Apple Reviews

I am a computer Technician and it took me a full day sorting out the errors that kept the software from working, I had to get into the registry and clean out All references to the software, and after many tries, finally got the software loaded in Safe mode, and finally working. The scanner works great, better than I really expected, so far. Does great for my slides and negatives. Quite surprised at the quality afetr working on them in my Digital Image Pro 9 Photo software. I did not load any other software sent with scanner only the ScanWizard 5.

Well, recently I purchased the Microtek 5900 scanner because I need a transparency scanner to handle my 35mm, 120, and 4x5 films. I went back to scan some film I took as far back as 1966 (b&w) and also tried out some 6x7 negative and positive film (6x7 slides), and 4x5 negs. I opened the scanning program and found the "simple" settings not to my liking and switched to the advanced settings where I could scan for various outputs: desktop printer, web, print (such as brochures, postcards, etc.).

I was very satisifed until I ran across problematic review on the scanner. I went back to check out some of the things the reviewer mentioned, "The scans were littered with red pixels (in a moire noise pattern)! They were also INCREDIBLY blurry." I found that by having the proper settings there was no problem such as the reviewer mentioned. I did notice some differences in the quality of the scans but, I also noticed the worse scans came from the film that was not developed very well. I made the original mistake of not taking the film to a professional lab for processing.

In addition to the normal type of scanning you do I eventually got around to scanning text. This scanner allows to scan text and then manipulate it in several forms: html, pdf, and plain text. I did find the text scanning did have some problems diacritical markings of French, Creole, and Yoruba (three languages I work with in my work). However, even with those limitations I felt it was worth having most of my scanned text editable.

To sum up, I think this scanner is just fine. I'm sure there are better scanners out there but, for the price, this one is among the best I've seen and used. I've used several different flatbed/transparency scanners in this price range over the past several years but decided to purchase my own instead of using ones in an educational graphic labs at the three colleges I have access to.

I'm going to have to disagree with the last review that states that he was not happy with the film quality. (...). As someone in the industry he should that only a dedicated slide scanner will provide professional level results.

I use the scanner to scan old 35mm slides that my father had taken and it works great. Color negatives are not properly suited for this scanner but my slides come out good enough to email to family and to print out.

The scanner is also USB 2.0 which I find great. When you do want to do a high resolution scan the high speed USB really comes in handy compared to the older USB. Overall the scanner is great for the money. Sure, I'd like to see it produce spectacular color negatives but you can't get a miracle product (...)

I purchased this scanner 16 months ago. I thought I would use it to scan in pictures of my son and print out Christmas cards, etc. Since I don't have as much free time as I would like I probably used it 3 times to scan in photos and 2 times to scan in documents that I needed a second copy of. I recently tried to scan in a family picture for a friend at work and the photo had horizontal lines all over the left side of the picture. I went to microtek support online and tried the two procedures they suggested in their FAQ's. When that did not work I emailed them with my problem. After 3 days I received their response. I seems that after spending $120.00 on a scanner and using it 6 times that my scanner has to be repaired. Their repair facilities are located in Southern California or Canada (since I am in Michigan that does me alot of good). Oh, and since I am beyond the 1 year warranty period I will be charged $80.00 per hour. What a joke! I would recommend never buying this product.

This scanner works well for me. I'm using it to scan documents and images for web design and it does the job nicely. I haven't tried the slide attachment but since that's a freebie I couldn't complain if it didn't work well. Scanning photographs is simple and the resolution is plenty.

The buttons on the front are very nice for doing things like sending a document straight to your printer, or to an e-mail. There is even a button that you can configure to perform a certain task when pressed, like turn the lamp off. THE BAD NEWS: I must press this button every time I start up my computer, unless I unplug the scanner, because the software fails to turn off the lamp after so many minutes of idle time (like it is supposed to do). If I run the software, then it works. After 10 minutes or so the lamp shuts off.

I contacted Microtek and told them all about it (It's windows XP, blah blah blah) and they said they can't replicate the problem and have a nice day.

Probably won't buy another Microtek when this lamp burns out, which might not be too far away unfortunately. A nice scanner except for that, however.

I've been using the ScanMaker 4900 for half a year on a 400 mHz Pentium II running XP. The scanner has more than lived up to expectations. The hardware seems well engineered, and the software is powerful. Low resolution scans are satisfyingly quick. At the other extreme, you can have as much color depth and pixel density you could ever hope with scan times appropriate to the accomplishment. (One operation that does really seem to slow things down is descreening.) It is unrealistic to expect an inexpensive scanner to accomplish perfect color fidelity, but our scans have done a good job of matching the originals. We haven't tried 35mm slides, partly because of the inconvenience of setting up the attachment, and partly because getting a good transparency scan from an inexpensive flatbed seems like such a reach.

The "standard" interface is appropriately simple, and the "advanced" one powerful. That power comes with a price, though, for figuring out the software logic requires an amount of effort only justified in a production setting. Microtek apparently doesn't believe in power switches, but does provide a power-saving mode that turns off the lamp after a designated time. Since we switch users a lot and often boot up only to check email, the scanner lamp is left on more often than not. The scanning software does not communicate directly with the programming of the push buttons, an inconvience shared with many other scanner brands. The result for us is that we ignore the buttons.

Judging from other reviews, quality control and user support are an issue with Microtek. We got a good one and would buy again.

This seemed to be a very attractive model, especially when compared with HP products. The unit itself is impressive for personal (non-business) needs.

After installing the software on a laptop running XP per Microtek's instructions, scanned files did not open. Using the Microtek.com tech support site, I e-mailed the company for a solution. Within 24 hours I had received a reply with detailed instructions to rectify the Scan Wizard 5 bugs. These instructions did not remedy the problem. A second e-mail was forwarded to Microtek asking for further assistance.

The reply: I needed to call (not toll-free) and to speak with a "consultant" regarding this "complicated issue". For the priviledge of correcting the bugs in Microtek's software, I would be charged [money] for up to 30 minutes plus [money]/minute thereafter. This ... response to milk me for a product I had less than a week caused me to come up with a solution to the tech issues: return the scanner for a full refund.

Recommendaton: Avoid Microtek at all costs. The company is interested in your money only. Canon, Epson and Visioneer are three nice alternatives.

Purchased Microtek ScanMaker 4850 in spite of reading all of the not so favorable reviews. I should have taken the reviews "very" seriously. I wasted alot of time installing and uninstalling the software because it just would not responding to my OPS, XP...Dell Computer, 512MB. Take the reviews seriously and don't waste your time!!!!

I received this as a gift from my husband for Xmas '02 to replace my Visioneer flatbed that had started to scan in funny colors. Let me say that I really loved my Visioneer. First of all, the scanner installed pretty easily, no problems there. But... when I reboot XP, it takes 60 seconds just to boot the scanner before most of my other programs can load. Also, you have to manually open the ScanMaker 5 program and click the scanner control button and then close out of the program to get the light to go off. I wouldn't ever buy another one of these. I've also had a big problem with lint inside the machine under the glass, causing big problems with clean scans. I've tried about everything I can think of and still have the problem. I've even cleaned the glass on both sides with alcohol and newspaper! What a rip off. My advice is to stay far away from Microtek products.

I seem to be in the minority of scanner users who actually scan documents and not photographs. By scanning documents, I have slowly been turning my paper into digital images. Depending on scan quality, and image file format, the contents of a filing cabinet can be safely held on a CD-R.

With those goals in mind, I searched for a dependable scanner. Higher-end models had document feeders, but given my experiences with previous scanners...I decided that they were not rugged enough to elicit that kind of cash. I ended up with a middle of the road model - the ScanMaker 4800.

I started scanning and shredding. After a few weeks of playing with the software and the scanner, I can say it is on par with (or better than) the other scanners I have had. To stress test, I was downloading a file from the internet, ripping a CD, playing an MP3, while scanning a document. The scanner would stop and stutter when the PC went to disk, but it never lost its place, and recovered nicely.

Pros: Easy to install, comes with Adobe PhotoDeluxe, and it installs the Adobe PDF software. After installing the adobe software, you suddenly have a "PDF Printer", and you can now generate .pdf files from Word or Excel by "printing" to their driver.

Cons: The OCR software that is included is a nag-ware (crippled) version. It doesn't exactly work that great, and it constantly begs you to buy the "Professional" edition to get better scanning features. I find that annoying. Luckily, I don't do OCR that much.

A 35mm film scanner attachment is included, but I have no reason to attempt to scan old film (I don't have any).

Pretty versatile scanner, it looks cool too Silver lid with cool grooves and the button panel is cool plastic with silver pin-stripes which surround the five buttons to make your scanning tasks convenient: scan, photocopy, email, OCR and Web photo sharing. It does reflective (regular things like photos, typed or handwritten pages, etc.) and both positive and negative film with the Lightlid attachment.
The pros are that the software it comes with are pretty good, especially the interface of the Twain program Microtek Scanwizard which you can keep in either simple, easy mode or advanced mode or switch between the two interfaces as you like. The ABYY Fine Reader Sprint is pretty decent OCR Software at recognizing text; you can try and then purchase the full version of ABYY Fine Reader if you need that. If you are a digital camera aficionado or want to be, Adobe Photodeluxe does a decent job at editing your photos and Ulead Photo Explorer SE does a pretty good job at keeping you organized and the real version of Photo Explorer isn't that expensive if you need more options. Along with the online photo sharing and fairly decent scanning speeds, you get alot for your buck.
The cons are the name: ScanMaker 4800, you think it's a better or stepped up version of the 4700 but it's not, it's more of a stepped up version of the 3800. The 4700 is built much more sturdily and it has some better software that comes with it but you do pay for those "extras". The results from the film scanning with the Lightlid attachement are far from stellar, photos are better to scan.I also wish they made the Lightlid (the film-scanning add-on) with a little bit longer cord. Another con I think is that there is no off button (I unplug it to turn it off) or sleep button(low powered idle mode). Plus the scanner won't go into sleep mode unless you run Microtek ScanWizard each time you turn your computer on(this won't be a big problem if you always leave your computer on you just have to run ScanWizard once).
If you need a low-priced, lightweight scanner which is good at scanning photos with good 48-bit color depth and great DPI then this is the one for your home or small office.

I was thoroughly impressed with this scanner upon taking it out of the box. Although it is bulky compared to the popular Canon flatbeds (670U, 676U) this model was surprisingly economical with desktop space. The exterior shell is nice and has a metallic shine to it. Simple five button layout. All in all, not a bad looking machine.

As with all other USB products I own, the installation was EXTREMELY easy, and the concise manual is written in plain English. Just as important, the Windows 2000 TWAIN drivers are very stable. Running ScanWizard 5 and importing to Photoshop 6 is very painless and simple.

Scans are pretty fast with 96-300 DPI resolution, but once I reach 600, it becomes a tortoise-like drag. I do a lot of scanning of magazine pages in full-color, and I wasn't impressed with the clarity until I reached 1200 DPI (although the maximum interpolation DPI goes as high as 9600). However, because my preferences for professional quality photos are high, most consumers shouldn't worry, especially if you're only using this scanner for web graphics and family photos. Black and whites and web graphics were very fast to scan, and I was impressed with the results. I'm sure most people won't need to go beyond 300 DPI anyway, because that's the best resolution for printing.

I stick with Adobe Photoshop 6, but the included software (Adobe PhotoDeluxe) is a trimmed-down version of essentially the same stuff. The ABYY fine reader program is pretty good with OCR but the Ulead Photo Explorer SE is the best program included, making organization of my scans very painless. Furthermore, to clarify another review, the 35mm Light Lid IS included for scanning film, although I haven't tried it myself yet.

As for the cons, the most disturbing thing is that there is no power button! The only way to turn it off is to unplug it, although there is a power-saving mode. Secondly, size does matter and I do envy the Canon owners who get a much sleeker model that is literally three times thinner. Another thing to note is that support is only available for 30 days. After that, you have to pay for the call. Fortunately, I haven't had to question anything yet, and that's always a good thing.

In summary, I say the buck stops here for scanner buyers. Do your research to confirm you need 48-bit color (most people don't, and actually the human eye can't perceive beyond 32-bit), and have the desktop space. The software, extra features and installation are a steal..., and there aren't any extra hassles to deal with either.

Right off the bat on installation the driver is not signed off by microsoft, thay say continue anyway---I did even though I did this with a creative product and it screwed up my computer had to do a complete format and recovery, they care not about the hrs, hrs, and hrs of your time to fix there garbage products. Back to the scanner, noticed a smell after install, it was coming from the scanner, took it for a new item being used for first time. On a test scan the scan was ok and quality so so but I could tweek it out if I had a chance. After a few scans the scanner would only scan 1/2 of the item. (Travel only 1/2 way down the glass).. The smell was the stick on tape they use to hold the glass up to the unit. the glass was coming loose and falling down, the light would hit the glass about 1/2 way through the scan and get stuck then return. I can fix things, and I probably could of got some good two sided tape and replace the factory tape, ya, would of worked but to think that they would use tape to hold the glass up, with no other back-up is a real joke. Shame on you Microtek and thank god for these user reviews. And don't forget about that not signed off driver that comes with the soft ware. Do your self a favor and check out that canon scanner with 64 reviews (Good one's) Cost's $10 more.

The main thing I wanted to do with this scanner was to scan and then email my pictures to friends and family. This scanner is USB and under $... many stores!!! It's quiet and the picture quality is great for it. I have no complaints yet on it, works like a charm. Setup instructions and software were included so with most any USB you just plug and play!

In about 10 minutes after getting the scanner out of the box I was working on images I scanned. The panel only has 9 buttons and a very easy display to understand.

The only small draw back I found was that the scan area was not clearly marked for where you put diffrent size paper. I have had it for about a year and I never have to worry about moving it or re-configuring it for my new computer.

This product is just plain simple quality.

When you are going to spend a lot of money on a large purchase like this you like to shop around and know that you are getting everything for your dollar. I found out that nothing short of a drum scanner is going to come close to the optics in this scanner. I feel like it is the Mercedes of scanners, with features like anti-vibration and other features that you don't really know exactly when they do but know that they are contributing to the operation of the scanner. Since we have received the scanner we have been very pleased. I called up technical support to get the run down on how to operate the scanner and a very nice gentlemen walked me through the operation and use of the scanner. This is very important as customer service should be of critical importance, for when you buy a product you like to know that there is someone there for you if you do need help. Overall 10/10 as we speak.

I have been a Microtek fan for quite a few years, having started out with a Scanmaker III, then a Scanmaker 5, and finally progressing to the 1800f. The 1800f has firewire and USB connections, which makes switching between my PC and Mac effortless. Much easier to use then the old SCSI scanners I had and much improved optics. I was pondering getting a slide scanner but this one works great for archiving the thousands of slides that I have from my photography days. It has a slide holder so that you can have it scan quite a few slides at the same time, thus a nice time saving feature like my Scanmaker 5. The difference is this one has much crisper images and is light years ahead in speed. Overall I am very impressed with the scanner and its abilities.