... One bit that did annoy me was that I had to ”export” my photo scans to JPEG instead of just using “Save As…” other wise you save your scans as one of Adobes own formats (interesting feature is saving scans as pdf files!)
The UMAX has four buttons on the front ... Read review
Advantages: Cheap, good image quality, excellent bundled software Disadvantages: Short USB cable
...caught my eye – the Umax 3400 USB. It had recently been awarded a PC Format Gold Award, and was in the right price range for both my father, and my sister (around the £55 mark). After clearing the price with them, I ordered two.
After a shockingly short amount of time waiting (i.e. less than 24 hours from order to delivery) I had some new toys to play with… erm I mean, find out if they were in fully working order… ...files!)
The UMAX has four buttons on the front three of which are for supposedly quick scanning, but for the life of me, I can’t get these to work (Did someone say “instruction manual”?) but they supposedly do everything automatically once you press one of the buttons – scan, copy and custom. (The last is a power off feature for saving the scan head)
For those of you who have used parallel port ... more
The only previous experience I’ve had with scanners was with my sisters aging Black Widow parallel port scanner which recently went to the great image processor in the sky. As such, she was looking for a new scanner, and at the same time, my dad mentioned his interest in one as well, for some charity work he was doing. As I was the one with the Internet connection, I told them that I would sort them out.
After recent dealings with Scan.co.uk, I decided to give them a go – looking on their web site showed lots of scanners, but one caught my eye – the Umax 3400 USB. It had recently been awarded a PC Format Gold Award, and was in the right price range for both my father, and my sister (around the £55 mark). After clearing the price with them, I ordered two.
After a shockingly short amount of time waiting (i.e. less than 24 hours from order to delivery) I had some new toys to play with… erm I mean, find out if they were in fully working order…
The Umax quick start guide, while helpful, is a little sloppily laid out for my liking – rather than each language having it’s own chapter, each step in the installation process is repeated in English, French and German. That’s not to say that it’s unhelpful, because it does explain everything you need to know to get your scanner up and running, but it’s just a bit annoying having to hunt down the next step when it should be presented to you.
After installing the drivers, and additional software, and a reboot to bed the software in, I plugged the (rather short – about 1m) USB cable into my computer, and sure enough, Windows 98 SE recognised the device and completed the set-up. The software comes on three CD’s – one for drivers, one with Windows Adobe Photo Deluxe and a third for Mac Adobe Photo Deluxe 2.
So – what about scan quality? Even though I had installed Adobe Photo deluxe, I booted up Paint Shop Pro 6, as I’ve been using it for years, and thought that my familiarity with it would enable me to produce better scans. However, after successfully scanning in one photo, the system crashed as I attempted to scan a second. One quick reboot later, and I loaded Adobe Photo Deluxe.
After a few minutes of clicking on various items in the program (my way of learning the program – I’m a bloke, I don’t believe in instruction manuals!) I decided to take the plunge and start scanning. The software made this incredibly easy – you can do it two ways – using the scanner’s own software, or the inbuilt one in Adobe. As it was the scanners own software coupled with PSP6 that brought about the earlier crash, I decided to give the Adobe one a try. It asks you some questions like what type of document it is, what size you want the output to be, what purpose it’s for etc. and then it goes and scans the document for you.
Maybe it’s just my shockingly bad eyesight, but while the scans were better than the ones previously done on the Black Widow, I could not find much of a difference in any of the scans done with Adobe or PSP6 no matter what tweaking I did on the image. The scans are good though, and the Adobe software has some excellent features for tidying up photographs with auto fixers (which are undo-able). One bit that did annoy me was that I had to ”export” my photo scans to JPEG instead of just using “Save As…” other wise you save your scans as one of Adobes own formats (interesting feature is saving scans as pdf files!)
The UMAX has four buttons on the front three of which are for supposedly quick scanning, but for the life of me, I can’t get these to work (Did someone say “instruction manual”?) but they supposedly do everything automatically once you press one of the buttons – scan, copy and custom. (The last is a power off feature for saving the scan head)
For those of you who have used parallel port scanners before, well, you’re in for a shock. The Umax (and I assume all USB scanners) are very fast. In fact I had a scan done, and was image editing in the time it took the old BW to warm up! All this and better image quality to boot!
Its’ size is slightly larger than an A4 sheet, and at a rough guess, I would estimate maybe one third again on length and width for a rough desktop footprint guide. I wasn’t too impressed with the lid on one of the models which felt a bit flimsy and feels as if it might be easily breakable, but the other one seems solid enough.
All in all, the scanner is excellent – photos and low detail line drawings (which are all I’ve scanned so far) are excellent. It’s fast, easy to set up and very easy to use, especially if you use the Adobe software. It’s compatible with both PC’s and Macs with software supplied for both.
Advantages: Simple interface. easy to set up Disadvantages: flimsy lid
The Umax 3400 is a good solid scanner that is excellent value for money. It is simple to set up with 1 lead connecting to the USB port on your PC and the other to the mains supply. It comes complete with software that allows you to create calendars, posters, business cards etc. It is simple to use with scanning being possible with just the touch of a button. It is possible to copy a document, scan a document to disk or to a web based destination. ...
kevinhanson1 16.03.2001
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of UMAX Astra 3400
The UMAX Astra 3400 offers the speed of USB technology and high resolution for fast, versatile, and high-quality image capture. The Astra 3400 gives you trillions of sharp, vibrant colors. The Astra 3400 features the exclusive Intelligent Imaging Process Engine (IIPE), which automatically optimizes images and text to ensure that you get great results every time you scan. UMAX' exclusive IIPE technology automatically detects if your document or photograph should be color, gray, or black and white; automatically assigns the optimum resolution for scanning; automatically crops your image; automatically rotates the scanned image if it is askew on the scan bed. Featuring fast push-button scanning, the Astra 3400 includes Scan, Copy, Custom (E-mail or OCR), and Power Saving buttons. By combining the push-button functionality and Intelligent Image Process Engine (IIPE) technology, UMAX has provided users with the functionality to scan many types of reflective media with just a push of a button. The Power Saving button allows the user to power-off the scanner's fluorescent lamp without losing the connection to the computer through the USB port. To power back on the scanner's lamp, simply press the Power Saving button a second time. There is no need to refresh your computer since the USB connection through the USB port was maintained.
