Suggestions for a scanner?

colon29 January 2012 · 13:00

Hello everybody,

I'm finally about to retire my ≈10 years old Agfa F40 scanner (as I rather not resort to using Vuescan—the only solution for this old scanner in OS X Lion).

Now, what scanner should I get? I mainly scan black and white lettering drawings (both as grayscale and linear). My old scanner had some great optics but was big and heavy. Will I do fine with just a CanoScan LiDE 210? It's thin and light (just 1.6 kg/3.4 lbs) and is capable of scanning 4800x4800 dpi. I must say I like the portability aspect of this scanner. However, it's using CIS rather than CCD, will this work just as fine? I've seen some examples of cheaper scanners producing reflections on the scanned image even though the scanned original was matte paper (the reflections were in some thicker paint parts). Also, from experience I know some cheaper scan software can sometimes be really slow when in lineart mode, but I don't know about Canon ScanGear…
http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/scanners/photo_scanners/canoscan_lide210

If you have any experience from this Canon scanner (and/or Canon ScanGear for lineart usage) or similar lighter scanners from Canon, Epson or any other manufacturer, please let me know. I'm open for other suggestions as well. :-) Basic question is: Is it possible to get such a light scanner without too much of a sacrifice upon quality?

Thanks in advance.

Nick Curtis29 January 2012 · 13:38

I'm quite pleased with my Epson Perfection V33: sharp and fast...

Hrant H Papazian29 January 2012 · 14:33

The day Agfa stopped making scanners was a sad day indeed.

> capable of scanning 4800x4800 dpi

Optical?

hhp

colon29 January 2012 · 16:59

Indeed. My Duoscan F40 was their last prosumer scanner. Great optics, great r&d (glass free transparency bed), great build quality. But as they ceased support and development on drivers and software like ten years ago, it's been long overdue for a replacement. Besides, the CCD is just 1200x2400 dpi. Great back then, not so much today.

Yeah, at least according to Canon's spec sheet for CanoScan LiDE 210:
Optical: 4800 dpi x 4800 dpi*
Interpolated: 19,200 x 19,200 dpi
*Optical resolution is a measure of maximum hardware sampling resolution, based on ISO 14473 standard.

So that looks good. But I have no clue if it's speedy when scanning line art. Or if it fails in some other aspect. For instance, I heard that scanners using the more compact CIS (Contact Image Sensor) scanning element rather than the usual CCD can hardly be used when scanning any 3D object as it's focus range is more limited. Don't know if that still holds true.

colon29 January 2012 · 17:10

> I'm quite pleased with my Epson Perfection V33: sharp and fast...

Thanks. I've been looking at that one as well. It's not as slim and light as the Canon scanner. On the other hand it makes use of the traditional CCD scanning element rather than CIS. So perhaps it's worth it.

Have you experienced any problem with reflections or inaccurate colors? My friend got an Epson V330 Photo (which I guess is more or less the same scanner but with a transparency bed as well). She has this problem I described before. There will sometimes show up reflections in the painted area (where there are thick paint strokes) on scanned art originals. Very disturbing and nothing she noticed while using other scanners.

Hrant H Papazian29 January 2012 · 17:14

I wonder if CIS scanners have higher dpi than CCD
scanners... because they sacrifice something more
important. Anything over ~3000dpi is almost point-
less because only natural objects have that level of
detail... and natural objects are rarely totally flat.

hhp

Bob Evans29 January 2012 · 17:21

VueScan is a great program that is constantly being upgraded - the ability to scan in RAW is something that is great for letterforms - I prefer VueScan to most scanner supplied sofeware. I think you should reconsider if your Agfa is still going strong.

colon30 January 2012 · 12:02

> hhp

So CIS scanners are still useless for anything 3D?

> bojev

RAW scanning sounds nice. That said, they really should hire a proper software GUI designer. Regarding my Agfa… firewire is mostly not supported anymore and the USB port is also a bit unreliable requiring system reboots from time to time. And… it's slow.

Hrant H Papazian30 January 2012 · 12:04

That was pure speculation - I have no idea.
Check Wikipedia. :-)

hhp

Bob Evans30 January 2012 · 16:10

I use a Epson Perfection V500 Photo with VueScan - sounds like your connections are your main problem - time for a new scanner?

Captured from web.archive.org on 20 Oct 2013. view this capture