Scanjet 3570 initial look
Written: Dec 01 '03
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Pros: Cheap price, works
Cons: 3 month warranty, not very accurate
The Bottom Line: Buy if you are doing home scanning that does not require top performance, but do not expect the best color purity.
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| rayw1's Full Review: Hewlett Packard ScanJet 3570C Flatbed Scanner |
This unit cost $40 after rebates. Normal price appears to be $80-120.
Setup was easy to do, I followed the instructions to load the software first then connect the USB cable. I also downloaded and installed the updated drivers, taking over an hour on my 640K DSL (download speed was good). Another reviewer stated he had to pay for the updated drivers, but that was only an option instead of downloading. I did note several failures during the software install, both from the disk and from the update files. I was not able to determine what the problem was and the install finished with no other errors and appears to work.
I agree with the person who complained about the front panel buttons, pictographs are the pits for most of us. I was unable to test the buttons out since I had uninstalled the XP service that allows you to use them. I also have not tested the transparency scanning feature.
I scanned in the paper work for the rebates I had to do and had no problems, the scans were clear and readable, even off the cheap paper they use. Someone else complained about a line down the center and the need to put another sheet of paper behind to block it. My cheap 15 lb paper has the problem of showing the film scanner portion unless I double up on the paper.
One complaint I do agree with is that the cropping function does not seem to always work. Several scans had some lines cut off at the bottom, but that was solved by moving the cropping lines.
I tested out the OCR feature and sent the scan to a .rtf file. Looking at the file with Wordpad would give you the idea that it was better than typing it all over, but it would take a bit of work to reformat. My Open Office 1.1 would not read the .rtf file and I have not tried M$ Word for Windows.
I scanned my daughter's 7X10(?) school picture in, there was a slight reddish tint that made her face look slightly blotchy, but I think that was more of my not knowing how to compensate. I have seen much worse scans. The cropping was fine on this item.
Scan speed is nothing to write home about. On my AMD XP2800 with 512 MB of memory and XP Pro, using the cover of the October 1999 issue of PC Magazine with no cropping, the following results are found. At 1200 dpi and 8 bit color the scan is quiet, but it took about 8.5 minutes to scan, and 1.3 minutes to process and save with a jpeg file size of 150.3 MB. At 200 dpi (default) and 8 bit color the noise was much higher but the scan only took 44 seconds and the processing and save about 12 seconds with a file size of 4.6 MB. Initial warm up after overnight was about a minute or so, but after that only a few seconds. Scanning at millions of colors made a smaller file (3.9 MB), but had no affect on the speed (I wonder if I made a mistake).
It was noted that in the scanned picture certain color combinations were dotted and not a perfect rendition. The best example would be that a base color was laid down and another color sprayed on over the top like through a sieve. The dots were much larger at 200 than 1200. Looking at a red on white letter, there appears a yellow offset image when looking closely at the scan. What the reasons for these issues are I do not know, but it would preclude using this for anything important that needed accurate renditions. Scanning at 256 colors or the millions had no apparent affect, but the higher scan resolution made it look a bit cleaner.
This scanner does not compare to the 8200 series that I use at work, nor the extra software packages that we have. If I were to rate this unit compared to that, then the quality of scan, the speed of the scan, and the usefulness of the tools would go down at least to poor. As I stated in the pros, you get what you pay for and so far this system has performed well for the price. I can not afford the system at work, so I do the trade off.
While at one time I was a staunch HP man for working electronic equipment, the current HP does not appear to be as solid as it once was and more prone to putting out 'me too' toys rather than true innovation (having dumped much of the equipment line that made them their fortune). Time will tell on how long this scanner lasts, the years that one expects HP to last, or the months that some reviewers have reported.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 40
Interface: USB
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Epinions.com ID:
rayw1
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Reviews written: 1
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