Flatbed Scanner Recommendations? Help please!

[Dave]

I've gone through four scanners in the last 15 years and frankly, the earliest ones were the best. I had two of them back-to-back that were able to focus out to 3/4"...pretty amazing for a flat bed scanner. However, they were either broken or lost during moves (flatbed scanner glass and military movers don't mix...) and I am now out of scanners - and I need one. I was looking online yesterday and found the Canon LiDE models, and discovered we had an unused one (a 210) at work, so I borrowed it for a test drive. Playing with it this morning...I'm glad I didn't buy one!!! You can see from the scan of the patch that unless the item is 100% on the scanner face, it's blurred out...it might have 1/16" focal range.

 

I'm sure there are good scanners out there for medals, patches, wings and the like, but I don't have the means or time to buy a bunch of them and try them out. What have you found to work well?

 

Thank you in advance for advice!

 

Dave

[72psb]

Dave,

I work off a small notebook,the patch image you posted is about 1to 1 on my screen.The quality is excellent to the point I can do a thread count if I want.Good enough to count the threads on the mesh backing on the right of the patch by the nose.I don't know how it would be on a medal with more dimension.

Bob

 

[The Meatcan]

Dave, I bought an Epson Perfection V500 Photo a couple months ago. My primary interest was finding a scanner that worked well with slides and photographs. It works very well for that and includes some nice software to help eliminate blemishes, dust spots, etc. Much much better than the old Epson I had ten years ago!

 

I have used it to scan some coins and medals as test scans and they seemed to turn out pretty well. Let me know if you'd like to see a test image and I can PM it to you.

 

Got the scanner through Amazon and paid about $150.

HTH,

Terry

[Dave]

Dave,

I work off a small notebook,the patch image you posted is about 1to 1 on my screen.The quality is excellent to the point I can do a thread count if I want.Good enough to count the threads on the mesh backing on the right of the patch by the nose.I don't know how it would be on a medal with more dimension.

Bob

 

I was trying to find a non-foreign medal to show it's inability to get clear shots, but couldn't (that's what I get for packing everything away!) LOL Anyway, here's an image that should be able to scan clearly, as it's almost completely flat. However, the ribbon scanned nicely, but everything else is slightly blurred, even the areas of the paper that were slightly off the platen. Since I'm using these scans for my book, I can't work with blurred out scans, unfortunately...

 

Terry, I'd love to see some test scans from your V500! Thanks!

 

Dave

[Dave]

Okay, since I'm not technically bending the rules with foreign militaria since this was awarded to the same US Navy officer, here's my biggest heartburn with the current scanner. You can see that the scanner simply FREAKED OUT with the scan of the Red Star! The inset image is what I used to be able to do with my scanner back ten years ago... Oh to find an old scanner with good focal length...

[Dave]

Just bought a used Epson 640U that was recommended to me. It dates from the same time period as my previous good scanners, so we'll see how that one does (and it was cheap!) LOL

[jgawne]

I have to agree that the older scanners were not only better, but try and find a decent cheap one these days! I have had.. uh.. at least 10 different scanners ( not couting specialy photo and oversized ones). I've found that as they went to the CCD sensors they got pretty bad. The thin cannon Lide ones tend to break real easy if you press at all on the cover to flatten a book. Which was OK when they were $30, but now? All you can find is a scanner/fax/printer/coffee maker.

 

I think I have seen some models being advertized as having a great depth of field with some nonsense like "3-D" scanning or something.

 

My other complaint is the software to drive the newer scanners seems to keep getting worse. As they make it easier for the "average guy" they also make it useless for someone that knows how to adjust settings.

 

One thing I have found a lot of people don't know is that if you are getting ghost images of something on the back of the page you are scanning, is that the light is passing through your paper, bouncing off the white cover and reflecting back. Just stick a piece of black paper under the cover, and it eliminates that problem. When I am doing any kind of documents of photos I just geenrally tape black paper under the cover.

[The Meatcan]

Dave, due to the Forum file size limits, I'm going to PM a couple files to you.

Terry

[dag]

Just bought a used Epson 640U that was recommended to me. It dates from the same time period as my previous good scanners, so we'll see how that one does (and it was cheap!) LOL

 

I've got an Epson 3490 Photo Scanner that I have used for years, great on 3D object such as uniform buttons & badges. Hope it never dies!

 

I do have a Canon MP610 scanner/printer that works great on flat objects such as patches & of course photos, but not so good on non-flat items. Many scanners don't have the depth of field needed if the object isn't flat.

[bunkerhillburning]

Dave, I use a Cannon CanoScan 8800F and am very happy. Most of the work I do is with photography and documents though. With medals and so on I use a digital camera which might be what you need.

[Croix de Guerre]

Dave, my old macine gave up the ghost and after speaking with a few photographers I went with a HP Photosmart 5520. It comes with a pretty decent editing software package and so far I'm okay with it. One thing you might consider is the cost of replacement ink cartridges, some machines get very expensive if you are doing much printing.

[devildog34]

I use a Cannon Lide 210 because it's very cheap I used it to travel to NARA in DC and college park. It's quick compatible and gives a good enough quality image for what I needed. I know there are better quality scanners available but I'm fine with the one I have.

[Bob Hudson]

Dave, I bought an Epson Perfection V500 Photo a couple months ago.

 

I've been scanning professionally since the days when a flatbed scanner cost $3,000 (really $3K for one that looks like all the cheap flatbed scanners you've used) and I have to say the V500 is best I've had in my home studio. I hate Epson printers, but this has been a great scanner.