HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo, 4800 x 9600 dpi, Letter Size, Flatbed Scanner

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

I've been leery of scanners in general, but I had a huge amount of family slides that needed converting. This scanner pretty much fills the bill. The positives are that if you want to scan at 300 dpi (suitable for 4x6 or 5x7 prints), and want speed over touching up each slide, this scanner works very easily. Sort your Kodachrome from other slide formats, place them into the slide holder, and press scan. You can check the cropping in the preview, decide where to send the final output (having iPhoto as an option was great), and within several minutes your slides are in iPhoto. Some suggestions: if you're not sure whether the scanner software is cropping too tightly in the preview, move the crop marks further away from the image. You can recrop more easily in iPhoto. Also check each slide for needing enhancement, and for old slides, check the "restore colors" box in the profile (then save your profile for loading next time).
The negatives: documentation is minimal. The printed guide (PDF) doesn't answer all questions, but the on-screen help is beneficial. And as others have said, start-up time is slow, but once it's warmed up, you can keep sending slides into your computer. Finally, if you do want to scan at 1200 dpi (or greater) so that you can get a 16x20 print from your old slide, prepare to w a i t on the scanning. Or do what I am doing, scan everything at 300 dpi, and only the special ones, rescan at 1200.

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

This thing is wasteful. Must be a software screw up on the Black and White side. Useless on anything but a perfectly exposed and processed neg with absolutely normal contrast. Later you can take the image into Photoshop and correct density and contrast. This thing is utterly useless for anything other flatbed scans from prints. Less than great on color. The software defaults after every restart, loosing all your custom settings. Did I mention this thing was a waste of time. I've been doing this professionally since the mid seventies, tons of b&w stock to work with, I've used many good scanners in the last decade or so. Bottom Line: this thing will get you fired. Don't waste your time. I've already replaced mine.

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

I bought the HP Scanjet 4050 to digitize old family photos. My goal was to replicate the look, display the ageing, duplicate the antiquity, and come up with a scan that looked as close as possible to the old original photo. After the Scanjet 4050 does the initial scan a screen comes up showing the "original scan" with another tab for "single image". In all cases the "original scan" is very close to the original. The "single image" page displays the "final image". This is the image that results after HP software "enhances" the photo. The "original scan" is perfect … the only problem is that is not what you will end up with. Your digital file (JPG, TIFF, etc) will be the "final image" and you cannot save the "original scan" to a digital file. There is no way to disable this "enhancement".

In all cases my old antique photos had a predominate green hue. You can edit, adjust, and minimize the green hue but you can never get the "final image" to look anything like the original. I tried every single option, adjustment, and setting and the results are the same … LIMEADE GREEN HUE PHOTOS. I worked with HP technical support for over an hour where they controlled my computer remotely and the determination was that the Scanjet was working up to specifications. In other words this scanner WILL NOT correctly scan your old, aged, slightly faded photos.

However the Scanjet did a excellent job on documents and a good job on color photos. Also you can turn your photos into a black and white or grayscale.

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

Great combination of speed and accuracy with lots of flexibility to alter settings. Minor problem with Photosmart software.

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

I use this scanner for documents, film, 35mm slides, photos, newspaper articles, etc. I had an old scanner and this one far outdoes the first one that I had. Color is great and clarity is great. Some of the photos are over 100 years old and look great.
Thanks

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

Good scanner but guess I expected it to be a little faster to start up. I also have the HP 8300 which seems to be quicker.

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

Primarily used for scanning logos and signatures into proprietary software. HP had the only scanners on the the market that were reasonably priced that would meet my needs (large choice of file output). The quality of the scans are first rate. I also (occasionally) use it to scan photos and pictures and the images are excellent. Very easy to use and the settings choices are very flexible.

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

I bought this product to replace my HP 5300 scanjet which I used constantly and absolutely loved for 13 years. I tried to read all the info I could find and saw that many people were not happy with what was being offered as replacement models.I was also about to embark on a huge slide scanning project and was really worried about trying something new. I [...] had it up and running in less than a half hour. I was somewhat intimidated with the TMA and I don't like not getting an instruction booklet with a product but what can I say. I scanned a few pictures first and got great results. I waited until the next day to start the slide scanning. I figured I'd start out testing all the buttons and see how long it took. Well after an hour and a half to scan 1 slide I started eliminating buttons. I ended up scanning at 1200 with the restore faded colors and sharpen buttons and got exellent results. As soon as you hit any other buttons the increased time to scan is significant and for the most part the results were not any better. It also took me awhile to realize that I could change things on each side individually when doing a full page load(16). I was doing 16 slides in 20-30 minutes. I was not really impressed with the photsmart essentials software and will probably work with the images in another program for any extra tweaking.This scanner was worth the money I paid and easy enough to use but HP surely by now could have found a way to use the 5300 on newer computers ( kept and old computer just for the use of the scanner)and a kept a great scanner around.

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

Works very well once you get the correct drivers for it -- the newest driver to use with Mac OS 10.6 is not on the included disks so you'll have to download it. It's a little confusing to use until you get the hang of it. Great for folks trying to share articles and such because you can scan each page of an article into one pdf file without having to try to put them together after scanning each page separately

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

Collecting two thousand + slides in over fifty years,I decided to digitize the them. The Scanjet G4050 was recommended because it could be loaded with 16 slides at a time.I also use an HP All-In-One L7680 scanner, printer, etc. [...] "Partition" my MacBook Pro to separate the scanning activities"I did this and it works fine.I had bought the warranty. [...]the top part of the G4050 crashed down upon the bottom part and the top's glass cracked.[...] notify the warrsnty people...send it in and wait for...I contacted the manufacturer directly, instead.In two days a replacement top was at my door at no charge and I returned the defective one, also at no charge. The purchased warranty was useless to me.I am pleased with the product and my grandchildrenare amused at computer-viewing their fathers as babies and as they grew up.[...]

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

Scans well

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

After procrastinating 2+ years to start scanning in the family's old slides I came across this HP product. I was able to scan about 1,000 slides in two weeks, working about 1 hour per day. Being able to scan 16 slides at a time was perfect. By the time I photo edited one batch the next batch was complete. Setup is easy. Once the software is installed it is 30 seconds to hook up and one button to push to start the scan.

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

I bought this to scan negatives and slides -- I have another, older scanner that does more general-purpose scanning duty.

First time out, I scanned a couple of frames of b/w neg. 120 format film. The results were pretty impressive. Good tonal range, good detail.

You need to pay attention, and not rely on the machine to do all the work. But it's quite good overall.

Scanning software is no worse than other manufacturers.

Possible downsides -- use of frames/masks means that you either don't get full-frame scans, or you need to improvise some sort of film holder. Non-supported film sizes (127, 5x7, etc.) mean either improvising a holder or getting scans of film not lying flat.

Scanning large negatives is a huge advantage.

I have recommended this scanner to family for negatives and slides. Decent quality and features, and a good price.

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

The scanner is good, but slow. I use it for scanning 4x5 negatives. The film holder is okay, but I would like to see a film holder with glass to help keep the negative flat and be able to scan more than one 4x5 negative. The software is not very user friendly.

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

I have been using this product to scan all of my photos into my computer. After searching high and low I purchased the scanner because of the reviews. I love the ability to put multiple photos on the screen and scan them individually instead of 1 sheet.
The only thing I do not really like is the amount of noise the unit makes. Although it does not affect the overall function of the machine.
I would recommend this product to anyone who has 100's of photos that they will be scanning!!

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

I purchased this scanner because I work with 4x5 negatives. I sold my Epson 4490 for this so I wont have to scan half a negative twice then stitch them together again. Wow, I wish I hadnt sold my EpsonThis thing is total garbage. The scans are just downright terrible. Cannot handle highlights so it just blows it, cannot handle shadow detail so it blankets it in blackness. And thats just black and white. I scanned some Velvia, does a horrible job. Made beautiful velvia that I can see with my own eyes look like trash. And yes, the focus is just downright bad. I see tack sharp in my negatives, this thing sees nothing but bokeh. [...] Software, like it was designed by someone who just dont care. I shouldnt have sold my old scanner, the glass was scratched and still did a better job than this scanner fresh out of the box.

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

This product performs better that what I anticipated in as much as it really does a nice job scanning slides and old photos.

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

I am using it to scan tons of old negatives and slides. It has a small problem with a 64 bt version of Windows 7, but it has not hindered me at all

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

Good for scanning Photos and documents, not so excellent for film and neg scan.

Comments about HP / Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Photo Flatbed Scanner:

The G4040 provides outstanding features for scanning slides and film. Once installed, HP's Photosmart Premier, included with the hardware, provides an alternate to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Although the hardware works fine as a Twain import via Photoshop, it was not recognized by HP's stand alone scanning software (via Windows XP)even with HP's recommended fix to modify msconfig prior to installing software. The hardware worked great with a third party scanning software. Feedback from HP technical support has been requested.