HP Scanjet G4050 L1957A 4800 dpi 96bit USB 2.0 Interface Flatbed Scanner

Pros: Excellent scans using its newest software.

Cons: The many possibilities of this scanner's included software just takes a bit more time to learn. I found that using its included OCR software under Adobe Acrobat versions 9 and 10 to be as effective as any of the most expensive OCR offerings on the market. I consider its photo color reproduction to be very good.

Pros: Can scan 16 slides at once, dust removal works very well

Cons: Hp software is very very bad, you need to buy VueScan pro software ($70.00 life time licence - will work on many scanners without additional licence) to make it work properly.
Will not work above 2400 dip - but this is all you need

Other Thoughts: Can scan a tray of 36 mm slides in about 5 hours. Actual scan with dust removal takes about 90 minutes. Just load machine walk away and come back later to reload. I am also doing my 110 mm Kodak slides without a problem. I made a 110 mm mount for the slides from old 35mm slides (cut the center out of the slide to mount the 110 slide and then did the scanning - works perfectly and very nice pictures at 2400 dpi)

Pros: Offers transparency scanning up to 4x5"

Cons: 1. All scans would have an orange tint to them (could barely see the actual document being scanned).
2. The scanning software would launch on Windows XP Home with just a black screen. Couldn't use it to make scans (had to use the buttons on the scanner). Scanning software interface was visible on Win7 Pro.
3. Got an error stating "error occured while communicating with the HP imaging device" about 50% of the time when attempting to scan (on Win7 Pro or XP Home).
4. Dust spec on inside of scanning glass (there is a way to remove the glass to clean it at least).
5. HP support is a joke. There was no number on the website to call, everything is email or chat. Their chat interface was down when I tried it, and then said try again tomorrow. The next day I got an email from them giving me a link to resume my chat support session, but it would only work if I clicked on it from the computer that I submitted the session on. The support person had nothing to say except return it.

Other Thoughts: 1. I didn't buy this scanner from Newegg. Got it from the store that is named after a river in south america.
2. Clearly this scanner was either defective from the factory, or someone dropped it hard in shipment.
3. The software included is not very good based on my experience. I installed it on a fresh install of XP Home with nothing else on it, and the interface came up black. Also installed on Win7 Pro but scans still were orange, and communication errors were intermitant.

It looked like a good scanner, but shouldn't have tried to play the odds based on all the negative reviews online. Looks like I'll have spend the extra 4 bill to get 4x5 trans functionality with the Epson V700.

Pros: I placed the order with Newegg at 8:00PM and the G4050 arrived at my door at 10:00 AM the next day! That's impressive !

I had to download the software bundle from HP's site as the CD's that came with the unit were for XP and Vista (I am running Win 7).

The installation was a breeze and everything was up and running in 5 minutes.

I am using the scanner to digitize my 35mm slides that I have accumilated over the years. I discovered that the majority of the slides had faded over time but the software had a check box to correct this and it did a good job. The speed for processing 16 slides at 300 DPI on my setup is about 10 minutes, which is not bad considering what it has to do. The results are as I expected and, as I don't intend to print enlargements, 300 DPI is sufficient, I tried higher resolutions but apart from taking longer to process the results were similar, probably because the originals were not super crisp.

Cons: None yet, but I have more experimenting to do with color negatives

Pros: Generally speaking HP products are well built and perform well with OS supported on product's drivers disk. My sj5370 cse with doccument feeder was built like a tank ant performed well under windows XP.

Cons: HP printers and Scanners cost more because they are built and designed as work horse products. HP product are a poor value as HP often fails to support older products by providing drivers for newer OS.

Other Thoughts: I paid $700.00 for my HP scanner, $1,600.00 for my Printer, Both still works well under XP. However I am unable to migrate to Win 7 as HP has decided not to provide driver support. This time I will purchase a $300 Epson or Cannon scanner which I can throw away when win-whatever # is released. I wasted money on quality build as both are dead due to lack of support.

Pros: This is my third comment on this HP product. I bought this scanner almost 2 years ago. It has worked well, even though the hp software had a klunky install process. At that time I was using the scanner with WinXP-Pro PCs.

Cons: I recently changed to Mac Pro platform, due to the whole Vista debacle. My Mac Pro runs splendidly on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). In September 2009, a visit the HP website revealed that the new Mac driver will be released in "late October 2009." It is now mid-December 2009,....still no driver from HP. HP should be ashamed with their current egregious and abysmal customer support. My scanner now collects dust on my desk - inoperable! I can no longer recommend HP products due to their lack of support. I can only imagine what Mr. Packard and Mr. Hewlett thoughts about their company would be at this time. There are other scanners from other manufacturers that work well.

Other Thoughts: I have and will continue to do business with Newegg. Their customer service and support continues to be impeccable.

Pros: scanner good quality, strong and heavy (it is important when you scan) fast scan times

Cons: little to expensive

Pros: None

Cons: Software has issues if you use a pad need to download fix from HP, lots of problems working on Vista... big suprize I know. Didn't set it up within the 30 day return policy from newegg. Freash out of the box it didn't work. HP is sending a replacement.

Pros: I have XP Pro with all the downloads. This was one of the smoother installs for me.

Long live XP PRO and Hp !!!

Cons: NONE.

Other Thoughts: Love Hp or hate Hp, they make REALLY nice scanners and printers ! Over the years I've owned quite a few ! I switched from an all-in-one scanner/printer/fax to this lovely, surprisingly intuitive, scanner. Maybe I've just had so many Hp products that they seem intuitive to me.

Pros: This is a follow-up review. I have had the scanner for a year and a half. Still works well for my purposes, no serious problems encounterd, typically operator errors. Good price point.

Cons: My computer crashed in December, had to reinstall the scanner driver, the software install utility was still klunky, running WinXPSP3.

Other Thoughts: Kudos to newegg for continued good service.