Plustek Opticslim 1180

I suspect that many artists/illustrators might be tempted, as I was, to buy this A3 scanner because of the attractive price point. However it is not of a high enough quality to scan colour accurately, and I have had nothing but trouble trying to get a decent scan of watercolour, pencil crayon and ink images. For several months I assumed it was something to do with the way I had set it up, and struggled on, trying to make (ultimately unsatisfactory) reparations in Photoshop and Googling for calibration methods. In the end I contacted the manufacturers. Their reply? 'This is not a high-end scanner and you shouldn't expect good results from it', basically (I paraphrase). Sadly, I can't afford a high-end A3 scanner at £1,000+. I don't have any quibble with scanners being available for tasks that require less accuracy or fine detail, but I do think that this shortcoming should be prominently visible in the product description.

Incredibly noisy for a scanner. It stopped working altogether a couple of weeks after the warranty expired. I had used it infrequently because the noise was capable of disturbing my neighbours. In my opinion a total waste of money! It would be wonderful if they had the decency to refund my money even now.

Please note this product will not work with a Mac. I sent it back. Also remember that it is shipped from France so sending it back was expensive. All in all a fairly poor experience.

Excellent product. Excellent scanned images colour rendition excellent. Fast scan times at all dpi settings. Runs smoothly and quietly. Auto cropping excellent. Would recommend to everybody. Well pleased with all results.