Rating: 
Summary: Not PERFECTION but close
Review: I've been using this scanner for 9 months now and am extremely pleased with it. My only gripe might be that their is no on/off switch. Have to plug and unplug it all the time. I use the copy function on it all the time in my home office and it works great. I also use it as my fax machine and that works well also. Have had great luck with scanning photo's and good results. The only problems I've encountered was doing old slides. Had to go in and manually take control to get them to scan to my liking. Other than that I leave everything on auto and all has been good. Mine is hooked to a HP N5495 laptop with Win XP and has encountered no problems. Great scanner!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Great Once You Learn to Use It!
Review: I've been using this scanner for almost a month. At first, I was delighted enough to rate it a five. After a week, I wanted to rate it as low as possible, to get even with Epson. After another week, my opinion improved, and now I'm giving it a qualified rating of five. Not for everyone, but at least for users like me. Others might want to consider a different scanner. Beware, though, that my complaints may not be unique to Epson.Bear with me as I explain this ratings roller coaster. I would use a scanner rarely, except for two projects. 1) I'm archiving family photos, some close to a century old. 2) I've taken a lot of photos, beginning in 1970, that I want on CDs. Most are color slides. The others are color negatives. I also have three rolls of B&W negatives. The Epson flatbed scanner was better than my earlier scanner. Epson and the intelligent software did a credible job with my photos. I didn't have to refer to the manual, which is just as well, because its most commendable trait is the honesty of the title: "Scanner Basics." It's mostly baby talk addressed to the lowest common denominator user. My headaches, stomach aches and anger began when I started scanning negatives and slides. I won't bore you with the details. Let's just say that I discovered what is, for me, the most effective way to deal with most of the Epson provided software. I've deleted it from my computer, and now I'm delighted with it. Epson provides Adobe Photoshop Elements with this hardware. It's a great package, and I now scan all of my images using the >FILE>IMPORT>EPSON TWAIN 5 sequence. I don't use Epson's Smart Panel or the ArcSoft software. Some of my color negative film has deteriorated. In scanning color negative film, especially film that's deteriorated, there are occasionally vertical lines in the image. The lines are either magenta or cyan, and I thought it might be the emulsions. I rotated the images, scanned again, and the lines didn't rotate. They either changed or disappeared. I assume that the problem is in the software. I've noticed those lines in slide scans as well, but they're rare. In one case, I had four slides in the holder, and noticed a cyan line through the first and third images. I rescanned, and the line was still there. I replaced the second and fourth slides with different slides, and rescanned; the cyan line disappeared, even though the first and third slides never moved! My emulsions are 35 mm film. The earliest slides are half-frame, 0.9 inches wide and 0.6 inches high. Full frame are 1.35 inches wide and 0.9 inches high. They all have a 3x2 aspect ratio. I suspect this is true of any slides and negatives that you have, and quite possibly true of every 35 mm image out there. The Epson Twain driver ends up with that 3x2 aspect ratio rarely, if at all. It's usually not too bad; it may be 2.8 x2, or 3x1.9, but it irritated me a lot. Some images have scanned as just a narrow strip through the emulsion. The "intelligent" software has a hard time centering images. Slides and negatives are in predictable places when scanned, but the intelligent software doesn't know this. I solved these problems by bypassing the software and not letting Epson Twain generate the thumbnails. I pre-scan the strip containing the emulsions, and then select smaller portions to pre-scan, until I get the region that I want. I have to pay attention to each image to center it as I want it, and then scan only when I approve it. I don't mind, because it's a finite project, and the end gets nearer with each image that I scan. The driver allows you to specify the dpi. I assumed this referred to the source image, so if I scanned a 1.35x0.9 emulsion, at 1600 dpi, I'd get a 2,160x1,440 bitmap. Wrong, wrong, wrong! The target image was 9x6 inches, so the driver tried to create a 14,400x9,600 bitmap. Multiply 14,400 by 9,600 by 3, and you'll see that I created a 395 meg image. I cancelled it, but another time I created a 270 meg image by mistake. You don't want bitmaps this large on your computer, even if you have 384 meg of ram, as I do. I decided eventually to do all of my scans at 300 dpi. I scan the emulsion image into a 6x4 inch target, and at 300 dpi, that gives a 6.16 meg image. If there's a smaller region in the emulsion that I especially like, I select it and scan it into a 6x4, 300 dpi, 6.16 meg bitmap. A six meg target image takes almost four minutes to scan. You might want to do something else while waiting. Unfortunately, the Epson Twain driver displays a "Scan in Progress" box that can't be placed behind a window. So, if I get into Word, or on the internet, that "Scan in Progress" is in the center of whatever I'm doing. Very bothersome. I can't minimize the driver, although I have been able to hide it by minimizing Photoshop Elements. Took me a while to figure that out, though. Should you buy it? Yes, if you want good results for a minimal outlay of dollars. You get Photoshop Elements, and most of my scans have been very good. Those that aren't can be corrected in Photoshop Elements. If you have thousands of slides and negatives that you want to scan, and if you're a perfectionist, you're going to spend a lot of time with this, if only because the "intelligent" software isn't reliable. If you shoot a lot of emulsions and want each on your computer, you'd be happier with a faster scanner. If you select only the best images to scan, and ignore the rest, this scanner will work well for you.
Rating:
Summary: Great Once You Learn to Use It!
Review: I've been using this scanner for almost a month. At first, I was delighted enough to rate it a five. After a week, I wanted to rate it as low as possible, to get even with Epson. After another week, my opinion improved, and now I'm giving it a qualified rating of five. Not for everyone, but at least for users like me. Others might want to consider a different scanner. Beware, though, that my complaints may not be unique to Epson. Bear with me as I explain this ratings roller coaster. I would use a scanner rarely, except for two projects. 1) I'm archiving family photos, some close to a century old. 2) I've taken a lot of photos, beginning in 1970, that I want on CDs. Most are color slides. The others are color negatives. I also have three rolls of B&W negatives. The Epson flatbed scanner was better than my earlier scanner. Epson and the intelligent software did a credible job with my photos. I didn't have to refer to the manual, which is just as well, because its most commendable trait is the honesty of the title: "Scanner Basics." It's mostly baby talk addressed to the lowest common denominator user. My headaches, stomach aches and anger began when I started scanning negatives and slides. I won't bore you with the details. Let's just say that I discovered what is, for me, the most effective way to deal with most of the Epson provided software. I've deleted it from my computer, and now I'm delighted with it. Epson provides Adobe Photoshop Elements with this hardware. It's a great package, and I now scan all of my images using the >FILE>IMPORT>EPSON TWAIN 5 sequence. I don't use Epson's Smart Panel or the ArcSoft software. Some of my color negative film has deteriorated. In scanning color negative film, especially film that's deteriorated, there are occasionally vertical lines in the image. The lines are either magenta or cyan, and I thought it might be the emulsions. I rotated the images, scanned again, and the lines didn't rotate. They either changed or disappeared. I assume that the problem is in the software. I've noticed those lines in slide scans as well, but they're rare. In one case, I had four slides in the holder, and noticed a cyan line through the first and third images. I rescanned, and the line was still there. I replaced the second and fourth slides with different slides, and rescanned; the cyan line disappeared, even though the first and third slides never moved! My emulsions are 35 mm film. The earliest slides are half-frame, 0.9 inches wide and 0.6 inches high. Full frame are 1.35 inches wide and 0.9 inches high. They all have a 3x2 aspect ratio. I suspect this is true of any slides and negatives that you have, and quite possibly true of every 35 mm image out there. The Epson Twain driver ends up with that 3x2 aspect ratio rarely, if at all. It's usually not too bad; it may be 2.8 x2, or 3x1.9, but it irritated me a lot. Some images have scanned as just a narrow strip through the emulsion. The "intelligent" software has a hard time centering images. Slides and negatives are in predictable places when scanned, but the intelligent software doesn't know this. I solved these problems by bypassing the software and not letting Epson Twain generate the thumbnails. I pre-scan the strip containing the emulsions, and then select smaller portions to pre-scan, until I get the region that I want. I have to pay attention to each image to center it as I want it, and then scan only when I approve it. I don't mind, because it's a finite project, and the end gets nearer with each image that I scan. The driver allows you to specify the dpi. I assumed this referred to the source image, so if I scanned a 1.35x0.9 emulsion, at 1600 dpi, I'd get a 2,160x1,440 bitmap. Wrong, wrong, wrong! The target image was 9x6 inches, so the driver tried to create a 14,400x9,600 bitmap. Multiply 14,400 by 9,600 by 3, and you'll see that I created a 395 meg image. I cancelled it, but another time I created a 270 meg image by mistake. You don't want bitmaps this large on your computer, even if you have 384 meg of ram, as I do. I decided eventually to do all of my scans at 300 dpi. I scan the emulsion image into a 6x4 inch target, and at 300 dpi, that gives a 6.16 meg image. If there's a smaller region in the emulsion that I especially like, I select it and scan it into a 6x4, 300 dpi, 6.16 meg bitmap. A six meg target image takes almost four minutes to scan. You might want to do something else while waiting. Unfortunately, the Epson Twain driver displays a "Scan in Progress" box that can't be placed behind a window. So, if I get into Word, or on the internet, that "Scan in Progress" is in the center of whatever I'm doing. Very bothersome. I can't minimize the driver, although I have been able to hide it by minimizing Photoshop Elements. Took me a while to figure that out, though. Should you buy it? Yes, if you want good results for a minimal outlay of dollars. You get Photoshop Elements, and most of my scans have been very good. Those that aren't can be corrected in Photoshop Elements. If you have thousands of slides and negatives that you want to scan, and if you're a perfectionist, you're going to spend a lot of time with this, if only because the "intelligent" software isn't reliable. If you shoot a lot of emulsions and want each on your computer, you'd be happier with a faster scanner. If you select only the best images to scan, and ignore the rest, this scanner will work well for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Problems with XP
Review: I've had to unplug this scanner and remove all of the Epson software because it was causing so many problems with my HP Pavilion 760n running Microsoft XP...the drivers did not work, downloaded drivers did not pass Microsoft's "logo test" and the software apparently messed with my soundcard drivers to the point where I had to run a system restore to put everything right...not worth the trouble!! I would love to know what scanners really work with XP...
Rating:
Summary: A mess!
Review: If the TWAIN driver would have only installed. I spoke with Epson for a total of over two hours. They couldn't figure out why it wouldn't install either. Maybe just a freak occurance, but I never have had any trouble with installations of software or drivers. Epson of course wanted to blame the difficulty on the people who make InstallShield yet InstallShield wants to blame Epson's poor drivers. Either way a week later and it never was up and running. And I am not going to be buying any other Epson "award winning scanners" for awhile. (Running Windows ME/ Pentium III/933-Mhz and plenty of RAM)
Rating:
Summary: Top quality scan--Inflexible software
Review: If you want a scanner to copy photographs with high quality, this is the one. If you want to use the copy utility to make a copy to print, it takes 1 minute 30 seconds. It automatically defaults to color which is slow. Defaults are impossible to change. Copy to Email only works with Office XP or Outlook Express but will not work with Outlook 2000. The inability to change defaults makes the software cumbersome. Try to find the Email support site, it is there but hidden and then the responses are canned because the support person didn't read the real problem. Just read comments about the HP scanners and they apparently have the same problems. They are making scanners for idiots, not thinking customers.
Rating:
Summary: Installation is a nightmare
Review: Installing this device is a giant challenge. I purchased this scanner for my wife for Christmas. After she opened it we immediately hooked it up to our Dell computer which is running Window's ME. We followed the direction for installation and the driver kept hanging the computer. After 5 attempts I installed the scanner via my own method, which eventually worked. After the installation the scanner appears to work as advertised.
Rating: 
Summary: Missing CD. Bad support.
Review: Instead of the CD with the required drivers, I received the scanner with two copies of the Adobe software, i.e. I had no way to get the scanner working without going to download files. Epson tech support is bad, burried deep in their website is a location to electronically submit problems. When I said that the software was missing, the response was that I should call their long distance tech support number to get one shipped. Rather than wait forever on a long distance number, I decided to ship it back. They don't seem to have much focus on customer support so I'd rather not own the product.
Rating:
Summary: Really great scanner.
Review: It is pretty fast and quite quiet scanner. It is slow to scan negatives. VueScan seems to work very well with this scanner and scanned pictures without any color correction look very similar to originals, which gives you idea of quality of this scanner. Problem is slight dust underneath glass which is pain in the neck. Looks that Epson quality control is lacking. It should not happen. Made from Japanese components. If you want quality scanner then go for it but be prepaired for dust (yuck). I guess I will have to clean this glass myself because I don't want Epson to replace my scanner with refurbished one.
Rating:
Summary: A 5 Plus Rating
Review: Its got it all! One package at a great price with incredible scans. I have been waiting for this baby and I am glad I did. It's rock solid with a great and solid design. Epson really out-did themseves with this model. It's flows beautifully on my Mac G4.
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