Buying My First Scanner - Need Feedback

[Laloba123]

Okay, the time is here. I want to buy a scanner. I will literally burst if I don't but I want to be smart. I have never had a scanner so I don't know too much about it but I do know that I need it to be able to show my work here. My bright idea is instead of taking classes, to simply post my art work in the critique area and grow from there. So, what is the best scanner? What other equipment is needed? A tech guy at my job claims all the scanners are about the same but some are faster than others. Do you guys find this to be true??

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Security is mostly a superstition....Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Helen Keller

[Fig]

Well, I guess the first thing I would think of is what kind of computer you would be connecting the scanner to. ie. PC or Mac? Also, what kind of connection your computer has. ie. USB, SCSI, other? Then I would think about the size of the scanning area you would need. ie. letter, legal, tabloid? Virtually all new scanners will be able to give you the color depth and resolution you need in order to post images here on Wetcanvas.

Hope this isn't too basic for you.

Fig

[Laloba123]

Fig: Not at all. I have a gateway PC. I will have to check to see what kind of connection it is.

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Security is mostly a superstition....Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Helen Keller

[juanice]

I looked and shopped for months, then finally just bought an off-brand cheapo scanner for about $100, and I'm on my second year with it with very little complaints. If you're not intermediate to expert on computers, might be best to get a name brand like HP or others, just to make sure you'll have product support if something goes wrong. Then, it depends on what you want to use the scanner for to see how advanced (and expensive) of a scanner you need. Other than speed, I couldn't tell a lot of difference between a $100 scanner output and some $500 or better scanners. I bought the cheap one because I figured I could learn how to use it, toss it when it breaks and then buy a new one - after all, it's only a hundred bucks - I'm still using it, though, so I guess it was a good choice.

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Juanice Art! (http://www.artistnation.com/members/lofts/juanice)