Rating: 
Summary: You need lots of time to make this scanner work!
Review: I read the other reviews complaining about the Epson software, and figured those people just didn't know what they were doing. WRONG! They were right. Smart Panel does NOT work. The buttons on the scanner can be configured to work with other programs, but one has to spend some time digging to figure this out. I have spent an entire day on this -- trying the updated drivers, etc., etc. Why Epson passes off the Smart Panel support to the 3rd party Newsoft is beyond me. They should eliminate the "Smart Panel" entirely. The documentation also stinks. I haven't had enough time to fully rate the scans themselves, but so far they seem good. I'm just soooo disappointed with the lack of ease of use.
Rating: 
Summary: Works as designed
Review: I really enjoy this scanner. The USB 2.0 link is fast, and every item scanned has turned out great. I really enjoy Photoshop Elements 2.0, which is included. I have not missed any features not included in this Photoshop lite.The scaner control panel program is nice, but I usually just use the scanner from Photoshop. Some of the defaults with the control panel are not as detailed as I would like. Perhaps there is a way to change the defaults. I have only scanned one set of negatives, but those scans turned out quite well. This is a good scanner with great software at a great price.
Rating:
Summary: Great with 35mm Slides
Review: I wanted to scan a large number of slides, specifically some slides for my mom for her for a christmas gift. I did extensive investigation into several scanners, including a scanner that was exclusively a slide and negative film scanner. I ended up choosing this Epson model and I have been extremely happy with it. It is very easy to use. On the manual setting, you can preview the slides and then alter their brightness and contrast before scanning them. I've set the image quality merely to 1200 dpi, and the images have come out with fantastic clarity and detail, and yet the bitmap file sizes are a reasonable 5MB (and for those folks who don't have great amounts of hard drive space available, compressed jpeg files are another option). The scanner has done a fine job of scanning regular prints as well.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Scanner with Mac OS X
Review: I'm delighted with this scanner and find that the software works well. I'm using OS10.3.2 without a hitch. I use the scanner for prints only, so I can't comment about scanning slides or film. The scanned images are sharp with excellent color rendition. The scanner integrates perfectly with iPhoto which is where my digitized images end up. If you're looking for a print scanner to use with Panther, this is a good choice.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent quality scans are finally affordable
Review: I've been tremendously happy with the quality of the scans from the Perfection 2400. If all you need to do is make 640x480 scans for the www from prints you made at the local 1-hour, this is more scanner than you'll ever need. However, scan resolution is sufficient to make brilliant 8x10 prints from 35mm negatives/slides. The included Epson software leaves a little to be desired -- it won't, for example, install on an alternative partition on your disk. Also, you will certainly have to use a photo manipulation application to tweak the levels and colour curves before you get your pictures right. But spend a little time to learn how your scanner works, and you'll have smashing pictures in a short time. If you're adept at working image manipulation programs (Photoshop Elements 1.1 (not the new 2.0) is included with this product; but I have been happier with the freely available GIMP), you'll have professional scans at a fraction of what it used to cost not so long ago.
Rating:
Summary: Works with Windows, Linux
Review: I've had no trouble getting this to work with Windows 98, 2000, or Linux. I've only had it for a week, but so far its done great at doing everything from copying my tax returns to scanning images. Scanning at the full quality and size that the scanner allows takes up lots of memory, but you never really need to do that, unless you're planning on making a photo-quality poster out of a piece of paper. Linux users - Epson actually provides a driver on their site. Even without this driver, SANE recognized the scanner in about five seconds, and xscanimage worked fine.
Rating:
Summary: Success in all regards!
Review: I've used scanners for ten years and I am here to tell you that the Epson 2400 Photo laps the competition and leaves them in the dust. The setup of this solidly constructed scanner onto my Windows 2000 went without a hitch. Most problems associated with scanner setups trace back to a failure to read and follow instructions, so I used care to read through everything before beginning! With that completed, I followed instructions in the automated Epson TWAIN 5 and quickly got a perfect photo scan 300 DPI. The buttons on the front worked well, sending respective scans to printer, e-mail and web. I kept grabbing for the mouse, expecting to be called to do something, but everything was automated. I placed 6 photos on the glass, leaving room between them, and the TWAIN identified and segregated each into its own file perfectly. I got this scanner to handle my collection of slides, so that was a very important feature for me. Removal of the laminated lid-liner exposes the TPU light. The liner pops in and out nicely. The beautifully designed slide/negative holder lies on the glass, indexing precisely. This combination of engineering elegance illustrates a sufficiency few engineers seem to grasp. "Keep it simple, stupid". It holds 4 slides or a strip of up to 6 negatives. I was absolutely impressed with the design and efficiency thus far! The slides simply drop within their frame onto the glass and are retrieved effortlessly. With another very slick demonstration of engineering wizardry, negative filmstrips slide smoothly and effortlessly into the other side of the frame, and are positioned precisely and uniformly above the glass with no bends. It seemed too easy, but in only 42 seconds, the scanner automatically recognized the color positives, lit the TPU lamp, pre-scanned all four slides, and left thumbnails before me to select from. What an encouraging start! NOTE: One reviewer is ENTIRELY mistaken when he incorrectly stated that all four slides must be scanned. Quite to the contrary, a check box adjacent to each thumbnail permits any of them to be unselected. What he thought those check marks meant can only be imagined and testifies that some people are best left in a locked room with no sharp objects for their own safety. Operating with only USB-1 on my machine, the 2400 Photo scanned each slide in 54 seconds, which I considered to be quite acceptable. Not only were the results stunning, they appeared perfect, with no hotspots, off colors, or degradation of sharpness. It delivered absolutely perfect reproduction, with precise cropping, too. However, I wanted greater resolution than the default 300 DPI. While 300 DPI is fine for printing slides, I desire to archive slides for viewing on the giant-size screens of the future and wanted to take advantage of the 2400 DPI capability of the unit. Access is easily gained to the inner sanctum of Epson TWAIN 5 by clicking a button during the 15-second warm-up phase. Within is an almost unlimited array of options. 2400 DPI from a slide generated a large 17.1 meg file to deal with, which can either be saved in it's bulky Windows Bitmap version, or as a more manageable 1.1 meg JPEG file, no loss of image data. Expecting a more time-consuming project, I instead found that speed was mysteriously unaffected. In fact, because pre-scanning of subsequent items can be bypassed in manual mode, four slides were completed at 2400 magnificent DPI from a cold start in exactly 3:50 minutes; a full 70 seconds faster than the same number in auto mode. Adopting a rhythm, I scanned 63 slides in one hour, which I thought to be a fabulous rate. Any number of slides can be scanned before you close the TWAIN and "finish" them, at which time you can rename if you desire, de-select unwanted photos, select the final format and determine the target directory of choice. Having said that, I would recommend investing your time wisely and save them periodically, should a crash or other Windows frustration occur, causing all your dedicated effort to vanish. About 40 slides is my emotional limit. Filmstrip negative performance was absolutely beautiful, "exposing" the film with absolute perfection most processing labs can never achieve. The backlighting of the TPU device provides a depth and realism normally associated with transparencies, while the 2400 DPI resolution puts almost any digital camera to shame. The supplied Adobe Photo Essentials does provide the very good essential features of its big brother Adobe Photo Shop for correcting and retouching photos. Having said that and having all three on my machine, I prefer to use JASC Paint Shop Pro. At one-sixth the cost of Photo Shop, I find PSP is slicker, with all the features of the former, with some features that Photo Shop doesn't have, like a magnification tool that zooms in and out with left and right clicks, without having to change modes. I put the Essentials to work on a set of 140 slides of professional Ektachrome from a 1987 Norway tour, to see if I could get the same results with equal efficiency. This slide film tends to require about one f-stop longer exposure I didn't know about at the time, which left me with an entire collection of darkened photos that all needed some digital magic. Essentials performed fine, and pulled up more light from scenes while balancing the contrast, to reveal detail and richness I had never seen before. None of my slides suffered from scratches of dust, so I had no occasion to check out this provision. After going through half the slides, I grabbed for the Paint Shop Pro again. With a less-cluttered desktop and the highly usable combined brightness/contrast tool, my wife and I took turns speeding through the remainder. PSP isn't better, it just goes easier and quicker. I have never written a review of any product before, but felt Epson's huge success deserved credit. The Epson Perfection 2400 Photo and TWAIN software are a combination that gives remarkable and satisfying results.
Rating: 
Summary: From Mac OS X user
Review: If you ever used a professional scanner, then you probably know that it is impossible to get the same results with consumer scanners. I learned this the hard way. I bought at least four different consumer scanners expecting similar results to the scans I made with my old HP professional scanner, but ended up returning them all -- the quality of the scans were far from my expectations. I recently bought Epson 2400 and decided that I am going to keep it. The major factor for my decision was of course the quality of the scans -- it was noticeably better than the other scanners in this price range. Another major factor was the software. I downloaded and installed Epson TWAIN driver for Mac OS X (it is available for download at no charge from Epson's website). Now I utilize Photoshop Elements' Import menu, and I have full control over the scan parameters, or, if I choose, I go to automatic mode and importing scans becomes as user friendly as Wawa's sandwich ordering touchscreen. Imported images might need some minor tweaking in Photoshop before they will look close to the original. The final output is not bad at all. Again, don't expect breathtaking crispy-clear results of professional scanners, but it is pretty good for a consumer product. If you are a Mac user looking for a reasonably priced scanner, give Epson 2400 a chance, you might keep it.
Rating: 
Summary: Stay away from this scanner
Review: Or use at your own risk. It took me a month to isolate problems after installing Crucial memory in the computer. Bought what EPSON recommended, the Belkin 2.0 card. It froze the EPSON Smart Panel. The essiscsi.dll dissapeared from the registry. The ecbteg.dll and ebpport.dll could not be found. The new SmartPanel and Twain driver from the epson.com does not work in Windows ME. Had to uninstall the Epson scanner, printer, belkin card, and clean registry with utility program. Then, reinstall one by one, take the new memory out to make it work at 72 dpi. The slide stuff does not work at all. A big major project and a waste of time. I will not buy any more Epson products any longer. Bad service support and response. Sorry, I thought this company had its act together. Not very happy with their service and products. Go somewhere else. Sorry, I can't recommend other scanner. That's all, folks.
Rating:
Summary: Buy An Epson - Save A Tree
Review: Owned this scanner two days. So far so good however,
you need not worry about losing your user manual because there
isn't one. HTML help files and a quick start guide is all
that's provided - not even a pdf document.
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