Kick ass value!
Decent quality for negatives and slides.
Able to scan print.

Weird input handling.
Dust can get into the scan head pretty easily. Can't scan more than 5 frames at a time.
Shadow noise is strong.

Great value! Especially I got the old SCSI version with a huge discount ($350Can) at Office Depot.

Customer Service

None

Similar Products Used:

Nikon LS-30

Least expensive film scanner
USB
Decent-quality scans

Scan quality is nowhere near the Nikon Coolscan III
Poor dynamic range (HP won't say, but I've seen it estimated at around 2.6 to 2.8)
Autocrops edges of images
Film transport may scratch negatives (sure looks like it did to one or two of mine)
Easy for dust to get in it
No manual focus (focus is fixed)

After using a S20 at work for six months, I bought a Nikon Coolscan III for home, and am ecstatic with the Coolscan. It blows the S20 away. If you're going to spend the money on the S20, spend some more and get the Coolscan instead.

Customer Service

n/a

Similar Products Used:

Nikon Coolscan III

Good Software that seem to need little tweaking. Decent price.

1) Very touchy film handling.
2) Dust is quite a problem
3) First one wouldn't scan prints properly

In the end, dust was too much of a hassle. I've decided to bite the bullet and pay $250 more for the Nikon LS-30 which supposedly does a great job getting rid of dust. I've sent mine back to buy.com

Customer Service

I called HP (long distance) when I had problems getting a correct color picture scanned. They sent me a new one next-day air and had a prepaid label to send the bad one back.

Similar Products Used:

none

Good resolution True 2400dpi. Great color.
Very good shadow detail compare to Nikon coolscan III. cheaper than Nikon.

Auto scanner does not give perfect result. Have to adjust color with diferent scan.
Not meant for people who don't know how to adjust color saturation. No problem if you are very experience. Especially those who work in photoshop.(Those who do printing, known how much of Blue, Green, cyan to add or reduce)

For Experience users only. But if you knows how to do it. It will be you Film scanner for a long time to come.

Customer Service

Not need yet

Similar Products Used:

Nikon coolscan III.

Ease of use. Included software. No brainer setup. Quality output. some of the reviews suggest the user did not take the time to LEARN a little about the S20 before passing judgement on it. A cotton glove, a little air got rid of any dust spects I encountered. A scanner is a scanner Not a Polaroid instant camera and as such deserves an investment of a little time. The time invested up front, pay off big time in the quality output in the end. This product is a really good value. With the included software and other imageing software such as
Photosuite III or 4, quality pictures can be produced in a relatively short time (I use a HP 970Cse printer). The tutorial is very good and give excellent info for producing great prints. I have found that the paper is key to a quality result also. A quality camera, lens and good negatives are important. Photo scanning at 300 dpi is not a big issue as prints usually aren't that good anyway. I bought it for the negative scanning anyway.

Nothing in particular that can't be overcome with a small investment of time and patience (and I'm not particularly patient!).

Solid performer with a short learning curve and a little investment of time/patience. Solid value for the money.

Customer Service

No occasion to use it yet.

Similar Products Used:

HP5200C & HP5300C

Great for studio proofing.
I use the S-20 for high res scans,(2400dpi) create tif files, retouch them and send to my lab on CD and they create real photographic prints with the Kodak LED printer.

Unable to reset counter, or name files like on previous version.

Best bang for the buck 35mm film scanner on the market. Very easy to use.
Not suitable for print scanning, use a flatbed.

Customer Service

Have not tried

Similar Products Used:

Nikon LS-30 coolscan
Returned product after one week.

quick setup, OK max resolution, USB

mediocer d-max, dust in light path

OK inexpensive unit for home use, and proofing.

Customer Service

not needed

Similar Products Used:

kodak

Good Value
Useful to scan prints (I dont have a flatbed)
Easy to set-up and use
Get Ed Hamricks Vuescan software to get the best out of it though!

Delicate handling required
Quite noisy (in shadow areas on slides)
Sometimes spits the slide out on the table post scanning
Poor drivers give minimal control and aren't optimised for the unit

OK, I've had this for nearly four years or so now and I've learned to work within its' limits and am still more than happy with it. If you're after a budget scanner and don't have a flatbed for scanning the odd print then take a look at it. Initially I was disappointed with the noise in shadow areas of slides, and as many of the slides I scan are underwater strobe lit shots there are generally always shadows. Hence I took it back to HP and tried a few different units. I took the best one and overcame the noise by a little manipulation in Photoshop. I believe that the amount of noise differs between units and the types of material being scanned. However, to maximise this scanners potential also get Ed Hamricks Vuescan software which allows full 30 bit scans which the HP drivers for some reason don't. It makes a noticeable difference, reducing noise quite an extent as well as giving more repeatable control on scans. I also find that I have to do a lot less manipulation in Photoshop once you've found the right settings. I loathe using the HP software now!
If you use Vuescan with this scanner I think it's a good value package and produces good results. I recommend it even with its 'foibles'. Check out our website as all shots there were scanned using it:- http://freespace.virgin.net/andy.aj/index.html
Oh yeah, and get or make a cover to stop the dust getting in!

Customer Service

Pretty good in Singapore, I tried three units at the HP service centre to get the 'least noisy' one. That was before I realised it's part of the design unfortunately. See below.

Similar Products Used:

None

multi-function
good price-point
fairly good with slides

dust-catcher
poorly-focused for prints

A word of caution about HP quality:
I have been a long-time user of HP products because I just couldn't get it out of my head that they produced excellent products - in spite of my real-world experiences. Well, I've bought my last HP product.

PhotoSmart scanner: Very good results for the first 100-150 slides, then all of a sudden the color registration went south. Green, yellow, and red were separated by as much as 1/16" on my 15" monitor (without software enlargement). A call to the tech line revealed that the first xxxx machines had one of the elements glued in place and that the glue wasn't holding properly. They took my machine back and bolted the loose part down with metal straps. 50 slides later, the same problem reappeared: one slide was fine, then the next slide was way off. Another call to HP. "Turn the scanner ***upsidedown(!)*** and cycle the front panel control through the various media types several times", he said.

When I wiped the sweat from my brow and tried scanning, the first 3 slides came out much better, but still with a noticable color separation. The 4th slide was completely shot again. Another call to HP (several months have passed now): "We have no record of any repair to your scanner - sorry. And our techs never heard of the bolt-down fix you described. But we'd be happy to repair it. For $240."

For $240 dollars, it's going to hit the junk pile.

My HP laserjet 4p crumpled every page that went through it. Turns out that HP had to issue a recall/repair on that model. That was 4-5 years ago. It started doing the exact same thing 2-1/2 years after the "repair" with only very light (non-office) useage in between.

My HP ScanJet 4c has also received *very* light use - and every other day it sounds like it has thrown a rod when I turn it on. On good days (correlated with the position of Jupiter), it sounds fine.

My DeskJet 882c has run perfectly. I'm waiting to be electrocuted one of these days when I turn it on.

I take good care of my components, folks, and don't abuse them in any way. In all other respects, I check out to be fairly normal: I simply can't believe that my experience with HP products is aberrent. I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the emperor really isn't wearing any clothes. Three out of four "well-built" products that turn out to be stinkers is just too far above the industry average to be coincidence.

I'm know that when their products work well, they work "really" well. The problem is that purchasing them is just a little too much like Russian roulette for me.

Count me out of HP's fan club.

Customer Service

friendly
professional
rock bottom quality

Similar Products Used:

None