Scanner

Mr. Fabulous

Mr. Fabulous

Had a squizz through the old threads for recommendations. Came up with two options: get a dedicated scanner (Canon DC-2050) or one of those all in one dealies (HP OfficeJet 6210). Thing is, I don't need to print - ever (I haven't actually owned a printer in 3 or 4 years), have no need for a fax machine so I don't know if it's worth getting something like that to save a few bucks.

I found a HP thingo on the net for around $280 and also a Canon scanner for $340. I'm thinking it might be worth just getting the scanner. Actually, does anyone have any recommendations for a cheaper scanner with a paper feeder - I have Acrobat Pro at home, so converting docs to PDF is not a problem - but I do want something that will keep my docs readable. I'm not proficient with scanners and the two times I've used one the docs came out rather errr....illegible.

I don't have a huge amount of paper to deal with (yet), but I want to get on top of this before it becomes too much.

Mark

P.S. While I was going through the threads - I came across a suggestion by Frank Grimes to back up stuff on a USB stick. Great! I've been looking for a backup solution and that'll suit me perfectly, thank you very much.
 
I'm using Acrobat Pro with a Brother MFC-620CN.

This is an all-in-one model that can print, fax, copy and scan with an automatic paper feeder. It was the Best Value recommendation from the Australian Personal Computer magazine about 12 months ago.

Having used it for some 12 months, I like its small size - possibly it is the smallest model on the market with similar functionalities.

It has a built in paper tray, therefore no need to have the stick out manual paper feeder.

It also has a built in network card. By connecting the printer to the wireless router (via LAN line), I can print wirelessly from any computers/laptops from my home office. Scanning still needs direct USB cable connection. (This is how I'm using it. Don't know whether it is possible to control the scanner wirelessly).

More features? In-built speaker phone and answering machine.

Ink is cheap by buying over eBay, costing approximately 1/8 shop price.

What I dislike about it?
B&W printing quality is not as good as a laser's. However this is inherent to all ink jet printers, not a fault of this printer itself.

This model is being replaced by a new Brother series, slicker and with smaller ink cartridges (Guess why?).

However, it is still possible to buy the older series model (with larger ink cartridges) at discounted prices. A friend of mine bought an MFC-425CN from Richmond Kmart yesterday for $141.
 
Hi Mark,

This may be way beyond your needs, but the Canon DR-2080C is excellent for A4 size. It retails at around $1000 so it's more on the serious side.
 
USB sticks and their limitations

G'day Mark,

P.S. While I was going through the threads - I came across a suggestion by Frank Grimes to back up stuff on a USB stick. Great! I've been looking for a backup solution and that'll suit me perfectly, thank you very much.
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Can I say, don't depend on USB sticks completely. I have a few, but have noticed (particularly with photos, where "something" happens and the photo is ruined) that USB sticks are great for moving stuff between computers. i.e. short term retention

I wouldn't want to DEPEND on them as a Backup source. Unless you have a few copies. And if you don't have them swinging from your keyring they may retain stuff better. But yeah, they are cheap now ($50 for 2GB or thereabouts). I wouldn't be without one, but they do have limits,

Regards,
 
Mark

I don't know a lot about scanners, but I guess there may be a big difference in what you require out of one- and that may be reflected in the price differences.

For instance.

I have a scanner at home. It's purely a flat bed scanner, with no feeder. If I'm scanning pages out of books or magazines, that's OK. But for quantities of single page docs it's useless.

I have one at work which is a laser printer, scanner, copier and printer. And it did sheet feed. For a while. So I could put in a number of A4 pages, and it would scan them automatically. (If you don't need a printer, would a copier be of any use?). The OCR software is not too bad- so I can scan some of my financial reports, and have something that I can paste into a spreadsheet without having to adjust too much. But the sheet feeder still only scans each page to a single page, which I have to export into jpg or whatever format. (I must have used it too much- the autromatic feeder now scrunches up pages rather than scanning them. I'm not too worried now, as I had a huge requirement for bulk scanning onces, which I don't have now).

I have seen scanners which don't even do flat bed- they just have a sheet feeder. The feeder is quite fast and reliable. And the software allows each sheet to be a single page (pdf I think) in a single document.

So I guess you'd have to start by looking at what your requirements are, and what you need from a scanner. Hopefully, something of what some scanners do will be of help in determining that.
 
The 2080 is a heavy duty scanner. Fairly high speed and I've been using it for over 2 years with no serious issues. On average I'll scan about 200 pages per week.

It comes down to what you need. I started out with a very slow MFC, but the Cannon has saved me far more than $1000 in time spent waiting for scans to finish.
 
Thanks for the tips guys. Les - I think I'll give the USB sticks a miss, I'm looking for something to back stuff up. Mostly just docs and investment related stuff I scan, but want something reliable. Glad I read your post - you saved me 60 odd bucks!

I would really like something compact. I had a look at exernal drives, but they are far too big (in space) for my needs and too cumbersome. I had a look at online options and they either provided an awful experience (MediaMax) or told me my connection is too slow (Mozy). Which is a shame really, case Mozy looked perfect.

I know I could burn CD or DVD, but I don't really want to have stacks of those lying around. Does anyone have any ideas?

Geoff - my needs at the moment don't really justify spending more than a few hundred on a basic model, really. I'm not really in need of a heavy duty scanner. Although I'd love to get something along the lines of what Peter has for the office.

I actually had a great idea after I posted the last post - I'm gonna hook up the fax/scanner at work to the computer, take stuff in, scan it and email it to my home email, then convert to PDF. I don't have huge amounts of scanning to do (probably only about a couple hundred pages of banked up stuff) and any extra stuff only really comes in sporadically.

I reckon I'll probably be able to manage with that for a while. Jut need some suggestions for backing up.

Mark
 
Mark,

Just on the backup issue I'd say your best option would be an external 2.5" usb drive like this:

http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_..._code]=CA-U225BCOMBO40&input[category_id]=245

Any 2.5" drive equal to or less than 40GB can be powered straight from the usb port. Small, lightweight and no power pack required.

They seem to be reliable too. I have something similar (though mine is an mp3 player as well), but the drive has been going for years with no issues.

Tape could also be an option, a small dds3 drive maybe. I prefer tape but I have over 1TB of data at home so DVD's and HDD's don't really work for me :p

You could also get a mirror setup on the PC (2 copies of the files on 2 separate HDD's) to give you some added protection and back the important files up to the 2.5" HDD to keep offsite. Hard drives are really cheap these days so mirroring of important data is relatively inexpensive given the potential pain of losing data.

Cheers,

Arkay.
 
Hi Arkay,

Thanks for the tip. That 2.5" drive looks ideal. Essentially what I'm looking for is something I can pull out once a week, hook up to the computer, back up my stuff, then stick back in the cupboard. I have 3 HD's in my computer, all 320 gig. At $120 a pop, they were cheap as chips. One is partitioned for the OS and programs, with my regular files on the other partition, the other two are for music and movies/telly/skate videos respectively.

The music and movies I burn to DVD for backup, since once I have them, I'm not going to revise or make changes, obviously so don't mind using CD's/DVD's for these, but would like to have something like that USB drive for investment stuff and other bits that I am constantly changing.

Mark
 
For your purposes I think a USB stick would be fine. I have one that permanently sits in its slot. I have some stuff that automatically updates to it daily. If you were concerned, just use two. When you do your weekly back up, do both, or alternate between them every second week. I have several different brands ranging in age and have never had a problem, but I have never had them swinging from a key chain either.

BR
 
Les said:
G'day Mark,


Can I say, don't depend on USB sticks completely. I have a few, but have noticed (particularly with photos, where "something" happens and the photo is ruined) that USB sticks are great for moving stuff between computers. i.e. short term retention

Yeah I was going to say, I still backup to CD every month or so. And everytime I scan documents I dump them on the USB as well.

As far as the scanner goes, I've got the HP 6210 which has been great. However, IF I had my time again I would get something that can scan direct to PDF. Rather than stuffing about with Adobe Acrobat. As I get more paperwork I may upgrade in the future.

But for $280 the HP is excellent. Its never missed a beat.
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Update: got to work today and thought 'bugger this, I'm gonna work out how to set up the fax/scanner/printer to my computer so I can use that' and I did! Before today it sat independent and was used only for faxes, as I use a printer. So now I can scan stuff, woo! It doesn't scan fantastically well, but it's legible so that's all good - at least I don't have to pay for a scanner now.

I want to use the fax/scanner/printer only now, but I notice when i print stuff, I get a line running down the page where it doesn't print. It happens with every page. Could this be a drum issue? I know the fax has been saying to me to change the drum soon for about two years.

Mark
 
Arkay said:
Any 2.5" drive equal to or less than 40GB can be powered straight from the usb port. Small, lightweight and no power pack required.
Click to expand...

It's true many external 2.5" notebook drives requires external power to work. :)

However, my 160 gb Samsung works well without extra power, only one USB slot. :D

It appears USB only provides power up to 500 mA. External peripheral will work if it consumes less than 500 mA, which, in this case, the Samsung does.

Anything rated more than 500 mA will require external power source (either via extra USB connection or charger).
 
Cheap backup solution

I just dump the contents of my hard disk to hex on the screen and memorise the output. I've never lost any data so it must work :cool:
 
Not all implementations of USB are the same either. I've seen 100GB drives work fine on one machine and not on another. I think the 40GB is just a yardstick. You should be right with any 40GB drive and as Mark was saying he didn't need a lot of space it sounded like a good price point and functionality match ;)

Cheers,

Arkay.
 
Twitch said:
I just dump the contents of my hard disk to hex on the screen and memorise the output. I've never lost any data so it must work :cool:
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You can memorise it much better if you wipe the disk first- properly. Then you only have to remember strings of zeroes :D
 
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