Flatbed scanner reliability: what's your experience?

[Oren Grad]

Just finished packing up my Microtek i800 to return it for a swap under warranty. It finally failed completely this week, after seven months of very light use culminating in a slow and nuisance-filled descent into flakiness. (It would be nice if scanner vendors had troubleshooting advice beyond "Uninstall all the software, reinstall all the software, unplug everything, plug everything together again, turn everything off, turn everything on, reboot three times while dancing an Irish jig. Repeat until scanner works or sanity is lost irretrievably.")

N = 1, so one can't read much into this event. But I've seen plenty of web-gossip that, on the whole, flatbeds do pretty poorly in this respect. I'd be interested in a tally of others' experiences, if folks are willing to take a moment to post. Obviously this wouldn't be a statistically representative sample, but I'm curious anyway. Which models have you owned within, say, the past three years? Which ones have failed within the first three months? First year? Ever? How many samples did you have to try of your current scanner before you got one that works?

And here's a general question: is there any hard evidence to support a presumption that spending more money buys greater reliability? Or is it an out-and-out crapshoot at any price, at least among consumer-grade scanners?

[Kirk Gittings]

This is a trail of tears. I have a hard time remembering all of them that failed. I think I had one 1800f fail completely right out of the box and another a week after I got it. My current one has lasted two years but I don't use it much (only for wet scanning). I had three (?) Canon 9950f's fail, and one or two 4870's (or a 3200 and a 4870) and a Nikon 8000. The 4990's were most durable. I had two that never failed until I sold them and got a 750 Pro, which seems kind of cheesy but I have had no problems with it.

[Jim Jones]

I bought my Epson Perfection 2450 Photo as factory reconditioned about three years ago. With moderate use it hasn't failed yet.

[Frank Petronio]

I tried two 1800fs and have had good luck with Espons, which are so inexpensive relative to what they can do that if it broke I think I would just drive out to CompUSA and buy another one as soon as I needed to do a scan.

We are so spoilt to have $400 scanners that surpass what the best printers had 12-13 years ago (or whatever, I don't care that so and so had something better, it is just a rough observation.)

[Ed Richards]

I have two + years on my 9950, a few thousand scans at least. Canon will sell you an extended warranty for a total of 3 years for very little extra.

[darr]

I have had my 1800f for two years with no problems. I have had my ArtixScan 120tf for four years with no problems, and my Microtek Scanmaker 6400XL for six years (a whole lot of use on this one) and no problems. I use SilverFast Ai Studio on them all and only recently had a problem with an update for the 120tf. It seems it was a SilverFast problem and they are working on it. Is there such a thing as scanning karma? ;)

[Capocheny]

(It would be nice if scanner vendors had troubleshooting advice beyond "Uninstall all the software, reinstall all the software, unplug everything, plug everything together again, turn everything off, turn everything on, reboot three times while dancing an Irish jig. Repeat until scanner works or sanity is lost irretrievably.")

Hi Oren,

This is the standard recommendation for anything and everything these days! I think it's in their "Bible of Repair Advice!"

Anyway, sorry to hear about the problem you're having with the Microtek.

I've had an Epson 3200 for the past few years and have had absolutely no problems with it. Knock on wood!

Cheers

[Ron Marshall]

18 trouble-free months with my Epson 4990, but used lightly, only about 1000 scans.

[Brian Ellis]

Never had a problem in two or so years with my 4990 though it isn't used heavily.

[Ted Harris]

Oren, spending more money will absolutely buy more reliability and good tech suppoer and service but we are talking lots more money. From the 300 - 750 range you jump right up to nearly 13K and at that price you get reliability and service.

OTOH, I have an 1800f that has seen some heavy use for 2 years and no problems.

[erie patsellis]

I have 3 Umax Powerlook III's that are probably 5 or 6 years old, still work just as good as the day I bought them, the Linotype Opal Ultra I have is still working fine, and is of similar vintage.


erie

[xavier deltell]

I have'nt problem with my old Epson 2450, and the Minolta Dimage Scan Multipro with Scanhancer (the best scanner that I have seen), both used hardly.

Xavier Deltell

www.icsdb.net

[Bill Koechling]

We still use our Agfa Duoscan (SCSI & all) occasionally. It has given us no problems in the last 10-12 years. Our first one had to be returned right out of the box. Our old Nikon LS-1000 still does a decent job.

Combined they cost $ 7,000 at the time. Frank is right about being "spoilt".

Bill Koechling

[Armin Seeholzer]

My old Epson 1640 is also still in use and works, was a reason more for me to buy the Epson 750!
He has also a lot of work in front!
Armin Seeholzer

[Harley Goldman]

Had a 4870 that died after about 2-1/2 years of not very heavy use. Might have been my fault. I cut power to it with a master power switch without turning off the scanner many times. I suspect that is what killed it, since it did not have time to go back to its "off" position. Now have a 4990 that is humming along fine. Trying to avoid the power cutoff with it.

[cobalt]

Last year I had an 1800f that ran amok in less that 45 days of ownership...streaks in scans that just would not go away. 4x5 holders were warped, right out of the box. Had to go to a local photo shop to get film from 'Blad scanned in a hurry, and found they were using an Epson 4990 to scan MF film. Also took note of the dead Microtek lurking in the back of the room, which, according to the owner, never, ever worked properly. I was very skeptical before trying the Epson, but have found it to be superior in every conceivable way to the Microtek: better, more accurate color, cleaner, less noisy scans, superior film holders, smaller footprint, quieter, faster and even the much maligned Epson software served (and still serves) me well. My opinion seems to differ dramatically from the conventional wisdom, but the Epson works for me.

[Oren Grad]

Thanks to all for your comments.

The i800 is on its way back to Microtek for the swap under warranty. I don't know how many weeks it's going to take for the replacement to arrive and I've been working on a print-scanning task that I didn't want to put on ice, so I ended up buying an HP 4890 that I found in stock at a local store so I could keep working.

So far I've been very pleased with the HP. It worked right out of the box, and it was clean - unlike the Microtek, there was no haze on the inside of the glass. I've been scanning up a storm, and actually went back to re-do the ones I'd finished on the i800 because these are looking better tonally - perhaps the haze on the Microtek was producing a visible effect after all. The only slight hiccup so far is that once in a while, something in the drive mechanism will slip by a fraction of an inch and the end of the specified scan region will be clipped off. I've always been able to fix it by just re-scanning. We'll see whether that's something that gets worse with increasing mileage on the scanner.

[Doug Fisher]

>>The i800 is on its way back to Microtek for the swap under warranty. I don't know how many weeks it's going to take for the replacement to arrive <<

It shouldn't take long at all. Microtek doesn't repair their scanners any more. They just send out a replacement unit as long as your return was justified.

Doug
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www.BetterScanning.com

[Dick Hilker]

"From the 300 - 750 range you jump right up to nearly 13K and at that price you get reliability and service."

My Microtek ScanMaker1000XL cost around $2200, does a fine job with transparent and reflected scans and has -- so far -- been very reliable in the six months I've used it.

[Ted Harris]

Dick, the 1000XL is sort of a special case as it is designed to handle "tabloid" size as opposed to 8x10 film. It's performance is excellent (see our review in View Camera) but the additional cost is for the size not for any additional capability over the lower priced units.

[Iskra 2]

My Epson 4870, a much maligned scanner, has failed twice since purchased several years ago when they first were available. Both times it was a lid hinge. Epson sent me extras after the second one failed. Standard Epson software works for me.:) An amazing piece of hardware, everyone should have one.;) Regards. Peace.