OT: Scanners

[gasman]

My HP multifunction machine has never really worked well as a scanner. My wife really needs a quality scanner for her home business. I know next to nothing about scanners but do have a buddy who has been very happy with his Fujitsu Snap scan.
I'm looking for something easy to use and Mac compatible.
What say the experts ?

[gavingould]

in my experience, multifunction machines always do several things pretty crappily.

i've had good luck with Epson scanners.

[pdmtong]

The HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus I got from costco for < $200 is excellent for printing copying and scanning. and the wireless works GREAT. I am sure this model is by now outdated since > 6 months old but I have tosay, it works excellent

[Kirk007]

Dave,

Good experience with Brothers mfc machine - almost a year on it and so far it works really well. I use it in home office, my only office here in Seattle so it gets a fair amount of use. Document feeder to copy or scan; decent software - will combine multiple docs into single pdf etc. Not cheap - around $500 and the toner cartridges are spendy as well but it does fast printin in color/b&W, scan, fax, mac compatible and toner cartridges available at the Staples/Office Max type big boxes.

[false_Aest]

probably overkill but I did all my thesis work wetmounting to an epson V750.

the 10,000XL is also dope but I highly doubt you need an 11x17 scanner

[CaptStash]

Cast my vote for an Epson Artisan 810 multi-function. It has worked flawlessly for a couple of years now, and I have to scan a lot. Also makes acceptable copies and prints fine. Even the fa function is pretty good. All that, it's wireles, and plays well with my wife's Mac and my PC.

CaptStash....

[ultraman6970]

IMO it depends a lot of what's the volume of stuff you want to do, if you scan like 10 pages per week probably a tiny small one will do just fine, the same with a MF device.

If you scan just a little be sure to get something will work wireless and that can scan over a network, not all the MF devices can scan like that. Maybe they all do now, i'm really not updated in stuff like that but like 2 years ago was pretty limited the availability of network scanning (that actually works fine) from a networked MF device.

[572cv]

Fujitsu snapscan is so good I still marvel at it. Fast, automatic scan of both sides of a sheet, good software, seamless on a Mac. Nice and small. Pick up a copy of PDF Penpro software if you want a slick tool for working with PDFs too.

[srice]

In my prior life, I ran a scanner development group. It would help to understand what your scanning applications are. Photos? Text only? Books? Do you need great color fidelity? Depth of field? Need an automatic document feeder? Need a flatbed? Duplex? Which ScanSnap (it is actually an entire family of scanners) are you impressed by?

Steve

[shovelhd]

Dave,

Good experience with Brothers mfc machine - almost a year on it and so far it works really well. I use it in home office, my only office here in Seattle so it gets a fair amount of use. Document feeder to copy or scan; decent software - will combine multiple docs into single pdf etc. Not cheap - around $500 and the toner cartridges are spendy as well but it does fast printin in color/b&W, scan, fax, mac compatible and toner cartridges available at the Staples/Office Max type big boxes.

+1

I have a Brother color laser MFC at home. Not cheap, not cheap to run, but the control software works great. I scan stuff every other week to PDF, no issues. I used to run a business and it got plenty of daily use.

[godfrey1112000]

Just got the hp 8600, $220, works great, scans great

from Costco

The HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus I got from costco for < $200 is excellent for printing copying and scanning. and the wireless works GREAT. I am sure this model is by now outdated since > 6 months old but I have tosay, it works excellent

[gasman]

Thanks for all the great replies. It will mostly be used to scan single page documents for converting to pdf's to our computers. Biggest use will be for my wife to send and recieve contracts, scripts etc. Use will vary widely from week to week. I also want to use it to file reciepts to my computer. Finally want it to have wireless capability and Mac compatable.
I've looked online at the Brother and the snap scan which are both carried by our nearby office max.
I hope this makes sense.

[Ken Robb]

Les and I use a several-years-old H-P all-in-one that is good enough that we have a newer unit that came with her new Mac sitting in its box on a shelf. Our needs are simple.

I don't know about other stores' return policies but anything bought at COSTCO can be returned after use because "I just don't want it". That takes most of the risk/uncertainty out of a person's selection of equipment.