Why I Purchased this Scanner...
After buying a HP Photosmart P1100 Color Photo Printer last year, as well as an HP C200 digital camera, I finally rounded off my digital darkroom by adding the HP ScanJet 635OC Professional Scanner with document feeder to my fold. Now my digital darkroom is almost complete, with only a dedicated Negative Scanner and a digital video capture card left to acquire, I’m very happy.
To be honest, I’ve had my eye on this scanner for almost two years now. I looked around and paid attention to the various prices for this model, and I carefully compared it to other scanners on the market and found that nothing came close. Yes, it is an expensive model, but it is worth the price you pay. To be honest, I expect this model to last me a good 10 to 15 years.
Most of the places I checked, I found the prices ranged from $650 to more than $800. Eventually I found a place that listed it at $605 Canadian, which was almost $150 cheaper than the big Canadian chain, Future Shop’s advertised price, so I got a very good deal on this model.
Installation and Setup...
As I carried the printer out of the store, I was surprised at how lightweight it was. Unpacking it was a breeze, as was setting it up. HP is great because they give you this really easy to understand and follow instructions on what they call a setup poster. If you follow the poster exactly, setup will be smooth and you shouldn’t have any problems whatsoever.
Once you have your scanner plugged into it’s power source and into the computer itself via either a USB or SCSI connection, all you have to do is install the software that comes with the unit and you’re ready to roll.
This scanner is also network compatible, which means that it can be shared with a number of computers in a home or small to medium sized office. And since I eventually plan on running my own company, I knew investing in this model now would save me time and money in the long run. Yes, it is expensive, but I consider it to be an investment in my future.
Scanning Quality and Ease of Use...
Scanning is very sharp and the detail is great. I’ve done everything from just copying basic materials such as homework or text from a huge textbook I hate to carry around, to scanning both color and black & white photographs. The black & white copying is fantastic! The textures and shading comes through great with the 6350C, giving you a very professional quality scan that you can then edit, put on the Internet, or print off. And to be honest, I’ve only printed out a few so far.
Mainly, I’ve been scanning a lot of older, regular sized 4 by 6, color photographs; getting them ready to edit for the eventual use on my own personal website (which has been sorely neglected as of late). But overall, I’m very happy with the quality of the scans, it’s very good - in fact it maybe too good! I’ve actually found I have to make sure the scanner surface is very clean, and I also have to make sure the photograph I am scanning is dust free - otherwise every spec of dust will show.
Currently, I use both a can of compressed air and an anti-static dusting cloth (that can be picked up at any professional photography store) to clean the pictures I scan. For the scanner glass itself, I use a clean cloth (not paper towels) which I spray with a bit of diluted Windex - this helps do a good job of cleaning the surface of the scanner after a lot of use, and will help to keep your scans looking vivid and sharp.
The Scanning Software and Quick-Scan Buttons...
The software that comes with it is great. It has five quick function buttons on the front - for copying to your hard drive, to copying to the printer, to e-mailing a document, and to faxing and filing as well. I’ve got my Dad using the copy and fax buttons often for his work he does at home - just put your document down, hit the ’’copy’’ button and it quickly scans it and spits it out of my laser HP laser printer, no problems at all! You can set it up to copy quickly, or at a normal rate, or at a slower rate - and what happens with that is the quality of the copy increases. Although, for most documents, I find the quick setting to be fine, just like a traditional copier at work. But in the end, no matter what you scan, this model will do it very quickly and very efficiently.
Slide Adaptor...
I haven’t used the slide adaptor for copying slides yet, but I plan to. What I think I would have really wanted is the transparency adaptor that comes with the 5370, 6300C and 6390C. It’s more useful for me as it can be used to copy negatives into electronic photos. But I know I can order it online direct from HP, which I will do, and I believe the cost is only $99 US, not a bad price at all.
Document Feeder...
The document feeder is also great. My only wish is that it could take more paper, but 25 sheets has proven to be enough. I’ve used it to scan and save old writing I’ve done but no longer have saved to disk, as well as to scan and copy class notes and faxes I am going to send. You can also use the feeder to scan sheets that are longer - up to a size 8 1/2 by 14.
Final Thoughts, Pricing and Warranty Information...
All-in-all the HP6350C is a great deal. It’s very fast, I love the speed - that’s important to me - and this model delivers! I seriously considered getting the 5370C, as it is basically the same, but it is a bit slower. Although it does feature a 42bit color scanning platform (which will help give you a much better scan), compared to the 6350C’s 36bit color platform.
However, the 6350C’s scanning output is unlimited, whereas the 5370 is not. Also, the 5370 comes with the transparency adapter, whereas the 6350C only comes with a slide adapter, which to me is useless as I do not have any slides. And, the 5370 does not come with the document feeder. So if you need a document feeder, the 6350C is a better deal (even though you can order from HP a document feeder at about $199 US, but in the end, this will end up costing you more money). So, for me, it worked out to be cheaper to buy the 6350C (which I’ve always been attracted to anyway), and eventually I do plan on getting the transparency adaptor through HP for the 6350C. With the price I paid on the 6350C from the independent store, I’ll actually end up saving about $60.
In terms of warranty, the HP ScanJet 6350C is covered by a standard one-year manufacturer’s parts and labour warranty. However, you can purchase no-hassle extended warranties from most stores nowadays - but be warned, as it is not always necessary to do so.
So far, I haven’t been able to find anything that I dislike about this model. If anything, I wish I had more time right to use it right now!
Grade: A
For more information regarding the HP ScanJet 6300 series, feel free to visit the manufacturer’s website at:
https://hp.ca/products/static/c7679a/features-en.html