$20 Umax Astra scanner from Insight

[SUOrangeman]

This is NOT the 2010U from yesterday/last week! (I got in on that one.)

Umax Astra 1600U for $44.99. "83 in stock."

$25 mail-in rebate

-SUO

 

[Sesopedalian]

Thanks, SUOrangeman. Looks like we got ourselves a couple of scanners. I wonder which one is better? Today's is a present, to replace the ill-fated Epson printer with vanishing rebate. A semi-circle of OM employees got an earful on that one!

 

[mamisano]

Yup,
I ordered 2 on Sunday. 1 for me and 1 for a Christmas present

Thanks...

 

[SimMike2]

Last week I ordered the Umax 2010U for $39.99 with a $30 rebate. Final cost was $10 plus shipping, $7.50 in my case. The reason I bring this up is because this scanner is identified as a "Umax 1600U" by Windows 98. I tried this in two different computers, both ID it as 1600U, not 2010U. So IMHO, these might very well be the same exact scanner.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Nice work, Mike. I'm glad I paid the lower price regardless. Like I really needed a scanner anyway.

-SUO

I wished they'd "wrok" on that spell checker in FuseTalk 2.5.

 

[Sesopedalian]

Wow! Now the page indicates 1154 in stock.

 

[Pretty Cool]

I don't have either scanner, but I heard that the twain interface is too simple. Here is a piece of software that works with your scanner driver and adds more functionality. Try it at your own risk:

Easy Scan

 

[mamisano]

My 1600U is arriving today. I will let you know how poor/well it works.

Later

 

[cjchaps]

I ordered to 2010U and got it the other day. I installed it in a win '98 machine and it showed up as the 1600U also! I guess umax got lazy creating drivers. Has anyone tried to scan at 1200 dpi? This thing is slooooooooooooooow at that resolution, but hey, what can I expect for a $40 scanner. I tried installing this on my WinME machine, and it didn't work? Has anyone been able to get the 2010U to work under windows ME?

-Cjchaps

 

[SimMike2]

This scanner is on the slow side. On the plus, if you want a preview scan, and your picture is small at the top of the frame, you can cancel the preview after it scans a few inches and still see the preview. While it is slow, the quality of the scans are good.

If I had my choice, I would buy an Acer 320U or 640U which have been selling for around $29.95 after rebates. These scanners are fast compared to the Umax above. The preview on these Acer scanners is finished before the Umax has even finished warming up before it does the preview!

 

[Sesopedalian]

Works fine in ME. Software installs without problems. Mine doesn't seem slow at all as been reported. Must mean I have used alot of slow scanners, or others don't realize how slow scanning can be. Have not yet discovered how to scan to a file. Mine just throws the scan to a temp directory. In other words, I make a scan, and it just disappears when finished, no option to save to any directory.

 

[Milkyman]

Sesopedalian: you can try this, run your image editing program.. then from the file menu choose import...twain_32.. and it should then run the scanner software.. after scanning it should dump the image into your image editor (photoshop, paint shop pro etc..) and from there you can edit it and save.

 

[SimMike2]

I had some trouble scanning directly into MS Photoeditor. When I opened the scanner from with MS Photo, the scan would proceed but then lockup both this program and the twain driver. Other programs, like Adobe Photoshop, work OK. This might be because Photoeditor isn't designed for big files. What I did was set the default scan to application to Photoeditor and this works OK. When I want to scan, I right mouse click on the scanner icon in the tray and start Vistascan. Click on the preferences icon, right next to the mininmize bar, and pick the scan to application you prefer. The default is Presto, which I didn't want to use.

One more tip: don't use the 3.7 drivers that are available at the Umax UK site. The drivers on this disk, 3.54, work OK in Windows 98. If you have previous scanner installs in your computer, you might delete any twain information from these scanners.

 

[flenn]

I agree with Senso, this thing is blazingly fast compared to the 30bit parallel scanner it replaced. A quick image comparison between the two shows the Umax to have much higher quality, more accurate scans. Another hot deal, thanks guys.

 

[Sesopedalian]

Thanks, guys. I didn't see the "preferences" settings icon next to the minimize. Of course, far be it from me to actually take a peek at the operating instructions for the thing.

 

[Otaking]

Wow, looks like they keep growing in numbers. 1955 in stock as of now.

 

[mamisano]

Got mine yesterday....works great. The software that comes with it does NOT recognize the scanner on my computer. Great thing is that Windows ME found it and it adds and icon under "My Computer" like a hard drive. Works like a charm.

Later

 

[FrontlineWarrior]

1200 dpi? Isn't that excessively high for a scanning resolution? Correct me if I'm wrong but shouldn't you only scan at around 96 dpi for computer viewing and 150-300 dpi for high quality printing?