Need a good Scanner for slabbed cards. Ideas? Examples?

I'm in the market for a new scanner. Mine is OK for unslabbed cards, but does a really poor job at slabbed cards. And being that all my cards are slabbed, I have a little problem. I'm looking for a scanner that I can pick up for less than $125, but that does a great job with depths, clarity, etc.

Any suggestions? Model Number and Manufacturer?

Here are what my scans look like:
These are the most recent ones:







Thanks in advance.

I really like my HP 3500c. I'm not crazy about its bare-bones software, but I use it with MS Digital Image Pro and it works pretty well for slabbed and raw cards.

Steve,

Looks like the HP 3500c model can be had for a very reasonable price.

Can you provide some sample scans from yours?

fisherboy7 wrote:Steve,

Looks like the HP 3500c model can be had for a very reasonable price.

Can you provide some sample scans from yours?

Yes Please.

I also found some good information on the Cannon Canoscan 4400f, and hear that this was a good one for slabbed cards.

I'll also find out tonight what exactly I have at the house...it's actually the wife's, and I can't imagine it was expensive at all.

I won't bore you with specific settings yet, but here's a slabbed scan, compressed to my site's default display:



And a raw card compressed from my original settings to my site's default display:



Here's a link to my site, in case you want to see the scans in their original form: http://imageevent.com/yawie99 I won't post them here in case we have any dial-uppers, but if you click "Original" next to the "Other Sizes" option under each scan, you see my super-size scans. They're all 300 dpi. I think I use a height of 1250 for slabbed cards and 750 for raw stuff.

That scanner does a good job with SGC slabs. I might just have to consider that one. Thanks Steve!

Canon 4200f works well for me...

I like that scan...nice. What does the Cannon 4200 run?

That canon was my other choice. It sure does look good. I can get that one for under $100

Great thread Eric....my scanner is a POS too and I was thinking about getting a new one. That Waddell does look sweet.

Anybody know if they sell that model at Best Buy or Circuit City?

Scott

Thanks Scott.

I looked on Best Buy.com. They didn't have either of these scanners. They did have one, but it had CIS technology instead of the needed CCD technology to compensate for the different depths of the slab. If you don't have CCD, then your scans will look like mine.



I think our two best bets are:

HP 3500c

and the Canon Canoscan 4200f or the model up the 4400f.

From what I've seen here I think I like the Canons.

This is the scanner of the wife's I use. Simple and cheap and doesn't look too bad with the cards.


HP 3970 Scanner

Amazon is our best bet for picking up a Canoscan: 4200f or 4400f.

I checked the specs and both are CCD. With shipping you're looking at about $100. Not bad.

Here's the direct link. I will probably order one of these this weekend, as I need one badly. And a good one. The reviews are really good on the 4400f, from other card collectors.

Here is amazon's link: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=canoscan+4200f&x=0&y=0

Thanks for the research and link Eric. I just ordered one from Amazon. If you can wait 5-9 days they offer free shipping on it (which I took). $90 all in.

Looking forward to it.

Thanks again.

Scott

Thanks Scott for the heads up on free shipping. I ordered mine too.

Canoscan 4400f it is!

Are you guys cropping your scans or are your scanners neatly doing it for you?

I crop mine manually.

yea i had scanning problems for the longest time also with those thin canon lide scanners...so i switched to an hp since i saw them scan nicely...but from rman u just need any model with the ccd and u should be fine. even beckett slabs are no problem.

I've got a HP C4385 all-in-one and its no good

That's how my current scans come out.

My new scanner has shipped. When it arrives and I set it up, it I'll post the results.

Scanner arrived today. I'll try and get it set up and post some scans tonight.

Scott

lamontcarter wrote:Scanner arrived today. I'll try and get it set up and post some scans tonight.

Scott

That's awesome! And that was quick shipping. Mine should be here in the next couple of days. Can't wait to see your scans.

This looks great to me

I'm basically technologically stupid. Can anybody tell me how to make this smaller? I resized it to 640 whatevers for websites. Should I chose the smaller version for blogs?