A3 Scanner for Mac

[furushil]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone can recommend a good A3 scanner that works with MacOS 10.10+.
I am looking for a scanner bigger than A4 and could only find one from Epson for around 1500€ so far.

[ZigOtto]

I'm not a mac user, so I can't recommend you anything,
but I've heard some good feedbacks from some ones using the Plustek OpticPro A320 under Win64 OS,
a bit long to warm up, but after, working like a charm .
(mac driver announced supporting Mac 10.10).
its cost turns around 550 euros .
http://plustek.com/uk/products/opticpro ... cpro-a320/

[D.T. Nethery]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone can recommend a good A3 scanner that works with MacOS 10.10+.
I am looking for a scanner bigger than A4 and could only find one from Epson for around 1500€ so far.

http://animation-studio-stuff.blogspot. ... r-for.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[slowtiger]

We were using a Plustek A3 scanner in 1994 on Mac, and it was reliable and working. At that time we used Cirrus for scanning, a very good software (later met one of its programmers). Today each scanner has its own software, and some of these are pretty shitty (Brother!). So you must test for the software/drivers!

[D.T. Nethery]

We were using a Plustek A3 scanner in 1994 on Mac, and it was reliable and working. At that time we used Cirrus for scanning, a very good software (later met one of its programmers). Today each scanner has its own software, and some of these are pretty shitty (Brother!). So you must test for the software/drivers!

Yes, the Brother software is terrible. I recommend using VUESCAN with the Brother A3 scanners.

http://www.hamrick.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


.

[furushil]

http://animation-studio-stuff.blogspot. ... r-for.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thank you David.
Unfortunately the Epson Workforce WF-7510 seems to be not available in Germany/Europe. I would love to buy that one as I never had problems with my current Epson scanner.
The Brother scanners on the other hand are available but I have never owned a Brother product.
Would any of you recommend one?

I still have to check the Plustek scanners.

By the way, I need a scanner to scan e.g. watercolor paintings. The color accuracy does not have to be good (as I can adjust it in photoshop) but it has to be reliable.

Edit: I did not know about VUESCAN and Plustek seems to be a good choice. So nothing can go wrong with this combination, I suppose.

[D.T. Nethery]

.
The Brother scanners on the other hand are available but I have never owned a Brother product.
Would any of you recommend one?

I still have to check the Plustek scanners.

By the way, I need a scanner to scan e.g. watercolor paintings. The color accuracy does not have to be good (as I can adjust it in photoshop) but it has to be reliable.

Edit: I did not know about VUESCAN and Plustek seems to be a good choice. So nothing can go wrong with this combination, I suppose.

I have owned a Brother MFC-6490 CW scanner for 5 years and it works fine for scanning animation drawings . I would recommend it for that task. (the MFC-6490 CW is no longer made , but a similar model is the Brother MFC-J6920 DW ) I find that the color accuracy on the Brother MFC-6490 CW is not great . For scanning color artwork I use an Epson flatbed scanner. However , as you remarked , it is possible to adjust the color on the scans afterwards ... but for scanning color artwork I would prefer to have the scan be as accurate as possible , so only minor digital adjustments may be needed .

[schwarzgrau]

A few month ago I bought a HP Scanjet G3110 (it's just slightly over DIN A4). I choosed this one, cause it has a CCD sensor instead of a CIS sensor. Most of the cheap scanners and all multifunction-scanners got a CIS sensor, the benefits are:

• the scanner is really thin
• it doesn't need much energy
• the scanner is a lot cheaper

But the downside is that the focal-area is less than a milimeter and everything out it becomes blurry REALLY fast. It doesn't matter if you just scan documents or pencil-drawings, but especially with watercolors I was always really disappointed with the results. Everything not really flat on the surface becomes instantly blurry.

[slowtiger]

I found that sometimes using my camera with watercolours was easier and better than the scanner.

[schwarzgrau]

I tried this a few times, cause I got a tripod, which is capable of photographing downwards, but I never managed to get the lighting right.

[neonnoodle]

I bought one of the Brother MFC scanners a few years ago for US$180. That model, the MFCJ6510DW, has a ledger-size flat bed and an auto-feeder on top so it is great for scanning both animation drawings and other types of artwork (like comic boards). I agree that the color isn't fantastic, but I typically adjust things after the fact, or use a camera when I want to get more accurate color with a larger painting.

I think I have used this device for printing maybe 5-6 times. The printing functions are of no interest to me because inkjet printing in general is completely fugitive and if I want a proper print I will go to a facility that has a laser printer or professional-level giclee printer.

[furushil]

Thank you for the help everyone!

I will try out the Plustek OpticPro A320. As soon as it arrives and I have time to test it, I will report back.

[furushil]

I tested the Plustek OpticPro A320 and I think it is an ok scanner. The warm-up time is not too long and it scans fairly quickly.
It is not picking up as much detail as my previous Epson scanner but maybe it is a good thing.
The Epson scanner scanned also the texture of the paper in but the Plustek scanner seems to be less sensitive.

[ZigOtto]

I tested the Plustek OpticPro A320 and I think it is an ok scanner. The warm-up time is not too long and it scans fairly quickly.
It is not picking up as much detail as my previous Epson scanner but maybe it is a good thing.
The Epson scanner scanned also the texture of the paper in but the Plustek scanner seems to be less sensitive.

cool !
did you test it with VueScan ?
I think the x32 version of VueScan should work with the OpticPro A320.

[furushil]

So far the original Plustek software is good enough for me. I did test it once with VueScan and it worked fine but I don't want to buy the software because it does not seem to be necessary at the moment.