A New But Old Scanner...

Thanks for the feedback, Litho. The revenue was scanned at 600 DPI. I did a search, but didn't find the thread you linked. I'll check it out.

You misunderstand. The ginormous scanner is a Fujitsu, which I got strictly for document scanning. The stamp images I posted above are done on an Epson V500. I swear by the Epsons for stamp scanning. I have two of them.

They are no longer being manufactured, but you can buy factory refurbished units direct from Epson for $99 shipped in the U.S.:

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/...gclsrc=aw.ds

The second one I bought is one of those refurbs, and it looked brand new in the box.

You absolutely CANNOT buy a better scanner for the money... or anywhere near it actually.

It is. I see them available from several online resources. I consider that to be a minor issue though, as the likelihood of me burning out the lamp is very small given the scanner's duty rating and the comparatively small number of images it has done in its life.

In my experience, the hardware usually gives out or driver incompatibilities ensue before a bulb goes.

Also, I would be more concerned if this were a consumer-level device of the same age. These professional units are built extremely robustly. 7 years old is actually not that old in scanner terms. I know people still using flatbed scanners made in the early 1990s.

Revenuecollector,



Thanks for clearing that up. The best scanner I ever had for stamps was an Epson Perfection V200 Photo. Then I replaced my Windows XP desktop with a Windows 7 desktop, and guess what? No Windows 7 driver support for my beloved scanner! I think screams of anguish were heard a block away, and my newer scanner has never measured up.

I have a Canon Lide 110 (purchased initially for traveling to visit my wife's cousin & scan her genealogy holdings--she turns 94 next month...) but now used for most of my scanning. Color is an issue unless one goes into the settings where ScanGear is located, go into Preferences and turn off the automatic color settings/corrections. The color corrections work great when scanning in very old family pictures--actually does some rebalancing and contrast enhancement to bring out faded portions of loved ones' faces. BUT. Before I figured it all out I had scanned in a number of postal history covers and was extremely unhappy with the "white balance" the default settings provided. After turning off the automatic color settings/white balance I am very happy with the results. Using a black background has also aided in getting correct colors, as the white tends to wash out subtle differences. Roger