Before I use or unintentionally destroy a set of decals I scan the image and save that image in the computer. That extra step has save my bottom many times. If a decal messes up I reprint the decal and happily put the decal on the model. But some scanners are better than others. So who makes the best scanner? This might beg another question: who makes the worst scanner?
In my limited but long going experience with scanners, in chronological order:
Vickers scanner, 1983, $6000, a stand alone machine, no computer hook up: 8.5x11 inch Paper-image was put on a cylinder and the motor rotated the image at high speed while a light and optical reader read the image and transferred the color image to another sheet of paper that was also rotating on an opposite cylinder. Scan time for the 8.5x11 original was six minutes. Scan quality was fuzzy, blurred, lacked contrast and colors too “hot”.
Microtek E3, 1997, $180: With a SCSI card installed on a computer running on Windows 95. Great for its time and still very fast at image scanning because of the SCSI card. Current scanners have lowered the image quality for this scanner. Software had lots of options and was easy to use.
Agfa 1212p, Windows ME, 1998, $30: Another fast, quality scanner that raised the quality standard another notch above the Microtek. I could scan at 300 dpi and the scans were very good. It was my great scanner for quite a while BUT IT WILL NOT WORK WITH WIN XP. Oh, I have tried many times to get it to work but there is no support. Agfa support was lousy and now non-existent. The software to run the scanner was great.
HP ScanJet 5300c, 1999, Win XP, $200: Just an average scanner. 300 dpi were fair, 600 dpi, very good. The HP is barely operable with Win XP because the software is designed for Win 95, 98 & ME. The HP with Win XP runs a generic and barely useful (not a lot of options) driver for XP.
Year 2004: My current favorite scanner is the Canon LiDE 50, Win XP, $30. Scans 1200x2400 ppi, 48-bit color, USB 1.1 and 2.0. Excellent scans. Very high tech with solid state CIS lighting. Extremely small scanner, can stand vertically, uses power drawn from the USB port. It uses a CIS sensor instead of the conventional scanner lights. Software is very good with lots of options. People say the scanner is slow because it uses power drawn from the USB port. The scanner is slightly slower but not a slow as you might think. The solid state light in the scanner doesn’t require a warm up period and it starts up instantly when it comes to the scan. It might have a time from scan to use lag time of 10 to 15 seconds. Amazing scans come out of the LiDE 50!
My choice of the worst scanner is the HP 5300c.
Are there any other takers for the questions for good/bad scanners to duplicate decals?