Epson Perfection 4180 Photo Scanner

I picked this unit up after returning a brand new Canon 8400F that had lots of dust/dirt inside the glass. It was not a good switch.

The build quality of the scanner is okay but seems less sturdy compared to the Canon.

I'm using these scanners with Macintosh computers and the Epson software is clunky and less than intuitive (I spend my life on PCs). For example, when a "scan to application" completes, the Epson Scan software reverts back to the Settings-Preview-Scan screen with no indication the scan is complete and that you need to click the close button to initiate the process of selecting the scan and application to transfer the image to. And it's so slow that even after you click the close button there is a 30 second pause before the next window opens (and this is on a high-end system). There is no option to have this close automatically and transfer the file like you can on the Canon.

The motor noise is quite loud, loud enough to wake a sleeping person in the same house.

The buttons work okay but not as good as the Canon in terms how they can be programmed.

I don't know if I got a bad unit but when running it though a thorough test, I found a repeatable problem of random & multiple horizontal black stripes across the image in several scan types (scan & save, scan to application, scan to print). The problem unexplainably went away but this was after the unit was fully warmed up (> 1 hour of use) so it could be a temperature issue with the electronics. Note the image file is not corrupted but simple void of data in several stripes across the entire screen.

Lastly, I compared similar scans of the same photos at the same resolution and other settings and the Canon was better as rated by several people viewing them side-by-side.

I may go back and get a Canon 8400F with clean glass.

I purchased the 4180 photo scanner, installed it, and copied a document. The scanner, when warming up and shutting down emits a high pitched sound. I returned the unit and got a replacement which does the same thing. Epson technical support indicates that this is normal. My original scanner was an Epson 1460SU, which I used for over two years. There was only a low hum when this unit was used.

The software provided to operate the scanner is woefully inadequate.

One of the things I need to do is scan documents for electronic filing. For this I need a fast scan and a small file. Two programs are provided for this sort of work. Epson
Scan is very fast, provides small files but will not scan multiple page documents - you wind up with lots of files. No way of merging them is provided.

The other program - Epson Smart panel will scan multiple documents but it is ponderously slow and produces very large files.

There is no way of fast scanning multiple pages with small files. Epson support suggest third party software. I have solved the problem by using PaperPort but this is inconvenient.

A scanner of this quality deserves better software than this.

I bought this scanner to replace my Epson Perfection 1240U (which wasn't broken but dusty under the glass, why? why?). I thought it would be nice to be able to scan negatives or really zoom in some old photos (where it seems like you have lots of people waaay far away). NOT! I tried every which way but the quality of a scanned negative stunk. There was so much noise & grain, it didn't come close to the quality of the "real" photo, even at a small size. I used Adobe Photoshop 6, which can use files of 48-bit depth, and tried processing the files but didn't see much improvement.

I'm sure it's not a bad scanner, I just don't think you're getting an improvement over a 2400 x 4800 scanner. For now, I returned mine and will try something else.

**Update**
I purchased the Canon 4200F scanner and have had a much better result with scans of 35mm negatives. Particularly, on comparison, I noticed a lot of "color bleed" on the Epson scans, and none on the Canon. I am posting a review on the Canon.

The good: The 4180 does deliver a lot for the money. I have used this scanner primarily for Kodachrome slide capture and the color accuracy is very very good. At 4800 dpi it produces a 35mm slide with a 113MB Bitmap so choose your scanning resolution carefully. The enclosed Photoshop software will quickly fix or improve many "problems". The scanner software interface is easy and intuitive, especially under "home" mode.

The bad: I'm on my 3rd scanner in as many weeks. At scan #500, a CCD failed, leaving me with a green line across all my slides. Scans of photos did not have this same problem. One week after that a RED line at scan #1000. Now I have the same thing at scan #1200 only it's intermittant, and is a blue line. The good news is that tech. support is knowledgeable and friendly. They can only tell me to exchange it or send it in under warranty. Examining each slide wondering which ones I need to re-scan, or wondering if it will get worse is not an experience I'd wish upon anyone. Obviously I cannot recommend purchase of this scanner, but if you do, purchase an exchange or extended warranty with it.