Umax Astra 2100U Flatbed USB Scanner (PC/Mac)

by UMAX

Product Details

Product Manual [1.20mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 7.7 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 11 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00000JGPV
• Item model number: 2100U
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1973

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

The Astra 2100U makes scanning easy. With the touch of a button, you can scan or copy images or text documents and export them to popular applications. And with the USB interface, you get quick, painless Windows or Mac setup.

Hardware setup was easy and straightforward following the included quick-start guide; software setup was lengthy but automated and essentially problem-free. We connected the USB cable from our PC to the scanner and the AC adapter cable from the scanner to the outlet, dropped in the CD-ROM, and followed the Umax setup wizard.

To test the Astra 2100, we started an imaging application and used its Acquire Image command to scan a magazine photo.

The Umax VistaScan driver software started automatically and, after a short delay while the lamp warmed up, showed us a preview scan. (VistaScan consistently waited for the scanner's lamp to warm up even after the lamp was already warm.) VistaScan has Beginner and Advanced buttons at the top of its window; the Beginner screen includes icons for color photos, printed material, text, line art, and Web images. We selected the working area on our preview scan and clicked the Color Photo icon for a final scan.

After performing the final scan, VistaScan automatically exported the image to our graphics application, where it appeared with an unsightly moiré pattern. We returned to VistaScan and, after finding a No Descreen option, changed the option to Magazine and repeated the scan. The new scan took 121 seconds and, although it had no moiré patterns, the image was a bit softer than we expected.

To test the Astra 2100's optical-character recognition (OCR) ability, we scanned a single page that contained two columns of text plus some line art. The scan took about 55 seconds, including OCR translation. Caere's OCR software ignored the line art and created a two-page document with a single column of text, which it then exported to Microsoft Word. The two-page format was unexpected, but the interpreted text was correct, and the OCR software did a decent (though not perfect) job of recognizing fonts and font styles.

Finally, we explored the well-chosen bundled applications, which are especially fun and helpful for managing digital photo albums. Overall, the Astra 2100U is a nice scanner with a good software suite for a reasonable price.

Pros:

• PC and Mac compatible
• Easy to use

Cons:

• Lengthy software setup
• Slim printed documentation

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The hardware delivers but the software is horrible, September 1, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Pauma Valley, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Umax Astra 2100U Flatbed USB Scanner (PC/Mac) (Office Product)

This scanner provides beautifull scans on my MAC G3 when it works, but the software is very buggy and causes serious system crashes (which were confirmed by ConflictCatcher). I called customer technical support and they said there was no cure.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but not the best, September 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Umax Astra 2100U Flatbed USB Scanner (PC/Mac) (Office Product)

I purchused it because it's very nice features, 36bit, up to 9600dpi, one touch scan, etc, at affordable price. However, the VistaScan software is a very bad program. It kept lock up the system or gives weird errors and I can't give go up higher than 1800dpi. I like the scanner, but I really wish UMAX could fix VistaScan's problems.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Umax = not worth it for Xp users, July 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Umax Astra 2100U Flatbed USB Scanner (PC/Mac) (Office Product)

As a customer of this product, I would give Umax a 1 star. Why? Mainly because they are wanting more money if you dont have an older operating system. I am running XP like most other computers are, and had this scanner for a year on a 98 machine. I tried installing the software which is incompatible with XP, to make things worse, I go to the Umax website, and they do not have ANY updated software for free. But at a cost of 15 dollars. 15 dollars for scanner software that should be supported by XP, its a joke. I already paid for the scanner, and they expect me to fork another 15 dollars? No free software for those with newer operating systems. Every other computer product I have bought has free downloadable software for XP users, and not a single dollar was charged out of my account. I have already told this to everyone I know, we will not be buying any Umax products, and I suggest that you dont either.