Umax Astra 6400 Flatbed Scanner (FireWire) for 60.00 @outpost

[Packy]

Well, I went ahead and got one. I only really need the firewire card, but I guess I can sell my Epson Perfection 610 to make up the difference

 

[Leokor]

<< firewire isn't faster than SCSI is it? >>



Depends which SCSI. The nowadays hard drives use Ultra160 SCSI (with 160 MB/s max transfer), the older ones use Ultra2 SCSI (80 MB/s). However, the lowly SCSI devices, such as optical drives and scanners rarely have anything better than Fast SCSI (20 MB/s) or Ultra SCSI (40 MB/s). Therefore, a Firewire scanner (50 MB/s = 400 Mbit/s) would be faster than a SCSI scanner.

Leo

 

[leonowski]

Hey David0,

I too am kinda mad that Umax didn't support my 2000P scanner in 2k or xp...however, did get it to work in XP and 2k using the NT 4 drivers. It was a "ghetto" installation. The computer detected the scanner during bootup and I forced it to use the NT drivers. After the reboot, it worked fine and vistascan recognized the scanner. The strange thing is that it never showed up in the device manager correctly. It showed the exclamation point for the device that it detected, but it is always showing as an exclamation point. ...but the scanner works fine! Try it out!

 

[Bimmer318i]

so what are my chances of getting this scanner in Canada without duty?..
I really really want this as I've been looking for a decent scanner @ a decent price and I can't say no to firewire..
any suggestions?..

 

[Slikkster]

<< not to mention that the Audigy sound card incorporates it now. (re:firewire) >>

It's true, the Audigy comes with a firewire port. But a recent review of its throughput found it lacking vs. a straight firewire card. (Tom's Hardware?) OK performance, but you can do better with a standalone card vs. the Audigy firewire port. This one comes with 3 ports, and appears to also support firewire networking support with other firewire-enabled pc's. In my opinion, given the price, software and firewire support, this is the best scanner deal out right now.

Comes with Adobe Photoshop LE
Omnipage LE
Presto! Pagemanager

and a 3-port Texas Instruments 1394 (Firewire) card.

 

[Delbert]

Dang it I tried to resist. Then they go and lower the price. Couldn't hold out any longer.

Big firewire fan. I think I have the first firewire device. A Sony VX-1000. They didnt even have firewire adapters available anywhere yet when I bought it. It sounded promising. Will see how it does against usb2.

 

[polotek147]

Anyone order this, looks like a good deal.

 

[worms]

As I understand it, Firewire is dead. Not only was it never really used in the first place, but it has been completely replaced by a faster, cheaper, and most importantly ubiquitous interface. Don't get me wrong, I hate USB. USB is the most temperamental interface to hit the PC since IDE. Here we are 7 long years after the first USB devices hit the shelves - yes 7 years (that's 65536 computer years) and still there are no products on the market that conform to the 1994 USB standard (i.e. Installation w/o reboot, hot-swap w/o errors, complete and reliable support for k/b, mice, joysticks, etc.). But hey, just like IDE, it's free so we work with it. I'm very anxious to receive my firewire scanner - it'll be so nice to dump my lousy USB scanner in favor of a hot-swappable model that doesn't make Outlook Express go crazy when I turn it on.

 

[lupohki]

Does anyone know if it includes a '6 to 4 pin' or '6 to 6 pin' firewire cable?

 

[polotek147]

I'm going to order this after V-day, since I have to get a gift for my GF. Should be in stock after that still.

 

[wasssup]

$7 shipping for me...not a bad price I guess. I wanted to go with 2-day, but it was almost $15 for that.

 

[polotek147]

wasssup - did u egay ur drives? how did they sell?

 

[wasssup]

the sony ones? haven't really gotten around to it yet...i normally like to put my stuff up on ebay in the evenings, but something always seems to happen and i'm not home till late. why, they're not selling well or something?

 

[WalkingDead]

The cable is 6pin-6pin. If you buy it by itself it will cost you at least $10. Mac places & Fry's wants $30 for firewire cable like this. The TI chipset Firewire card worths about $20-$30 minimun. So, just the card & the cable are worth $30-$40.

Got one for my dad few weeks ago. It doesn't scans very fast but I think it's the scanner not the interface's problem. It's still faster than average USB scanners under $150. Color & image quality wise the Epson scanners are much better. It works fine under Windows 2000.

 

[JRez]

I broke down and got it too... I'm not overly concerned with speed or image quality, just so long as it works

 

[Packy]

I'm actually really liking this scanner, even after hearing the horror stories about Umax. I did side-by side comparisons with the 6400 and my Epson Perfection 610, which is a SWEET scanner. Color-wise, they're actually quite close if you use the automatic adjustment feature with the Umax. Resoltion is roughly the same, although the Epson can do 600x2400 rather than 600x1200. Scanning a test document (a crayola box!) the Umax took 20 seconds where as the Epson (USB) took almost 50 seconds. Color representation with yellows was better on the Epson, but the reds were way too bright. The Umax did okay on the yellows, and the red was about perfect. Details on both, when scanning at 1200dpi, were almost identical.

Those are just my observations though. I'll be keeping the Umax. The Epson definitely has better build quality though, using much more metal than the Umax. The Epson is also WAY quieter.



ps: The firewire card I got didn't have an internal connector. Also, it is able to control my HDCAM with no problems whatsoever.
pps: Works great in XP, using the 3.76 drivers listed earlier in the thread. Make sure to install these BEFORE installing the card and scanner!

 

[tommyli]

I had to jump in on this deal too.
My last deal was a Epson Perfection Scan 636U for $49 bucks!! (CompUSA)

This deal is even better at $49.
Anyone get this working for XP yet? I Have high hopes with version 3.76.

I'm still waiting for the scanner.. Have any idea how long it's going to take in the Washington Area?
I chose ground.

 

[useagle]

can this firewire card be used with my Sony HandyCam DV output to do video editing?

 

[JRez]

tommyli,

Got mine last night. Yes, it works in XP. All those bad reviews were obviously from people who didn't realize that it scans higher that 100 dpi. Speed isn't what it's hyped up to be and it's not much louder than the Acer 620P it replaced, but I'm loving it... now I just need to get some more hands-on time with Photoshop

 

[Wooster]

How this scanner compare to Visioneer 8100 USB? There is another post about making some money after MIB.

 

[tommyli]

<< tommyli,

Got mine last night. Yes, it works in XP. All those bad reviews were obviously from people who didn't realize that it scans higher that 100 dpi. Speed isn't what it's hyped up to be and it's not much louder than the Acer 620P it replaced, but I'm loving it... now I just need to get some more hands-on time with Photoshop >>



Did you notice the fact the the scans were better quality (sharpness and colore representation) than your 620p? I read complaints of image quality to be lacking... But it is hard to imagine how a scanner in this price range (retail used to be about 225-250) could plain SUCK at scanning.

I considered this scanner against the Epson 1200U (same class) but finally bought a 636U because of a hot deal going on at CompUSA. I hope I will be equally as happy with this scanner.

 

[Packy]

<< can this firewire card be used with my Sony HandyCam DV output to do video editing? >>



Yup DV in and DV out both work great. As I mentioned above, it can even control your DV camcorder, so (for example) if you want to print to tape using Premiere, it automatically sets up marker points and makes the dub automatically. It's a nice firewire card

 

[JRez]

<<

<< tommyli,

Got mine last night. Yes, it works in XP. All those bad reviews were obviously from people who didn't realize that it scans higher that 100 dpi. Speed isn't what it's hyped up to be and it's not much louder than the Acer 620P it replaced, but I'm loving it... now I just need to get some more hands-on time with Photoshop >>



Did you notice the fact the the scans were better quality (sharpness and colore representation) than your 620p? I read complaints of image quality to be lacking... But it is hard to imagine how a scanner in this price range (retail used to be about 225-250) could plain SUCK at scanning.

I considered this scanner against the Epson 1200U (same class) but finally bought a 636U because of a hot deal going on at CompUSA. I hope I will be equally as happy with this scanner. >>



The pictures are NOTICEABLY sharper than the Acer ever could have been. Images were better with respect to contrast and color accuracy as well. I did a 1200dpi color scan of the new CA&E mag cover as a test. I was able to zoom in to 400% and view the actual dye pattern of the page (using the setting for magazine descreening of course). Very comparable to the Epson GT-30000 I tested at work, although not as fast (took about 45 seconds longer for the scan). 300-600dpi scans fly. I've seen the 1240U and the 1650U in action... the UMAX gets the upper hand in speed and IQ is so close that it's hard to differentiate. JMHO.

 

[tommyli]

Does anyone have the firewire card working properly in XP?
It only shows up as an exclamation mark "1394 net adaptor" and the info says that the device cannot start properly..

however I can still use my scanner.

BUT my computer is hanging ever so often...
Anyone have proper drivers for XP for the CARD? (not the scanner)

 

[Tallgeese]

MSRP on this scanner is $129.99.
Mighty tempting, especially for the speed of Firewire.