Scanner Recommendations

man_o_mule

I'm looking for a new scanner. one that has decent quality and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. My last scanner was one i bought on ebay for $15, including shipping. Didn't have the greatest quality but was quite usefull anyway. The motor in it seems to be busted as it sometimes the light seems to be getting stuck. I did a quick search and couldnt find any previous threads on the subject but i'm sure there are some there.

anways I would very much appreciate any scanner recomendations you guys would have. Mainly going to be used to scan in sketches and the occasional picture. nothing to crazy.

I would also like to ask what settings do you guys usually use to scan in pencil sketches? anything in particular i need to worry about when scanning?

Jonathan

Also interested in people's suggestions, as I have been looking for a while now for a scanner.

[MILES]

Those which the Cylons use seem to be pretty good.

greenj2

Canon CanoScan Lide 50:
http://pcworld.about.com/news/Aug272003id112208.htm

Nice little number I've had for about a year now. Straight-up USB, no power cable needed. Good price, good image quality.

Snowfly

I second the Lide, but all I've ever scanned in are pencil drawings. Honestly, scanning pencil drawings...is not rocket science. Just give your drawing enough of a margin to avoid parts getting cropped off. I just use the grayscale scan at 300 dpi and tweak the levels in Photoshop.

shawnzer

Newegg for life. I normally search by what thing has the most reviews/highest rating. Heres 4 top sellers a range of pricing.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010270044%204802&bop=And&Order=REVIEWS

man_o_mule

thanks a ton. probably grab that canon lide soon. it looks like the LiDE 50 isn't available anymore. The 100 looks like it just came out though, and is only $60.

Blaizer

there are good scanners professionals use for animation, but affordable, with quality of scanning, are the Epsons. My brother have an Epson very expensive that removes print noise, dust and artifacts very very well, it improves quality! and you don't need to use photoshop. The scan quality is superb, nothing to be compared to a multi function printer with scanner or a cheap and dirty scanner.

If someone wants a good scanner, 150€+

The canonscan 8800F is a good one (4800x9600ppp), around 165€, but the epson perfection photo V500 is far better although is more expensive(6400x9600ppp and optical sensivity of 3,4). All depends of the use, if you are going to use it a lot, then a good one. With a cheaper one, you will end buying a second.

If you don't scan a lot, and you want to save desk space, a multifunction has all in one, and some of them are very cheap (45€).

notman

I'll second the scanners... I really was impressed by the Epson scans. I don't have a model number to suggest, since mine is a few years old now (and I don't know what is out now), but I'm confident that the quality is there for most, if not all, of their scanners. My first time I scanned something, I initially thought I had a shitty scan, but after looking closer, I realized it was scanning the dust on the glass and the grains in the paper. There wasn't much dust there, but the scanner was able to pick up that much detail.