HP Scanners; ScanJet G4050

Really reliable for scanning and sharing photos as well as documents!

Easier to set-up than I Feared.

I have scanned more than a thousand slides with this unit. It does them 16 at a time. This unit is quite a time saver. It is easy to use. I highly reccommend this product. I even bought a second one for my wife to use at the house.

Marked setup as difficult only because I use Vista 64 bit OS. Had to jump through a few hoops on the HP site before I found the appropriate hotfix to get things set up.

This is the easiest scanner I've used to copy 36MM slides. I was astonished when I successfully copied 16 at one time!!

I have a newer dual core HP computer with a HP all in one L7580. I hooked up the G4050 because I wanted to scan some old slides in. The G4050 would not work because the software was too similar to the all in one, so when I tried to use the G4050 the all in one would go. I was online and on the phone with HP for a total of 6 hours, 4 different times. HP sent me two patches. The first one did nothing and the second one shut my entire system down and I had to reboot off a disk. HP said they would find a solution and contact me. That never happened so I returned the scanner under the extended warranty. I thought by having all HP products, everything would be compatible but the opposite occurred. Just letting you know. I also tried to install it on my older computer (windows XP but it would not let me install it. I finally admitted defeat and returned it.

Use it for old 35mm slides, negatives and for business graphics.

I am happy with all of the adapters this scanner came with. Also looks great and performs well. Only wish that it's scanning surface was larger (13x19).

Easy to scan several photos at once and save to individual files

I have some 3000 slides and I don't know how many negatives that I want to digitize and store. My first few trials look quite promising in terms of color and resolution. The only real negative I see is that at max. 3600 dpi and dual scan (6-color) settings, it takes about 20 min. per slide so a set of 16 slides in the easy to use template takes over 5 hours to scan.

I have had my new HP Scanjet G4050 for three weeks now. I am in love. You do not understand how many family photos I have acquired through the years … including hundreds of (35mm) slides and negatives of all sizes.

My previous HP scanner scanned only 3 slides at a time and the quality was so, so. So, when I went looking for a scanner to upgrade to, the G4050 sold me when I read that it could handle scanning 16 slides at a time!

Over the first weekend I had this scanner, I literally scanned at least 200, if not more, slides. (I would estimate in the past three weeks, I have scanned over 350 slides, 150 photos and 150 negatives).

Now that I’ve broken this scanner in, here’s a summary of my pros and cons using it so far. I have used it primarily to scan slides, negatives, photos, and I have also created pdfs out of documents. I have not yet used the copy function.

THE PROS: Love scanning 16 slides at a time. Scanner is bringing slides and 50+ year old negatives back to life with great quality. Once you get familiar with the settings, like I now have, you can plop multiple slides/negatives/photos on the scanner bed, scan a preview, set the cropping you desire for each image, and hit “accept all” and like magic, in a few minutes’ time, everything you placed on the scanner will become digital files. I’ve got this down to a mini-science that I can set up 16 slides for scanning, set my kitchen timer for 23 minutes, and come back and view the images.

THE CONS: There is no instruction manual per se, it’s a little trial and error and be prepared for at least one of those up-to-2 a.m.-with-the-new-gadget-hazing-nights. The 20-page booklet that accompanies the scanner is really for set up and set up troubleshooting only, NOT “How to scan images with your new scanner”; I haven’t had too much luck scanning things on settings that are much higher than the default settings, especially when dpi is concerned. When I’ve tried to scan at a much higher resolution than recommended, my computer goes into slow-motion, or crashes, which rarely usually happens in anything else I do.

MY RECOMMENDATIONS: If you need a good, reliable scanner to help organize your family photo life, I would highly recommend this scanner. When you buy it, fool around with the settings and upload some test scans to your favorite online photo developing site. There, you’ll be able to play around with the print size options and the website should give you instant recommendations as to whether images have been scanned at high enough resolution to get the sized prints you may one day order. If you choose to use the “dust and scratch removal” option, be aware that (at least on slides), this can distort the faces of people, so use it sparingly. You may just want to keep this on the low setting, if you use it at all. Pick yourself up a lint-free or camera lens cloth or photo duster. You are going to need to become part-time French maid with a duster to keep bits of dust off of the scanner glass between scans. Personally, I am not a big fan of the photo editing software that accompanied this scanner. I happen to like the Nikon software that came with my SLR camera, so I am using that instead for tidying up images after they have been scanned. That is just a matter of personal preference and comfortability, though.

There are lots of options you can select before you scan images -- like opting not to have the Photo Premier software open up after you scan, but instead have your scans automatically saved to a folder on your computer you designate.

The box came with 2 installation CDs – one for Vista systems (which I don’t have) and one for other Windows operating systems like XP (which I have). I think this resolves the problem that I’ve seen online from other consumers about this model. Some who have the Vista system had trouble installing/using this scanner, but HP must have since caught up with the times if they have different installation CDs to accommodate different operating systems available now.

All this being said, make sure to expect a little fiddling time with your images after you scan them in. Chances are, you’ll want to crop them some more, convert them to a cleaner black-and-white or image, enhance the color or brightness, etc. Luckily, all of that tweaking can be accomplished with the Photo Premier software this scanner comes with, or chances are with photo editing software you may already use.

Get those old slides/negatives/photos out of the closet and let some light shine on them in this decade, will you? HAPPY SCANNING!

PS - Am attaching a scan of a negative from the 1950s I recently scanned with this scanner.