Hello all, I don't know how often product reviews are done here on CT - of course with respect to scanning coins, medals, paper currency and numismatic-related items. Needed a new printer and my old scanner is a scsi unit, so I cannot use either any more. Got the Epson NX410 from Best Buy for about the cost of the cartridges - about $40. I'm an old HP man, but the price and the Epson guy "sold" me. Nice quality, easy setup, prints great, very noisy. All in one unit w/ card readers, flip up display, 4 seperate cartridges, decent software. So without changing anything or fiddling w/ settings, I thought I would slip 5 coins on the glass and see how it does. Well, first off, everything slipped and slid down to the bottom edge of it. Combination of very slippery glass and the top is slanted at about 5-7 degrees. So I propped the front up 3/4" and this is what I got using "Auto" Scan. Mike
Interesting Scans... To say the least. Yes, I did resize the first 2 ( Dollars and Short Way Token ). NO other editing. The 5 items were placed in a row parallel to the "8.5" inch edge of the glass with .5" spacing. What I find kinda' odd is, first off, it gave me 4 seperate twain files, with the 2 Dollars in one. Second, whats up w/ that strange Cropping. Third, it Rotated 3 of them ( I know - I checked 3 times and rescanned ). Once, It even "straightened" one that I put on crooked purposely. Not sure what DPI it used, but for the 1st one(s) - I'm pleased w/ the results. Any Comments? Mike ps: more follow ups will, well... follow up
I like the scanning software that came with my Epson 3810 better, but I think my old HP 1210 printed faster and better. Buying ink is the real killer so I got refillable cartridges and bottle of ink.
I like Epson scanners and have been using a CX5400 for some years now and think the results are super :thumb:
Much better now Update on the Scanner: So... for the time being, "Auto" everything is not the way to go with this model and software setup. - 4 seperate files w/ 2 items combined into 1 file: might be OK in some cases. - Item Cropping unacceptable: will take some research - settings, tech support, etc.. - Items Rotating unacceptable: see above. This time, when the "Epson Scan" dialog box came up, I changed from "Full Auto Mode" to "Home Mode", then from "Document Type" - "Photogragh" to "Magazine" and lastly, "Destination" - "Screen/Web" ( which is 96 DPI )to "Printer" ( 300 DPI ). Preview and Scan took approx. 3.5 min. Unit startup from scratch is kinda' noisy, but scanner is quiet. Heres what I got: Mike
WOW - Now that's a BIG FILE! 26.5 Meg is tad much, I think. It scanned the entire 8.5" X 11.5" glass. Quality is OK without having to fiddle with anything. Seems to have "Quality Ability" - I'll work on that later. This time, with all the settings having been retained from the last scan, I will select an area with the "Preview - Marquee" boxes. "Automatic" selection gave a rectangular box with the lines right on the edges of the 5 items. I selected and dragged the top left and bottom right corners to give about .125" - .250" white space around the items. Preview and scan came in at under a minute. Heres the latest: Mike
They look good. I have professional mode with my scanning software, it allows me to adjust white balance and toning and to save as several different file types.
Getting somewhere now Well now - "Marquee Selection" seems to be the way to go. Little over a 3 meg file. So, with all settings the same - I used "1200 DPI" and "Selected" an area around the dates on the Peace and Roosevelt. They don't look too shabby, now do they? Certainly doesn't like Shiny stuff. Well - tomorrow I'll work on it. last 2 for the night, Mike
Not tooo bad Update: The Printer is a NX410 "Series", actually it's an NX415! K9, I also have Professional mode and have many, many adjustments. I might have "White Balance", but it must be under a diff. name. I know how white bal. works - with Camcorders and Photography. This scan - all was kept the same, but lowered "Brightness" to 25% and "Contrast" to 50%. Does not seem quite as 'harsh'. Mike
Flatbed scanners are not very well adapted to pick up the luster of a coin. The only way I can get halfway decent luster is to tilt the coin. This is a trial and error method. With some scanners tiltiing the coin even a very little causes it to lose focus. Unless there is a focus adjustment, software or hardware, there is nothing that can be done. On my Epson V200 photo scanner the focal point is somewhere near the near the top of the glass so this allows me to tilt coins up to 1/4 inch and try to adjust for best results. Scanners will never match the performance of a good digital camera with the macro feature.
zekeguzz - Thanks for the advice and info, as you are dead on... I had been trying to take a few shots with my camera, lights, stand setup - but never had real good consistent success ( another topic altogether - old digital, crappy lights, even more crappy stand/tripod ). And I don't need "perfect" shots. Just good enough to show anyone here at CT or online what I have or a close up. Basically just trying to "see what she'll do on the open highway". It does fair to pretty well with "brownish" and "dull" ( brass, bronze, gold, Sacs, Adams, SBA, etc ) objects. Shiny Silver is tough, but I think I have saved a few "setting" sets that work well enough. The Focus point is right at the top of the glass - a penny propping up the Roos caused it to go out of focus bad. I am sure there a few ( prolly more than ) features missing on these All in One unit's hard and software - but for the money - we did OK. Maybe Tech Support can help... I'm holding my breath Mike
I never use a scanner for coins. I've presently have ah HP scanner/printer/fax/card slot thing. Only use it for making copies or sending letters. Also an old HP Deskjet printer that really is slow but great quality. Used to have another HP scanner but wouldn't work with anything except Windows 98 so dumped it. Then my Son told me how great the Epson stuff was so I purchased one of their scanners and it really is much faster and easier to use. So as far as yours, I really don't know since I don't scan coins but from what you show here, yours is really nice. Have you tried scanning your face yet? Always fun.
