The Better ADF scanner

[E-Day]

Currently when I scan something, I use the ADF that is part of my HP All-in-One Colour laser printer. The quality is fine, but it has a tendency to pull pages in quite crooked, and it only scans one side at a time, though it's pretty speedy. It also tends to cut off a bit more of the end of the page it's scanning than I would like. Normally this doesn't pose a problem, but I have a two-foot stack of GamePro magazines that I want to scan, and they tended to print their page numbers and stuff very close to the bottom edge. Running the GamePros through the HP guarantees that there will be many pages I will have to run through again because it cut too much off the bottom. And I just don't have the time or patience to sit at my computer to use the flatbed scanner anymore.

Ideally I would like a Fujitsu ix500, but they are about $600 in Canada. That's a bit too much for me to spend on a scanner I would only ever use for this site without begging members for donations, so I have been looking into other scanners like it. So far the ones the Fujitsu get compared to are the Epson WorkForce ES400 / Epson WorkForce ES-500W,  and the Canon Image Formula DR-C225, which is pricier than the Epsons. Both Epsons are faster than the Fujitsu, and can scan something that is 240 inches long. That's overkill, but it's handy for those smaller square insert ads that fold out to have 10 panels.

So I am wondering if anyone has used the Epson scanners and if they were good for both image quality and scanning almost perfectly straight like the Fujitsu. I'm curious about the Canon too, because I know my $90 flatbed produces great scans, but the DR-C225 is a bit too pricey. I might as well get a Fujitsu that I know is good. Or if anyone knows of another cheaper ADF that is good and not terribly pricey.

[kitsunebi]

I was gonna say you should order a Scansnap from the US and have it shipped to Canada, which would only be $500, but then I saw that amazon.ca has it for $545 CDN, which makes it only about $20USD more expensive than it is in the US.  I'm guessing you meant it was $600CDN in stores?

I've never used the other scanners (and I've never used any scanner for any purpose other than for this site), but in my opinion, with any kind of technology, it's always worth getting what you want, even if it costs more, rather than compromising quality for a cheaper price.  Hopefully someone can give you feedback on how well those other scanners perform when scanning magazine pages.  It's a shame you can't try them out before you buy.  In the Scansnap's favor, you already know what to expect.

[E-Day]

Yes, sorry. I forgot to clarify $600CDN.

For all I know the Epson's quality could be just as good. I am hoping someone here has used one and could let me know. Any comparisons I have found talk about the speed and the software, but never about image quality. And they always use actual documents instead of images or magazine pages. I guess that's fair though, since that is what these were made for

[kitsunebi]

2 hours ago, E-Day said:

Yes, sorry. I forgot to clarify $600CDN.

For all I know the Epson's quality could be just as good. I am hoping someone here has used one and could let me know. Any comparisons I have found talk about the speed and the software, but never about image quality. And they always use actual documents instead of images or magazine pages. I guess that's fair though, since that is what these were made for

Unfortunately, unless there's a secret army of people out there who scan magazines and then keep them a secret all to themselves, there's only a handful of people out there who have used any kind of scanner to scan a magazine, and most of them are probably members here.  I'm pretty sure that no one who has contributed a scan during my tenure here has used either of those scanners, but looking at the surprisingly lengthy list of Team Members, I'm assuming we used to have a much greater number of contributors in the past?  Hopefully one of those former contributors will step forward with some helpful info.

My personal terrible experience with having an Epson inkjet printer has put me off of that brand, though admittedly, it's a prejudice that has no bearing on the quality of that scanner.  (I eventually replaced it with a NEC color LED printer and couldn't be happier.  The initial cost was much higher, but the money saved in ink makes it cost far less in the long run, and never having to worry about poor prints due to clogged/dirty ink heads is worth the price alone.)

[E-Day]

I watched a few videos about the Epson ADF scanners tonight. Generally the people liked them, and the quality of the scan was almost as good as the Fujitsu. The problem they had was the length of time the software took to load the scans, but it didn't seem to be that long at all, at least not compared to what I'm used to.

The Fujitsu is out of my budget unless I fall ass backwards into some money. The Epson is still pricey, but it's more manageable.

[kitsunebi]

I just took a look at the sales page for the Epson.  There's something about using a carrier sheet to scan A3 papers, but...how is that possible?  You can tell just by looking at it that an A3 paper would never fit through the scanner itself?  Because if it could actually scan A3 papers, that would make the decision easy, and you could be our official oversized-mag scanner.

[E-Day]

I only saw that it said "For delicate document or folded sheets."

[kitsunebi]

Quote

Optional carrier sheets (sold separately) allow you to scan oversized (A3), folded, irregular, wrinkled or fragile documents and receipts, as well as magazine clippings. Carrier sheets can be scanned successively or mixed in with regular paper documents — the scanner will automatically detect the carrier sheet.

Exactly how a feeder sheet can bend the laws of physics, I'm not sure, though.

[KiwiArcader]

I couldn’t recommend any scanner that doesn’t do native A3 scanning any more as most magazines I scan are bigger than A4. Additionally, A4 scanners don’t allow enough space around the edges of a scan if you need it.

If you have a Fujitsu dealer/support company locally, ask them how much to service a fi-5650c and if it is reasonable I’d buy one off eBay for cheap. They do a good job with neon covers, are fast, and do duplex scanning. Being A3 they are great for processing raw scans

[E-Day]

17 hours ago, KiwiArcader said:

I couldn’t recommend any scanner that doesn’t do native A3 scanning any more as most magazines I scan are bigger than A4. Additionally, A4 scanners don’t allow enough space around the edges of a scan if you need it.

If you have a Fujitsu dealer/support company locally, ask them how much to service a fi-5650c and if it is reasonable I’d buy one off eBay for cheap. They do a good job with neon covers, are fast, and do duplex scanning. Being A3 they are great for processing raw scans

My favourite spec is that it can hold 200 pages. And when they say 200 pages, they probably mean 200 pages of proper paper, which means it can hold more magazine pages.

The ones I found on eBay seem to all be missing a tray/duplexer. I wouldn't think something like that would be easy to misplace.

[flugle]

Ok I happen to have an ix500 AND an Epson Workforce A3 AIO. When I first started scanning for Kiwi I used the Epson's document feeder (the 2 x Planet Gameboys on Kiwis World are done with it). The feeder frequently grabbed 2 pages, and it rarely fed straight. It was ok for matte pages but for glossy stuff like Edge it was totally useless. These things are pretty much only useful for scanning the occasional loose sheet. More often than not I ended up having to put them on the flatbed page by page

The frustration I had using it quickly offset any cost savings , so I promptly went and got an ix500 for A4 stuff, and I have Kiwis old A3 scanner for larger stuff (which is sadly playing up atm)

 

 

 

[KiwiArcader]

On 10/24/2017 at 2:32 AM, E-Day said:

The ones I found on eBay seem to all be missing a tray/duplexer. I wouldn't think something like that would be easy to misplace.

The input tray is quite often missing on these. I think people upgrade to the FI-6670 and use the existing tray (it fits both scanners) so they don't have to pay full price for their upgrade.

I acquired my scanner without the tray and then got one shipped over from Oz for $200 ..... thanks to flugle ...., a far cry from the prices people want for them in the USA ($400 - $1400). WTF????

[Ethereal Dragonz]

This might be a stretch, but do you guys have a recommendation for a decent duplex scanner, which also contains a flatbed scanner AND is a printer?

Max price range around $1,000 lets say.

[E-Day]

I only have experience with my HP Laser All-in-One, and it's not a duplex scanner. It is decent though; just decent.

[JhonnyD]

A lot of japanese magazines are reported to be in AB format. Couldn’t find much info about it, will an A4 scanner be enough for it?

[kitsunebi]

I've lived in Japan for 10 years and so far as I know, there is no such thing as AB format. Most Japanese mags are either A4 or B5.

[JhonnyD]

Ok, I got my info here http://gamezasshi.web.fc2.com/1_zassi.htm

[JhonnyD]

It’s ok to use an A4 scanner like the ix500 or do you think an A3 scanner would be better like stated from kiwi arcader?

[kitsunebi]

3 hours ago, JhonnyD said:

Ok, I got my info here http://gamezasshi.web.fc2.com/1_zassi.htm

That's interesting.  There's still no such thing as "AB size," though.  All of the mags I see on that list that I'm familiar with which are listed as AB are A4 in width.  Perhaps the height is slightly different than actual A4 size, but that won't matter for scanning purposes and an ix500 will work fine (it's what I use, and most of the Japanese mags in our download section were scanned by me).

3 hours ago, JhonnyD said:

It’s ok to use an A4 scanner like the iX500 or do you think an A3 scanner would be better like stated from kiwi arcader?

That depends.  If you plan on scanning mags from the UK, definitely go for A3 if you can.  If you plan on scanning mags from the USA or Japan, an A4 is all you need.  I'm not really sure about magazine sizes in the rest of the world.

[JhonnyD]

Right now I’ll go  just with japanese magazines, thanks

[kitsunebi]

Looking forward to it.  You can post links to your scans here when you've finished, if you like.

[JhonnyD]

Sure, not starting anytime soon, but when I’ll do I’ll use this forum as some sort of hub/blog