Blackmoor Vituperative

My very first scanner was a HP ScanJet IIcx. It was a huge metal-and-glass monster that took two men and a boy to move, and it cost (if I recall correctly) around $800. I still have it, actually, although it’s gathering dust (I don’t have a SCSI card anymore). I recently bought a HP ScanJet 4600, and I’m pretty amazed at how far things have come. The 4600 is a slim metal-and-glass unit that looks a lot like a neomodern picture frame. It installed easily under Windows XP, and it works great with Photoshop. Most surprisingly, the 4600 costs under $40 — one twentieth of what the IIcx cost. I’m amazed.

Unfortunately, the scanning quality is terrible. It has visible vertical bands of grey. Apparently this is not an isolated problem: you can read the reviews at Amazon and see that others have had this same problem. I am very disappointed. It’s such a beautiful scanner, and it feels more sturdy than any other scanner I have seen in the past few years. But scanning quality is what it’s all about, not what it looks like on my desk. What a shame.

I ordered a Canon CanoScan LiDE 500F to replace the 4600, which I’ll be listing on eBay this evening. The Canon is almost as pretty as the HP. I just hope its scans are better.