Epson DS-1630 Document Scanner: 25ppm, TWAIN & ISIS Drivers, 3-Year Warranty with Next Business Day Replacement

PROS:* No Wait Warm Up* Exceptional Scans of Text, Color and Gray Scale* Light Platform* ADF up to 40 sheets* Epson Software has Home, Office and Professional Mode* Hamrick Software (The BEST for Photos) compatibleCONS:* NON-Duplex Scanning* Occasional Jamb, Mis-FeedsComments: Faced with a project of digitizing all my Treasure Magazines, Operational Manuals, the usual onslaught of Bills and Misc, it was apparent to me that using my trusty Epson Perfection 4870 Scanner would be tedious. After a day or two researching the reviews on Amazon, Buzzilion, Epinons and Google-Yahoo Searchers, I decided on the Epson Workforce GT-1500. Amazon seemed to have the most competitve price including service so within 5 business days, I received my brand new GT-1500.Software Installation and USB Hook-up to my Dell Laptop (Windows 7) was a breeze. I had de-spined a bunch of magazines & manuals in preparation of the 'project' using a 17 Page Rated Guillotine Cutter by XACTO.I used the Epson Office Mode with enhance of the text descreening. Since the Treasure Magazines (Western and Eastern, Lost Treasure, Treasure Found, Treasure, Treasure Search) use a Combination of Color and Black and White, I found the easiest method was to scan all the pages in Color and then improve the contrast and brightness control via paperport. On Operational Manuals, I used either Gray Scale (150 dpi) or Black & White Text (300 dpi) and tweak the results via Epson Scan and then tweaking the results further using the tools found in Paperport 12.1 depending on a variety of factors. All my scans were saved in PDF format to Paperport 12.1 where you can also make each PDF document searchable.On a limited basis scanned a few photos and the results were spectacular and better than my Epson Perfection 4870 Photo Scanner.Issues: Occasionally because of the thin pages of the magazines, the ADF would draw in 2 pages causing a jamb up. This was easily cleared and restarted when the amber warning light was flashing... then restarting to the static green (go) light. Once bothsides were scanned, a press of the coallate (ALL) would sort both sides properly and then saved to paperport. SOMETIMES though a mis-feed caused usually by a log jamb in the lower bin or a Hiccup in the scanning separation of each page would put the GT-1500 in a BLINKING Green Mode where the software goes into a ZOMBIE state and the only way to correct the situation is to RESTART the software and start over. I called EPSON support and spent 30 minutes with Tech Support and there was no way to RESUME scanning when the scanner goes to a Blinking Green with the Software Mis-Functioning.I will try the Hamrick Software in which I have a lifetime registration. Hamrick Software makes for the BEST results in Photo, Film and Slide Scanning and works well with the Epson GT-1500 although a bit slower on the scans.One last thing... the Epson Perfection 4870 (90) Software in its automatic mode can look at a document and determine whether to scan it Color, Gray Scale or Text fairly reliably. Like to see that software feature incorporated in the ADF process software for the GT-1500 or future models.Conclusion: I really like my GT-1550 and 4870. Is a V-750 in my future???

It was difficult for me to spend $200 on a machine that only scanned but I finally took the plunge. This scanner is a replacement for a HP 5180 all-in-one machine, which I was only using for scanning, it did print beautifully but cost too much in ink to be a high use printer like I need. I have an Epson Workforce 1100 with a bulk ink system for cheap printing. To say this is a scanner is a huge improvement is an understatement! I scan 100+ pages per week of homeschooling materials for my kids. This was a tedious and time consuming chore on the old machine but is almost fun on this one. Okay so scanning may not be fun, but being able to get the job done without any communication errors and literally in less than half the time (this baby scans fast) is great.I use the ADF for 75% of my scanning and the flatbed for the rest. Both methods yield the same excellent quality. There are many scanning options which are simple and quick to change as needed. When scanning numerous pages into one file (45 is the most I have saved as a single full-color file) the save process after the scanning is complete is a bit time consuming but I just let it do its thing in the background, it doesn't slow my computer down at all.There is a print feature on the scanner that will print the scan to the printer of your choice rather than having to save the file first. This is the only feature I have found that doesn't work like I had hoped, which is why I took 1 star away. When using this feature the scan takes a very, very long time in comparison to regular scanning. I thought I may have some settings wrong, but so far I haven't been able to speed it up which is bummer because lots of my scans don't need to be saved just printed. If I am able to remedy this problem I will change my review to 5 stars.

with some twenty file drawers of papers, mostly business documents, I went on a quest to reduce the volume by archiving those documents where permanent paper copies are not needed. A document scanner looked to be my best option. The GT-1500 fits the bill. I loaded the software in my MacBook Pro which took quite a bit longer than I expected. At times I thought the installation failed, however by being patient and not aborting the installation, I was rewarded by a complete install. Then it is simply a matter of connecting the cables and turning on the scanner. (BTW the directions say not to connect the USB cable which is incorrect. You need to connect the USB cable.) The document feeder operates at about 20 ppm (in the 300 dpi and B&W mode), which is great. With this setting it takes about 1 meg of memory per 20 pages. You can also select grey scale and color settings, however with those settings the scans take longer. The alignment is not always sharp so some pdf scans can be a bit off, you just have to be careful in loading the pages. If the pages have dog eared top edges due to staples being removed, you can reverse the feeding and go bottom first. Then after scanning of the document is finished, click on the edit icon and flip the pages before saving the document. For lengthy documents, after the first batch is run through the scanner, click on the add pages icon and continue batch after batch until the entire document is complete. You can also change settings for individual pages in a document, for example if one of the pages has a color image, you can select color for that page. It just has to be a separate scan rather than in the middle of a stack of pages. The completed scanned document can go wherever you chose in your computer. The default on the Mac is the document folder.I also like the relatively small foot print and light weight of the scanner which make for portability.My only concern is how well the document feeder with hold up long term. So far I have no problem after feeding about 1500 pages, however the feeding mechanism has plastic parts which has me a bit nervous.

Perfect replacement for previously owned scanner.