It powers up. Other than that, no strengths.

Takes forever to scan.
Crashes my up-to-date PC.
Image quality worthless, even for beginner.

I bought this to tranfer client's slides to DVD, assuming the description on the B7H Photo site was at least 90 percent truthful. To say this unit sucks is an insult to the air that would be providing the suction.

1) It took nearly three minutes to can one slide.

2) After scanning each slide, it crashedsmy computer and I have to restart it (a new Pentium 4- 2.4 gig with 1.25 gig ram) .

3) The saved slide file is nearly colorless, it is full of chalky colored, very grainy streaks. The image is barely recognizable as the slide that is put into the machine. I got better results holding a slide in front of my camcorder lens against a white wall.

In essence, this thing is a useless pile of trash. Since I waited three months to use it for the first time, I am likely not going to have any luck returning it to B&H when they open on Sunday. (They are closed now, Saturday, as I write this).

Customer Service

Don't know yet.

Similar Products Used:

Canon slide transfer machine.

One touch scanning of negatives, interesting software.

Slide holding frame had to be forced down on rather thick Agfa slide mounts. When scanning a negative strip, it was difficult to ascertain that the desired frame was accurately in position.

I wanted it to digitise all my old slides, many dating from the 60s. Going under the name Filmscan35, it was inexpensive and easy to use, but regreatably failed after about nine months.

Customer Service

After nine months it failed. The scanner gave out a click but would not function. reloading the software would not help. It was returned under gaurantee, but the replacement (3 weeks later)did the same thing. I then gave up on it.

Similar Products Used:

First film scanner I ever owned.

NONE

Can''t even install.

This product (1800u) is a complete failure. I failed to make it work with Windows 2000, even with the latest driver online (I am a programmer myself). It crashes all photo editing program everytime I click on "Acquire". The CyberView software mentioned in the manual doesn''t even exist in the installation CD!@ Also, this scanner can only scan ONE negative at a time, although it claims it "support" film strips.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon CoolScan4 with ICE

Worked right out of the box. Set up was butt simple. Scan quality is very good. About 1/5 the cost of scanners that people here are complaining about. Twain driver is very stable. (no crashes on Win 98 or Win2000)

Editing software is cheesy but who cares. The noise it makes when scanning is frightening at first but you get used to it. Cant do 6x6 slides.

Im shocked at well this works. Within 15 minutes of the UPS man knocking at my door I was scanning 30 year old Kodachromes and negatives and squealing like a school girl. Get the newest drivers from the web site http://www.scanace.com/. Its just an executable that installs with a double click in seconds. Plug in the usb and turn it on and in seconds its waiting for its first slide or negative. The editing software that comes with it is cheesy at best but the twain compliance is great. Ive used a half dozen programs to acquire scans including Windows Imaging and the free Adobe Photo for home that came with my Olympus digital camera. I compared scans that I did against scans from photo.net (the mecca for scanned images) and the scan quality is right up there. And it only takes 35 seconds for a 1800 dpi scan. For 149$ and a 20$ rebate you cant go too wrong. Id give 10 stars for value.

Customer Service

havent tried. The fact that I didnt need to use them is better than having good service.

Similar Products Used:

Had slides and negs copied to cd at photofinishers and I think this is as good or better and the photofinisher charges a buck a slide.

Cheap. Good image quality.

Color is not saturated.

This product did surprise me with its unbelievable quality. The details are kept well and the no noise is found in the dark area. However the color is a little bit dull compared with the original slide. This is not a big deal since the color saturation can be boosted by image software. I also tried it on Fujicolor negative films and the result is as good as slides.

Customer Service

none.

Similar Products Used:

none.

In short - If your needs are to produce images for the web - or to make colour prints to 10" x 8" with your home inkjet printer, this little unit may well be all you really need. The quality:cost ratio is unbeatable!

Rather noisy in use and colour negative correction is not the greatest with suppled software. Supplied TWAIN driver a bit buggy. To be fair a newer driver from Jessops UK Web site seems much more stable, while buying a copy of PSP7 or PS Elements (either a big improvement on supplied software) makes the colour correction problem pretty much a non-issue.

My PF1800U installed straight out of the box and and was up and running in a couple of minutes without any problems. Hooray!! First things I noticed was that this unit makes a lot of noise when in use and the TWAIN driver provided isn''t the most stable thing in the world. The supplied post-scan software is (being kind) ''adequate'' but not really much to get excited about. Despite that unpromising start, I have to say it does manage to make remarkably good scans when fed with well exposed slides and negatives. It isn''t fair to directly compare its output to that made with 2700/2900 d.p.i. units costing 3x or 4x as much, but I''m pleasantly suprised with just how good the results can be. Used in "Quality / 36 bit" mode, the resulting 23Mb files from a full 35mm frame are good enough to make highly acceptable 10" x 8" prints with a mid priced colour inket - this surely is a sensible performance ''target'' for a home user oriented product. O.K. the colour correction of colour negative scans is not very versatile and very dense transparencies are just too much for it (winding up the gamma control gives too much ''noise'' for a usable scan), but within its limitations it does very well, especially when the modest price is taken into consideration. For the amateur photographer/ home user for whom £1000 plus on a Coolscan & Photoshop is simply not a justifiable expense, one of these units and a copy of Paint Shop Pro 7 (which does a great job in correcting the colour on negative scans) is a worthwhile purchase and something of a bargain at under £200. As regards the reliability issue with these machines, this scanner (sold as a "Jessops 1800U") has a two year warranty in the U.K. At the price that is a re-assuring ''vote of confidence'' in the build quality.

Customer Service

Not had to use it.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon Coolscan

Price..they don''t come any cheaper & a lot better than flatbed with adaptor.

Build quality & noisey operation.Very rarely gives good scan first time without input from operator.

After 12 months it''s still going strong,as reported by others, green vertical line on scans, deduced this was caused by dust on the scanning head & is cleared by blast of compreesed air.Some noise in shadow areas of slide scans, no probs with negs after adjusting the scan settings. Getting decent A4 prints from scans.

Customer Service

not needed

Similar Products Used:

flatbed with adaptor

Inexpensive for 1800 dpi resolution. Small foot print on desk. Fast - about 45 secs per slide including handling. Scan takes about 30 secs.

DUST! But that would be a problem with old slides anyway.

Worked perfectly right out of the box with supplied twain driver. I''m in the process of converting many of my old slides to digital. I haven''t tried any negatives yet. However, I''ve been very pleased with both color rendition and constrast at default settings on most of my slides. I suspect earlier review problems were due to inadequate (older) twain drivers.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

600 dpi flat bed 1200 dpi flat bed

- Hardware quality is good, easy to install - With some tweaking, can produce web-ready scans - Cheap!

- Lost detail in highlights and shadows - Need patience to adjust scanning controls and make adjustments in photo editing software

You get what you pay for. In this case, you get an inexpensive scanner that can be worked to get decent results. If you are looking for pro-level scans you shouldn''t buy this scanner. Still, I feel like I''m getting my money''s worth. As other people have noted, details are lost in high contrast images, but this can be improved greatly by making adjustments from the default scanning settings. Be ready to fiddle with the Gamma curve. I''ve also found that setting exposure to 200% helps to reduce the noise, just as you''d expect. I''m only using this on slide film so I can''t comment on the color problems with negatives. If you are going to scan negatives, I''d definitely look at purchasing the version that includes the SilverFast software.

Customer Service

not used

Similar Products Used:

various flatbeds

Price, relatively easy to set up, works fine with Windows XP. Not bad if it is just being used to set up a web page.

Poor color reproduction when scanning negatives, colors were often washed out, and the entire scan appeared much too bright usually. Takes a lot of tweaking to get a really good result. I wouldn''t reccomend this scanner if you''re trying to make prints from your scanned negatives or slides.

If you''re looking for a scanner that reproduces color accurately from your negatives, look elsewhere. I''ve only been messing with this for a couple of days, but if you''re looking to make prints from anything you scan with one of these, you''d be better off just biting the bullet and spending the money on a better scanner. With a few tweaks in Photoshop, pictures can be acceptable for a website though, although you can accomplish the same thing with a flatbed scanner for $60. I was also annoyed at the dust and other junk on the glass, which no doubt contributed to some of the haziness, scratchmarks and dustspots on the scans. Fortunately, it is easy to get into to clean, but I wasn''t able to get all of the junk off. I''m just borrowing this scanner from someone, because I''m probably going to get a slide and negative scanner soon...but definately not this one. I had no problem setting the scanner up, I did have to install the driver twice, even after following the instructions to a "T". Worked fine after that, none of the driver issues that others have said, works just fine in Windows XP Pro.

Similar Products Used:

Flatbed scanners