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(More customer reviews)Bought the HP 7400c along with a separate large-format scanner to handle the scanning needs of our local historical society. The large-format scanner does 600dpi max and has no backlight, so we got the HP 7400c to do slides, negatives, and high-resolution work. I've used, and have been impressed by, HP scanners in the past, so I though this would be a no-brainer. In my opinion, HP has completely dropped the ball when it comes to the quality of its hardware, device drivers, and software. (My background: I'm an MSEE electronics hardware designer by day, tech volunteer by night, and assemble many PCs a year for family, friends, and myself.)
The HP 7400c has been nothing but trouble for us and I feel terrible about recommending the purchase, particularly now that started seriously acting up on the wrong side of the year warranty. Even when not in use, the stepper motor now constantly exerts torque on the toothed drive belt. It often slips and causes annoying "thumping" sounds from the scanner. We now have to keep the scanner disconnected from its power supply now when we aren't using it. I called HP but they want more money to fix it than the cost of the scanner we should have bought in the first place. Let me be clear here, this scanner has scanned no more than 40 items, has had power applied to it for no more than 200 hours, has lived an altogether pampered life from the day it was manufactured - and now it is broken! And because it is just a few days out of warranty, HP has washed its hands of the matter. I understand that HP has no legal obligation at this point, but they should be ashamed of themselves for making such a poor product.
Aside from breaking at the end of the warranty period, this scanner has been a constant thorn in my side. Right out of the box the HP 7400c would not peacefully co-exist with the other scanner on the SCSI bus. I tried everything including all of the firmware and software upgrades I could find on the HP web site, but finally gave up and installed another SCSI controller card in the PC. After experiencing some stability problems with the PC (and to be fair, I cannot prove whether the 7400c or the SCSI card were to blame here) I switched the HP 7400c over to the USB port instead (requires clunky un-install and re-install of the software). This slows down high-resolution scans and completely negates the reason we bought a high-end model in the first place, i.e. to get a high-bandwidth connection between the scanner and the PC.
The buttons on the front of the unit work only sporadically, and never correctly twice in a row - a pain since I wanted to set this up so that anyone could do simple "copies" via the scanner and printer. And the scanning software inexplicably bases the resolution of the scan on the "size" of an image rather than dpi. Cryptic nag screens are always popping up informing me that the "size" is wrong when I am trying to scan a negative for instance, and I am never sure how to act on them as they want to perform some unspecified automatic adjustment. My preference is to perform raw scans at an appropriate dpi (no image alteration by the scanner software) and then manipulate them in Paintshop (lower the resolution, sharpen, adjust brightness & contrast, etc.) - the HP software fights me every step of the way here.
Epson scanning hardware and software are vastly superior, I heartily recommend the Epson Perfection 1660 Photo, which I have at home. USB2 is definitely the way to go with a scanner. I will avoid the purchase of ANY HP products in the future, including printers (Canon does a better job here IMO).
Click Here to see more reviews about: Hewlett Packard ScanJet 7400c Color Flatbed Scanner
The Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 7400c is a professional color scannerdesigned for businesses requiring high speed and image quality, with alarger scan bed. With 2400-dpi optical resolution, unlimited enhancedresolution, and 48-bit color processing, you'll get consistent colors andcrisp, black text. Suited for a full range of scanning material, thisflatbed scanner features a larger image window to handle legal-sizedpages.
Seven front-panel buttons e-mail, fax, copy, file, and edit your images,plus offer access to even more features. The software for enhancing,modifying and organizing images is furnished with the unit, all of whichautomatically optimize your scans for electronic viewing and transmission.Edit scanned documents with the fully automated optical-characterrecognition. The HP 7400c scanner includes a 16-character display frontpanel for easier operations.
The 7400c is shipped with a top-lit transparency adapter to scan multiple35mm slides, negatives, and transparencies up to 5 by 5 inches. Anoptional automatic document feeder expands your scanning up to 15 pages per minute, and has a 50-page capacity. The HP ScanJet 7400c offers fast and easyinstallation through either the USB or SCSI ports (kit included), providingthe plug-and-play efficiency demanded by PC and Mac peripherals. Hewlett-Packard offers a one-year warranty on parts and labor.
Click here for more information about Hewlett Packard ScanJet 7400c Color Flatbed Scanner
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