Customer Reviews

HP ScanJet 4070 PhotoSmart Scanner

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I was recently given the task of selecting a flatbed scanner for public use in an academic setting. We didn't need anything fancy - just a good flatbed scanner with which patrons can scan photos and text documents. The main criteria I focused on were reliability, cost, OCR capabilities, and easy of use. Since I will be supporting any patrons with questions or problems using this scanner, I wanted a unit that would be as simple as possible to use. The designated PC has sufficient but not an extraordinary amount of memory, so I didn't want to go for extremely high resolution capabilities, either.

After looking long and hard at a variety of choices from leading producers, I chose the HP Scanjet 4070 Photosmart Scanner. Truth be told, it really wasn't that hard of a decision in the end. The HP Scanjet 4070 seemed to have everything I was looking for as well as some additional capabilities we don't really need but which could possibly be of use in the future. This sassy little convertible features a Photo Door which allows for the rapid scanning of 4 x 6 photos as well as the scanning of 35 mm slides and negatives. More importantly, it seemed to offer some of the most impressive OCR capabilities among the flatbed scanner candidates I was evaluating. Happily, the unit has lived up to its promises so far, doing a wonderful job of scanning text into an editable format with its Integrated I.R.I.S. Readiris OCR software - errors have been few and far between in this regard. No OCR software is perfect, but this does seem to do one whale of a job.

The optical resolution of this scanner is 2400 dpi, and the color is 48-bit; these settings meet our needs quite well. Our scanner's intended purpose does not involve high resolution scanning and advanced photo editing. The HP Image Zone software provides more than enough photo editing capabilities for us, such as the ability to remove red-eye problems automatically and easily breathe visual life into old, faded photographs. Unless you're doing some serious graphics design, Image Zone should have everything you need. The HP Scanjet 4070 also comes with ArcSoft Collage Creator software. We don't have any real need for this particular program, but it's a nice extra and can be fun to play with.

This scanner is pretty darn simple to use, I'm happy to say. The HP Director software provides an easy-to-use interface to all scanning options, and the front button panel on the scanner itself allows for basically one-touch access to the most common functions. The only way this scanner could be simpler to use would be for those buttons to actually spell out Scan Photo, Scan Document, etc. As it is, though, the icons on the front button panel are essentially self-explanatory. I can't really comment on the scanning quality of slides and negatives, since that is a capability we have no use for at this time, but the HP Scanjet 4070 does a wonderful job scanning photos and, as I have mentioned, a very impressive job of scanning documents into editable text.

Finally, this scanner could hardly be simpler to set up and install. USB makes everything easy. Install the software, hook up everything on the scanner, then plug the scanner into an available USB port on your PC, and you're ready to rock and roll. I personally had no trouble installing the included software, and I tested everything on my own Dell PC with Windows XP Pro before setting the scanner up at its permanent home connected to a HP PC running Windows 2000.

If you're looking for a flatbed scanner to do basic scanning of photos and text, I think you would be wise to include this particular model in your list of candidates.

I bought this item because the resolution was 2400 dpi and I could scan multiple pictures at once, and the software would separate them into separate pictures. After I bought this the scanner would not separate the pictures at a resolution above 600 dpi. After several days of back and forth with HP tech support. They finally tell me that this scanner can't separate the picturesabove 600 DPI. Then they tell me that you can't tell the difference between an image scanned at 300 DPI and one at 2400 DPI.

P.S. That business of "scanning a stack of Pictures" means you lift the lid put a stack of pictures in the holder close the lid, scan it, open the lid, remove first picture, close it, scan it etc.

I purchased the 4070 today after looking at the 3970. The 3970 must have been discontinued and boy am I glad. My main purpose in purchasing a scanner was several-fold. First, I had a ton of color 35mm slides that I wanted to convert to graphic files to be able to use in MS PowerPoint- on this the 4070 far exceeded my expectations. The colors on the scanned image were crisp and bright, almost nicer than if they had been projected on a 35mm slide projector. I was very easily able to place them into PP.
Second, I wanted to be able to scan documents to create an electronic version. The process was extremely simple, the images of high quality and I was able to create a PDF directly from the app. When I ran the OCR on a printed document it has about 95% accuracy- it seems the only areas it missed was where I had written in pencil. Third, I wanted to also create an electronic version of photos in order to preserve the originals, especially since now all my photos are digital to begin with. The 4070 created a crisp, clear scanned image. IN addition to the photos, I can also scan the negatives to preserve those as well.

I have been using the scanner a couple of weeks now. I have only used it to scan documents and photos, not slides or anything fancy. The quality of the scans is pretty good actually, never the less the software really, really, stinks.

I'm using photoshop now to scan the images and i'm fine that way.

I would give it 5 stars if it had good software. Everything else is very good, nice price and everything.

If you plan on using third party software to scan, go for it. If not, well....

We purchased the HP 4070 as a Christmas gift based on the "easy to use" descriptions.

After two plus hours of trying to get the software installed on a Windows 2000 PIII 800MHz w/ 256MB RAM, we were not able to get the software and scanner to fully work together.

We then tried a second PC, a Windows 2000, dual PIII 800MHz w/ 512MB RAM. After 30 minutes, we were able to successfully install and use on the second machine.

The scanned images were decent, but not worth the time it took to scan nor the complexity of using the software. So we returned the scanner. HP, is this your definition of Easy to Use?

Using the HP 4070 felt like interacting with the airlines - ridiculously painful.

My experience with this product has been very frustrating. I purchased this scanner as a Christmas gift for my wife, specifically hoping to take advantage of the convenient 4-slide scan capabilities built in to the top lid. The net result has been anything but convenient. After about a week of wrestling with this thing, I've finally decided to return it. All of our experiences came about trying to use the scanner with Mac OS X. I don't know if the Windows XP experience is any better (but earlier reviews seem to indicate that it's just as bad).

My problems have been almost entirely with the software. When I could actually get the product to work, the quality of the scans was pretty good. The resolution was fine, but slide scans came out a little darker than we'd hoped.

Our initial experience was very frustrating. After following the instructions to connect the scanner and install the software, we pushed one of the buttons on the front of the scanner, and absolutely nothing happened. We were able to get software-initiated scanning to work, but not button-initiated scans. Strange. We disconnected and re-connected the scanner a couple times, and magically, it started working. That gave me a bad feeling, but we forged on.

The configuration software was awkward at-best. The default settings for slide and photo negative scanning were set to 200 dpi, which is a completely useless setting for slide scans. Much higher resolution is needed for anything but tiny thumbnail images from slides or 35mm film negatives.

We dove into the software to change these settings, and I was very disappointed. The various scanner settings for slide scans existed in two different locations in the software - one set of preferences for software-initiated scans, and one set for scans initiated by pushing the button on the front of the scanner. I could not come up with any scenario where I'd want these settings to be different, and the presentation of these options was very poor and confusing. My wife ended up wasting hours scanning slides with the wrong settings because we only changed them in one place, but not the other. User error? Sure. But the software made it a very easy mistake to make, even for an experienced computer user like myself.

After realizing this error, and getting everything configured properly, we thought we were finally all set. Then, 12 scans later, my wife realized that the settings had somehow reverted to their original default settings! The scanner was once again scanning tiny 200x200 pixel images for our slides, and was ignoring our other settings.

I expected that perhaps we had done something silly and hit a "factory reset" button or something, but on further investigation, I discovered that every time the scanner was unplugged from the wall, the settings were reverting themselves to the (terrible) factory defaults! This is rediculous. If you move the scanner, or unplug it, your software configuration changes?

At this point, I stopped trying to make sense of it, and we decided to just return the thing. The convenience of the flip-top slide/negative lid was totally swept aside by the horrible, confusing, and broken software. HP support's web site had no reference to any of these problems, and no software updates were available. My patience ran out, and we'll be shopping for a new scanner tomorrow.

I was very excited about getting this scanner. But I had nothing but trouble trying to get it to work. The software required would not install, giving a Fatal Error. I worked with 4 different support technicians at HP, each guessing another thing to try - all to no avail. I am a software professional and a power user, so the issues were pretty bad to have held me up like this. I am now looking at other brands of scanners.

Received scanner in record time from Amazon. Only one day after shipping via Brown Ground. After 2 hours of trying to install the software I had to call HP support in India or Pakistan or where ever. After another hour on the phone (with a very nice lady) I was told the install software v4.01 was corrupt and they are sending me another CD free in 5 - 7 working days. If I wanted it sooner I would have to pay. After paying for the scanner I am really ticked off that HP would not expedite the replacement CD (which has no guarantee it will work) for free. So here the scanner sits on my desk like a lead weight. It's totally useless at this point. Perhaps in a week or to if the thing ever works I can send a better review. Oh yea, I downloaded the drivers and all from the HP site and it did not work either. I am using Windows XP Professional edition with more computer power than the scanner says it needs...........

After laboring mightily I failed to get the software to work for the HP 4070 scanner with my Dell 4500 - Win XP system (a capable and mainline computer system with no strange features). An HP Chat Line tech told me to download a 300 + mb file, unzip it and install it. Didn't work. The next day, another Chat Line tech told me to uninstall my XP SP2, uninstall the HP scanner software and start afresh, then reinstall SP2. Instead, after hours of effort, and help from helpless but very nice Chat-persons, I gave up. Thank you Amazon for taking back this scanner with the huge but useless software. Too bad I had to pay for shipping, but hey, who's complaining.

I bought this in 2004 and it was the newest model, so i thought that it would be relatively better than my old (cheaper) HP scanner. It is not. Like other reviewers, I also had to spend hours on the phone with tech support, who were, by the way, very friendly people. We managed to get it working.

There is a ton of software, using up much hard drive, with this model and its software. This hasn't been a major problem for me, but it may be for some people.

If one wants to put several photos on the scanner and scan one at a time, then one must...

1) put photos in a press "Scan Picture" (wait for lamp to warm up)
2) a quick scan of the whole scanning bed appears and you need to select one of them by dragging the crop marks to the right dimensions
3) make any changes to size, resolution, colour, brightness, etc.
4) press "Accept"
5) when scanning of the selected picture is done and the scanning bulb has returned to its original size, a "Save As" window appears where you must (a) give the picture a name, (b) designate a location on the computer to store the picture, (c) choose a format (e.g., jpeg, bitmap, gif) and (d) click "Save."

Then the HP window showing the entire scanning bed closes and you are left with the "HP Director" for which you have to start all over from # 1 again. All previous settings and adjustments are forgotten by the program and one must do EVERYTHING again.

Yes, there is an option one can select in the scanner "Preferences" or "Additional items" where you can select "Prompt for additional scan from glass/TMA" but by selecting this you forfeit the ability to name, locate, and format each scanned picture individually. The "Save As" window (from #5 above) appears only after you have scanned ALL your pictures. This is a flawed procedure: one should not have to use the same name (e.g., "Fred in boat") for every picture one wants to scan.

Someone at tech support told me that yes, this is how the software works. Too bad.

As for the TMA, which gives one the ability to scan negatives, well, I have found the colour is not as vibrant as scanning a print. There is no improvement in quality that I can see.

The OCR: the ability to scan type, works fine. Not perfect, but reasonably good. No complaints.

Oh, and if you scan photos from the photo slot, the edges are cut off by the picture holder, so that doesn't work for me.