| I'm glad that some people have had a good experience with this scanner, but I am not one. I own an Epson Perfection 2450 Photo scanner and have been very happy with it. I thought it's "big brother" would make a nice, economical additon to the office where I work. Boy was I wrong. Several people have mentioned dust issues. I haven't noticed that but I do have the problem others have mentioned in the professional photography forums on the internet. Some of these scanners come with glass that has not been treated properly and I got one of them. What happens is when you lay an image on the glass, especially a glossy photo, it "sticks" a bit and looks like there are watermarks on the image after it has scanned. It will do this every time and in slightly different spots and there is no way to keep it from happening. I've tried wipping the glass and photos and even cleaning them, but to no avail. I called Epson tech support and they said the glass was faulty and to return it for a replacement. No thanks, I think I'll try another brand where it won't be a crapshoot as to wether I get a working one or not. I've always loved Epson products but this leaves me a bit disillusioned. They let quality control slide a lot on the production of this model. There is a rebate on this scanner because it is being replaced by the newer, better and hopefully higher quality Perfection 4870. It has a Dmax of 3.8 over the 3.4 of the 3200, so it should be able to better capture image data from the dark areas of photos too. If you are interested in this scanner, I would try that or the 2450. I've also heard good things about the Canon CanoScan 9900F. I was also not overly impressed with the color reproduction on this scanner. For some reason it is not as good as the older 2450. I'm a graphic designer and at work I have an 9 year old AGFA scanner that is A LOT slower than the 3200, but it's color reproduction was richer and more evenly balanced. Details in the shadow area were also more acurately reproduced. I tested both on the same photo to reach this conclusion. Also, only get the "Pro" edition if you want the extra software, otherwise they are the same exact scanner. Aside from this, I didn't test it's transparency capabilities. It is very fast and would be a good deal for the $ if you don't get a lemon. It's up to you if you want to take that chance. I know my time is more valuable than that. |
