The HP Scanjet 3500c scanner boasts a slim profile and provides sharp 1,200 dpi scans in rich 48-bit color. You can scan, copy, and even e-mail images using the scanner's one-touch buttons, making these functions easy enough even for beginners.
An economical solution for home offices and students, the Scanjet 3500c can scan photos, text, graphics, and 3-D objects, making it ideal for general-purpose use--everything from presentations to managing family photos. The relatively intuitive software turns printing, e-mailing, and posting images to the Web into simple step-by-step processes.
An optional 35mm transparency adapter lets you process negatives and slides. The unit is backed by a 90-day limited warranty.
The HP ScanJet 3500c color scanner lets you finish scanning projects in seconds with photo-quality results at your fingertips. Choose from up to 1200 dpi resolution with true 48-bit color. Plus, you won't have to wait for outstanding results - preview scans in as little as 10 seconds. You'll make the most of your photo paper when you effortlessly arrange photos of many sizes on a single page. Get professional results at the touch of a button. USB connectivity is built in so you can connect easily to your PC or USB-connect Mac. And scan more with optional adapter that scans 35 mm negatives and slides.
1 Great unit for the price
Needed a new scanner for my Dell with Windows XP Pro system since HP didnt make drivers for my old 1999 scanjet( which is still going strong along with my HP 882C printer) and looked into all sorts of scanners. I wanted something sleek, non complicated and inexpensive. I found this one at Staples for $44.99. It installed fast, but I did get an error message about Java Virtural Machine not being found. After clicking OK, the scanner went on to install without a problem. I was Concerned so I called HP. Yes, they use support from India....but who doesnt anymore. Anyway, was told it would not effect the functioning of the scanner in any manner, and so far, it hasnt. This thing scans into any type of file you want. TIF, JPEG, RTF, TXT, PDF, HTML.....you name it, IT DOES IT. The strange thing is, when it scans as a PDF file, it deposits a DPE.DUS file into My Documents too. I dont know why, and you cant open it. I delete it, and the pdf file still opens....so I dont know what to tell you.
Some complain about the Pink Glow the lamp emits while scanning. If you recall, GE has the same color bulb for your home lamps and says it emits more of a NATURAL color against objects ( less yellowing effect) which is important if you are scanning in photos. The color photos I've scanned, reproduce identically to the photo itself.
I am WELL PLEASED with this little unit. Yes, it does scan a little (and I mean little) on the slow side......but for $45.00 you cant do better or get more options than this unit.
2 HP software and support is horrible
Ok, The scanner says 48bit color. It only scans 24bit. There are no settings anywhere to access the full range of 48 bit. (yes I know there are only a few packages that support more bit depth but photoshop is one of them).
Next, you can't scan multiple docs from within photoshop. The dialog box closes down between scans. It also doesn't remember your scan settings. Everytime you open the software it has some funky default scan settings that trash your image. Every utility included with the package has it's own default settings.
3 A good little machine.
We didn't have a lot of money but wanted a good little machine.
This Hp scanner did the trick.
It's nice looking and performs well.
Our scanning needs are not to aggresive.
But we do use it a lot for pictures and record keeping.
It's worth the price for the average PC user.
4 Great Scanner!
This scanner is easy to set up and is a great deal for the price. I don't agree with the reviews that say it is a waste of time/money because it was a breeze to set up and the quality of the scanned images is impeccable!
5 did not work
spent two hours trying to get scanner to work including hp help line. simply did not work. complete waste of my time.
6 Another HP Scanner in the garbage
This is my 2nd HP scanner. The first was the top of the line scanner of 1999. After a year it just stopped working. The bed lit up but then it would say "cannot find scanner." Even HP tech support couldn't figure it out. I got this one for Xmas, used it a handful of times, now I get a strange clicking sound and no scanned product. HP is sending me a new one... Maybe I should just buy a digital camera instead....... I will steer clear if HP scanners from now on...
7 Don't Knock This Unit!
Some people have really knocked this unit in the reviews. I really know nothing about scanners but have wanted one for some time. I literally pulled the unit out of the box and started scanning after ten minutes of setup up time. I will agree that it probably is not the fastest scanner on the market but it does one hell of a job. I will probably invest in a better photo editing suit but I am definitely impressed. I just scanned a wedding picture and the resolution of the scan is just as clear as the picture itself.
8 Sorry: I cannot agree with the other reviewers
I pulled this baby out of the box, put the CD in my computer, followed instructions on the screen and within 10 minutes I was scanning pictures. You want to talk about a BAAAAD scanner, talk about Microtek's: HP Scanjet rocks! Quality was great, the Scanning interface that pulls up when you do "Import..." in Adobe Photoshop was very nice and intuitive. All in all, if you have never scanned images in your life, or if you're an expert for all matters and purposes, this is a great bang for your buck. Happy scanning!
9 Works great with MY Mac OSX!
This little scanner is fabulous. I was prepared for a painful installation and start-up process, but it was quite simple and easy. The scans are beautifully clean and clear - far superior to the $800 scanner at my work. I use an HP 940 printer, and this yields high quality scanned & printed pics.
10 purchase if you love frustration
Do NOT buy this scanner! I got it on sale and thought i got a good deal but boy did i get RIPPED!
The included software makes the thing useless! Just in case the other reviews on this page weren't enough to dissuade you from making this purchase, let me add a thought or two.
I've never reviewed a product before, but here it goes ....
The software would be really cumbersome even if it did work. In order to make custom settings stick, i've had to preview my document each time i do a scan. Otherwise, it "autocrops" my pages in half. (go figure...) It's an unbearably slow and painful process to make manual adjustments for every scan, but it seems like i have no choice.
Just try adjusting the contrast and you'll find even more problems that can make a grown man cry. It's ridiculuous! I'm adjusting three or four settings to get the effect i want, which is just DARKER TEXT. Even a tv comes with a contrast knob.
What's really funny is that having the "autostraighten" setting checked doesn't seem to help much either. Sometimes my scans are downright crooked even though the document is loaded perfectly square with the corner of the window... strange.... (maybe this is a hardware issue).
Also, i've been surfing the net for a while trying to find linux drivers but it seems that it's not "SANE"-compliant or whatever that is, and so i'm out of luck. That dashes my chances of finding some open source code that i can fiddle with.
On top of all this, my efforts to find better windows software support on the hp website has been fraught with peril as well. The website isn't even working correctly. I can't get to my product's support page. I'm losing my sanity because of this thing, and i'm an EE / CS major! I can't imagine what's going on behind the scenes when they do a product release. I've been using this thing for a few hours and it doesn't seem to do anything right.
I purposely bought HP instead of Visioneer because of the stronger brand name. I feel let down.
11 Great resolution - poor drivers - short warranty
I bought the HP Scanjet 3500c 2 weeks ago (Christmas 2002) and found it did a great job scanning black and white drawings.
The Scanjet driver software looks very similar to the HP Scanjet II software but the implementation of this "modern" release made using the scanner slow and a chore both via the TWAIN interface or the included HP software. This software was obviously thrown over the wall and into production without any thought to making life easy for the user.
The major problem with the software is how it will automatically crop black and white (BW) documents incorrectly. I had to hand reset each page after a preview or I'll end up cutting off the upper margin of the page and scanning the cover on the bottom. Yes HP, the auto-crop check box is unchecked.
I scan mostly BW documents. I want to set the scanner to scan 8.5x11 every time and simply can't. I have to manually reset the scan area EVERY page. So the software is half baked but at least it didn't crash. I would have kept the scanner if that was the only problem I could report.
I was playing around with different originals and stumbled across a serious problem when scanning originals at 600 or greater. The RED color channel is stuck "on" 100%. This causes the photos to have a serious reddish hue to them (or BW scans using the RED channel to be all white). This only happens when the resolution is set at 600 or greater. Is this a HP hardware or a HP driver problem? I don't know but it's serious. The HP web site is no help and has not updated the 3500c drivers in the 4 months since release v1.0 was chucked out the door.
The software annoyances, red channel problem, and 90 day warranty made me decide not to chance exchanging the scanner for another HP an being left hanging after 90 days while other manufacture's backup their products for a full year.
I returned the scanner and will not purchase anything HP (to include Compaq now that they've merged with HP) that has to do with PC's (I was witness to a bad HP Pavilion computer experience 4 years ago) or photo imaging. Somewhere between the Scanjet II and today HP made their software harder to use, is content to ship products rushed to market, and reduced their warranty to 90 days.
12 Wonderful, Fast, & Fun!
When buying a new scanner, (Finally decideding to buy a new one after using the same sloooowwwww TWAIN one for 6 years), quality and speed were the top factors, along with price. Simply put, for the price of this scanner, this is the one to go with.
First of all, you insert the cd-rom software and it automatically sets up. I've seen many reviews that claim the software is bad and hard to use. I didn't have one problem at all, in fact, this was one of the easiest installlations I've ever done. Always check that you're computer is compatablie with whatever hardware you purchase. That will save a lot of crying and whining on your part.
This scanner is a BREEZE to use. 3 buttons on the front direct your scan to email, your hard drive, or your printer. One touch scanner can't get much easier. And it's FAST. To preview the scan, it takes about 2 seconds. After cropping the area of the scan you want and finializing it, the time it takes will vary depending on which DPI setting you have set, but at the average 300 DPI, it takes only about 10-12 seconds.
The DPI seetings range all the way up to 19200. The quality is EXTREMELY impresseive.
Another handy feautre is scanning a doucment with editable text. Say you scan a magazine article. You can scan it as a PDF file and edit the text very easily.
With USB connectivity, setting up the scanner is fast and easy. The software couldn't be simpler. VERY user friendly and easy to use. Within 3 minutes of set-up, I was scanning away.
All in all, I am very satisfied with this scanner. I would highly reccomend it to anyone who's looking for a fast, easy to use, and high quality scanner. And with the price that this scanner is set at, this makes it a top pick.
13 Good Hardware Very Very Bad Software
Hi I have tried the scanner for about one day (all the day) and decided to return it before the return policy vanish may be the picture quality is so good despite the lacking of the demoire removal feature that is not enough at the software and we can scan three dimensions objects and this is a bonus and we can create a very good resolution and zooming with the hardware without the need for the interpolation and is very controlled resolution and paper size for me i had a smudge or spot of colour in the internal glass so it made me a good plea and reason in front of the dealer to return the product the 1200 dpi are so plentiful and when we come to the bad at this scanner there are lots from the hardware the very big size of the scanner may become unacceptable but some could say it will have a good strong and lasting chassis for that and the second is the the lamp take much time to warm up and you could have to stay and stay and become bored as the warming of the lamp is done with every picture and even with every preview of the picture so when you press the scan or the preview button do not expect your order to be executed immediately but you have to stay and thing of something else until the lamp warms up and also i had bad sound seems the sound of something breaking each time the scanner lamp reach the bottom of the scanner during scanning and the sound was noticed by also my relatives as mother and sister and and they said what is this bad sound and bad scanner and your choice is wrong and when we come to the software the bundle is horrible bundle and the hp site do not permit us to download the software or the updates if any (i do not think any , they forgot this product) directely but they give cd with charge for those with credit cards and live in Us or Canada or UK only as i think so do not expect near update for the software and the software is horrible as i have to relaunch the software for every single scan and wait the lamp to warm up and the launch of software is slow although i got fast machine over 1000 mhz in speed so it is non practical and you will get bored easily and the descreening option is not sufficient and sould be activated at every single scan and the twain driver that come with the scanner halts and hangs many times inside the applications when i tried to import the photos within them and to bypass the very very very slow bundle of the scanner and the relaunching of the software for every single scan so the twain driver is very bad and will not solve and problems and you will get error messages as kernel 32 error and no pic will appear at many times you will try to import the photos within any application( got error messages in windows me ) so the conclusion is that the bad software bundle will make you so bored and will cause the scanner at all to become so boring and stupid and unpractical and the operation of the scanner for muliple scans will cause you to be very nervous and hate it so i do not recommend it and recommend canon for the breeze and user friendly and exciting and neat and comfortable software bundle as now i have canon canoscan n670u and very comfortable despite the resolution of 600 dpi but so so satisfied with the software and the twain driver of it
