Looking for a good scanner at a reasonable price

[Konfusion]

Recently I lost my powercord for my scanner or atleast i thought i did. but when i bought a unversal ac adapter it didnt work. I tryed a cord that i had at home that i thought might be it. but it didnt work so i figured it wasnt it. I'm thinking that it probably was it but my scanner is just broken.

anyways im looking for a good scanner at a some what reasonable price. if someone can point me in the right direct that would be great. i really dont know anything about scanners.

thanks

[Konfusion]

anyone? nobody uses scanners?

[wayshway]

I just have an old lexmark that I use.

[lordsmurf]

What is a "reasonable price" to you? Most scanners under $100 are crap, with noise patterns and other garbage in the scanned image -- not print quality. Software can be a problem too, some of the scanning software is garbage (TWAIN interface to Photoshop included).

I'm using a PrimaScan 2400U that I bought in 1998 or 1999. It's a USB1 scanner, quite fast and high quality. It was $50 plus tax on a Black Friday sale.

For slides and film, I use a Nikon Coolscan V, which ran about $550 plus tax.

I have an Epson at work, but it's slow and still not as good as my own PrimaScan.

[cp32]

I use scanners. I just dont own one right now lol

[JonathanEntertainment]

I have a lexmark one but I'll be Vista doesnt have drivers for it so I am S*** lol....

[Konfusion]

under 300$

[lordsmurf]

Find a Best Buy that has one of the $150-250 (normal priced) Canon scanners on sale.
The $250 model is $200 this week.

Or the $90 Epson at Office Depot.

I'd buy in stores only on this item, in case it sucks, and therefore easy to return to the store with 15 days of use. If you have a Fry's Electronics nearby, consider looking at what they have in the $100-250 range.

Don't worry about bits (48-bit vs 36-bit, for example) or about the USB1 vs USB2 tye stuff. The biggest issue on scanners is piss-slow scanning, as well as moire patterns and chroma noise on the images. A lot of scanners have these issues. My Epson at work scans great, but it takes several minutes to scan. My PrimaScan at home is both fast and clean. Even at "only" USB1, the wire speed can only go as fast as the scanner hardware speed.

Do NOT buy an all-in-one machine. You've been warned.

[lordsmurf]

I sent you a PM on a printer too.

[Konfusion]

thanks for the pm. going to try to get all those. especially the printer. couldnt be any closer if it was my next door neighbor. I have a lot of things i need to scan for you and for myself and a few other people and im sick of not having one that works.

[Konfusion]

i just bought a 1.5TB last night at frys for 400$ having a lot of episodes takes up so much room on the computer. My birthday is coming up in about 2 weeks as well. A bunch of family members are giving me money for my birthday so i can get a
MAC Book pro 2.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo,
1680 x 1050 pixels
4GB 667 DDR2 - 2x2GB SO-DIMMs
200GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
8x double-layer SuperDrive
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with 256MB SDRAM
Im going to throw windows on it as well so i can use all the stuff you have been teaching me on it. I need something that can handle things like photoshop very fast. im taking a few cs3 and Visual basics classes and other things so i need something fast.

[cp32]

Get certified in adobe I ll have someone else to pester lol

[lordsmurf]

Why are you buying a Mac?

It's a great setup, but bigger learning curve, higher costs, and honestly something I use for pro work only (special BS we have to do).

I wish somebody would buy me a MacBook Pro.

[Konfusion]

I can ask my grandparents if they want to buy you one too. lol

i think getting the macbook pro is like getting two operating systems in one. I can have a MAC OS X or Windows running on it. Im getting it for school mainly. At the moment this is kinda new to me but i want to be at a really high level with everything eventually. I want to have a degree in film and become a professional editor. Right now im just focusing on the adobe stuff but within a year or so i want to go to a film institute or some place thats going to take me a long way in the field.

Programs i want to learn and get down really well

Pro Tools
Photoshop
Premiere
Avid
Final Cut Studio
etc


also if you know any good schools let me know.

I was going to get a PC Notebook till i found out i could run windows on a mac. i need to be able to use the stuff you have showm me especially with the cleaning up of video. I also like soundforge a lot as well.

[lordsmurf]

You'll get more mileage learning Final Cut / DVDSP Studio, Adobe CS3, and Vegas Studio workflows.

For a good film school, look no further than the University of South Carolina.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USC_Film_School

Full list here: http://filmmakerstore.com/schools.htm
University at Texas at Austin has a good program, but skews broadcast.
UCLA is in your backyard.

Concerning Windows on the Mac..
ABSOLUTELY DO NOT USE BOOT CAMP. Run Parallels. I have that too.

[Konfusion]

ya Parallels is what i was looking at when i was at bestbuy yesterday. Thats what they told me i should buy to run windows. I heard about boot camp today when i was searching on the internet i figured it was the samething. thanks for sharing with me that it is not.

you sent me a link to USC which is University of Southern California not University of South Carolina lol. I was actually thinking about going to USC where george lucas went too. I just have to figure if i want to move closer to it or commute every day. It is in a really trashy ghetto area compared to where i live now. I'm going to start looking more into it though.

Texas could be fun as well. I heard there is a lot of good looking girls over there. :-)