Epson Expression 10000XL- Graphic Arts Scanner

I would have given this 5 stars if it had had a page feeder. Although in my case not a necessity, still it would have been a nice feature given the price of this unit. It's EXPENSIVE!

The scanner itself does exactly what I require of it. It takes great scans of large items and offers many filter and scanning options including software that permits multiple scans without requiring one to call up the Twain driver after every scan. I have over 300 LP covers that I'd like to scan and now I can do each in one pass. It will be invaluable for me to be able to keep up with the flow of my daughter's countless larger art pieces (yes I'm a doting digital dad). The Epson XL10000 is just what the doctor ordered.

(FYI: My older Epson Perfection series scanner came with software to permit multiple scans when installed on an XP box, but on my new Vista box, this feature is no longer supported by Epson. I did manage to find software to enable multiple scans. Since I'm on the XP box at the moment and not on the Vista box, I don't recall the software product name, but think it might have been something like Smart Scan.)

Epson makes great (if overpriced) scanners and printers. I've never had a problem with any Epson device in the 20 years I've been using them.

If you need the size and can afford the cost of admission, this is your ticket to great large format scans.

THE BEST QUALITY SO FAR .... THE SCANS ARE SUPERB !! THE WAY TO GO , WITH EPSON

I purchased this recently because I wanted to upgrade from my old scanner, the Microtek 9800XL large format scanner.

I create highly detailed scratchboard line art and wanted a scanner that could capture the best possible scans of my work, which I can color digitally and send out to clients in electronic form. (I wasn't confident that my old scanner was doing the job as well as I hoped for.) Both the new and the old scanner are large format but the Epson 10000Xl is more than twice the cost of the Microtek 9800XL. Do I think the upgrade is worth it? Without a doubt.

Here is a list of cons associated with the Microtek that made me take the risk to upgrading:
1. Quirky driver. Sometimes the software could not find the installed driver and I had to restart the computer several times before it would work.
2. Microtek support is practically useless.
3. Very noisy operation
4. Scans required a lot of post production to arrive at the best capture of detail between dark and light tones. I had to scan in grayscale @ 1200dpi, make adjustment with Photoshop before converting to bitmap. With this scanner, the B&W bitmap scanning option was not capturing all the details.

The Epson, in comparison, has been a joy to own. Not only are the results much better, but the unit scans straight to B&W bitmap flawlessly, saving me time in post processing. I do need to clean the scan from unwanted specs but that is still a 50% reduction of time spent getting it optimized. The unit is also much quieter, has a slightly larger scan area, and built with superior design and parts. The lid stays open when raised at an angle whereas the Microtek was a slave to gravity.

After owning it about a month, there have been no problems to report. Since my livelihood relies on the quality of the images I produce, its a good investment and well worth the cost.

This is fantastic. Great for all those oversize boks and magazines. I use it for archiving publications and its very easy to use. Epson is always the best quality.