HP ScanJet 8250 Document Scanner

I got this scanner because I wanted the duplex ADF so I could archive a couple shelves worth of documents. Has been working great. I was actually quite impressed with the software and the options available. The searchable PDF for a document form is perfect - It automatically adjusts for landscape documents and inserts them in the PDF appropriately. The majority of typed text is recognized and converted to copy and pastable text which was a huge bonus. I bought mine as a used/off lease machine and haven't seen any downsides to that yet. My only beef is that when using duplex mode it takes 3-4 times longer to do a double sided document vs two single sided documents (but this sure beats having to manually flip the pages)

I bought this refurbished so my expectation (also after reading some reviews) were not high. I use it in a small Health Care office and there are tons of paper work to be scanned all the time. We just recently Scanned over 2000 pages in a single run and had no paper jam. It worked perfectly and fast. The software that comes with the scanner is not that great. I recommend a 3rd party software. Nuance OmniPage 16 is the software I use with the scanner and they work great together. Be aware that the learning curve is pretty tough. To be Honest, at first I hated the scanner and the software. I thought they were junk because I couldn't figure out how to make it do what I want it to do. But luckly, I decided to be patient and experiment with Scanjet 8250 and OmniPage 16 (lots of trial and error). Once I figured it out, I couldn't believe what an amazing product this is. I ended up buying a second one for back up.
I gave it 4 of 5 stars because of the software learning curve.
I use Vista Premium. Just like the Scanjet 8250 and OmniPage 16, I hated Vista at first but now I love it :)

I bought a refurbished Scanjet 8250 for $80 in Aug 2008, figuring that even if it didn't work, I'd only be out $80 rather than the original price of $800. Anyway, I have owned HP automatic-document-feeder scanners before (most recently the Scanjet 5550c w/single-sided ADF), so I alreay knew all about the quirky, slow, and clunky HP scanner software. Out of the (refurbished) box, the included original driver/software (HP Imaging 2.2) did not work with my Windows XP Pro SP3 Pentium 4 2.4 GHz Thinkpad. There were various errors and crashes, even after patching with the latest updates from the HP website. Thankfully, there was a completely new set of drivers/software dated May 2007 (HP Solution Center), which did end up working just fine, though it thought the scanner was an 8270 for some reason. Yes, HP's new software (just like the old software) is well over 100 MB and is still slow and clunky, but it includes an image/picture manager w/rudimentary photo editing features. If you don't to deal with HP software, then HP provides a much slimmer TWAIN driver that includes most or all of the scanners features, though you wouldn't be able to use the scanner front panel buttons. You can use a third-party document manager such as PaperPort with the TWAIN drivers. I chose to install and use both sets of drivers/software. Anyway, after 2 weeks of use, the ADF hasn't yet jammed on me (from my experience with the HP 5550c ADF scanner, jams are fairly rare and that scanner has kept working for 5 years straight now). The front panel buttons are convenient and very customizable, so I've assigned each button for particular common scanning tasks I do (e.g grey scale 200dpi PDF, grey scale 300dpi for OCR, color 300dpi for scanning 4x6 prints, etc). Of course, you can use the software to do the same things, but the buttons speed things up.. Overall, once you get used to the software and configure it to do what you want, you will find that this is a very capable machine. I look forward to many years of service from this HP scanner.

The rollers are not great, so it will jam periodically. The worst thing is the software. It freezes and has to be re-installed all the time.

This is an absolutely aweful scanner. I have had 4 document feeders replaced by HP and it still does not work correctly. This scanner would be better marketed as a door stop than a business machine.