HP PhotoSmart S20 Photo Scanner
Details
- Availability:
- No longer available through SilverGelatin.net
- List Price:
- $499.99
- Average Customer Rating:
- 4.0 out of 5
- Manufacturer:
- Hewlett Packard
Features
- Versatile--scans slides, negatives, and prints
- Scans 35mm film strips and slides at 2,400 dpi optical
- Scans photos at 300 dpi optical, 36-bit color depth
- USB interface for easy connection to your PC
- Exclusive S20 scanning software to optimize and enhance photos
Description
With an optical scanning resolution of 2400 dpi for film strips and slides, 300 dpi for photographs, and 36-bit color depth, HP's PhotoSmart S20 photo scanner captures rich colors and detail in bright and shadow areas alike. HP PhotoSmart S20 is the perfect scanner for getting the best image quality from 35-mm slides, film strips, and photos.
An excellent all-around photo scanner for personal use, thelightweight Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart S20 photo scanner captures richand exceptionally accurate colors and detail in both bright andshadowy areas. A snap to get started and remarkably easy to master,the HP PhotoSmart S20 is the perfect scanner for allowing everyone,from beginner to pro, to achieve quality images from 35mm slides, filmstrips, and photos.
The HP PhotoSmart S20 scans multiple images from35mm filmstrips (positives or negatives) in one operation, scanspanoramic images up to five frames, and photographic prints up to 5 by7 inches. It scans 35mm filmstrips and slide mounts at 2,400 opticaldpi, and scans photos at 300 optical dpi for fine detail. 36-bit coloroutput provides richer color while retaining the delicacy of pastelsplus great shadow depth and detail. Exclusive HP PhotoSmart S20scanning software lets you optimize and enhance your photos; you canrotate and crop images as well as adjust size, color, clarity, andexposure. Utilize the histogram, densitometer, and clipping alarmtools to dexterously make subtle and precise alterations.
You canuse Microsoft Picture It! (included in the package) to organize yourphotographs for easy retrieval, create photo Web pages for theInternet, and send your photographic creations in e-mail messages tofamily and friends. The Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart S20 scanner's USBinterface enables PC users easy installation and effortlessplug-and-play.
Spotlight customer reviews
The S20 ***WORKS*** with Windows XP
[ Posted: 2004-05-25 ]
I am not rich and I paid a lot of money for this product.
Thankfully, it was worth every penny and I have been using it happily for over 3 years.
There are better scanners out there, but for the dollar, this is a fabulous machine: thus, the five star rating.
That said, please note that this unit ***DOES*** in fact work with Windows XP. At one point I thought it did not work either, but it does. HP released an XP driver/software for it.
At 70 MB, it's a hell of a download, but worth it for those of us that have moved into the 21st century.
You can download it from the HP website.
- Go to HP.com.
- Select 'Home & Home Office.'
- Type 'S20' into the Search field.
- The HP Photosmart S20 and a photo will appear.
- Select 'Download drivers & software' from this screen.
- Select 'Microsoft Windows XP.'
- Select 'PhotoSmart Scanner (SCSI) and S20/S20xi Photo Scanner (USB) Software.'
- Click 'Download now' to being downloading ps804en.exe.
- Follow instructions (or common sense) to install the software.
- A Windows-based message will appear during installation that recommends stopping installation because the HP Photosmart software has not passed Windows Logo testing.
- Despite your usually better judgement, ignore this and click 'Continue Anyway.'
I was terrified to do this, but I called and e-mailed HP directly and was told in both instances that HP had tested and verified compatibility of the HP Photosmart software with Windows XP.
My Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart S20 scanner now works like a charm on my Windows XP.
Hooray for HP.
HP forgot XP
[ Posted: 2004-04-28 ]
Although my S20 worked fine with Windows 98 on my previous computer, I was not able to find any drivers from HP when I bought a new computer running on XP. HP should be ashamed of itself for treating their customers in this manner. I will never purchase another HP product.
Excellent Color Negative Scanner
[ Posted: 2004-04-24 ]
The S20 can scan a strip of upto 4 or 5 images nicely in one hit! I have no idea about scanning prints as I don't use it for this. 300dpi for scanning prints isn't high. 2400dpi for scanning slides and color negatives is awesome!
There have been reviews previously at various places that complain that the S20 cannot batch process a whole negative strip. Wrong!! Use the twain driver though Photoshop, PaintShopPro CorelDraw, etc. When the preview is done, adjust each image shown as you wish, set your scan resolution, and then HOLD DOWN the CTRL key and select the images you want to scan. Press Final Scan. Done. Images all arrive nicely separately in Photoshop, etc. Simple.
Contrary to other reviews, you can scan every image shown WITHOUT having the remove and re-insert the negative strip for each photo as others have claimed.
I have tried using Vuescan with the S20. I have found that the HP's twain driver is more than enough to scan high res (3300x2200) images into Photoshop. Vuescan is very nice, but not needed. The S20's HP drivers are actually pretty good. Very easy to use. The image levels are automatically selected by the scanner, but you can opt to over/under-expose, resize, re-crop, re-color, etc yourself prior to the final scan.
The S20 is an excellent color negative scanner for a fraction of the Nikon LS-2000 price! I keep a can of compressed ait handy for cleaning negatives and occasionally the scanner itself.
no win ME
[ Posted: 2002-01-19 ]
This scanner worked really well for me (I scan a LOT of negatives). The only complaints are:
-noisy scan
-DONT WORK WITH WINDOWS ME! There are no drivers and this makes it very hard when I depend on this scanner for work! So I need to get a new scanner now :(
Besides that it scans well
Works fine for me!
[ Posted: 2001-10-12 ]
I've owned this unit for a couple of years & love it. Very handy, dependable, easy to use, never had any problems & love the results. I do not work for HP nor do any of my relatives or friends & I do make money from my photos. That out of the way, I must confess that I resent "reviews" which take to task other users and arbitrarily classify us as "professionals" or "amateurs" based upon our level of agreement with the author. Most of the gripes I've read about seem to fall into 2 categories: (1) the Windows 2000 incompatibility: Hey, boxes are cheap - why not get a dedicated PC with compatible platform (e.g. W98)? - that's a common "professional" solution, or (2) the dust/lack of ICE software syndrome: Hey, try a little old-fashioned housekeeping! ICE is nice, but you also get degradation of detail with it, the usual technological trade-off...or maybe that doesn't matter when you're just doing wedding photos.