Mustek Bearpaw 1200 Scanner

This is my first scanner, so I haven't much to compare it to. I picked it up to use mostly for scanning items to sell on eBay. The resolution, in my opinion, has been great. I've been using the default resolution setting (which isn't the highest) and the scanner has been producing images with file sizes up to 5 megs. More than enough for eBay images! It also came with OCR (optical character recognition) software that will supposedly scan a text document and convert it into a Word/Notes document. I've yet to use this, but seem to recall another reviewer saying that it wasn't working as advertised. The scanner could be smaller. I've seen a Canon unit that was about half as thick as the BearPaw. And I always hate it when a product, whether software or hardware, alters or adds programs that aren't necessary for running the product. Especially my 'startup' folder. In the case of this scanner, it added another copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 into a different directory than C:\program files\adobe. So I had two copies of the Reader program and uninstalled one of them. I hope that didn't mess up the OCR software program since I haven't tested it yet. And the Photo Express program that it comes with will start automatically whenever you scan something. This became annoying since I feel more comfortable using Photoshop for image editing. Total programs uninstalled: 2. Overall, I would recommend this scanner for someone looking for an entry level unit. It should suffice for most duties and then some. And the price is right. Just be sure to go the manufacturer's site and download the latest drivers. The packaged ones didn't work for my system (AMD K6-2 proc. running W98). Hope this helps.

I bought this as a gift for my fiance's X-mas Gift(he is a computer technician) and he somewhat liked it but hated the fact that it was hard to change the language from french to english and get it to set up. So far he has only used it once because it takes up so much space on his computer but overall it is ok