A3 Scanner Recommendations

[enjay]

So, I'm in the market for an A3 scanner. A quick Google gives me a Mustek (whoooo?!) one for around a hundred quid, and the next cheapest one would be more like £300-400. Does anyone know if the Mustek thing is okay, or does the price difference tell me everything I need to know?! If so, what models can people recommend me?

Why are A3 scanners SO much more than A4 ones, by the way?

We may also want a better A3 printer too, so would people suggest I buy them separately or get an MFD? I've never decided if MFDs are wise purchases or acceptable compromises...

[Netman]

We had a Mustek A3 - lasted about a month and was so bad I didn't even get it warranty repaired... waste of time.
As for A3 printers, even our Art dept. can't break the Canon ones - they're very strong and print good quality too

[rush_tech]

We got one of these for our media dept seems to do the job, its a big beast though

[CPLTD]

So, I'm in the market for an A3 scanner. A quick Google gives me a Mustek (whoooo?!) one for around a hundred quid, and the next cheapest one would be more like £300-400. Does anyone know if the Mustek thing is okay, or does the price difference tell me everything I need to know?! If so, what models can people recommend me?

Why are A3 scanners SO much more than A4 ones, by the way?

We may also want a better A3 printer too, so would people suggest I buy them separately or get an MFD? I've never decided if MFDs are wise purchases or acceptable compromises...

Hi Nick,

I will go on the hunt and see what deals are available for you,

[K.C.Leblanc]

We've got a couple of the Musteks, they don't give much trouble, however the quality isn't great.

Also the drivers are ancient, they're fine with XP32, but I wouldn't assume they support anything newer.

[enjay]

We've got a couple of the Musteks, they don't give much trouble, however the quality isn't great.

Quality is important, as this is primarily for the Art Department to digitise work just before it gets cleared out.

[elsiegee40]

Why are A3 scanners SO much more than A4 ones, by the way?

Probably because fewer of them are made and sold

We may also want a better A3 printer too, so would people suggest I buy them separately or get an MFD? I've never decided if MFDs are wise purchases or acceptable compromises...

If desk space is an issue an MFD may have to be your choice.

Personally, I'd get separates as it gives you the option to put them where you want... not necessarily on the same desk! Also if the scanner breaks down, at least you still have the printer and vice versa.

We have an Epson Stylus Photo 1400 A3 printer here that was foisted on me without my sayso. Print quality is excellent, BUT it has no network capabilities and from my point of view is a PITA as I cannot restrict it's use/charge it's printing using Print Manager Plus. I would much rather have been able network the thing properly. I have restricted it's use somewhat as it is now the local printer on my PC and I haven't shared it. If someone wants to use it, they have to get me to log off first!

[kmount]

How much do you want to spend on the printer?

Inkjet versus Laser time.

HP Officejet K8400DN inkjet - £280

HP Colour Laserjet 5550DN - £2.6k

Both networked for sanity.

[enjay]

If desk space is an issue an MFD may have to be your choice.

Personally, I'd get separates as it gives you the option to put them where you want... not necessarily on the same desk! Also if the scanner breaks down, at least you still have the printer and vice versa.

That's my view on MFDs as well.

Inkjet versus Laser time.

Inkjet. Not disputing the improved quality of a laser (or better still a Xerox solid ink), especially for Art/Media work, I simply couldn't justify £2.5k+ on one printer, especially considering the amount it will get used.

[dhicks]

A quick Google gives me a Mustek (whoooo?!) one for around a hundred quid

Cheaper scanners will probably use a cheaper light source, i.e. one that produces not particularly "natural" light. Our £30 Canon A4 scanner, which is very good for what we paid for it, does have what is basically a kitchen strip light as its light source, which tends to produce rather overly-white images.

--
David Hicks

[broc]

We ended up buying an Epson Expression 10000XL because the Art dept wanted very good quality, but it was expensive at £1500+

[dhicks]

HP Colour Laserjet 5550DN - £2.6k

We're actually considering the same issue at the moment - we want to replace the aging Canon iR colour photocopier/printer in the main IT suite with an all-singing/dancing, booklet-printing device down near the staffroom. We're going to look at large printers in Ricoh's showroom tomorrow, but we're still pondering what to do in the IT suite. We could get a replacement, smaller photocopier/printer - I imagine £3,000+ capital cost on a maintainence lease of some kind. Or we could buy outright something like an HP 5550DN or Xerox 7400DN (£2,000-ish - see Xerox 7400DN - CHEAPER THAN ANY WHERE ON THE WEB) and have an A3 scanner available and hooked up to a machine with a "copy" button so you can scan things on the A3 scanner and have them print out. Not quite as versatile as a "proper" photocopier (you can't scale A4 to A3 right at the device, although you could scan an image in and import it in to Photoshop or whatever to scale it instead).

The other option is to use my existing K8600 A3 inkjet instead of buying a new A3 laser printer. The problem is that this isn't all that fast and anyone scanning and printing a photo is going to need to use thicker paper or the ink will soak the paper and wrinkle it.

Anyone used the Xerox 7400DN, any idea how reliable it is?

Anyone any thoughts on using an inkjet for photocopying jobs - is it possible to get thicker A3 paper cheaper than matt photo paper? Can the K8600 take an additional paper tray so we could load A4 too?

--
David Hicks