HP Scanjet G4050 Photo Scanner (L1957A#B1H)

List Price: $237.00 Discount Price: Too low to display

Features:

• Robust and economical photograph scanner
• High-definition scans at 4,800x9,600 dpi resolution
• Windows and Mac compatible
• High-speed USB data connection
• 1-year limited manufacturer's warranty

Accessories:

3-Year Extended Service Plan - Covers Electronic Items $0-$200 - Repair

Customer Reviews:

My scanjet G4050 review. [Posted on 2008-03-25]
This machine serves me very well. I only have one problem with it. The image on-screen is not very well defined or I am not doing something right. Overall, it's fantastic. Worked fine, right out of the box.If anyone out there knows how to fine tune the image on-screen, how about shooting me a line or two, and share your knowledge with me about my issue. Dr. Love

DPI (Don't Presume Integrity) [Posted on 2008-03-29]
I had high expectations for the HP Scanjet G4050 scanner.
I purchased the G4050 to scan large format negatives, and was very disappointed with its capability. When I compared the results of the same negative (no dust/scratch removal) scanned with a CanoScan4000 negative scanner at 2000DPI with the G4050 at the same approximate resolution (no dust/scratch removal or "sharpness" correction) the image produced by the CanoScan easily showed the film's grain while the grain could not be seen at all in the G4050 image. In fact cobblestones on the street could easily be seen on the negative and the CanoScan image but not at all in the G4050 image (couldn't say whether if was cobblestone or asphalt based on the G4050 image). Increasing the G4050 to max resolution resulted in no improvement. Apparently 4800 dots per inch don't mean anything if the scanner can't properly focus on the negative.
With that in mind, I also tried placing the negative directly on the glass (held flat by a piece of optical quality glass) and saw no improvement in resolution.
However, it was not a total loss, since I can use the G4080 negative holders to hold the negatives against a backlit milk-glass background and take pictures of the negatives with a macro lens (like we used to do in the old days). Those results are far superior to the G4050, and the image acquisition speed is click, click instead of 5-10 minutes per negative.
However, I have to confess the mistake was mine. I trusted HP to produce a quality product that would meet its product claims and specifications. Bad plan!
In a nut shell, the advice I give to amateurs regarding what camera to buy applies here, "megapixels don't mean anything if your put cheap glass (a cheap lens) in front of them".

Poor performance on slides [Posted on 2008-04-07]
If you need to scan photos or documents this is an alright scanner but there are others less expensive that do that well. The idea of being able to batch scan 16 slides is the reason I bought this scanner, unfortunately it does a very poor job even one at a time. The results were grainy, banded, and lacked detail depending on the settings I used. I tried technical support but received very poor support on HP chat, the rep even forgot what we were talking about and started asking about the documents I was scanning.
So if you are looking for a decent slide scanner this is not one to even try unless you just want to make small prints (fair 4 x 6 or less prints could be done with some Photoshop work on them).

HP Scanjet [Posted on 2008-04-28]
I think that this is a very serviceable unit. It was hard to find a good product that would work with a Mac, but this fit the bill. The pricing was attractive and it is very easy to use. It would be helpful to have a little more insight as to which setting should be used for various kinds of documents (is a signed agreement with a logo a text over image or an image over text?), but trial and error will overcome this lack of instruction.

HP Scanjet G4050 [Posted on 2008-05-09]
I have had almost every brand of scanners over the past 20 years. Most are in a pile in the basement. What I found over time, is that the various manufactures quit supporting the particular models so that when new operating systems come out, drivers are not available. This is not the case with HP.

I do quite a bit of photo restoration and my Scanjet 4670 started to give me stripes on the photos (mostly sepia). I really liked the vertical see through scanner but had to have one in a hurry to finish a job. I ordered the G4050. The delivery time was excellent (via UPS not USPS). I was able to track the package to my door with no problems.

The unit installed with no problems (Vista 64 bit) and was running in minutes. The first picture came out perfect. I was back in business.

I would have given this unit 5 stars instead of 4 but I am spoiled by the small footprint of the 4670 against the flat large footprint of the G4050.

The bottom line is this is a lot of scanner for the money.

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