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Member since:03.12.2000
Reviews:148
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Since upgrading my super cool Multivisions computer to the wonderful Windows XP, my trusty old brick of a scanner that was a Colorado Direct 9600 model would not work because there was no updated drivers from the makers.
I only ever use my scanner occasionally, but without one I would sure as hell miss it when I needed something scanned quickly. I was trawling the internet sites looking for the best price possible on a scanner that had good reviews here on Ciao and had found a couple of ones I liked for approximately £40 plus extra postage from Jungle.com. I hate buying on the Internet as things always go wrong with me!
The same day while out
on my dinner break I walked past the new Time / Tiny combined shop which had just opened in Eldon Square, Newcastle and notice some excellent opening deals on various things. I had quick walk around the shop and found a few scanners under the sub £50 mark. I asked the salesman which scanners were XP compatible in my price range and he recommended the Mustek 1200 UB Plus, which had the new software and drivers on the disk rather than downloading them from a website. I was a little unsure of the scanner because of the cheapest model, but was reassured when talking to the salesman while paying for it. He told me he used the same model scanner at home and he rated it far better over much higher priced models and he found the quality of the scanner very high.
You can tell the scanner is of a cheap nature by its quality of the plastic. However the scanner itself is of below average size (41cm x 27 cm x 5 cm) and weight (2.9KG) but still has the same size glass surface as my old model. The main feature than impressed me over my past scanner is the lack of a power supply taking up a valuable plug sockets. The scanner is power via a single USB socket on a 1.5 metre cable. The lid is of lightweight and has a black sponge backing on the lid. One drawback is that the lid is not removable to place over larger thick books etc.
Installation is very easy with Windows XP and was just a case of running the enclosed CD and pressing install and then connecting USB lead when the software has finished loading.
The Technical stuff about the scanner is as follows
Scan area 21.6cm x 29.7 cm Scan modes True colour 36 - Bit Internal /24 – Bit External/48 – Bit software Enhanced Gray Mode 12 – Bit Internal/24 - Bit External Text/Line Art 1 Bit /Pixel 2 levels Resolution Control Optical 600dpi (H) x 1200dpi (V) Enhanced 19200dpi x 19200dpi (software controlled) Scanner Data Buffer 16KB (maximum)
I won’t pretend to understand the above figures. But I have copied them here from the instruction leaflet for those who do. I do know that the results are far superior to what I have been used to in the past. The photos I have scan upto now are bright and the colours don’t fade when you scan. The grain on the picture is more than acceptable when you enlarge the photographs. Scanning is slightly noisy and takes about 30 seconds in fine mode, so it won’t win any speed records The software that’s supplied with cheap scanners is often there downfall. I know this was a problem I had with my last model. I was very impressed with the software with this scanner. Its Basic but does everything you could need it to.
It’s started by clicking the scanner option at the bottom right hand side in the toolbar. Up will pop a mini machine on your computer.
On the top you have the buttons that give you help, change the settings and change your personal styles.
On the bottom you have buttons to
Scan and save onto the computer Scan and Print Scan and Fax Scan and email And an OCR programs that converts the image to a text file.
The scanner therefore is very easy to use and I am completely happy with my new little friend. It does the job it was bought for ideally. It will not be ideal for someone that uses scanner a lot or requires an excellent start from their scanner. , but at £29.95 what do you expect. It’s a scanner that performs it job very well and is very simple to use which is handy if you’re a computer novice. All the software works without any problems / bugs and it ever comes with a nice little fax program which is very handy as it can take under a minute to scan and fax a document.
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I've got this scanner too. I bought it for £60 about two years ago, so it has certainly got cheaper. I have been extremely pleased with it. Thanks for your comment on my Tesco Washing Up Liquid op. Jo
Glorificus1 17.07.2002 11:19
I need a scanner , if only to get a picture on my damn profile. Thanks for the hint
evansuk 15.07.2002 19:45
I had problems with my scanner when I upgraded to XP - All sorted now though! Great op :-)
Advantages: good value for money, convenient USB plug-n-play feature, includes a decent OCR text recognition program Disadvantages: a fairly redundant image-editing program, requires a USB port to function
Jul 11th, 2002
very helpful by (100%):
