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Can anyone recommend a good flatbed scanner for slabs?
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Started by Poekaymon,

33 posts in this topic

Tony S

Tony S

Posted
Posted (edited)

It is the image sensor. 
Contact image sensor (CIS) is what most scanners - those that cost less than a grand - use now. Small and cheap. But it has no depth of field. It can only see that which lays flat on the scanner glass. Anything held away from the bed is out of focus. 

What you need is CCD (Charged Couple Device) based scanner.  In this situation, old and sold on eBay scanners are your friend. Because older scanners use CCD sensors. CCD sensors have a greater depth of field. They can "see" clearly  the comic book inside a slab that is holding said comic book 1/4" from the scan bed. 

Obviously, you also need the scanner to have a legal size scan bed. A regular size scan bed isn't long enough. 

HP's 8000 series scanners are fairly easy to find as they sold a lot of them to large businesses and government agencies. So they show up regularly on eBay or Craigslist. I have an 8300 and it's great. One of the things I really like about the HP Scanjets is despite their age, HP keeps drivers up to date on their website. There are other, older scanners that were well made - Microtek comes to mind. But you'll have to pay for third party drivers unless you want to run Windows XP

But let me be clear. You WILL NOT find any new scanner for sale today that has a large enough scan bed and uses CCD sensor for less than a thousand dollars. 

Edited by Tony S
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JazzMan

JazzMan

Posted
Posted

If it wasn't for the fact that it's the only scanner so far that scans slabs well, I would have gotten rid of that 20 year old HP flatbed boat anchor.  My new HP office jet fancy dancy printer/scanner sucks balls when it comes to scanning slabs.  

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F For Fake

F For Fake

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, telerites said:

There is a long extensive thread about this if interested:

 

Thank you! I couldn't find this thread for the life of me last night. I knew we'd beaten the subject to death, but couldn't find this specific thread. I will sleep easier tonight!

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Gaard

Gaard

Posted
Posted
22 minutes ago, Artboy99 said:

$350 is a lot in my opinion, look around, I found a HP 7400C at a local pawn shop for $10. It worked great  under win7 but didnt under win10 so I had to get a program that could make use of the device: Vuescan.

$25 a few years ago for my used 8250. Keeps on going...

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Poekaymon

Poekaymon

Posted
  • Author
Posted
23 hours ago, Artboy99 said:

$350 is a lot in my opinion, look around, I found a HP 7400C at a local pawn shop for $10. It worked great  under win7 but didnt under win10 so I had to get a program that could make use of the device: Vuescan.

Yeah I assume if you wait you could find a good deal.  I just looked at Amazon 3rd party sellers and Ebay BINs and most of them were in the $3-$350 range.

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Timeless icons

Timeless icons

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 8/3/2020 at 12:36 AM, Tony S said:

It is the image sensor. 
Contact image sensor (CIS) is what most scanners - those that cost less than a grand - use now. Small and cheap. But it has no depth of field. It can only see that which lays flat on the scanner glass. Anything held away from the bed is out of focus. 

What you need is CCD (Charged Couple Device) based scanner.  In this situation, old and sold on eBay scanners are your friend. Because older scanners use CCD sensors. CCD sensors have a greater depth of field. They can "see" clearly  the comic book inside a slab that is holding said comic book 1/4" from the scan bed. 

Obviously, you also need the scanner to have a legal size scan bed. A regular size scan bed isn't long enough. 

HP's 8000 series scanners are fairly easy to find as they sold a lot of them to large businesses and government agencies. So they show up regularly on eBay or Craigslist. I have an 8300 and it's great. One of the things I really like about the HP Scanjets is despite their age, HP keeps drivers up to date on their website. There are other, older scanners that were well made - Microtek comes to mind. But you'll have to pay for third party drivers unless you want to run Windows XP

But let me be clear. You WILL NOT find any new scanner for sale today that has a large enough scan bed and uses CCD sensor for less than a thousand dollars. 

"I have an 8300 and it's great."

I have the same scanner and for some reason, my scans don't seem to be as nice as they could be. They come out too dark, they lack good color and they aren't sharp enough. I'm wondering what software you're using to scan because I think that might be my problem. 

Edited by Timeless icons
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c_mkv

c_mkv

Posted
Posted (edited)

8300 if you can still find it is ideal...inexpensive and has the large bed-size. Only problem is the glare issue....have no idea how to fix it. Open to suggestions

 

You can see it at the bottom of the book on this scan

Front 1.jpg

Edited by c_mkv
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RedGiant

RedGiant

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, c_mkv said:

8300 if you can still find it is ideal...inexpensive and has the large bed-size. Only problem is the glare issue....have no idea how to fix it. Open to suggestions

 

You can see it at the bottom of the book on this scan

Front 1.jpg

I have a HP, but couldn't handle the glare anymore, so got a MicroTek i800.  Problem solved.  Great book btw.

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RedGiant

RedGiant

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, c_mkv said:

8300 if you can still find it is ideal...inexpensive and has the large bed-size. Only problem is the glare issue....have no idea how to fix it. Open to suggestions

 

You can see it at the bottom of the book on this scan

HP 8350

2020-05-02-0043.thumb.jpg.52eab0390e7edf5200e40e5a197492f5.jpg

 

Microtek i800

cfdtest114.thumb.jpg.284b8edac74d207f5eb7894464956daf.jpg

 

Problem Solved.

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