Agfa SnapScan 1212U Color Flatbed Scanner (Blue)
by Agfa
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: AgfaModel: 1212UTG
Product features:
- 36-bit color capture
- 600 x 1,200 optical resolution, 9,600 dpi enhanced
- Complete software bundle, including FotoSnap
- Windows 98 and Mac OS drivers, software, and documentation
- USB connection
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Agfa SnapScan 1212U Color Flatbed Scanner (Blue)
Customer Review: Great Scanner At A Low Price
Summary: 5 Stars
I thought I'd write this review as a counter punch to those who wrote bad reviews about the scanner. I purchased mine when I bought my first iMac back in 1998. Here it is 2005 and the scanner is still working as good as it did from day one. I have used it on every Macintosh I have purchased since my original iMac and it has worked flawlessly under Mac OS 9 all the way up to Mac OS X v10.3.9. I am finally replacing it because I bought an all in one printer (printer/scanner/copier) to replace a printer that quit on me today. But the scanner will be given to someone who can appreciate its ease of use and great quality scans. I was looking for a source of information on the scanner so I could send it to the person I want to give the scanner to and this link came up first in my Google search. Perhaps people who are using Windows are having issues with the scanner but this scanner works great with a Mac.
Description of Agfa SnapScan 1212U Color Flatbed Scanner (Blue)
Agfa's latest innovation - the SnapScan 1212u - is a high-quality USB scanner. The Universal Serial Bus is an exciting development in PC interfacing. It's fast, it allows "hot plugging" without rebooting, and it supports up to 127 peripheral devices! These significant advantages mean that USB-interface PCs are becoming very popular. So if you buy one, and then want to scan images, the SnapScan 1212u is ideal for the job! SnapScan 1212u is also available in a stylish, translucent green design ("Bondi blue" in the U.S.) a perfect complement to Apple's popular iMac computer.Expanding the award winning SnapScan range, the 1212u is a high-performance 36-bit color scanner for reflective originals. It captures razor-sharp images up to A4 format and can register more than 60 billion colors! SnapScan 1212u introduces the concept of multi-user scanning. The ease and speed with which SnapScan 1212u can be moved between USB PCs makes it practical to share a single scanner between multiple users. This minimizes your costs and ensures your scanner never sits idle. Use SnapScan 1212u at home, take it to the office, share it with your colleagues - wherever there's a USB interface, just plug in and scan away!Add a colorful splash to your desktop with the blue-green translucent SnapScan. With true 600 by 1,200 dpi and 36-bit color capture, the SnapScan scans beautiful photos, artwork, magazines, or text into your image editor or word processor. Plus, Agfa's intelligent ScanWise software and USB connection make scanning quick, easy, and fun.
To setup the 1212U, we unlocked the scanner, plugged in the AC power, inserted the CD-ROM into our PC, and followed the setup wizard to install the FotoSnap software. When we connected the USB cable (included) from the scanner to the PC, the Windows Add New Hardware wizard detected the scanner and requested the scanner driver, which we located in the root directory of the CD-ROM. Restarting Windows completed the setup process.
To test the scanner, we started our favorite image editing software and requested a new scan. The FotoSnap scanner driver software started automatically and presented us with a screen from which we could preview the color photo we had placed on the scanner bed. FotoSnap also presented options for changing the resolution and for image enhancement. During the preview scan, the 1212U was whisper quiet and the scanning time was only a few seconds.
Through FotoSnap, we specified the output from our scan as a 600 dpi printer. FotoSnap made the necessary adjustments, and we clicked the Scan button for a full scan, which took 40 seconds. We rescanned the photo using a magazine filter (to eliminate moir? patterns). The second scan took 75 seconds and looked beautiful. A third scan at 75 dpi for display on a color monitor took 73 seconds. The output to both the printer and the monitor looked warm, rich, and true to the original photograph.
We also installed and ran the Caere OmniPage LE software. Scanning a one-page text sample took 17 seconds plus another 5 seconds for OCR translation. We opened the translated document in Microsoft Word and found a few typographical and formatting errors, which is a common result even from high-end OCR software.
Overall, we were pleased with the SnapScan's performance. And you won't find a more delightful-looking scanner than the blue-green SnapScan 1212U.
Pros
- Mac and PC compatible
- Fun, attractive case
- Very quiet operation
- None
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