available. Several friends tried to convince me to buy the Visioneer
scanners instead. I just checked their website, and nearly
all their models are already Windows XP certified. I personally
will never buy anything from Epson again, but your own mileage
may vary of course.
Rating: 
Summary: It won't scan slides!
Review: I bought recently (March, 15th 2002) an EPSON Perfection 1650 Photo scanner. It works Ok save a very annoying problem: when scanning slides mounted in a frame it will only capture about 80% of them: two horizontal rows at the top and the bottom are not "seen" by the scanner:
A 35 mm slide have as measurements 3.50 x 2.30 cm but the scanner will only capture 3.28 x 1.96cm. This means that a row of 0.22cm wide at the base of the slide is not captured and the same happens with a row of 0.34cm at the top.
Apart from that the output quality for slides is, frankly, dissapointing and I need to adjust manually each slide before scanning it.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy using Windows XP
Review: I bought this scanner after reading a review. However, at the time of purchase it was not XP compatible. After waiting months for a patch to be developed one finally arrived which did not work. After many frustating hours and dozens of phone calls to Epson and the software developer they referred me to only the copy function works.Despite Epson's claims that "it works with XP" I have no evidence that it does. I also found Epson to be very unhelpful in the process. Needless to say, Epson if off my list of companys to buy from.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to beat for the price
Review: I don't know about XP but it works great with Win98. Installation was a snap. I bought it for archiving my old photo negatives and slides. I debated getting their next higher model for increased resolution based on a techie review, but I'm glad I didn't. The resolution is very adequate for the average home user, and then some - if you use the max resolution you should have a relatively new computer to handle it. Anything more would be overkill unless you have a commercial graphics shop and a high-end computer.
I tested mine on negatives - color was OK but processing time was long - probably my 366 computer. I tested a color slide and was very impressed - color wasn't perfect but easily fixed in my graphics program - resolution was excellent. I tried a full-page scan and noticed no edge shadows as someone else had reported. The scanner is also much quieter than my previous Canon scanner.
The software interface is nice. It has a full-auto mode which is very effective and useful for most applications, but it is also flexible enough to do most anything you would want to manually. I can't talk about service -no problems yet.
Bottom line is this is a great scanner for the price!
|
