With outstanding precision and a small footprint, the Epson Perfection 1250 provides excellent value for the serious imaging hobbyist. Connecting to both Macintosh and PC systems via a USB hub, setup takes just a few moments, so you'll be loading those photos on the Web in no time.
Four one-touch buttons allow you to quickly copy, scan, print, or e-mail your images. The rich 48-bit color and high 1,200 x 2,400 dpi resolution that are usually found in higher-end scanners keep your photos, negatives, and slides looking their best.
The built-in zoom feature provides a range of 50 to 200 percent, supplying plenty of options for enlarging or cropping your final prints. A cold cathode ray lamp is used as the light source, a powerful and economical choice that combines plenty of light with long-lasting efficiency. Maximum scan size is 8.5 x 11 inches, large enough for office documents as well as your family photos.
Included in the box is a USB cable and a software bundle that includes Epson TWAIN and several image editing and processing programs. Epson provides a one-year warranty that covers parts and labor.
1 Copy Utility Stinks
I have had this scanner for over a year and between the problems I've had with this and my Epson printer, I will never again purchase an Epson product. My scanner will not copy an entire 8.5"x11" page. It invariably cuts off about an inch off the margin. I have to reduce the image to about 90% in order to get the entire page to print. I have tried saving to a file and then printing...same result. The entire image appears in the preview, but will not print. I have downloaded all the newest drivers for XP, and have spent many hours on the Epson Tech Support site, all to no avail. I had an HP scanner before this, and decided to try the Epson, because it was so cheap. I guess you get what you pay for.
2 Epson Perfection 1250
I have owned and used this scanner for more than a year now. Its intallation was very smooth and its output is always almost perfect, not rquiring any further adjustments. 1200dpi is a lot of resolution that is required for most line art publications. I have not used the software package as it is really functionally very limited, particularly the ocr software, but again I doubt that any scanner in the same price range comes with a respectable ocr software (as omnipage). The scanner's control panel is a very large program (about 150MB) and although it offers many options I have not required those. As a whole, I have been very satisfied with this product although I do not depend on the supplied software package.
3 Fantastic Scanner!
I just got this scanner to replace a Umax Scanner. Ihave never had anything but a umax, and decided to try something new. I am glad I did.
This scanner is fantastic. I could not believe the quality of th first 2 test scans I did. Even in low resolution the scan looked amazing! I was pleasantly surprised.
The only reason I did not give a 5 star rating is because of the software. First, it is not the easiest to use (especially compared to the umax). It is not as hard as other reviews state, but it is not simple. Second, the software is not MAC OSX Native. It works fine in classic. Although the Epson website says OSX software is on the way (another reason I bought this over another UMAX).
I am an art teacher, and illustrator, and would use this scanner for jobs in both fields. This scanner is well worth the money. You won't be disappointed.
4 poor quality
Just purchased a new Dell 2gig 8200 with 512 megs of PC 800 rdram. I got a HP 4400 scanner and thought it was pretty good for a hundred bucks. However, I was told the Epson 1250 Perfection was much the better and for the same price so I sent the the HP back (one flaw about the HP was that it would not shut off if you shut the computer down first--I had to pull the power cord to shut it off) and purchased the 1250. I was not happy with the Epson and like many other people that have done a review about this product, I found the software to be poor and limited. My main gripe is the the scan quality was not nearly as good as the HP. This surprised me. Regardless how much I tweaked and played with the software, I could not even get the results that I got from the HP using the HP automatic scan.
I was fortunate in that I was able to send the Epson back without any charge back or shipping charges. I am now searching for something a bit better and am looking at buying the HP ScanJet 5490 Cse. I know this scanner will be far more money but I guess you get what you pay for. If I knew then what I know now about the Epson, I would have stayed with the HP.
5 Pretty much junk
Software is junk, scanner was defective right out of the box - slider jamming. Pass on this and do yourself a favor.
6 Epson 1250 Scanner
A very good quality Scanner for home use. Instant access buttons allow the user to scan directly into an application. Particularly well suited for home photo applications and reproduction/enlargement of pictures. I would definitely recommend this product to first-time buyers or non-technogeeks like myself. It's easy to use!
Buy It!!
7 badSoftware
I bot this scanner and have scanned 50 color photos.
The scan quality is generally good (better than 610) but the software is [poor]. You just cant scan to a file..The fullauto mode works ok though. The scanner makes a lot of noise (like a chopper). It takes 90 seconds to scan a color photo at 300 dpi.
In general, I would say, You can buy this scanner, if you dont care too much about the noise and speed and care only abt quality.
8 Great Scanner...Bad Software
First of all, I am very happy with the scanner itself. It provides high quality scans at every resolution. Photos turn out great and installing the hardware components was a snap. Please note that I said installing the HARDware was a snap..the software on the other hand is just ridiculous. You have to install several differnt components that are required to edit photos, etc. Now, one would think that this software 'package' would mean that you could move back and forth seamlessly. WRONG! You have to launch a program to do anything and its just a huge pain to have to wait for the software to catch up. SLOW, SLOW, SLOW. The software is not user-friendly unless you want to read through the manual over and over and oh, by the way you have to install that too....whatever. I would highly recommend this scanner to anyone if not for the software and I don't think buying another software program is acceptable. Do the research and get something with better software or you will be sorry...trust me.
9 Worthless Product
I bought this scanner shortly before Christmas in haste based on recommendations that the image quality would be excellent. I installed it shortly after Christmas after purchasing a separate USB cable, because the one included was too short, and downloading Win/XP software, because the included software was marginally XP-compatible. Once I got everything installed, the frustration increased. I can't scan to copy (my main use for a scanner) because that utility is incompatible with my HP Photosmart printer. I can't scan to fax since no such utility is available. Scanning to files is very slow and noisy, and directions for adjusting resolution, etc. are totally inconsistent with actual operation. The OCR package lacks much-needed flexibility. Contacting Tech Support at Epson and the software company, NewSoft, has been completely useless. As an Engineering executive, I do a great deal of work with computers, and this is clearly the worst software I've ever seen.
If it's too late to return this scanner, I'll donate it to a school as a charitable contribution (and hope that the school accepts it). In any case, I'll do more research and get a scanner from another manufacturer. Further, I'll never buy any Epson product again. By the way, the one star rating is one too many.
10 Don't buy it dust!
Don't buy this product. Epson has a manufacturing problem with this model. There are dust particles under the glass which can not be cleaned off. The unit is sealed. I bought it knowing that others had complained of the problem and thought I may be lucky - NOT.
11 Don't buy it dust!
Don't buy this product. Epson has a manufacturing problem with this model. There are dust particles under the glass which can not be cleaned off. The unit is sealed. I bought it knowing that others had complained of the problem and thought I may be lucky - NOT.
12 good scanner, some glitches with installation
Bought this scanner yesterday and also bought a USB hub, because I needed an extra to connect it to. Spent about 5 hours trying to get it to work. Somehow the TWAIN driver wasn't associated with the scanner. Uninstalled everything and tried again this morning. The only thing I did differently was attach my digital camera in the usb hub first, then added the scanner. Then everything worked beautifully. I had the camera connected directly to the PC at first, and then after buying the hub, never reconnected it before trying out the scanner. I guess the TWAIN driver was confused or something was confused and it was first looking for my camera and then the scanner. At first, I just re-installed the TWAIN driver and not any of the other software, just to see if I could get it work at all with other programs I already had. Worked beautifully. Then added the rest of the software and crossed my fingers. And it all installed correctly this time and worked great.
I was concerned about a previous mention of not being compatible with Windows 98 unless it was Windows 98 second edition. However, that is not the case. I don't have second edition either and it worked fine.
The scanner is quick, quiet and produces high quality images. The software is user friendly (after I finally got it installed correctly) and automatically recognized my printer, e-mail program, etc., for the one touch features. As far as editing, I haven't played enough with that yet, but am a novice at this, so I am sure it will be adequate.
I'm sure it would have been easy to install yesterday if it had even occurred to me that something else plugged into the USB port had changed and that I had to reinstall the other devices BEFORE adding another one. Overall, quite pleased!!
13 Returned it, bought 2nd one, just as bad!
I bought and returned two of these honeys. Both were identical. They had dust under the glass, the colors looked like they came from a different spectrum, very noisy and s..l..o..w. Finally settled on the Canon N670U. 1000% percent better. It seems that a company that can make such excellent printers should be able to manufacture a decent scanner. NOT! Save your money. Buy a Canon for less and go out to dinner on Epson with what you've saved.
14 Software from the Stone Age
As most of the previous reviewers have stated, it's a wonderful little scanner. But I just can't get over how poor the software is. In an age where Windows XP seems to anticipate my every move, working with the clunky software provided is really annoying. Here's the problem -- you don't get just one comprehensive program to do your scanning, you get ArcSoft Photoimpression, Epson SmartPanel, New Soft OCR, Epson TWAIN and Epson Film Factory Lite. Each of these looks entirely different and you can't move seamlessly from one to another. Want to enlarge that scan? Launch a program. Want to print the scan? Launch another. And each time you launch one, the previous one shuts down so you have to relaunch it if you want to continue scanning! Plus, it appears that none of the software designers has ever seen the standard Windows menu interface. These things visually look like some cheap game you bought in the $4.99 rack.
Unless I'm missing something, this software appears to believe that I bought the scanner to make only one scan -- ever. It seems to be saying "You REALLY want to make another scan? You already made one. Well, ok, but I'll make you wait while I re-launch."
Like I said, good scanner, tiny footprint . . . but I'd appreciate any suggestions for better software.
15 Good scanner with some easily fixed glitches...
We shopped around before buying the Perfection 1250 and are fairly happy with it. Initially had some problems under Windows 2000, but updated TWAIN driver (v5.51A) and plugging the scanner directly into the PC's USB port cleared that up (there were problems using it connected via my MS Natural Keyboard Pro's USB ports, though the setup poster does advise direct connection to the PC or a powered USB hub. Unplugging the scanner when it was connected via the keyboard would result in my machine restarting). The scan speed could be better, but is acceptable. The included software is very convenient and works well. We used the AUTO setting and saved to files, it automatically differentiated each picture and saved it to an individual file, and straightened them. The WebPhoto (?) software is also nice for uploading your scanned pictures to a sharable website automatically. Overall, very pleased with this scanner!
16 excellent scanner and software
The scanner quality is excellent, with good color reproduction and very good optical character recognition. There have been complaints about inadequate ability to adjust scan settings via the software. How to perform detailed adjustment is clearly addressed in the manual, and is easy to do. It goes like this: The automatic "smartset" program starts the scanning process and indeed has no detailed controls. However, clicking "cancel" on the smartset window as scanning begins brings you to the "manual" options where dpi, type of scanned object, size etc can all be adjusted. Overall, an excellent scanner at a great price.
17 excellent scanner for personal use
I'm quite pleased with the Epson 1250, I've primarily used the scanner for archiving old photos. For a scanner (in that price range), it provides excellent image quality at 1200x2400 dpi. Setup w/ Epson software and USB connection was a breeze, literally taking about a minute. The included software is quite good for most beginner to intermediate users. In addition to TWAIN capture software it includes OCR capability (text recognition), an image editor, and web picture hosting. More advanced users will make better use of Photoshop and other software, but you still can't beat the scan quality at this price point. Also, hardware seems to be fairly rugged and the scanner has small footprint and very slim profile. I compared various scanners in a retail store, the only ones that have a slimmer profile are the Canon CanoScan models (which cost about twice as much for 1200x2400 scan resolution).
18 Gorgeous scans
After reading the poor reviews of the software that is included with this scanner, I decided to only install the Epson TWAIN software and not use the Smart Panel software at all (both TWAIN and Smart Panel are included on the software CD). The TWAIN software works wonderfully for me on my iMac running OS 9.0, and it allows greater control over resolution, quality and image size than previous versions of Epson TWAIN software once the "automatic" setting is turned off.
The most impressive element of this scanner is the stunning image quality. The colors are incredibly accurate and the scans are sharp and clear for every resolution I've tried so far.
This is by far the best scanner I have ever owned or used. I highly recommend it!
19 Windows XP and Epson 1250
I'm loving this scanner. It is small, delivers great color scans, and does a great job with OCR as well.
I bought the scanner to do a family reunion project, scanning of hundreds of old photos. I scan directly into Adobe Photoshop to made edits and to save photos.
What is lacking is the software. I'd like to have a little more precise control over scanner output, like dpi rate and final scan size (blowing up a smaller photo to a larger one)
For the most part, via additional software I can control the output.
Overall, I'm happy with my 129 dollar scanner, it's doing everything I needed it to do for my project.
20 windows 98 FACTORY INSTALL!
After installing the software EXACTLY as described in the documentation, the TWAIN driver did not function properly. The scanner does not work with my version of Windows98, which I recently re-installed on my PC.
The system requirements posted online indicate that the scanner will only function for FACTORY INSTALLED Windows98, but the enclosed documentation says that the scanner will only work under Windows98 SECOND EDITION. I examined the system requirements before purchasing the scanner, but apparently not closely enough.
UPDATE:
I am giving a neutral three stars since the scanner works great with the twain driver.
21 Great hardware, worthless software
I recently bought this scanner to do some photo scanning and to scan some of my wife's art for the web. It's a great piece of hardware and we've been very happy with the images it produces. The software, however, leaves a lot to be desired. The TWAIN driver works well, but the "SmartPanel" software is a horror: don't install it! The image editing program that ships with it is high on flash but low on usefulness (there's no scaling option, for example). The software isn't that big of a deal, though... All you need is an image editing program that can acquire from a scanner. I use graphics workshop professional, which meets all my needs quite well.
So if you need a quality affordable scanner and are willing to roll your own software, I highly recommend it.
22 Extremely frustrated user
This scanner is such a shame. The actual scanner makes very nice scans, although sometimes a bit dark. The problem is the software. IT IS HORRIBLE!!! If you're trying to use the scanner with Windows 2000, forget about it. You can only use the scanner when using an Administrator account. I've tried for nearly a month to get Epson to help figure out how to use the scanner from a Power User account to no avail. The support people have no idea what they're talking about - I think they've never heard of Windows 2000. Additionally, Epson does not provide a toll-free support number. As far as the bundled software, it's bad and Epson says you have to contact the manufacturer to get support. As another reviewer noted, the software spontaneously launches itself every ten to twenty minutes while you're in the middle of doing something else. Then there is the other obvious flaw of not having a power button. In the end though, I'm probably going to end up keeping the scanner despite the horrendous software. Like I said at the beginning, the actual scanner hardware makes nice scans, it's the software that is the worst I've ever encountered. And the fact that I have to relogin to an Administrator account to use the scanner is a definitely an inconvenience and security problem. But I scan stuff infrequently, and when I do, all at one time so I'm not constantly logging in and out. The software would probably work better with Windows ME, 98, or 95. The biggest joke is that the Epson Perfection 1650 series is more expensive but comes with the same terrible software. I'd really be mad if I paid more money for one of those scanners.
23 Scanner is fine, beware the software!
I just purchased the scanner and it works well. I would prefer an on/off switch instead of the always on aspect of it however. My complaint is in the software supplied with the scanner. Twain seems okay however the NewSoft package is a little difficult to use, tempermental, and has some pretty poor manufacturer support.
There is a "SmartPanel" that allows you to access all the different scanning options you would need (photo scanning, OCR, copy to file, copy to web, etc.). It has a mysterious habit of launching itself about every five minutes which is really quite annoying. The NewSoft site is minimally helpful and (it just launched itself while I was typing this note!)offers a patch which is older than the software that came with the scanner. I hope that Epson reconsiders it's relationship with NewSoft.
But for ($) USD, it seems pretty good. The scans were very sharp, but a little dark. It's quiet and scans quickly. It easily sorts out the photos on the glass and scans each one individually. I'm not sure that it's the best deal around as I have never owned a scanner before.
Good luck!
24 Excellent scanner for the Home user
All in all I am very pleased with Epson's 1250. Scanning of Color photos is quick, accurate and yields excellent results. Having the extra DPI (12x24) doesn't hurt , but I haven't made use as of yet. Convenient one touch button makes it somewhat automatic. Only neutral comment is that once scanned, several programs need to run to complete your process. For a beginner, it may be somewhat confusing. Excellent.
25 Not as well made as previous models
Tried out this new model and have decided to find a 1240U Photo. 48 bit refers to internal engine. Demo model images were too green. Epson has always led the way in price/performance until now. This scanner does improve affordability but needs imaging improvement.
