Customer Reviews

HP Scanjet 3500c Scanner

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought the HP Scanjet 3500c 2 weeks ago (Christmas 2002) and found it did a great job scanning black and white drawings.

The Scanjet driver software looks very similar to the HP Scanjet II software but the implementation of this "modern" release made using the scanner slow and a chore both via the TWAIN interface or the included HP software. This software was obviously thrown over the wall and into production without any thought to making life easy for the user.

The major problem with the software is how it will automatically crop black and white (BW) documents incorrectly. I had to hand reset each page after a preview or I'll end up cutting off the upper margin of the page and scanning the cover on the bottom. Yes HP, the auto-crop check box is unchecked.

I scan mostly BW documents. I want to set the scanner to scan 8.5x11 every time and simply can't. I have to manually reset the scan area EVERY page. So the software is half baked but at least it didn't crash. I would have kept the scanner if that was the only problem I could report.

I was playing around with different originals and stumbled across a serious problem when scanning originals at 600 or greater. The RED color channel is stuck "on" 100%. This causes the photos to have a serious reddish hue to them (or BW scans using the RED channel to be all white). This only happens when the resolution is set at 600 or greater. Is this a HP hardware or a HP driver problem? I don't know but it's serious. The HP web site is no help and has not updated the 3500c drivers in the 4 months since release v1.0 was chucked out the door.

The software annoyances, red channel problem, and 90 day warranty made me decide not to chance exchanging the scanner for another HP an being left hanging after 90 days while other manufacture's backup their products for a full year.

I returned the scanner and will not purchase anything HP (to include Compaq now that they've merged with HP) that has to do with PC's (I was witness to a bad HP Pavilion computer experience 4 years ago) or photo imaging. Somewhere between the Scanjet II and today HP made their software harder to use, is content to ship products rushed to market, and reduced their warranty to 90 days.

I pulled this baby out of the box, put the CD in my computer, followed instructions on the screen and within 10 minutes I was scanning pictures. You want to talk about a BAAAAD scanner, talk about Microtek's: HP Scanjet rocks! Quality was great, the Scanning interface that pulls up when you do "Import..." in Adobe Photoshop was very nice and intuitive. All in all, if you have never scanned images in your life, or if you're an expert for all matters and purposes, this is a great bang for your buck. Happy scanning!

When buying a new scanner, (Finally decideding to buy a new one after using the same sloooowwwww TWAIN one for 6 years), quality and speed were the top factors, along with price. Simply put, for the price of this scanner, this is the one to go with.

First of all, you insert the cd-rom software and it automatically sets up. I've seen many reviews that claim the software is bad and hard to use. I didn't have one problem at all, in fact, this was one of the easiest installlations I've ever done. Always check that you're computer is compatablie with whatever hardware you purchase. That will save a lot of crying and whining on your part.

This scanner is a BREEZE to use. 3 buttons on the front direct your scan to email, your hard drive, or your printer. One touch scanner can't get much easier. And it's FAST. To preview the scan, it takes about 2 seconds. After cropping the area of the scan you want and finializing it, the time it takes will vary depending on which DPI setting you have set, but at the average 300 DPI, it takes only about 10-12 seconds.

The DPI seetings range all the way up to 19200. The quality is EXTREMELY impresseive.

Another handy feautre is scanning a doucment with editable text. Say you scan a magazine article. You can scan it as a PDF file and edit the text very easily.

With USB connectivity, setting up the scanner is fast and easy. The software couldn't be simpler. VERY user friendly and easy to use. Within 3 minutes of set-up, I was scanning away.

All in all, I am very satisfied with this scanner. I would highly reccomend it to anyone who's looking for a fast, easy to use, and high quality scanner. And with the price that this scanner is set at, this makes it a top pick.

We didn't have a lot of money but wanted a good little machine.
This Hp scanner did the trick.
It's nice looking and performs well.
Our scanning needs are not to aggresive.
But we do use it a lot for pictures and record keeping.
It's worth the price for the average PC user.

Do NOT buy this scanner! I got it on sale and thought i got a good deal but boy did i get RIPPED!

The included software makes the thing useless! Just in case the other reviews on this page weren't enough to dissuade you from making this purchase, let me add a thought or two.

I've never reviewed a product before, but here it goes ....

The software would be really cumbersome even if it did work. In order to make custom settings stick, i've had to preview my document each time i do a scan. Otherwise, it "autocrops" my pages in half. (go figure...) It's an unbearably slow and painful process to make manual adjustments for every scan, but it seems like i have no choice.

Just try adjusting the contrast and you'll find even more problems that can make a grown man cry. It's ridiculuous! I'm adjusting three or four settings to get the effect i want, which is just DARKER TEXT. Even a tv comes with a contrast knob.

What's really funny is that having the "autostraighten" setting checked doesn't seem to help much either. Sometimes my scans are downright crooked even though the document is loaded perfectly square with the corner of the window... strange.... (maybe this is a hardware issue).

Also, i've been surfing the net for a while trying to find linux drivers but it seems that it's not "SANE"-compliant or whatever that is, and so i'm out of luck. That dashes my chances of finding some open source code that i can fiddle with.

On top of all this, my efforts to find better windows software support on the hp website has been fraught with peril as well. The website isn't even working correctly. I can't get to my product's support page. I'm losing my sanity because of this thing, and i'm an EE / CS major! I can't imagine what's going on behind the scenes when they do a product release. I've been using this thing for a few hours and it doesn't seem to do anything right.

I purposely bought HP instead of Visioneer because of the stronger brand name. I feel let down.

Needed a new scanner for my Dell with Windows XP Pro system since HP didnt make drivers for my old 1999 scanjet( which is still going strong along with my HP 882C printer) and looked into all sorts of scanners. I wanted something sleek, non complicated and inexpensive. I found this one at Staples for $44.99. It installed fast, but I did get an error message about Java Virtural Machine not being found. After clicking OK, the scanner went on to install without a problem. I was Concerned so I called HP. Yes, they use support from India....but who doesnt anymore. Anyway, was told it would not effect the functioning of the scanner in any manner, and so far, it hasnt. This thing scans into any type of file you want. TIF, JPEG, RTF, TXT, PDF, HTML.....you name it, IT DOES IT. The strange thing is, when it scans as a PDF file, it deposits a DPE.DUS file into My Documents too. I dont know why, and you cant open it. I delete it, and the pdf file still opens....so I dont know what to tell you.

Some complain about the Pink Glow the lamp emits while scanning. If you recall, GE has the same color bulb for your home lamps and says it emits more of a NATURAL color against objects ( less yellowing effect) which is important if you are scanning in photos. The color photos I've scanned, reproduce identically to the photo itself.

I am WELL PLEASED with this little unit. Yes, it does scan a little (and I mean little) on the slow side......but for $45.00 you cant do better or get more options than this unit.

This scanner is easy to set up and is a great deal for the price. I don't agree with the reviews that say it is a waste of time/money because it was a breeze to set up and the quality of the scanned images is impeccable!

Ok, The scanner says 48bit color. It only scans 24bit. There are no settings anywhere to access the full range of 48 bit. (yes I know there are only a few packages that support more bit depth but photoshop is one of them).
Next, you can't scan multiple docs from within photoshop. The dialog box closes down between scans. It also doesn't remember your scan settings. Everytime you open the software it has some funky default scan settings that trash your image. Every utility included with the package has it's own default settings.

I've used this scanner for archiving old photos, general scanning, and importing line art for coloring in Photoshop & GIMP. I've been very happy with it. The resolution & color quality is great for my uses and it's reasonably fast too. I have used this scanner on 3 different PCs and haven't had a single setup issue.

You can get these for a great price here so they're definitely worth checking out.

I bought the scanner a year or 2 ago and every thing was working properly, until I connected it to my new computer a week ago and it wasn't detected by windows. I did some testing and found out that the plug stopped working. It doesn't have a light in the front, so I don't know if it's getting power, but I connected another plug and windows detected the scanner and installed it. then I found out that the plug was the under powered(I needed 12v, 650mA, The one I used one that was 9V, 300mA). So I bought one that was 18v 1100mA that worked with a printer at a second hand store, figuring it would work with the scanner, and that the voltage and current was just the maximum value that it could support. Since I'm studying Electrical Engineering I know this is possible and if the product doesn't it's probably so you have to buy the exact same kind of plug.

I went to HP website and they want $15 for it Which IMO is too much. While there I had to click on about 5 links before I found what I wanted, it's very unhepful and also tech support isn't free.

The USB cable that came with the scanner is too short. The Software worked well when I't was functioning, but I had trouble getting things to scan straight.