A Lot of Scan for the Buck

I'm a graphic artist, so I need a reliable scanner -- one with a reasonably high resolution, and one that I can plug in and have it work without a lot of fiddling from me.

The Microtek 4800 has been a dream -- with its small footprint, it takes up only a small corner of my desk, and its sleek silver case looks great, too. I was thrilled that there were only three things I needed to do once I got the scanner out of the box: unlock the scanner's bulb (easy to do with a screwdriver and instructions), plug everything in, and install the software -- voila! No configuring, no tinkering -- it worked right out of the box and it's still working great. The USB cable is included, as is all of the software and instructions.

I use Photoshop 6 and Fireworks for my scanning and image manipulation, but for the home user, the ScanWizard and Photoshop LE that comes with the scanner should be sufficient. The software was very easy to install, and I loved the fact that I could pick which programs I wanted -- I wasn't stuck installing a bunch of software I'd never use. My scans are crisp and clear, and even at the highest resolution, the scans are reasonably fast.

One handy feature that I'd like to point out is that you can scan text documents right into MS Word or Excel -- a terrific feature if you're telecommuting or sharing documents with a client. You can also scan a document into your e-mail client, which makes this machine versatile and flexible -- something that even a higher-priced scanner may not offer.

The only downside that I can see is the slide/film adapter that's included with the scanner -- it's flimsy and looks/feels like the old hand-held scanners that popped up in the late 80s/early 90s. Don't buy the Microtek 4800 for that feature alone -- it's not worth it. Do buy it for the crisp fast scans and the versatile scanning options. It's a great buy for the money.