Rating: 
Summary: The software is terrible, look for something else
Review: I decided to buy this scanner so i could scan slides in since my canoscan N670U cant do slides or negatives. First it took forever to warm and scan. then the scan would come out in totally wrong colors, i had to use auto level in adobe to fix it, then it still looked blue tinted.The software is a joke. you can save your seting but not make it load it each time it starts up. so you have to re load it everytime. it gets annoying quick. then while i was looking at the scanner bed i noticed that under the glass its all cloudy in one of the corners. the picture quality froma scanned photo looks the same as my canon and that thing is fairly old. im gonna return this piece of hp junk and keep my canon. there should be a negative star option for this product
Rating: 
Summary: solid scanner for the price
Review: I don't know what scrappy's problem was, but my scanned slides turned out to be gorgeous. My old Umax Astra always blocked up slides and negatives with excessive contrast, but the HP scans them with no problem. Prints are a cinch. I don't find the wait excessive at all-- maybe fifteen seconds, which is hardly interminable for a USB device. The software is good, but not great. It certainly doesn't have the sophistication of the Adoble Elements that come with Epson scanners, but it's fine for basic image manipulation. It seems to reset to prints with each new scan, which is inconvenient but not insurmountable for slides and negatives. For a hundred bucks, it's a great piece of hardware. And in my experience, HP equipment is MUCH more durable than Epson.
Rating: 
Summary: Well Worth My Money
Review: I have to say that the $100 was worth the money for this scanner. I have to say though that I did read all the reviews that I could and in my mind none of them realy helped. I was not expecting the HP3970 to meet my standerds of a good scanner, but at the same time I did only pay $100 for it. Well to get to the point, I am totaly amazed by this scanner. Not only did the photos turn out wonderful it scanned about 16 photos in 10 min. I am impressed to say the least. Nor did I have any problems installing the software. It walks you through the entire setup and install. The only way I can see anyone having a problem with the software was if there was something wrong with their computer be for they start. I only buy HP and will never buy anything else. If you are wanting to scan a large or even a small amount this scanner will do it for you in moteration. One more thing that I found to be a plus was you can scan your slides and 35mm negatives.
Rating:
Summary: I'm happy with it
Review: I just got it yesterday and so far I'm very pleased. I wanted something that would scan slides as well as prints and this scanner does both very well. Yes, it's a little slow, (okay, a lot slow) but for $100 I didn't expect anything else. (I use a larger and more expensive HP scanner at work, and that one is even slower and noisier.) I don't use the scanner software, I scan directly into photoshop and that works seemlessly. Colors look great, image looks great and I can tweak it however I want. That's all I was looking for. Bottom line: if you have a lot of slides to scan on a regular basis and more money to spend, you'd probably be happier with another scanner. But for someone who scans a few things at a time and is looking for something inexpensive and easy to use, I think you'd be happy with this one.
Rating:
Summary: This scanner is unusable for slides/negatives
Review: I normally like HP products, so I was extremely disappointed
in this scanner. The software is pretty bad (e.g., the
resolution setting kept going back to 200 dpi when I selected a
higher resolution). This is the third scanner I've owned,
and by far the worst. The scanner is agonizingly slow, and
every slide I scanned turned out green, regardless of the
settings I selected. I played around with the various settings
and tried for hours to get an acceptable image from this
scanner. The green images were the clincher for me - I'm
returning this scanner ASAP and plan to purchase an
Epson.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific performer for about $100
Review: I purchased this to replace an older HP scanner that was a good performer,...but wanted to take advantage of the higher data transfer speed of a USB 2 capable computer.
I'm frankly surprised by all the large number of low grades other users have given this machine. It has handled all the following scanning functions easily and with consistenly high quality output:
-Scanning photos to digital files (.tiff, .jpg and other bitmap formats);
-Reprinting photos directly to a photo printer; -Importing printed materials directly into MS Office documents and Adobe Acrobat documents;
-Direct output of a scanned text document to a printer;
-Scanning negatives to digital files for editing/printing. Minor...but not serious flaws:
-Other reviewers are correct: it only does 2 35mm negatives/slides at once (but scanners with an auto feed capacity are going to cost 2x-3x as much.
-Two of the 4 front panel buttons are directly related to marginally useful HP-specific functions ("HP Share-to-Web" and "HP Memories Disk"; their apparent presumption is that we don't know how to FTP or author CDs;-
-This model is among the loudest home scanners I've heard.
-The bundled software isn't outstanding, but it's certainly functional (especially if you take some time to customize the settings). For $..., the digital and hardcopy image/text outputs are highly resolved and crisp
Rating:
Summary: What's all the Fuss??
Review: I recently purchased this item from a local electronics store for a really good price (open box items are my best friend). In less than 15 minutes, I was able to scan twenty-one 8.5" x 11" pieces of artwork created by my students. Using the software provided by HP, I also took the items that were created in the landcape mode and rotated them. I renamed them, copied them into a file and also created a photo album. I then printed out the photo album, 15 images per page. OK...so it was able to scan very well. I then decided to test its ability to scan negatives and print them out.
I took a negative that was about 8 years old. Scanned it and then opened it in windows viewer. I printed one slide out as as an 8" x 10" print, and another as a 5" x 7". I printed them out on a laser printer using 600 x 600 dpi. Both printed out very well.
If you want to make money using the scanner, you might want to invest in something more sophisticated. However, it works just fine for the basic user in a home environment.
Rating:
Summary: The scanner is great, but some people just like to complaiin
Review: I run Windows XP Pro on a Pentium 4 with an ATI Radeon 9800 video card and 512 megs of ram. I bought this scanner because of past experience with HP and found it to do exactly what it claims to do. Scans are excellent in their accuracy and my slides on Kodachrome 25 are true to color and sharp as a tack. Yes it's a bit slow, but then again if you want speed, go look in the $400+ bracket for scanners. I read several other reviews and came to the conclusion that they don't know what they're talking about and would complain about any and everything. This scanner has performed flawlessly as do most HP periphials i.e. printers ect..
Get a GOOD computer and watch this scanner shine.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow and slides come out terribly
Review: I should have figured I wouldn't get a great product for such a low price, but I tend to trust HP products. Scanning photos works fine, but the quality of slide and negative scans is terrible. The slide scans were unusable. Also, it took forever for the lamp to warm up, so even if I had just scanned a photo/slide, I would still have to wait up to 2 minutes for the lamp to warm up again so I could make another scan. I'm returning this unit and looking for another.
Rating:
Summary: Great Scanner for less than $100
Review: I was skeptical of flatbed scanners that claim to scan slides and negatives, but after using my HP 3970 I have a different view. The scanner seems sturdy and is packaged well--the norm for HP products. Installation was effortless with both XP and Win ME. My slides and negatives are turning out great--It just takes a little tweaking of the highlight, shadow, midtone and sharpness adjustments in the software for an excellent image. Also, this scanner is so good that it will pick up the film grain in 35mm film, so you will need a good photo to start with. Even the best scanner can't fix film grain and poor photography. Flat art and printed photos turn out PERFECT. With most photos the default settings work fine--just press the button and let it go. The included OCR software seems to work well. I don't use OCR software enough for that to be an issue, but it scanned a printed document into StarOffice with just a couple minor character errors. The lamp does take while to warm up, but the accurate color and excellent highlight and shadow range are worth the wait time. The software is geared toward entry level users--seems very straightforward. I just use the TWAIN driver to scan directly from Photoshop. There is no on/off switch, but the scanner uses 15 watts when in operation, and it shuts off with the computer, so the lack of a power switch is a non-issue. In short, the HP 3970 is well worth the $100 or so you'll spend.
| 
