Epson Perfection 1260 Photo Scanner

When my HP Scanjet 3200C refused to work with Windows XP on my new computer, I decided to try the Epson Perfection 1260. The installing the scanner drivers were extremely easy. I didnt bother with the additional software since I have Photoshop 7. After quickly getting the scanner up and running, I noticed problems. When pictures or color documents were scanned, they were usually a bit blurry. Sometimes they had a red line going through them, however, I didnt think much of it. I pretty much used the scanner for line art. That however should have been a warning sign as the quality of photos, magazine articles and covers I scanned seemed to get progressively worse. To make them look clear, I often had to clean up the lines in Photoshop. Then came the final straw, when trying to scan a color drawing, the scan came out way too dim. Instead of a clear picture (or even a slightly blurred one) all I got was grayish fuzz. When I tried to scan a DVD cover as a test, all I got a lot of red and no color. All of this, and Ive only had it for a few months, moderately using it from time to time. All in all, Id say my money was wasted. So far Id say if youre looking for something easy to install and use, that also scans clean line art, then go for it. For anything and everything else, the low price isnt worth it.

Well ive read the reviews here and i here what youre saying. I agree its not the fastest on the bloc nor is it absolute satate of the art, and the Software could have been better, but it does do everything its supposed to do , and the features are pretty good espically the ability to scan a mix of images on the glass and put them in individual files. May i say that most of the negative comments here relate to setting up and installing the scanner correctly, all those wierd colours and stripes are most often caused by wrong proceedures and plugging & unplugging usb hardware , switching off everything & restarting the Computer will in most cases get things on an even keel. The Twain software in the Manual mode works better in some applications than others, Ulead PhotoImpact did a good job as did Paint Shop Pro also,and even Arcsoft Impression which is on the installation CD .Photoshop CS2 worked though in my opinion not as well as i would have expected. Also how many people have downloaded the latest Twain driver from Epson, its easy to find and download. The other bit of info,this is one of the few Scanners that will work in a Linux Operating system (Debian based distros in particular) but you have to download & install Sane to get it working.A few last tips try installing the software first,then close down the PC & connect the Scanner ,then start the PC, chances are it will be fine. Make sure the Scanner is powered up first then switch on your PC, not the other way round,even though XP is plug & play compliant it works better with the first option ,Messages like Scanner could not be found or Scanner could not be initalised is because Windows is not seeing it you can check this by right clicking on EPSON in C Drive and see if Properties are available,in some cases EPSON may not even be there at all,in which case you know that the PC hasnt found it!, Have a second look at this Scanner and you may be happy yet. Good Luck.

I purchased a 1260 about 9 months ago after my first-generation scanner (from UMAX) died. The scanner and software were quite easy to set up (on a PC running Windows XP), Ive had no hardware problems, and Ive found the picture quality to be very acceptable. Its a bit slow to warm up and scan, but both were as expected in this price range. The bundled EPSON SmartPanel software is a disappointment; it gets the job done but is far from user-friendly (and my low-tech wife still hasnt figured out how to use it).

Its the scanner for you. Allows for scanning slides and negatives, not to mention flatbed scanning. Running OS X? No need to worry. Just download the driver from Epson, and away you go. Running on Mac OS X 10.2.3

I just love this little photo scanner. It is great for slides as well and is fast and very easy to use. The instructions can be a little difficult but you can work through them. Open the reference and instructions with your internet browser. It is just perfect!

I installed this scanner onto my system and I use a HP printer. Everything seemed to work until I began trying to make a copy. The scanner would not let me make a copy. I tried every technique imaginable. I read the help files, read the manual and still nothing. I thought there was something wrong with the scanner so I decided to phone epson tech support as my last resort. I couldnt believe what I was told. I was told in order for my printer to work I had to install a ghost printer driver for an Epson printer so the software would work and let me have the option of copying a document. Why on Gods earth would I have to install an Epson Driver when I had a HP printer. To make this frustrating story short Epson has pulled a fast one and made their scanner proprietary meaning it will only work if their printer is set as the default printer. Doesnt seem like a big deal does it? Try printing a document using your printer and you will find it wont print because the default printer is a ghost printer. So what you have to do each and everytime you print you have to go to the device manager and switch between your printer and the epson ghost printer as your default. Tech support told me they dont have a fix for this problem. Wow what a pain. If I am scanning the default printer is the Epson ghost. But to print this I have to change in the program to my printer so I can get my copy as requested from the scanner. But you cant forget to switch the default printer in the device manager when you are printing from any windows program or the internet. I took it back!! I dont have the time or the patience to deal with Epsons way of doing business. Think about it, you would think a scanner is to work on its own merits but Epson has made it only able to work without grief if you own one of their printers. Thanks but no thanks. Back to HP for me.

The quality of the picture is great. Unfortunately, the people that wrote the software for this scanner had created a great deal of glitches; the interaction (if you get any) between the software and the scanner is user unfriendly.

I am a computer and printer tech for a living so I get to use a lot of products! Recently I needed a scanner so I got the Epson 1260 after reading all the bad reviews about HP Scanners. I have always liked HP products and I also had an Epson printer was not so good, so I was a little leery about going with Epson. I had NO problems setting it up and found all the functions to work properly, even the copy function worked with my HP LaserJet! Also the OCR software that Epson provided seemed to work great in my tests. Overall I am impressed with this scanner and for the price I think the quality would be hard to beat.

I got this as part of a special offer with my Mac G4. I have been using scanners for almost 20 years, and this is *the worst* I have ever had the misfortune to be stuck with. There is no off button; the only way to shut it off (and prevent its big green light from illuminating the room) is to unplug it; if it has one-touch copying, I have never succeeded in getting it to work; the software is terrible -- at least fifty per cent of the time it stops making copies for no apparent reason; I use Adobe Photoshops twain acquire function to avoid having to use the software which comes with this thing, but -- again -- half the time it does not work; it is not working now although it worked fine two days ago with the same connection and the same software. DO NOT waste any time or money on this thing. Even if you receive it for free, dont bother with it -- it will waste so much of your time that you may just grab it and throw it against a wall or something else valuable. I give it one star because it *does* work every once in a while. That is the only good thing I have to say about this piece of junk.

I could not install this scanner in my new computer. There were problems with the software with windows XP. The bundeled photo editing software that came with it was the only part that did install; did not need it as I have much better ones now. The drivers and the smart scan function would not install. After many tries and several frustrating days, I returned it to the place I bought it on advice from some other experts in computer science.I cannot recommend this to anyone as one other person rated here, It is a dog. I then bought an HP unit that installed easily with no problems and it works great. My advice is to spend a few extra bucks and avoid the hours of frustration that I had.