Need help with picking a scanner.

[ddeder]

I currently have a nearly 4 year old Mustek 600 III EP Plus.

Recently I have been doing some web development which requires graphics and pictures which I scan in. I have a couple of problems with my current scanner:

1. The file sizes produced are too large. Just scanning a small picture and saving as a jpeg takes over 1 meg. If I use the compression software that came with the scanner, I can reduce the file size but the quality suffers horribly. Is this a product of the scanner, the software or both?

2. The colors are not quite true to what they actually are. Grays turn into black. Light blue becomes darker blue, and so forth...

3. The scanner is pretty slow. A full page color document can take 5 minutes or more.

So what I am looking for is a fast scanner that produces good image quality and most importantly, can store that sharp image in a small file size. Can I get a flatbed scanner that does all this for under $400?

Oh, and as far as size goes, I need to be able to scan documents up to legal sheet size.

Thanks for your opinions!

 

[DrCool]

If you have money to waste go with a nice Epson scanner.

i have a visioneer, and have no complaints. they make good scanners at good prices, and are often recommend it mag reviews.

hope that helps

check out MWave for whatever you choose to buy, great company, i highly recomend them.

 

[Paolo]

More on this same question. What what be good choices for an <$140 scanner able to do high bit output (12 or 16bit vs 8bit) scans. My old microtek scanmaker X6 could do it. I want something a little better and faster.

 

[DrCool]

I'd say go with a visioneer scanner.. it would be right in that price range. hope that helps Paolo.

 

[Pikachu]

Search for a Microtek with the options you want. They used to make a slick little SCSI/USB unit with legal size bed for only $120.00, but it's been changed to Parallel/USB for $100.00 after rebate at Buy.com.