With outstanding precision and a small footprint, the Epson Perfection 1250 Photo 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. Plus, the 1250 Photo comes with a 35mm slide adapter, so it makes a great accessory for your digital darkroom.
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 are the slide adapter and 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 What to buy?
When you walk into the computer store and look at the displays, and sales literature, are you left as confused as I am? Reading reviews is the same. Some 5 stars and some P'off people. It seems as if doing your homework only makes you feel good when you initially and "confidently" plunk down your money. When you get home and plug it in, your homework may or may not pay off. Reminds me of the Cabela's catalog for hunters and fishermen. There must be at least 50 pages of camoflage clothing. If you really want such an item, you'll probably buy it from them because, after all--"they have such a selection" (and they've confused me) so I'll put my finger down somewhere and just buy it. HP, Epson, Canon, and others are the same way. Their strategy is to create a proliferation of products that take up shelf space and the consumer will have to buy something. Why don't they spend their efforts making fewer models and better products? Because we the consumer are used to having 14 brands and styles of peanut butter to choose from (and even more would be better, right?) Any ideas out there on how to put some sanity into the process?
2 Two major problems with this scanner
My first scanner was an Epson 600, but when I made the jump to Win2K, there was no driver for it so I bought the Epson Perfection 1250. Alas, it was not as good a scanner. The two main problems are:
- The control panel pops up randomly, something for which there is no fix apparently.
- After 10-15 minutes, the computer has to be rebooted to find the scanner if is has been inactive. If the scanner is unplugged to force a rescan of the USB port, the PC crashes.
It is also very slow and the software that comes with it is not even close to being as good as the package that came with the 600.
Other reviews cite an attachment that helps scan slides but, alas, that did not come with my scanner. On the other hand, the dust under the glass noted in other reviews has not been a problem.
3 crappy scanner
I have the scanner for almost 1,5 years now. When I used the Epson perfection 1250 in the beginning on my completly new AMD athlon 1800+ XP machine, I was astonished about the good quality of the images but also the speed with which they were produced....but after a 8 months or so......the machine produced images of a quite different quality I was used to.
Now it is like this: The first 5 images are always crap!....the first 5 produced scans always have a sort of dark red / orange transparant film over them. After 10 images the organge film / layer changes to a more yellow like transparant film. After about 15 images the left side of the scanned image has the appearance it has to have ...but the right of the image is still covered with a yellow film.....I am really p. off.
I have asked for technical help at the Epson customer service (it really isn't what the name suggests it is)....but basicly it was my problem and my scanner was just used up.....HELLO....I've HARDLY USED THE D*MNED THING
conclusion after this on time affair with an EPSON product:
NO MORE EPSON FOR ME!
4 A tad slow, BUT .....
I like this scanner, esp. when compared to others I have owned or used (Mustek, HP, Acer). My only complaint is the warm up time it requires. The output, though, is excellent amd the detail in my images is great. Think my future scanner purchases will also be Epsons!
5 You get what you pay for
I've had one of these scanners for about six months now, and I absolutely hate it. I'm going to buy a different one simply because I'm about to throw this scanner through the window. There's a myriad of problems to talk about, that some of the other users who wrote after having the scanner for a few days probably haven't run into yet.
1. Several people mentioned that the scanner software suddely starts on it's own out of nowhere. It just happens at random times. Even worse, sometimes this crashes other programs you might be running at the time. I have to keep the scanner unplugged to prevent this from happening.
2. The software is buggy. You better save your pictures after 2 or 3 scans, because it's very likely the software will hang, and you'll lose all the pictures you've scanned in since you last saved.
3. It's slow. Don't expect to scan more than about 15 pictures an hour. Of course when the software crashes after you've scanned in 5 pictures, this adds insult to injury.
4. If you leave the scanner on for awhile, it hangs and has to be restarted by unplugging it and plugging back in.
5. This leads me to talk about the other annoyance. There is no on/off button. What's the deal here, in 2003 we don't need an on/off button? Would an off button have added $5 to the price or something? There's no way to turn the scanner off by software either. Only solution is to put the darn thing on it's own powerstrip.
Do I sound irritated at this scanner? Do yourself a favor, don't buy it. Or at least take the money you've have to spend on a powerstrip, and put it toward a better scanner.
6 great scanner for the price
this is a great scanner for the price, i've had far less trouble (make that no trouble) with it than 2 other scanners i've had in the past that were in the same ballpark for price.
it seems to be seamless with my power mac.
7 Decent scans at a decent price
Though not as fast as the previous Epson 1200U I owned, the scans are very exceptable. I don't scan often, so I don't need to spend a lot of money on scanner. The software that comes with this scanner is great. Installation was a breeze.
Not to mention I was in market to but another printer, I bought an Epson Printer and this Scanner and got a rebate back. So I actually got this scanner for free. Great bargain!
8 Epson Perfection 1250
This is my third scanner and is far the best, instructions are easy to read and the software is user friendly, I was enable to quickly and accurately enter text, photos and other printed material into my computer, and locate them easily at later dates. Epson Perfection 1250 is a great buy for the price.
9 Not quite up to par...
I purchased this scanner to replace my Acer 610P 600x600 48-bit scanner. I have compared images for a week and I cannot get an image as good as the Acer produces, therefore I will be trading the scanner in for something different. I really didn't expect the scanner to be below the quality of my 4 year old scanner. Images appeared to have serious focus problems, tried all sorts of color management with no help on color issues. Spend a little more money for something better. Also, the external scanning is only 24-bit, and not true 48-bit as advertised. Only after reading some PDF files did I find this.
10 UPSET CUSTOMER
I've always been an epson fan, so when one of my friend told me that his epson scanner gives him problem, I thought it was just his scanner (one of those rare occasion). Unfortunately when I got this epson scanner (which is a little higer model than his), it had the exact same problems! At first this scanner seems great but only a couple months later, it tends to scan in wierd channel (like bright neon green, etc). The problem eventually goes away and pop back up again every once in a while. I have the scanner for over a year now (and trust me I don't use it THAT much). Suddenly, it scanned BLACK. The whole screen goes back. I know my connection is good, and it's the scanner. TECH SUPPORTS CHARGES YOU [money]IN ADDITION TO THE PHONE BILL BECAUSE IT'S NOT A 1-800 NUMBER. I'm very upset.. and I'm about to throw out this scanner and go for somthing else like a UMAX, Canon, or HP. IT IS A GREAT SCANNER.. BUT ONLY FOR A LITTLE WHILE.. SADLY.
11 UPSET CUSTOMER
I've always been an epson fan, so when one of my friend told me that his epson scanner gives him problem, I thought it was just his scanner (one of those rare occasion). Unfortunately when I got this epson scanner (which is a little higer model than his), it had the exact same problems! At first this scanner seems great but only a couple months later, it tends to scan in wierd channel (like bright neon green, etc). The problem eventually goes away and pop back up again every once in a while. I have the scanner for over a year now (and trust me I don't use it THAT much). Suddenly, it scanned BLACK. The whole screen goes back. I know my connection is good, and it's the scanner. TECH SUPPORTS CHARGES YOU $$$IN ADDITION TO THE PHONE BILL BECAUSE IT'S NOT A 1-800 NUMBER. I'm very upset.. and I'm about to throw out this scanner and go for somthing else like a UMAX, Canon, or HP. IT IS A GREAT SCANNER.. BUT ONLY FOR A LITTLE WHILE.. SADLY.
12 UPSET CUSTOMER
I've always been an epson fan, so when one of my friend told me that his epson scanner gives him problem, I thought it was just his scanner (one of those rare occasion). Unfortunately when I got this epson scanner (which is a little higer model than his), it had the exact same problems! At first this scanner seems great but only a couple months later, it tends to scan in wierd channel (like bright neon green, etc). The problem eventually goes away and pop back up again every once in a while. I have the scanner for over a year now (and trust me I don't use it THAT much). Suddenly, it scanned BLACK. The whole screen goes back. I know my connection is good, and it's the scanner. TECH SUPPORTS CHARGES YOU [$$] IN ADDITION TO THE PHONE BILL BECAUSE IT'S NOT A 1-800 NUMBER. I'm very upset.. and I'm about to throw out this scanner and go for somthing else like a UMAX, Canon, or HP. IT IS A GREAT SCANNER.. BUT ONLY FOR A LITTLE WHILE.. SADLY.
13 This Scanner is SOOOO BAD!
I've always been an epson fan, so when one of my friend told me that his epson scanner gives him problem, I thought it was just his scanner (one of those rare occasion). Unfortunately when I got this epson scanner (which is a little higer model than his), it had the exact same problems! At first this scanner seems great but only a couple months later, it tends to scan in wierd channel (like bright neon green, etc). The problem eventually goes away and pop back up again every once in a while. I have the scanner for over a year now (and trust me I don't use it THAT much). Suddenly, it scanned BLACK. The whole screen goes back. I know my connection is good, and it's the scanner. TECH SUPPORTS CHARGES YOU ...IN ADDITION TO THE PHONE BILL BECAUSE IT'S NOT A 1-800 NUMBER. I'm very upset.. and I'm about to throw out this scanner and go for somthing else like a UMAX, Canon, or HP.
14 Unhappy customer
Got Epson 1250 photo. After 1 hr. on phone with tech. At my expense-no 800#- I found out it wouldn't work properly until I installed some program from internet, but still don't know how to do that. Took it back and got Canon 1250 photo. Canon has excellent tech support. AND TOLL FREE. I really planned to buy the Epson 1280 photo printer, but now I don't know.
15 Slow, but does an excellent job on slides!
I have always wanted to be able to scan slides, but never could justify the high price of doing so in the past. After reading the many negative reviews of this scanner I was hesitant to order, but did so anyway, having been so pleased with previous Epson products. I received my scanner a couple of days ago and immediately checked to see if there was any dust under the scan glass, there was none, the entire unit was clean as a "whistle". I agree the scan rate is sooooo slow, especially when scanning slides, but the end product is worth the wait. After running them through Adobe Photo Shop and using the Auto Adjust feature, they are as good as the day I originally took the pictures, and that was in 1958. I would highly recommend this low price scanner to anyone interested in scanning slides...
16 A Great Scanner
This scanner is great! I found the price was reasonable and for like 20 more bucks, you get an accessory to print out your negative film. It works great and the resolution is very good. They only problem i didn't like was how you would have to take out the adapter wire from the back, then put in the negative film accessory, and then plug it back in to make the negative film accessory work. Other than that i would recommend to anyone who wants a good scanner at a good price.
17 Found my Scanner
I was looking for a reasonable priced Scanner for Photo's & Slides. I found the Epson Perfection 1250 Photo/Slide scanner to be what I was looking for. After reading the reviews I was a little hesitant because it said it was very complex to operate.
I ordered this scanner because it was reasonably priced and had what I required.
Upon receiving the Scanner I was totally impressed with the ability to copy 25 year old slides very well. The Epson Smart Panel makes it very easy to operate. I would highly recommend this scanner to everyone.
Also copies photos very nicely and fairly fast.
The only problem I had was loading the software for the scanner. This was caused by Norton 2002. Once I disabled the Norton 2002 software it was a breeze.
Try it you will like it.
18 too many problems
First, it didn't work on my windows2000 at all.
Second, Got it working on my windows98 machine, but "copy" button never works, it always gave error message, (ironically my printer is an Epson Stylus 640). The worse is, you have to reboot your machine after seeing that error msg, otherwise windows can't find the scanner. Never tried film scanning, going to return it.
19 Great.
This scanner produces superior scans compared to other scanners in it's class. It is a little on the slow side, but the scans are worth the wait. Extremely easy to use with options to turn off auto-scanning or scanning manually from other programs like Photoshop. The slide adapter produces exceptional printable scans from pos. or neg. film. My scanner has no dust at all under the glass.
20 Simply Awful!
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 saved.
21 A little disappointed
I've enjoyed the superb quality of my Epson printers & wanted to give them a try for my next scanner. For the price, you can't beat the quality of the scan or the fact that it includes a 35mm film adapter. But I do have a couple of issues that are serious enough for me to write about.
1) Dust. There was enough dust under the glass on the first unit I received to warrant exchanging it. Now that I have the 2nd unit, there is still dust (Epson quality control is lacking), but not as much. It is not at all noticable when scanning at 72dpi (for uploading to the web), but is *very* noticable on-screen when scanning at 300dpi or greater for printing. Fortunately, it is barely noticable when printed. I've not yet decided if this is enough for me to send it back again.
2) The Smart Panel software interface pops up randomly, and it's VERY annoying. Even if I haven't scanned anything since booting up, it will just open for no reason. Closing it does no good, it will open again. Minimizing it does no good, it will keep refreshing. Epson referred me to their 3rd party software vendor, NewSoft, where I found the following in their FAQ:
"ESP2-0013 Why the Smart Panel interface will pop up randomly?
The problem was due to the scanner driver detect the wrong hardware code to launch Smart Panel. Our development team are working on the issue. Please visit NewSoft website for further release notice, if there's any new Patch to cover this issue."
Great, no end in sight.
If not for these two significant bugs that should be easily remedied with a little Quality Control, it would be an unbelievably wonderful unit for the price.
22 My first scanner was a big disappointment.
The first Epson 1250 I purchased was a disaster. There were streaks inside of the glass. The scan head would lock up. When I was able to complete scans, the results were less than favorable. Photos scanned would have a dark blue hue and text scanned would have a dark gray hue. I tried various settings and reloading all of the software. Customer support was closed. My second Epson 1250 was a disappointment from the moment I opened the box. The first thing I noticed about the unit was the finger prints inside of the glass. Plus there were streaks and a couple of hairs thrown in for good measure. I tried it anyway (with the software from the first scanner), just to see if I would have the same troubles I had with the first unit. It scanned without a hitch, except for the extras inside of the unit. I just returned this one to [Amazon.com] today. When I get my refund, I guess I'll look at a Canon or maybe an HP. I've always heard good things about Epson. I never had any second thoughts about ordering an Epson product. Now, with the lack of quality control and the lack of an 800 number for customer support and the lack of 24/7 support, I seriously doubt I will ever purchase any Epson product again, nor will I recommend Epson to any of my customers. It's a shame, because I'm looking for a photo quality printer also.
23 Software not ready for XP
Initially installed 1250 with Windows ME. Software and drivers had no problem with Epson supplied software. Upgraded to XP and software and drivers were not compatible. Driver upgrade is available as of 1/6/02 but software upgrade (promised mid-December) is yet to be available for full compatibility with XP. When scanner is working it does a great job and if you have a slide of good quality the scan is good quality. Disappointed in Epson for not ensuring XP compatible software was available upon release of XP.
24 My wife loves it
I am very happy with this scanner so far. Set up was very easy and I scanned my first picture in less than 15 minutes after taking it out of the box. My wife was worried about the amount of time it would take to scan but it scans photos in less than a minute. Great machine for the money. Quality is excellent. It even picks up fuss and dust, so you need to make sure whatever you are scanning is wiped off first.
25 Top Notch Scanner
I find this scanner to be as good or better than advertised. It produces excellent results when scanning color and black and white photos as well as slides and color 35mm negatives.
26 It Looked Nice Out of the Box
The unit looks nice out of the box and the setup was easy. The slide scanner attachment worked well, but the flat bed scanner produces dark color bars over about one third of the scanned page and I can't figure how to get rid of them. The part of the page not effected by the color bars looked very nice, but I need a full page scanner not a two thirds page scanner. I'm going to return this unit and request another, if that doesn't work I'll go with a different brand. I'm surprised, I've always had good luck with Epson products. One star was for the unit design, the other for the slide scanner attachment.
27 Good Performance for the Money
I've always preferred Epson scanners. At work we used the top of the line, so when I needed a home unit, I thought this would fill the bill. So far, I've been very happy with it. It's lighter weight and slower than the professional models I've used, but it also cost less! Set up was a snap and it worked from the get-go. I'm happy with the performance and quality of scans; all the scans I've made thus far are very good. The slide scan adapter also works well; too cumbersome to convert a tray's worth of slides quickly, but the quality is suprisingly good. The software is fine, but I've switched to the manual TWAIN mode and scan everything into Photoshop. This one's a keeper--After living with it for a while, I've upped my rating from 4 to 5 stars.
28 Great value; great performance!
Contrary to the experience of another reviewer, dust was not at all a noteworthy problem in my unit. The vast majority of the dust specks I have scanned were above the glass and on the pictures scanned. Users must be careful to clear these areas of dust prior to scanning. I found a dust-removal (anti-static) spray helpful in this regard. The extremely few specks of dust under the glass were no more numerous than in a more expensive ScanJet I have used many times at my workplace.
The image quality in the scans is tremendous compared to other scanners I have seen. The texture of the photographic paper is clearly visible in higher resolutions, for example. The colors are also more true to the original image than in the other scanners I have experienced recently. The film-scanning attachment is a great deal at this price-point. I have used this unit quite a bit to scan photos and slides at resolutions up to 1200dpi, and I have been very pleased with the results.
29 Excellent High End Scanner for the inexpensive Buyer
This is an incredible scanner, I am using it to make textures for 3D characters and 3D models for 3D Studio Max, with that in mind I was looking for a scanner that was high quality and inexpensive on the wallet (I am a student after all). To make textures for 3D characters you need a good scanner, needless to say, this scanner done the job incredibly. To demonstrate, I scanned in a picture of a face from a magazine, the scan came out so clear you could see the pores and facial skin texture. If you are a high end user -- 3D artist, texturer then don't shy away from this scanner. It's incredible, plus you will still have enough money left over to buy a 3D graphic book!
30 Twice burned
I had read many good reviews of Epson Perfection models, so when the 1250 Photo came on the market I decided to give it a try. Installation was smooth on my PC (930 MHz, 128 Mbyte PIII) and the documentation was clear. Only problem was, there were horrible vertical color streaks over about 2/3 of the scan. The remaining 1/3 looked fine. I double checked all the settings and tried scanning various documents, making sure the document was flat, the glass was clean, etc. always with the same result. In a word, horrible.
So I returned the unit for a replacement. (Thank you Amazon for making the return process so painless). Thanks to Amazon, in less than a week, I had a new unit on my desk. Again, installation went smoothly and I looked forward to using my scanner. But again, horrible color stripes, this time over 1/3 of the scan (at least there was some improvement). And this time, the scan head made a terrible noise during portions of the scan. I couldn't believe it! I'm an engineer, so I know something about hardware and software. I always check for system incompatibilities or driver problems first, and this time I could find none. Apparently, Epson is having some quality control problems. So I'm giving up at this point and looking for another scanner.
31 Great scanner for the money
I researched multiple scanners in (this)price range before finally purchasing the 1250 photo. My primary use was scanning for the Web, so the 48-bit, 1200x2400 resolution fit perfectly (Web supports 72dpi - scan at hi-res then resize) into my plans. I've used both the 35mm neg adapter and the slide film adapter and they both perform flawlessly (although the negs seem to turn out better). The "dust" mentioned above is true although it is actually a fog under the glass that I've seen before in certain scanners. My guess is that it's a result of step taken (or not taken) in production. I sent Epson an email inquiring about it and they told me that I can take it in to an authorized retailer for repair. I thought of opening it up (negating my warrant) and cleaning it myself but I honestly cannot see it showing up in my scans. The neg/slide adapter pushes the scan down a couple of inches, missing the fog. The only re-touching I do in Photoshop is for minor dust specs that reside on the front of the glass. (...)...
All-in-all this is a great little scanner for the money - the fog is a minor detail. The final result is perfect for my medium.
32 Dust, Dust, Dust
With all the hype about the image quality of Epson scanners, I was disappointed by the lack of quality that came from the one I just got. In short, there's dust under the glass, inside the scanner where it's unreachable, that I can see with the visible eye, and that is magnified in scanned images. Image quality would be excellent except there's dust specks all over the place on the images. Since consumers have complained of a similar dust problem with previous Epson scanners, I thought the company would fix it with this new model, but they didn't. In fact, quality control doesn't seem to have improved--there's even a fingerprint on the underside of the glass. I'm returning this one and getting a Cannon or HP instead.
33 Excellent
I purchased this scanner last week...and man am I blown away by how well it works. I had a more expensive HP scanner that I have used for the last couple years, but when that one broke I thought I would buy a scanner designed more for home use because of the price differences. I was not expecting it to work so good at all! I have scanned several pictures and text documents, and all have come out excellent.
