HP Scanjet 4850 Photo Scanner (L1950A#B1H)

by HP

Product Details

• Item Weight: 10.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 14 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000A6X9H0
• Item model number: L1950A#B1H
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 23, 2005

Product Description

HP Scanjet 4850 Photo Scanner (L1950A#B1H)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Awful, April 11, 2006

By 

Wilcy Moore - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: HP Scanjet 4850 Photo Scanner (L1950A#B1H) (Office Product)

I've never been so frustrated by a piece of equipment in my life. I had an older HP scanner that died after scanning thousands of documents, so I naturally looked to upgrade to a newer HP model. This thing is terrible. It worked fine for about a week, but then I started getting errors in the scans. Soon after that the scanner began freezing up regularly and then it ceased to work altogether. I went to the HP web site looking for a patch, and what do you know? A lot of people have been having the same trouble and they had a software patch that would supposedly fix the problem. Unfortunately the patch doesn't help.

At this point, the scanner works about 1 in every 10 tries. It usually freezes up, which then requires a total reboot of Windows. I've managed to get 3 things scanned this morning in about 30 minutes. This scanner is headed for the garbage if a new patch isn't available soon.

Update: I have now downloaded SIX PATCHES from HP's web site and the scanner appears to be working. Obviously it is the software that is incompatible with the combination of Windows XP and various other imaging programs I have loaded on my computer (HP warns about this). I have software for Canon and Fuji digital cameras, so they may be the culprit. In any case, I still wouldn't recommend this scanner given the compatibility issues that come with it.

2nd Update: It is now two months since I posted my original review and I definitely stand by it. I continue to have problems making this thing work right. It's so frustrating whenever I want to scan a document to keep an electronic record of something and I have to shut down my computer or start and stop the scanner. I can usually make it work, but it is NEVER simple and ALWAYS time consuming.

Another Update: Today has been pretty typical of what it's like to try and use this awful scanner. I had six documents to scan. The first three scanned fine. The scanner locked up on the 4th one. Had to reboot and start over (it erased the first 3 scans). This time I scanned 3 documents, stopped and saved everything, then went to my other 3 documents. Now it locked up on the 2nd document. Keep in mind, when it locks up, you can't cancel the job. You have to reboot and start over. By the way, the error message I got told me to reinstall the software yet again. I'm wondering how many of the patches are included in the latest version of the software because I seem to add at least one patch every week.

Final Update: The scanner was destroyed by office workers angry that it failed to perform even the simplest of tasks. Rumor has it that it was thrown from a 3rd floor balcony and then run over repeatedly with a delivery truck. In any case, this was the worst piece of electronic equipment I have seen in 20 years. We connected it to state-of-the-art computers and it was remarkably awful on a very consistent basis. Sorry HP, you're not what you used to be. Canon anyone?

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Design Defect in Make Copy Mode., February 14, 2006

By 

J. Parker (San Diego CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: HP Scanjet 4850 Photo Scanner (L1950A#B1H) (Office Product)

The make copy button on the front of the scanner and in the software does not work properly. In my case it makes copies only in draft mode. After getting the runaround from tech support, and even exchanging the scanner for a new one, tech support admitted to me that "make copy" doesn't work. In some cases it prints nothing, in others it just prints in draft. The gave me a "workaround." Scan it as a picture, then tell it to go directly to the printer. But then the copies don't look like the originals. What really makes me made is that they must have known this all the time, and they just wasted my time and tried to wear me down. I'm returning mine and buying another brand.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Multiple failures, March 15, 2006

By 

Michael J. Dietz (Torreon, NM United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: HP Scanjet 4850 Photo Scanner (L1950A#B1H) (Office Product)

I have approximately 10,000 slides to scan. I purchased the 4850 and after about 3,000 slides began to get three to four dark blue lines across the image. After reporting it to HP they sent me a replacement TMA. The new TMA worked fine for the first 450 slides and then BINGO, I now am getting two dark blue lines again. I think the machine is not engineered to handle the work load I have.