ciocc's Full Review: Visioneer OneTouch 5800 Flatbed Scanner
The Visioneer One Touch 5800 USB makes fast, accurate scans - significantly faster than my three-year old Visioneer 6100 USB. Two full-screen scans at 100 dpi take 27 seconds, at 200 or 300 dpi take 42 seconds, at 400 dpi take 70 seconds, and in the preview mode takes 12 seconds fir a single scan. Compare that to the 6100, which did two full-screen scans at 200 dpi at 76 seconds, at 300 dpi at 123 seconds, and in the preview mode took 35 seconds for one scan.
My install went well with my Windows 98 SE. However, my old 6100 USB came with a faulty driver that has not worked with two different computers, so Visioneer's track record in this department is questionable.
Enlarging the pixels of a text scan shows the scanning to be smooth and accurate. This is reflected in accurate OCR - optical character recognition.
The color of the 5800 is vastly improved over my older Visioneer 6100 USB, with very good saturation and rendition of subtle earth tones. I was always frustrated by the muddy color of scans from the 6100. The scans are also quite sharp - without picking up too much dust - which can be seen by enlarging text.
The box touts the 48 bit color scanning, which is misleading. With the supplied software and all color images are saved as 24 bit files and B&W as 8 bit files. There is a shaded, inactive box to check for 48 bit files when using Paperport. I found this box becomes active when using the driver to scan directly into Photoshop 6.0, allowing 48 bit scans.
Another advantage of the 5800 is the Textbridge OCR software, which will do OCR from grayscale or color scans. The Visioneer Pro OCR 100 software with the 6100 required a black and white scan -with only black or white pixels. This means if you want to archive a magazine article you can do a single color scan and still do OCR. And the scans from grayscale or color seem to be more accurate than from black and white scans.
But on some points the 5800 is a step backwards from the older 6100. The supplied Paperport software version 7 looks almost identical to the version 6.1 with the 6100, but has some awkward changes. If you drag and drop an item into the Textbridge icon it opens a new window after displaying a message "Waiting for link to complete..." To drag and drop another item you have to close the Textbridge window, when you are confronted with the "Waiting for link...." message still up.
The Textbridge program is more accurate than the older Pro OCR 100 at aligning formatted text, but not perfect. Unlike the OCR 100, it hides the error count in the page drop-down box - information needed for setting the brightness of the OCR scan.
Also, if you try to scan after the scanner has been idle several minutes you will be asked to wait while the light warms up - sometimes more than a half-minute - but the light has been on all along! This occurs even while using the preview mode, and did not happen with the 6100, except when turning it on or when returning from sleep mode.
But to put this into perspective, I have recently been using a Microtek 4900 scanner, and its software is far more awkward and slow to use than the Visioneer's Paperport program - it makes the Visioneer software seem positively elegant. So the Visioneer is far better suited for casual users, rather than the pros the Microtek was created for.
The Paperport program uses a proprietary compressed format, but it is a good one that provides clear images of photos and documents in relatively little space. But when you export the image to a JPG, TIF or BMP you are apparently converting from a compressed original. And TIFs do not show up as thumbnail images within Paperport.
You can scan directly from the MGI Photosuite III SE that comes with the scanner. This also provides photo management and color control, and can scan into a variety of standard formats, and convert images to different dpi, etc. There is also a photo enhancing program integrated to Paperport that you can scan from directly using standard formats, so you are not limited to Paperport.
Note: you can control the standby timer through the one-touch settings, a program you enter by clicking on a separate icon. You can easily save as many scanner settings - cropping, brightness, color, etc. - each with different names from within the driver screen. The current settings are saved when you close the program, but not if the program crashes - at least on my Win 98 setup.
The biggest problem with the 5800 is the raised lip of plastic around the glass. The 6100 had a thin, square metal ruler holding down the glass. This has a 1/8th inch piece of plastic. The result is that it is difficult or impossible to put objects larger than the glass flat against the glass. (Unfortunately, nearly all manufacturers are going this route.)
If you are copying a large book it will not touch the glass. If you are copying a book slightly larger than the glass you can put it at an angle, one side touching the glass, the other off the glass. Scans are still sharp, but lines may come out curved or wavy and you may get shadows and uneven lighting.
If you are copying a large document, say a newspaper or poster, using the lid to press the item against the glass will put a crease in the original.
Also, without the metal square, which had ruler markings around it, it is more difficult to align documents on the glass consistently.
Why did Visioneer make this change in a scanner that cost about the same as the 6100? I would assume that it was to save the cost of the metal square, which probably cost a big 25 cents. It is a move that, sadly, other manufacturers are making, though their plastic covers are not as deep and steep as the 5800.
Another cost-saving move: The USB cable is hardwired into the scanner. This means if the cable is damaged, the scanner is dead. This is the first time I have seen a cable hardwired to a piece of computer equipment, except for monitors. Look at the cable: it is about half the width of a regular USB cable, and feels flimsy, a risk if you switch USB cables often.
The bottom line: If you are primarily scanning snapshots or regular-sized documents, the 5800 is great. If you are scanning larger items, the 5800 is usable if you don't require total accuracy in the scan.
If I had paid the full $80 price for the 5800, I would have returned it and looked at another brand. But I got it with hefty rebates - $20.
Update: The list has now dropped to $50, and the rebates are still showing up. Heck, for $20 it is worth it for the Textbridge Pro software, which works with other scanners.
By the way, when I tried to register online while loading the software the driver failed to load. So I had to re-load the driver later, ending up with a persistent message to register my scanner.
If Visioneer would only make the USB cable a bit sturdier - even if hardwired - and trim the plastic rim, plus make some minor changes to the software, I would have no trouble recommending the 5800 for people looking for an inexpensive, easy to use scanner.
The virtues of the 5800 have grown on me. I have made more than 2,000 scans, and found it is an almost no-hassle scanner that works quietly, quickly and consistently.
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