EPSON GT-S50 B11B194011 48 bit CCD 600 dpi Sheet Fed Document Scanner EPSON GT-S50 B11B194011 48 bit CCD 600 dpi Sheet Fed Document Scanner

Pros: Decently made hardware. Feels fairly solid accept for the flimsy paper catch tray.

Cons: The epson software is junk. The interface is terrible and the codecs used for pdf generation produce huge file sizes relative to other programs (3 pages greyscale at 300dpi comes to 1.8Mb). The interface for naming files before scanning is buried deep enough to make its use totally impractical. Came with a gimped copy of Paperport 11 (v14 is current) which locks out Letter paper sizes if any of the settings are changed from the defaults. Forces you to scan in A5... Also suffers from huge file sizes. Played with the current version ($99) which with the default greyscale at 300dpi pops out the same 3 page file at 129kb but also bricks to A5 if you change from the defaults. Scanning anything at resolutions higher than 300 and this thing makes horrid screeching noises. Tech support staff are vapid but at least they spoke english and had no wait lol.

Other Thoughts: Perhaps we got spoiled with the Canon M-160 scanners. They are fast and come with a very simple interface that the drones aren't confused by. Too bad they are a grand each... Played with Paperport, FineReader, VueScan and Scanitto; the concept that scanning a multipage document to pdf and renaming it easily is the core use of a document scanner seems lost on most of them. Million useless features an none of them just get out of the way long enough to just work efficiently on the core stuff.

Pros: I love this scanner, it's fast and so far has not failed. I have a favorite magazine but I almost never read it because I prefer reading on my iPad. Now with this scanner I can scan in the magazine and transfer a PDF to my iPad and enjoy reading it again. Total scan time was just a couple minutes.

Cons: The drivers for the scanner are fine but the software is lame, I tried the paperport software and was not impressed a bit. I have Adobe Acrobat Pro v9.0 that I have been using and it works great with this scanner.

Other Thoughts: Epson should send out a better software package so that users can enjoy this great scanner.

Pros: When it worked (only 5 scans) it worked well.

Cons: When INITILAZING is flashing on the scanner, you are dead in the water, and it just happens for no reason.

Other Thoughts: I owned this for 9 days, scanned 5 pages and it broke!!! I called Epson and after a long conversation with the rep he stated that they knew about this problem but they did not recall the item and they are continuing to sell the scanner. Before you purchase this, do a Google search for EPSON GT-s50 INITILAZING, and read about this problem that literally stops the scanner from operating. This was my first and LAST Epson product!

Pros: I have not had this unit very long, but I like it so much thus far I have to give it a good review. It works very well. I looked at other models, and they all seemed cheap for scanners in this price range. This scanner is well designed. It does not feel cheapo. One of the things I like the most is it's compact design. When not in use, the bins fold up into and over the scanner for a small size and to keep dust out. I had no problems installing or with the software. It will autonumber your scan and time/date stamp. The software is good enough to get the job done.
I don't know if other scanners tell you about replacement parts, but Epson recommends changing the roller assembly after 100,000 scans. I like that rather then keeping you ignorant and hoping you will just buy another one. I'm glad that I bought it; what a time saver.

Cons: Can pull the sheet a little crooked, but this is not a big problem. Just take a little care when placing the sheets. Not a complaint so far just a thought.

Other Thoughts: I hope I am just as happy about this scanner 30 days and more from now. If I did need to get warrenty service, we shall see. This is the first Epson product that I have ever purchased, and we will see if it is my last.

Pros: Simple Design and Compact for a desktop. Despite what others have said, i have installed this product on Windows XP, Windows 7 (32bit) and Windows 7 (64bit). We are currently using 12 of these scanners. Don't expect blazing speed. Very reliable (run them daily about 50 scans for each machine). Only one broke and that was a connector issue. Epson sent out a replacement.

Cons: Plastic parts make up the out covering seem like an easy spot for someone to break them . It's just an area that is i can see breaking in an office environment. (office workers seem to find a way).

Other Thoughts: You will need to install both the driver and Epson Scan Manager software in order to auto scan documents into a folder.

Don't expect this scanner to out scan or be as durable as dedicated Copy Machine. If you have tremendous volume i would lease a copy machine and stick with that. If you have a lot of smaller documents and need to digitize them regularly then this is great.

Pros: Initially a great scanner. Fast for the price. Large adf. Easy installation.

Cons: Slowly over about a year of light to medium scanning the scanner starting picking up little quirks that eventually led to its being replaced by a Fujitsu 6130. First it starting adding about an inch to the bottom of all the scans. I fixed that by keeping it in auto size mode, but that slows down the process. also, if you scanned a bunch of separate jobs, each suceeding one would get slower and slower - I think the software was not emptying the cache, 'cause if I restarted the computer it would be back up to speed again (for a while). That is itself was a PIA. Then it started to develop a propensity to double feed, especially on the initial couple of sheets of paper. This was really not fun. I guess I could have bought new rollers and such, but they are expensive and I was not optimistic that that would solve the double feed problem.

Other Thoughts: Initially, I was very happy with this machine, but it went downhill quickly with the ideosyncracies that it developed - to the point where I replaced it rather than deal with it anymore. Software is ok, but certainly not great.

Pros: Packaged very well. Unless it gets hit by a truck, it will arrive locked, loaded and ready for action. Easy to install (I recommend downloading the latest software from Epson's website instead of using the CD). It will take longer to get it out of the box and remove all the securing tape than it will to get it up and running. Fast, relatively quiet and built like a small tank. For the demanding home user or small office, you won't be unhappy. Paper feed works like a charm.

Cons: Older copy paper - back when paper was thicker and felt substantial will sometimes double feed. Just make sure to flex your paper stack in a couple of different directions before loading and you should be good to go. Its a small bummer that you'll need your own copy of acrobat or favorite OCR software.

Other Thoughts: Wish I had bought this sooner. Has really made the transition to "paperless" far easier than I imagined.

Pros: Surprisingly, the simple 300dpi auto-deskew grayscale settings within the scanner obviated the need to do ANY post-processing in Acrobat or Paintshop.
At the 300dpi setting, even with auto-deskew, ran through 300pg documents extremely fast. For a 350pg document had to load the feeder only 3 times, taking 7-10 minutes.
The true test was when Adobe Acrobat then had to do OCR - and had very few exceptions (i.e. unknown words). Ended up not doing the deskew in Acrobat, as the Epson sw did it faster and with better looking results.
Form factor is small when buttoned up, taking only a small amount of room on top of my desk hutch.

Cons: Watch out for misfeeds on glossy paper.
Thick stock may need a bit of help in feeding.
When feeding larger stacks, keeping a thumb/finger along one edge of the stack at the highest point remedies any overly-skewed problems.
Will have to crop w/in Adobe Acrobat to get rid of tiny black edges, but can typically crop all even one way and all odd another way, and not have to do special page-specific cropping. Also, being careful to set page size in the options to something a few mm less than the actual page size seemed to lessen the need for post-cropping.

Other Thoughts: For anyone needing to fire-and-forget scan large amounts of b/w pages - this is a winner. You're limited to about 8.5" wide, and you'll have to cut anything that's bound, but if that's OK with you, this unit does the trick.

Pros: Works as advertised. Originally installed on a Windows XP system, and is now installed on a Windows 7 (32bit) system. It's used daily in a medical office, and regularly scans standard and odd size documents such as insurance cards.

Cons: Nothing to note.

Other Thoughts: We haven't used any of the included software, since the primary use is a TWAIN connection to our medical records application. Remember; always download the latest driver from the company's web site.

Pros: Works fine with Windows 7 - 64bit.

Cons: No free Acrobat Professional.

Other Thoughts: I wrote my review last year, but I wanted to respond to the last reviewer. I upgraded to Windows 7 - 64bit a couple months ago and I haven't had any problem using the scanner, either with the built in software or with 3rd party software.