Customer Reviews

HP ScanJet 6300Cse Professional Color Scanner

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

 

 

I'd never really thought about getting a scanner, but as time has gone by, I've started to realize some of the possibilities that I've been missing previously.

So, I dived in and bought this HP 6300Cse (coincidentally, the differences between "se" and "xi" versions are a single software package, so far as I could tell). I'm really impressed.

Setup was as easy as it could be, especially with the poster that comes in the box. Plug USB cable here and here, add power. Hey presto. The software installation is similarly easy, a nice touch being able to select all the packages you want up front, and then starting each of their respective setup programs (as necessary). Don't expect too much in the way of printed documentation - there isn't any. You shouldn't need it though, and the software comes with more than enough documentation online (in PDF format).

The software provided is nothing short of outstanding. PhotoDeluxe is very good, very intuitive. The provided HP ScanJet Pro software is also excellent (and this is the piece that I find myself using most). The OCR software seems to work pretty well - but make sure you spell-check that document before sending it to your boss, it DOES get confused sometimes. (I saw it convert "move" to "||OVe", which is the worst I've seen, by far).

I like the concept of PageKeeper, but don't use it much. (The intent is to use it as a "scanned document manager" - I'm not exactly swimming in paper, so I don't care too much) It does its job adequately.

Scanning quality is first rate - printed materials are crystal clear when scanned. A printed (magazine) picture will even pick up the CMYK dots. Wow! Photographic scan quality is a dream.

Overall, simple to setup and use, excellent bundled software, and brilliant scanning to boot. You can't go wrong.

HP has done this one right. Installation was completely idiot proof. Using the scanner is surprisingly simple for basic operations. The included software titles are well thought out, high quality applications that cover all the bases from a simple, "make a copy spit out of the printer with 1 press of a scanner button" to a fantasy 1 gigabite scan of a 3x5 photo with more resolution than any eyeball could detect. More importantly the scanner & software handles all situations inbetween. An impractical example of the the capabilities was a photo I printed from a developed 35mm film negative. I scanned the negative at 1200dpi using the included slide adapter, then sent the scan to the included Adobe Photoshop (Business Edition). I then reversed the color polarity of the image, adjusted color balance, contrast, individually fixed scratches and dust marks, then printed out an 8x10 on inkjet photo paper that rivals the original 4x6 print. It takes a lot of system resources for a proceedure like this(e.g. 64meg pentium166, 1/2 gig swap file space, 100k to save the image), but if you want it, the capability is there with equipment like this.

If you're looking for a fast, easy-to-use, flatbed scanner -- look no further. It produces high-quality scans with ease of use. The buttons on the front allow you to easily make copies (just press the Print button!), or fax it, or e-mail it, etc. Very easy to use and set-up. I'm very happy with the results. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because the Slide Adapter doesn't produce very good results from 35mm slides. They are "ok", but not great. But as for the flatbed scanner, it's fantastic!

One star for working nine months but now the scanner died on me. HP is replacing it and in the meantime I'm using a CanoScan N124OU that works perfectly. Look around and you won't see any HP ScanJet 6300s being sold. Too many problems after a while...

This has to be one of the worst products that HP has produced. I bought this in tandem with the Photosmart 1315. BIG MISTAKE! Not only are both products off the market, but HP offers no assistance what-so-ever. If you pay them $... they will assist you. What a rip-off! I'll never purchase a HP product again.

Here are various comments I have about this scanner, which I've owned for over two years.

- not-too-bad results for color photos, especially for web use.

- the film/slide-adapter contraption that it comes with is practically useless. The reflector inside is hazy, and since it is made of cheap plastic, it broke when I tried to use it. The lighting on the resulting images is waay off and the over all quality is pretty bad.

- ScanJet software that it comes with isn't too friendly, but it's ok after you get used to it.

- scanning anything over 300dpi is much slower than expected

- this machine is LOUD!

Well just last night, the scanner literally burnt up and died on me when I connected it to another computer. I'm not sure what exactly happened, but when I ran a test scan, the light burnt out and the slider choked as it tried to scan..leaving a pretty nasty burnt odor in the room for a while...

This scanner was a great disappointment. It never worked for one moment fresh out of the box! As you can't return it to the store you are reduced to immediately spending more money on a long distance phone call to get a replacement. Not a new one that is. Just someone else's rebuilt problem. The buttons didn't work on the replacement! Help was only another long distance call away, and we all know how long it can take to be the 'next person in line'. Finally, the third unit arrived. Yet another rebuilt piece of garbage with dirt and cloudy streaks on the inside of the glass! Makes for nice looking scanned images!
So, $x spent + phone calls + 2 replacements = 1 useless unit. Never will I waste money on any HP item again! *-5 Stars* is more like it!

I have had one for a long time. The mac OS X drivers are terrible and glitch up your system. It is possible to get them to work if you monkey with them for a while but not worth it. Seems to be a good piece of hardware but the software sucks so bad it cannot be redeemed.

An important point lost in the editorial reviews and technical details is that this device has, in fact, been made Mac compatible by the release of a whole series of Mac drivers. When I bought mine, the product was sold as a "Windows 98 only" device, but since then HP has added compatability with most versions of Windows and every version of Mac OS from 8.6 to 9.x. OS X compatability is still not a reality, but HP can be forgiven this; many USB products aren't currently compatible with OS X.

I'm not sure if these new Mac drivers are now included in the standard packaging. If not, they can be ordered for a nominal fee (what amounts to little more than a shipping charge) from HP. Updates can then be obtained by download from the HP website.

There are some pieces of in-the-box software which are NOT Mac compatible, and which HP makes no attempt to make available to the Windows-impaired. Most users will not be inconvenienced by this, however, as they are minor, third-party releases that provide functionality Mac users probably already have.

The Mac drivers, in their latest version, seem to be as good or better than the Windows originals. In fact, I found that the front buttons on the scanner seemed to work a lot better on my Mac than my Windows-based machine. I often found in Windows that sometimes the buttons stop working at all, and I had to reboot. I've had no such problems with the Mac drivers.

Beyond the issue of Mac compatability, the scanner itself has yet to seriously disappoint me. The slide adapter is a little bit of a joke, and it does take acres of time to scan at really high resolutions, but most users will see this as a serious upgrade to their imaging capabilities.

If you want a scanner that's appropriate for all professional work (save, perhaps, print photographic editing at extremely high resolutions), this strikes a nice balance between features and price. Web masters, in particular, will need little more than this scanner.