Customer Reviews

Visioneer 4400 USB Flatbed Scanner

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

 

 

This scanner is a steal at this price, especially for those new to the world of computer technology. The software included allows for a variety of projects, and is explained in lay terms that make the experiance that much easier. Though this scanners' price is a bargain, you get much more than you pay for. The set up is easy, just plug it in and scan away. The resolution is great, and for those photos where your badside is showing there are a myriad of editing options available, so you can always look your beat, even when you don't. I have also scanned documents and had great results. If you are looking for a home scanner this is a great bargain with top quality software, this is it.

I bought this scanner a week ago and have been pretty happy with it. I teach computer science at a small college, and my main use is to scan figures from texts and articles for lecture presentation -- the 4400 does this as well as any machine I've used.

The drawback as I see it is extraneous software installed on my computer. In particular, when I installed the scanning software, some other piece of software, BMCentral (great name, guys), was also installed. BMCentral immediately tried to set itself up as an Internet server, letting who knows who do who knows what on my system. Fortunately my firewall blocked it and issued an alert right away, and BMCentral was easy to uninstall.

This is my third scanner b/c i had been terribly unhappy with the canon and epson i had bought before... they never worked. This is a miracle. I have been scanning and faxing non-stop. I love it. high quality and reliability. highly recommended.

This scanner was a breeze to install, and the software is good, EXCEPT you should immediately uninstall the BMC bookmark program as it is annoying and takes up system resources. The resolution is great, and I have been able to make good quality images for print and the web with this scanner. I do web sites for a living, and needed a scanner at home for some work I do away from the office. At the office, we have an HP 5200C, and I find this Visioneer scanner up to par with the HP. The HP software is a little nicer, but ScanSoft is easy to use, and the image editing is not bad for those who don't have more advanced image editing software like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. I DO run an AMD processor, a 1 Ghz Thunderbird, so those out there that see the other review about the Athlon can be rest assured it works fine on a Thunderbird.

Unit setup went well but when I tried to scan my computer couldn't find the scanner. After several calls (no toll free no.)and several hours of trial and error Visioneer admitted that they a problem running on an Athlon processor powered PC. I never got the scanner to work and sent it back.If Visioneer had been upfront in their specs I could have avoided this waste of time.

The setup for this scanner was exetremely simple. (Make sure and follow instructions, it might mess up on you if you don't.) It only took me about 15 minutes for completely set it up, and within 5 minutes afterwards I had already scanned in 3 pictures! :-)

This is a great little scanner for home use. Don't expect professional quality, but do expect pretty gosh darn good quality. (Yes, I'm from Kentucky. :-D)

The software that comes with it isn't the tops, but it's not so bad. I myself use Corel Photo House 5, which came with my computer, and not the scanner. So if you can lay your hands on a low-priced copy of that software, that'd be great.

If you're wanting to use the scanner for professional publications, etc., I wouldn't recommend it, but if you just want to use it to scan in family photos to share with family, or on your website, then great! :-D

I do hope this review helped. :-D

I am a web developer and bought this scanner a few years ago ... when I was new to the computing world. The scanner works great if...
1. You are not running Windows XP
2. You do not want advance scanning options
3. You need 42 bit color and 600 x 1200
4. You do not to scan photos to print (Photo Printer is 1200 x 1200)
5. You do not need to scan negatives or slides.

If you are planning on using the scanner to archive family photos on a website, I would HIGHLY reccomend the scanner to you because of its price and very simple installation. If you are planning on using it for professional work or for printing photos, I would reccomend going a step higher for a better quality scanner. One downfall is the cords! The usb cord is built into the scanner is about 2.5 feet long. It is very hard to use unless you have a USB hub or a USB extention cable. The power cable is also very short (3 ft.). The software provided with the scanner is NOT native to windows XP and every time I plug my scanner in, my system has to go through the recognition process which is a pain. The scanner does have a TWAIN function that I use through Adobe Photoshop 7.0. It is very simple to use and very self explainatory. I would reccomend installing the drivers and then dumping all of the software that came with the scanner except the OCR program and MGI Photo Suite.

So.. I would reccomend this scanner to someone who doesn't want anything expensive, but something cheap, but not to somebody who is going to be editing photos professionaly.

I'll have to dispose it soon. It is completely unsuitable for my Linux desktop and I've given up to find its drivers. The manufacturer neither provides a driver nor disclose tech spec to let others to write it. In short words: don't buy it for whatever OS except Windoze. (Well, 1 star can be earned for at least working under MS-OSes).

I spent about 2 weeks tweaking the colors and getting it just perfect and then a week later it died. The carriage ran itself to the far end and began to make a loud grinding sound. Tech support is a long distance call and has banker's hours so good luck getting through.

Constant problems when using with Windows XP.
Slow operation, hard to load software, poor resolution, the list goes on.

When it came to upgrading to Windows 7, forget it!
No drivers are available after hours of searching on the web.
And by the way Visioneer on their website states,
"This product is classified as END OF LIFE."

I'll just have to keep an old PC with previous operating system around just to occasionally use this scanner which has had very little use and is in great shape but the company can't be bothered with providing a driver for.