Rating: 
Summary: In this case, speed doesn't kill.
Review: It took ten minutes to scan an 8x10 color picture at 300dpi with my previous scanner (an old Visioneer using the printer port). This one took 40 seconds for the same scan, and the quality was much better. The speed increase lets me scan all my documents to CD's; I didn't even try that before. Life isn't that long. Installation was a breeze, and the software was easy enough, although I use something else. This also comes with a deal for two software packages for $8, including Corel Draw and Ventura. An excellent deal.
Rating:
Summary: Great Product at a Great Price
Review: Just bought one of these a few days ago for a big photo scanning project. After having a few installation problems (the plug and play detected that the scanner was a new device, but it couldn't find the installation files on the CD for some reasion, so I had to install it through the "Add Hardware" control panel. Not a big deal, though.)I was a little worried about the quality of the TWAIN driver before I started using it - I've owned an Epson Stylus Photo printer before, and while the quality of the harware is second to none, the software is some of the buggiest and unreliable I've ever used. I must say, however, that the Epson software team did a great job on the TWAIN software - no problems whatsoever, and the automatic pre-scan function when you first connect via TWAIN is a nice little timesaver. As for the scanner itself, I am extremely impressed by the quality and quickness of this thing. Compared to my old UMAX Astra scanner (a great product, by the way), this thing just blows the UMAX away! I am continually amazed how quickly it scans, and I've noticed no problems with the scans themselves (except for matte finish photos, which my other scanner had an even bigger problem with - I guess the light from the scanner reflects in a haphazard pattern, which causes the photos to look like they have a lot of dust on them. The descreening function helps a lot with this, though). Overall a great scanner, and well worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome quality scanner
Review: Just bought one of these a few days ago for a big photo scanning project. After having a few installation problems (the plug and play detected that the scanner was a new device, but it couldn't find the installation files on the CD for some reasion, so I had to install it through the "Add Hardware" control panel. Not a big deal, though.) I was a little worried about the quality of the TWAIN driver before I started using it - I've owned an Epson Stylus Photo printer before, and while the quality of the harware is second to none, the software is some of the buggiest and unreliable I've ever used. I must say, however, that the Epson software team did a great job on the TWAIN software - no problems whatsoever, and the automatic pre-scan function when you first connect via TWAIN is a nice little timesaver. As for the scanner itself, I am extremely impressed by the quality and quickness of this thing. Compared to my old UMAX Astra scanner (a great product, by the way), this thing just blows the UMAX away! I am continually amazed how quickly it scans, and I've noticed no problems with the scans themselves (except for matte finish photos, which my other scanner had an even bigger problem with - I guess the light from the scanner reflects in a haphazard pattern, which causes the photos to look like they have a lot of dust on them. The descreening function helps a lot with this, though). Overall a great scanner, and well worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Have Epson heard of future-proofing
Review: Lots of rave reviews about this by now obsolete item. I have it a couple of years, but still I can't escape the feeling that if you walk into a shop in Ireland and say, 'I'll take that one,' you'll end up with a model that's on the way out everywhere else.
Nothing wrong with it as far as it goes: does the job it's asked to do. Just don't buy a new PC with a new OS.
I've wasted too much time trying to find a replacement XP driver for this machine, which now effectively has become a piece of junk. Online support is available from Epson provided you get there before 5pm! So, I suppose this is a comment not so much on the product but on the brand, the support and future-proofing or lack thereof. I suppose I could keep my old PC just for Epson's convenience, but I rather think things should be the other way around.
None of my other hardware peripherals have caused me grief in this way.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to see why this is #1 Seller
Review: My brother and I each purchased a scanner the same week, I spent about $90 dollars more than him, and am very glad I did. After setting mine up in minimal time, it scaned great. I tried his later that week, and it scanned much, much slower. I will probably never use the higher resolutions that this scanner offers, but it is nice to know that they are there if I need to. This scanner is an EXCELLENT choice for the small business.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to see why this is #1 Seller
Review: My brother and I each purchased a scanner the same week, I spent about $90 dollars more than him, and am very glad I did. After setting mine up in minimal time, it scaned great. I tried his later that week, and it scanned much, much slower. I will probably never use the higher resolutions that this scanner offers, but it is nice to know that they are there if I need to. This scanner is an EXCELLENT choice for the small business.
Rating:
Summary: Epson Perfection 1200 USP is the best in it's price range!
Review: My former scanner by Microtek was difficult to set up and did not work until I searched for hours in the documentation and on Microtek's web site and finally found a rather complicated answer. I still have to apply the "fix" to any computer I use the Microtek scanner with. In contrast, the Epson Perfection 1200 USB Scanner was a breeze to set up. I just plugged the USB cable in with my computer already on, turned the scanner on and Windows 98 detected the scanner and the "Add Driver" wizard came up. Just point that to your CD drive to load the drivers and that's it. The scanner is very fast and quiet. The twain interface is as good or better then any I've seen. The quality of the scans is top-notch across the board, from color to contrast to shadow depth. I choose this scanner based on a ZdNet review of Epson's 636 USB scanner which won their editors choice award. They said it works especially well with Epson Color printers which I found to be the case too. With a hardware resolution 1200 x 2400 dpi, the Epson Perfection 1200 USB scanner has higher optical resolution than any other scanner in it's price range. It's a real bargain. Tips: Whatever graphics program you use, set up an ICM color profile. Or use the ICM profile of your monitor. Adobe Photoshop comes with a utility to do this. Then in the twain interface of your scanner click the "Use ICM" check box. Then your scans will look more like the originals when viewed on-screen. If you have an Epson printer (I have the Stylus Color 740), when you print choose the "Epson Stylus Color 740" profile from the "color space" list. If you have another printer it should show up in the list too. This info is for printing from Photoshop, but other graphics programs should be similar. Scans printed from my Epson printer look almost identical to the original including color tone and depth. I use this scanner primarily for professional web design and personal photograph reproduction. Overall it's just a great scanner and I'm very happy with it.
Rating:
Summary: Solid Scanner Package!
Review: The instructions were clear and thoughtfully written; installation was a breeze; and the Windows 2000 TWAIN driver (from Epson's website) is excellent and powerful. This scanner is fast and quiet. I was impressed with the image quality and the accuracy of colors. I would recommend the Epson Perfection 1200U to users of all levels.
Rating:
Summary: Great Scanner
Review: This is the first scanner that I have owned. I was skeptical of the reviews and how easy they said this product is to use. I am not a computer junky that spends hours with software and hardware. This was truely plug & play at its best. I was working on my web page in less than an hour with scanned photos. Was able to start retouching photos from the beginning. Quality was great. Photos to printer was excellent. Photos to e-mail was easy. Excellent product.
Rating:
Summary: Best Scanner for your Money
Review: This is the second scanner I've owned. The first was a cheap Mustek scanner that I bought because it was "middle of the line", not because it was great. That was a mistake. Scanning took forever, and the quality was only average. There also was a bug in the scanner software which caused crashing... Luckily my old scanner broke after a year or two and I was forced to look to the market again for another one. This time I was fed up with looking for a "deal", and proceeded to look for quality. I bought a well known PC magazine and looked at the ratings. The #1 scanner on the list was the Epson 1200U. At the time it was a little pricey, but I went ahead and said `what the heck' -- I dealt with a crummy scanner for so long, I wanted to treat myself. THIS scanner is fantastic. The USB port is much more convenient than a "pass-through" parallel port. (I have a printer already hooked up to the parallel port, and have had memory problems with such pass-through ports in the past.) The price is fantastic. I bought this scanner from Amazon.com 6 months ago. Now the price has dropped $100 more. The speed is great. The "One touch" button brings up a menu that allows scanning at the touch of another button (so it is really "2 touch"). Pages (or photos) scan very quickly, and are very easy to touch-up and edit. The software is great. You get Presto Page Manager and Adobe Photoshop Business Edition (this is not the full Adobe "paint and design" program, just one to be used for photos and editing). The scanner's quality is VERY HIGH. I've taken 2" X 3" B/W crumpled Vietnam photos from 20 years back, scanned them, BLOWN THEM UP to 5" X 7", and used the bundled software to erase scratches and fix imperfections. When printed out (on a NICE printer, such as the HP Deskjet 970 CXI), they are absolutely amazing. The results are equivalent to professionally restored photos. If you are into this, you can't find a better scanner for the price. I highly recommend this scanner, but I cannot stress more that without an equivalent printer, you won't see the full value behind it.
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