| Product: |
Umax Astra 2000P |
| Date: |
27/05/01 (521 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Cheap, Good build quality, Excellent picture quality
Disadvantages: Old, Slow
I've owned an Umax Astra 600p scanner for well over four or five years now. I've attached it to several computers, all of various speeds. Currently, it's connected to my P2 450Mhz computer, and is doing fine.
It's been around for a while now, but at the end of the day, technology in this area hasn't improved significantly. This model, as the 'p' in the name indicates, is connected to the parrallel port. Everybodys first fear is then "Where does the printer plug in to?!?". Simple! It plugs into the back of the scanner. The printer performance doesn't seems to affected by this, just make sure that you have enough printer leads to join them all up. Alternatively, by a Parrallel to USB adaptor if you have any USB ports. It woun't speed up the connection much as it is still a 'parrallel' cable and device.
So, the scanner itself. It is quite big in comparison with most new ones, and although it doesn't look to bad, it does look very drab compared to the new ones, especially those that come with the currently fashinable 'iMac' colouring. It is a flatbed scanner, so you simply need to place your document on the glass panel under the cover, which need not be closed while scanning, so it can easily accomodate anything from a business card to an encyclopedia. Be careful with the weight you place on the panel though! Once, I pressed down a little to hard to try and flatten the spine of a book out, and ended up dislogging the scanning head, though Umax (or rather Novatech where I bought it from) replaced/repaired it free of charge. Very nice of them.
It's not fast, but then most scanners aren't. At, it can be very prone to making some very strange and worrying sounds as the scanning head moves down the glass pane.
The software is certainly adequate. It uses VistaScan do the actual scanning, and does come with various graphics programs that you can use to play around
with the images. Personally, I'm a bit of a Paint Shop Pro fan, and so have never really used these products that are included. The VistaScan software though allows you to both preview and scan the document, and alter a multitude of settings. These include resolution, brightness, contrast, colour, and many more.
All in all, it can't be faulted. You'd probably be able to pick one up second hand for around £20, though having said that I bought it new all those years ago for just £59!
Summary:
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