Microtek ScanMaker 6800 with Digital ICE for Photo Prints

 (8 customer reviews)

After using ASF's software for a while I was very interested in this product. I saw that it only worked on reflective images, not slides and negatives which was disheartening at first but the actual product more than made up my initial percieved shortcomings. The scanner is very fast when you do not use the digital ice feature. When you do use it you need to give it some time to work its magic but it does work wonders. If you have old pictures that are torn up or scratched then this is what you need. It's suprising to see a product today that works as advertised. Edit: I should re-phrase that it does scan slides and negatives, just not with the digital ice function (restoring ability). I will keep everyone up to date with my progress with the 6800 but so far so good!!Pros: USB 2.0 and Firewire connections for both my PC and Mac. Fast scanning when not using digital ice. Excellent photo reproduction capabilities!Cons: No ice function for negatives

I got the ScanMaker because I have lots of photos from my wedding to scan. I also have roughly 450 medium format negatives from my photographer. Scanning both has been a breeze. The scanner software can operate in advanced mode, which allows saving different areas of the scan as different images, but in one scanning pass. So for my negatives, I can scan 4 negatives into 4 separate images. Very nice.Image resolution and color reproduction are top notch. Digital ICE is great for images and saves some post-scan touch-up time. It would be nice to have it for film, but I consider it to be a bonus even for photos.My only complaint: The USB cable is way too short. The power cable is nice and long though. If this were fixed, it would get a 5.0.

Read a lot about the 6800 and was looking forward to using it. After hours of trying to install the drivers, both the one included on the CD and the update on the Microtek website, I finally gave up. The computer would recognize the scanner if I was using Photoshop but not if I was using it as a stand alone. Big problem since the Digital Ice feature (the reason I bought this scanner) only works through their proprietary software. I compared the scans in Photoshop with others I had done with an inexpensive HP All-In-One. There was basically no difference. Not wanting the headache of endless time spent with tech support, I packed it up and sent it back. Now looking for an alternative.