Microtek ScanMaker 4800 Scanner

As with all other USB products I own, the installation was EXTREMELY easy, and the concise manual is written in plain English. Just as important, the Windows 2000 TWAIN drivers are very stable. Running ScanWizard 5 and importing to Photoshop 6 is very painless and simple.

Scans are pretty fast with 96-300 DPI resolution, but once I reach 600, it becomes a tortoise-like drag. I do a lot of scanning of magazine pages in full-color, and I wasn't impressed with the clarity until I reached 1200 DPI (although the maximum interpolation DPI goes as high as 9600). However, because my preferences for professional quality photos are high, most consumers shouldn't worry, especially if you're only using this scanner for web graphics and family photos. Black and whites and web graphics were very fast to scan, and I was impressed with the results. I'm sure most people won't need to go beyond 300 DPI anyway, because that's the best resolution for printing.

I stick with Adobe Photoshop 6, but the included software (Adobe PhotoDeluxe) is a trimmed-down version of essentially the same stuff. The ABYY fine reader program is pretty good with OCR but the Ulead Photo Explorer SE is the best program included, making organization of my scans very painless. Furthermore, to clarify another review, the 35mm Light Lid IS included for scanning film, although I haven't tried it myself yet.

As for the cons, the most disturbing thing is that there is no power button! The only way to turn it off is to unplug it, although there is a power-saving mode. Secondly, size does matter and I do envy the Canon owners who get a much sleeker model that is literally three times thinner. Another thing to note is that support is only available for 30 days. After that, you have to pay for the call. Fortunately, I haven't had to question anything yet, and that's always a good thing.

In summary, I say the buck stops here for scanner buyers. Do your research to confirm you need 48-bit color (most people don't, and actually the human eye can't perceive beyond 32-bit), and have the desktop space. The software, extra features and installation are a steal..., and there aren't any extra hassles to deal with either.


For the Money, BINGO! This is a great scanner   January 15, 2002
Joe S (Puyallup, WA USA)
28 out of 28 found this review helpful

First off let me say this, I was really going to buy a MicroTek scanner. I didn't know the name brand and all their products were priced very low, so I just assumed they were cheaply made. So I went and bought a HP scanjet 4400C, which ahd about the same specifications. I used it for about 3 weeks, fighting through scan quality problems left and right when canning at 600ppi or more. I couldn't get through them after resinstalling the drivers and software, replacing the scanner with a new one out of the box, etc...

So I sniffed around looking for another comparable scanner, I looked at Canon and Epson, but this one jumped out at me because it had a built in Slide scanner (which I haven't used yet). I bought it thinking "well I'll probably have to take this one back, but what the hell the price is right and it's worth the shot".

Needless to say I was very pleasently surprised when I installed this scanner. First worked first time (Under XP none the less) without any headache. Second the TWAIN driver is much better than HPs, in advanced mode you have awesome control (and you cna save your preferences for later use), and it imports sweetly to Photoshop. Thirdly, it is fast, much faster than the HP, I scanned a 8x10 at 600ppi in about half the time.

Here's the other thing, how much scanner power do you really need? Do you really need 48bit color depth, probably not, you can't do much with those scans anyway, only tiff, raw, and some specific vendor formats can handle those files. So what are you going to do with a 350M 600ppi 8x10 scan? How many times are you going to scan something at more than 600ppi (film maybe).


Excellent Value   December 6, 2001
21 out of 22 found this review helpful

I recently purchased the Microtek 4800 scanner, I have yet to be disappointed. It scans at a good clip, and the optical resolution is good for the price. I had to download the drivers for Windows XP from the Microtek website, but this went well, and once I had the file, installation was a snap. Good software bundle too.


Nice Scanner, Nice price   February 3, 2002
14 out of 15 found this review helpful

Pretty versatile scanner, it looks cool too Silver lid with cool grooves and the button panel is cool plastic with silver pin-stripes which surround the five buttons to make your scanning tasks convenient: scan, photocopy, email, OCR and Web photo sharing. It does reflective (regular things like photos, typed or handwritten pages, etc.) and both positive and negative film with the Lightlid attachment.
The pros are that the software it comes with are pretty good, especially the interface of the Twain program Microtek Scanwizard which you can keep in either simple, easy mode or advanced mode or switch between the two interfaces as you like. The ABYY Fine Reader Sprint is pretty decent OCR Software at recognizing text; you can try and then purchase the full version of ABYY Fine Reader if you need that. If you are a digital camera aficionado or want to be, Adobe Photodeluxe does a decent job at editing your photos and Ulead Photo Explorer SE does a pretty good job at keeping you organized and the real version of Photo Explorer isn't that expensive if you need more options. Along with the online photo sharing and fairly decent scanning speeds, you get alot for your buck.
The cons are the name: ScanMaker 4800, you think it's a better or stepped up version of the 4700 but it's not, it's more of a stepped up version of the 3800. The 4700 is built much more sturdily and it has some better software that comes with it but you do pay for those "extras". The results from the film scanning with the Lightlid attachement are far from stellar, photos are better to scan.I also wish they made the Lightlid (the film-scanning add-on) with a little bit longer cord. Another con I think is that there is no off button (I unplug it to turn it off) or sleep button(low powered idle mode). Plus the scanner won't go into sleep mode unless you run Microtek ScanWizard each time you turn your computer on(this won't be a big problem if you always leave your computer on you just have to run ScanWizard once).
If you need a low-priced, lightweight scanner which is good at scanning photos with good 48-bit color depth and great DPI then this is the one for your home or small office.


Scanner is great, support is just awful   April 21, 2003
K. Kilgore (Virginia Highlands, VA United States)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

The Microtek 4800 scanner is a great buy, as long as it installs perfectly the first time. I have Windows XP, and one reason I chose this scanner is it's supposed to be compatible. Not hardly. Between two computer professionals, we couldn't get it to work. After several phone calls and numerous e-mails, we were told the problem was very complicated and we should use the premium (pay) support. This was before the 30 day free support period ended. We finally got into the registry and got it working. I do like the performance and features, just beware if you have XP or any unique setup...