Meade ETX125EC Telescope w/ Autostar Controller (497) and Tripod (884)

Product Description

Meade ETX125AT Telescope with Autostar & Tripod The revolutionary Meade ETX-125AT goes anywhere at a moments notice and presents the finest optical images ever made available in ultraportable telescopes. Like the ETX-90AT, the ETX-125 provides an impressive optical tool for amateur and expert astronomers alike to observe continually changing celestial phenomena through effortless pushbutton electronic control. Yet the ETX-125AT collects twice the light of the ETX-90AT, permitting a much broader range of astronomical study. Jupiter's cloud belts, for example, are observable at a significantly heightened level of detail, while the Cassini division of Saturn's rings is routinely seen. The entire Messier listing of 110 objects is now not only visible, but every object takes on a readily discernable structure.The Meade ETX has been recently re-engineered to provide the very latest in microprocessor-controlled capability. The diffraction-limited optics produce images high in contrast, brightness, and resolution outperforming many instruments of larger aperture.Precision Crafted Optical Sets Meade Maksutov-Cassegrains optical sets are individually hand-figured by a Meade master optician, and then every optical set is put through over 30 separate optical tests and inspections before the optics are mounted in their respective optical tubes. New Fork Mount Design High-torque DC motors on both axes permits electronic operation from the standard equipment plug-in hand controller. Pushbutton Electronic Hand Controller The standard equipment controller allows you to easily track celestial objects at four dual-axis speeds: very slow at 8x for image centering at high power; slow at 32x for lower power or pushbutton object-tracking in the altazimuth mode; moderate at 0.75/sec for image centering in the viewfinder or for terrestrial tracking; or fast at 5/sec for fast slewing across the sky. Cordless Operation The dual-axis drive system operates for more than 40 hours from eight

Amazon.com Review

The ETX125EC brings the excellent optics of the original ETX-90 to a larger size, more suitable for serious observing. Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes like this have a reputation for handling high power well, and I find this to be true of the ETX125EC. With a magnification of 200X, the excellent ETX optics easily show moon shadows crossing the face of Jupiter. When the night air is still and calm, I've even watched the moons themselves glide in front of Jupiter. (Ganymede, the largest moon, is the easiest.)

Compared to the smaller scopes in the ETX line, the five inch aperture of the ETX125EC brings out significantly more detail in the moon, the planets, and deep space objects. How much detail? The Ring Nebula, M57, looks like a pale smoke ring. The dark dust lane that shapes the Sombrero galaxy, M104, shows itself by dramatically flattening the south side of M104's glowing spindle shape. (You'll still need a little imagination to see a "sombrero.") Jupiter's "Great Red Spot" is visible (it's actually pale tan this year), and Saturn's rings take on detail and shading that you just don't see in a smaller telescope.

Ironically, the high powered optics of the ETX125EC are also its biggest drawback. While observing planets at 200X magnification or more, any vibration while focusing or tracking is also magnified two hundred times. The Series 4000 26mm eyepiece gives a one degree true field of view with an ETX-90. The same standard eyepiece reveals only 0.7 degrees and only half the viewing area with the ETX125EC. In practical terms, this means that the Autostar controller may not hit the target every time the way it does with the smaller ETX models. Meade's clever solution is the "spiral search," which helps to locate targets that wind up just outside the field of view--all you have to do is press "GO TO" a second time and Autostar will begin a search pattern to help you find your target.

This scope has proven popular among telescope enthusiasts for its flexibility. One friend who bought an ETX125EC as his first telescope doesn't bother with the Autostar--he likes to look at the planets, and he can find them himself, thank you. Another friend is an experienced observer with several big telescopes in the garage and bought one for it's portability--he's planning to travel east on a star gazing trek this summer and will use the ETX125EC as his traveling scope.

Some owners of this telescope will want to add Meade's #1247 electric focuser and anti-vibration pads to reduce vibration problems. Just be aware that eight inch Schmidt-Cassegrains from Meade or Celestron are more solidly mounted, yet don't cost much more than an ETX125EC souped up with accessories. --Jeff Phillips

Pros:

Excellent optics
Autostar computer
Portable size

Cons:

Sensitive to vibration

Amazon.com Product Description

The ETX-125EC permits a broad range of astronomical study. In deep space, the ETX-125EC's larger aperture enables the observation of galaxies and nebulae in much wider extension and permits the resolution of celestial objects as faint as magnitude 12.5. The entire Messier listing of 110 objects is now not only visible, but, in addition, every object takes on a readily discernible structure. The Autostar controller turns the ETX-125EC into an automatic celestial object-locating system.

The computer-driven Autostar controller makes it easy to find 30,000 celestial objects.

Just plug the Autostar into the telescope's HBX port in place of the standard-equipment electronic controller, do a quick telescope alignment, and you're ready to observe any object in the Autostar's 30,000-object database.

ETX optical systems include a Maksutov meniscus corrector lens of Grade-A BK7 optical glass. High-transmission magnesium fluoride (MgF2) coatings on both sides of the correcting lens, as well as aluminum-silicon monoxide coatings on the primary and secondary mirrors, are provided as standard equipment.

Use the standard pushbutton electronic controller at any of four dual-axis speeds: 8x sidereal for image centering in the main telescope at high power; 32x for image centering at lower powers or for pushbutton object tracking in the altazimuth mode; slow mode for image centering in the viewfinder or for terrestrial tracking of nature and sightseeing; or medium speed for fast slewing across the sky. The observer can instantly select any of these speeds simply by depressing the speed button on the controller.

The telescope's ultraportable design allows the viewer to view from any flat surface, be it a window sill, car hood, or picnic table. The optional tripod can raise the telescope to any comfortable height.

The Nuts and Bolts

1. Eyepiece
2. Viewfinder
3. Eyepiece Holder Thumbscrew - Tightens the eyepiece in place.
4. 90° Eyepiece Holder - Holds the eyepiece upright for easy viewing.
5. Optical Tube - The main optical component that gathers the light from distant objects and brings this light to a focus for examination with the eyepiece.
6. Vertical Lock - Controls the manual vertical movement of the telescope.
7. Fork Arms - Hold the optical tube in place.
8. Focus Knob - Moves the telescope's optical tube in a finely-controlled motion to achieve precise image focus.
9. Horizontal Lock - Controls the manual horizontal rotation of the telescope.

10. Computer Control Panel

A. ON/OFF Switch.
B. Auxiliary Ports - Provide connection for current and future Meade accessories.

C. Handbox (HBX) Port - for the Electronic Controller or the optional Autostar handbox.

D. The 12v connector, designed to accept an external power supply such as the optional AC Adapter or Power Cord.

E. LED power indicator light.

11. Base Housing - Supports the telescope for placement on a flat, level surface, such as a tabletop or optional tripod.
12. Holes for Optional Tripod - See your tripod's instruction sheet for mounting information.
13. Right Ascension (R.A.) Setting Circle.
14. Flip-Mirror and Flip-Mirror Control Knobs - ETX telescopes include an internal mirror. With the flipmirror control in the "up" position, light is diverted to the eyepiece. With the flipmirror control in the "down" position, as shown in Fig. 2b, light proceeds straight out the photo port for photography.
15. Photo Port - Attach any 35mm camera with a removable lens to this port using an optional adapter.
16. Declination Setting Circle (on left fork arm).
17. Viewfinder Alignment Screws - adjust these screws to align the viewfinder.
18. Viewfinder Alignment Bracket.
19. Dust Cap
20. Battery Compartment (not shown, underneath base).

Customer Reviews:

a star of a scope, for its size.......2006-05-14

I have this, also a Celestron 8 and a Meade LX200GPS-10". I use this one when I see something I want to see quick, or for just a few minutes observing. Easy to carry around, gives good images. When it's serious time, the Meade 10" is the one as it has 4 times the light gathering, but it's also heavy--have to carry the tripod out, then the scope, then attach the two. So for a nice look at the sky, and one that can be done quickly, with ease, this is a nice choice. Meade 10" gives great detail, it might show the features some of the reviewers have noted, but this 5" isn't gonna show a lot of details. Still, this is great to look at Orion, its nebulae, Pleaides, moon, planets, the bright stars, a few galaxies, bright moon around the planets. Also, I have a solar filter for this, so can quickly dash out to see if there are sunspots. Warning--the only solar filter that is allowable is one that fits over the front of the scope. Do not rely on one at the eyepiece--the heat may crack it and then your eye is toast. The solar filter over the front is essentially a mirror--you can hold it up before a 100 watt light bulb and you can barely see the filament, it relects away that much light. That still lets in all the sun's rays you need--DO NOT use anything at the eyepiece, get a good solar filter at the front of the scope (and don't forget to cover the finder scope, it can still concentrate enough rays to hurt an eye.) Uh, back to the 5" scope, it is a nice thing to have, I'd buy it again, Meade did a nice job with it.

And, a rating of this product in stars seems appropriate, I'll give it 5 for what it does. But this isn't going to show colored galaxies like you see in pictures, don't get your expectations too high for any amateur scope unless you are a real expert in taking long-duration pictures through it.

First thought.......2004-08-31

I've only had the 125 ETX for a couple of weeks but here are some things I'd like to have known:

Quality:
Seems very well made. Manual perhaps a little brief but there are some great webpages on the web about settings up and using this scope.

Portable:
18 lbs for scope + 11 lbs tripode.... fairly easy to lift and walk with, even assembled together.

Noise:
On the balconey when slewing at full speed I'm worried about the neighbours, but very quite at slower speeds. So I'll probably look for a deserted bit of road to slew without worry.

Moon:
Sharp around 200 times magnification. With a 9.7 mm eyepiece. Even with barrow magnification doubler at 400x looked good.

Deep Space:
Andromeda galaxy seemd perhaps a little dimmer than in my 7x50mm binoculars, however the telescope showed a steadier much enlarged image. I'm guessing the math is
telescope 125mm*125mm / 73 magnification = 214 sqmm per something
binoculars 50mm*50mm / 7 magnification = 357 sqmm per something
(Plus I get to use 2 eyes)
Because this is a "fast" scope the lowest magnification I can get appears to be 48X which should make Andromeda as bright through the scope and still 7 times larger than the binoculars.
I'd probably need a darker site that my backyard to see all 110 messier objects though.

Summary:
A great scope for planets a good scope for deep space objects. You need to plan to get a higher magnification eyepiece for the best planet viewing and maybe a lower magnification for deep space objects.

A lot of scope for under $1000.......2003-09-11

The ETX125 with Autostar is a very good telescope for a reasonable price. It is portable (not as much as the ETX90) and has a generous 5" objective in the small package afforded by the Maksutov-Cassegrain design of a lens and two mirrors. The optics are of high quality, as are most commercial Meade and Celestron scopes today. The included 26mm Super Plössl eyepiece gives it a magnification of 73x. A good first accessory would be a 15mm or 12mm eyepiece for higher magnification. The views of Mars and the Moon through this telescope are stunning. With enough practice, quite a bit of detail on Mars, Jupiter and Saturn is visible, in appropriate seeing conditions (steady skies). The mount is adequate for mounting the scope in altitude-azimith mode (as pictured), but a beefier mount is needed if one wants to use the telescope in polar mode for imaging. The Autostar is a great boon to this telescope, if one takes the time to learn to set up the telescope properly, and learns the locations in the sky of the stars the alignment routine uses for set up. Taking time to calibrate and train the drives really improves the pointing accuracy. One annoyance is the delay and backlash (initial move in the wrong direction) of the controls to move the scope. The focus knob can be akward to use with the scope in certain orientations. There is a third party accessory that remedies this, or one can get Meade's motorized focuser (I ordered this with my scope when I was purchasing it based on my experiences with the spotting scope version of the ETX90). Another annoyance I have experienced with the tripod is that the clips on the mounting bolts tend to slip off. Each of the two mountng bolts has a clip, washer and spring that can be difficult to find in the dark if the clip slipping causes them to shoot in a random direction. I bought this scope to use to observe/image the planets and moon from New York City, while my bigger scope is in a less light polluted site.

Product Description

Nexian NexiCam - If you own a Compaq IPAQ Pocket PC, you will love the Nexian NexiCam. The NexiCam gives you the ability to take digital photos. That's right, it turns your IPAQ into a digital camera! It's ideal for the professional who needs to take a quick snapshot on the job, or even for casual personal user. It features superior picture quality at 800x600 resolution, automatic color balance, exposure, focus, & white balance. Optical character recognition & imaging effects with toggling between color, black & white & filtering Automatic Shutter Speed 10-Second Self-Timer (user configurable) Image Erase Output File Format to JPG, BMP, or AVI File Transfer - AutoSync, iRDA

Customer Reviews:

Nexicam for IPaq's.......2002-12-04

The NexiCam was a great solution to my digital camera problems since it worked directly with my Pocket PC... previously my old digital camera used a different type of memory than my IPaq Pocket PC, so transferring images between camera, PC and Pocket PC was alot more timely than I wanted.
The NexiCam works great, has more features than my old Kodak digicam, is very simple to setup and I am happy to be rid of the old memory cards. I love the built in Compact Flash memory slot, zoom feature and configurable self-timer.
One major downside I found was lack of good user documentation. The manual is Adobe based and very basic, you really need to experiment on your own to see the full potential of what you can do with the NexiCam (although that is alot of fun too!)

Nexian NXC3100 NexiCam Digital Camera for iPaq Pocket PC

Average customer rating:

Nice but expensive gadget, limited features. To improve.

Nexian NXC3100 NexiCam Digital Camera for iPaq Pocket PC

Manufacturer: Nexian, Inc.
ProductGroup: CE
Binding: Electronics

Point-and-Shoot Digital Cameras | Digital Cameras | Camera & Photo | Categories | Electronics
Accessories:

HP/Compaq CQP101 HP Trifold Case for the iPAQ Pocket PC - Black

Product Features:

Digital camera add-on for 3700 and 3800 series Compaq iPAQ Pocket PCs--ideal for business and personal use
High-resolution picture quality; features automatic color balance, exposure, focus, and white balance
Quickly upload photos to your desktop or laptop and access full-color photograph images
Includes a CompactFlash expansion slot for adding memory cards to store photos
Slips onto back of iPAQ; features 180-degree articulating lens

ASIN: B000062R4U

Product Description

It's the NEX best thing - the Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC becomes a digital camera - ideal for business and personal use. Quickly upload photos to your desktop or laptop and access full-color photograph images. Nexian NexiCam is designed for superior picture quality with high resolution (800x600 SVGA color) and automatic color balance, exposure, focus and white balance. It includes a CompactFlash (CF) expansion slot and is ideal for adding functionality such as a CF memory card, for extra image storage. It has a robust image processing and imaging effects with the option of changing a picture to grayscale or negative format.This digital camera is designed for Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC H3100 Series, H3600 Series, H3700 Series, H3800 Series.

Amazon.com Product Description

Transform your Compaq iPAQ into a digital still and video camera with the Nexian NexiCam. The new NexiCam is great for high-resolution snapshots, as well as mobile computing with its 180-degree articulating lens for video conferencing.

The viewfinder is integrated into the iPAQ display, so you can view in landscape mode. It also provides options to view, edit, save, and organize images, as well as information such as number of pictures taken, resolution, and battery level. The NexiCam also includes a 2X digital zoom, automatic color balance, exposure, focus, and white balance features.

The NexiCam has a CompactFlash expansion slot, so you can store pictures on a separate CF memory card; you can also save images to the iPAQ's RAM. The NexiCam comes with image processing software with robust features such as filtering and the option of taking photos in color or black and white. Pictures can be saved, manipulated, and e-mailed instantly as BMP, AVI, or JPG files.

Customer Reviews:

Nice but expensive gadget, limited features. To improve........2003-01-10

(Part III)

After a brief analisys what you get is the following:
- an IPAQ sleeve form factor expansion. (This feature is a pro and a limitation at the same time because while combining perfectly with iPAQ devices, will not be compatible with other PocketPCs.
- an 800 by 600 CMOS sensor embedded in the plastic case
- a single unpowered Compact Flash expansion slot
- the PocketPC software driver to make the camera work with your device

The Flash
An additional unfortunate feature is the lack of flash. The camera is virtually useless at night or in dark environments. The actual compact design could have included a built in flash like the those on the single use 35mm film cameras or, even better, a small detachable flash module powered by AA or AAA batteries, attach to the unit when needed.

The Zoom
The fact that such feature is present should make the camera more enjoyable. Unfortunatly Nexian made another bad choice: The lack of optical zoom. I am not talking about a Carl Zeiss, a Nikkor or an high quality grade lens, but just by providing the camera with a decent lens having a short range zooming capablity would have been probably a much better choice than the digital zoom, which actually reduces the quality of the images captured making them grainy, jagged and/or blurry beyond acceptable levels. A simple, manually adjustable mini zoom lens would allow the nexicam to produce higher quality close-up shots. The current low quality of the images created by the digital zoom will make it a feature you will try to avoid as much as possible.

The Auto Focus
In a device like this make to get picture on the move this feature is a must, the nexicam auto focus feature unfortunately is slow and often will require you to stay still for a few seconds while the device is adjusting exposure and focus, you will be able to see the image appear on the viewfinder while the device performs such adjustment process. This will happen especially when passing from highly illuminated areas to dark ones.

Average customer rating:
Nexian NXC3100 NexiCam Digital Camera for iPaq Pocket PC

Manufacturer: Nexian, Inc.
ProductGroup: CE

Handheld & PDA Accessories | Accessories & Supplies | Categories | Electronics | Cases & Screen Protectors | Chargers, Adapters & Batteries | GPS | Keyboards & Styluses | Kits | Memory Cards | Multimedia | Sync Cables & Cradles | Wireless
Point-and-Shoot Digital Cameras | Digital Cameras | Camera & Photo | Categories | Electronics
Accessories:

Lexar Media 128 MB CompactFlash Digital 4X ( CF128-231 )

ASIN: B00006HCF7

Product Description

Duracell lithium batteries represent the latest advance in primary battery technology, having many advantages over conventional battery systems. Their high energy density, high rate pulse capability, long shelf life and ability to operate at temperature extremes make them ideal for meeting the demanding requirements of new portable electronic equipment.

Customer Reviews:

Waaay Overpriced.......2007-03-14

The CR2025 is $5 at a national electronics retailer, and $2.90 at a national drugstore.

One for Ripley's.......2007-01-01

[Since writing the following, the price has been lowered by 40%. It's still overpriced, however.]

(This is a hard one to rate. It's a $2-3 battery performing like it should. The problem is the mis-pricing, which clearly must be an innocent mistake.)

Amazon claims that this dime-sized Duracell 2025 lithium battery has a retail value of $100. Since they're selling it at close to a 90% discount, and since my Energizer 2025's have been somewhat disappointing in terms of longevity, I bit.

So what's the difference between this Duracell battery and the Energizer? Answer: The Duracell costs over 4 times as much as the Energizer.

At first, I considered titling this review "Ripped Off!" and giving the product a single star. I reconsidered and went with Ripley's. There are far stranger things on earth, Horatio, than paying eleven bucks for a two-dollar battery.

Still, I'm not so much amused as bemused.

10 Pack of Long-Life Lithium Button Cell Batteries

Average customer rating:

10 Pack of Long-Life Lithium Button Cell Batteries

Manufacturer: Duracell
ProductGroup: CE

Manufacturer Part Number: DL-2450B

ASIN: B000ESBK3E

Product Description

mfr: Duracell

3V L 3.5 W 3.5 H 0.5

Duracell DL 1620 - Battery CR1620 Li 61 mAh

Average customer rating:

Duracell DL 1620 - Battery CR1620 Li 61 mAh

Manufacturer: Duracell
ProductGroup: CE
Binding: Electronics

3 volt

ASIN: B000E9VH68

Product Description

Duracell's lithium/manganese dioxide batteries represent one of the latest advances in primary battery technology. For applications with a high current pulse (e.g. photoflash) and continuous drain, Duracell offers high rate lithium batteries. All Duracell lithium batteries provide: high energy density and excellent rate capability; wide operating temperature range and superior low temperature performance; excellent shelf life with up to a ten year freshness guarantee.

Average customer rating:

Long-Life Lithium Button Cell Batteries

Manufacturer: Duracell
ProductGroup: CE

Manufacturer Part Number: DL-1216B

ASIN: B000N8K0IQ

Product Description

Average customer rating:

Long-Life Lithium Button Cell Batteries

Manufacturer: Duracell
ProductGroup: CE

Product Description

Average customer rating:

Long-Life Lithium Button Cell Batteries

Manufacturer: Duracell
ProductGroup: CE

Product Description

Average customer rating:

Long-Life Lithium Button Cell Batteries

Manufacturer: Duracell
ProductGroup: CE

Product Description

3 volt 3V

12 Pack of Long-Life Lithium Button Cell Batteries

Average customer rating:

12 Pack of Long-Life Lithium Button Cell Batteries

Manufacturer: Duracell
ProductGroup: CE

Product Description

mfr: Duracell

3V L 3.5 W 3.5 H 0.25

Average customer rating:

Long-Life Lithium Button Cell Batteries

Manufacturer: Duracell
ProductGroup: CE

Product Description

3 volt 3V

Average customer rating:

Long-Life Lithium Button Cell Batteries

Manufacturer: Duracell
ProductGroup: CE

Product Description

Average customer rating:

Works fine - Keep it out of the summer heat

Kensington AIRLINE IN SEAT PWRADPT-FOR MAC ( 33061 )

Manufacturer: Kensington
ProductGroup: CE
Binding: Electronics

Kensington | Brands | Electronics Features | Electronics
AC Adapters | Batteries, Chargers & Power Supplies | Accessories & Supplies | Categories | Electronics
Product Features:

For Apple Notebooks

Compact, light design for easy transport

ASIN: B0000BZ2VT

Product Description

The KENSINGTON 33061 In-Seat Power Cord plugs into any Empower 15V in-seat power socket, supplying all the power your notebook computer needs for the entire flight! Your batteries will get a much needed break, and you'll either get a lot of work done, or entertain yourself in the lap of electrical luxury!

Customer Reviews:

Works fine - Keep it out of the summer heat.......2006-02-23

I use the cigarette lighter part of this exclusively so far. I've yet to find an aircraft with the power outlet in it. Don't leave this cord in your vehicle. I burned one up by doing that last summer. The plastic adapter tip melted and shorted out the unit. It was my fault for leaving it in 110 degree heat inside my pickup truck. Other than that, I've had no problems with it. I wish they made one just for cars without the adapter ends because that is the weak point in the system. I like this better than using an inverter, which I have done in the past.

Average customer rating:

NO SUPPORT FOR WIN XP PRO

Junk

Junk

Junk

One of my Worst Experiences

Microtek ScanMaker V6UPL Flatbed Scanner (PC/Mac)

Manufacturer: Microtek
ProductGroup: CE
Binding: Electronics

Flatbed | Scanners | Office Electronics | Categories | Electronics
Flatbed Scanners | Printers & Scanners | Camera & Photo | Categories | Electronics
Scanners | Printers & Scanners | Apple | Custom Brands | Custom Stores | Specialty Stores | Electronics Features | Electronics
Office Electronics | Refurbished & Used | Special Features | Electronics Features | Electronics
Microtek | Brands | Electronics Features | Electronics
Printers & Scanners | Used Photo & Camera | Specialty Stores | Camera & Photo Features | Electronics
Accessories:

Ceiva Advanced Digital Photo Receiver

KID PIX STUDIO DELUXE

Belkin F3U134-10 USB Extension Cable (10-Feet)

D-Link DSB-H3SP 3-Port USB 1.1 Hub, 1-Parallel Port, 1-Serial Port

Product Features:

USB and parallel interfaces; PC and Mac compatible

600 x 1,200 dpi optical resolution, 9,600 dpi interpolated

36-bit color depth

Automatic color calibration for true-to-life color reproduction

35mm slide adapter

ASIN: B0000488VY

Product Description

Connect the Microtek ScanMaker V6UPL to a Parallel or USB port on your computer and you're ready to roll. This legal-size, 36-bit color flatbed scanner features a GO button that instantly activates ScanWizard 5, Microtek award-winning scanner software. With an optical resolution of 600x1200 dpi, this machine gives you enough detail to enlarge a postage stamp to full-page size. You also get the maximum in flexibility with Mickrotek multi-platform design.

Amazon.com Review

The Microtek ScanMaker V6UPL provides a legal-size scan bed (8.5 by 14 inches) that produces crisp detail and brilliant color capability. This compact workhorse weighs in at about 10 pounds, and it's sturdy, easy to use, and features a clean one-button design. The ScanMaker offers 600 x 1,200 dpi, 36-bit color depth, a fast prescan, and a maximum interpolated resolution of 9,600 dpi. Bundled with a powerful software package, it's designed to meet both home and office needs.

Like most scanners, the V6UPL's software was easy to install. From the start of setup, we especially liked the zip-lock bags handily labeled either EPP or USB, and the separate installation and reference guides for both Windows and Mac. (You can connect via either a USB or SCSI port on PC or Macintosh.) We highly recommend following the enclosed and very logical reference guide for the fastest, most trouble-free installation. Our total installation time was about 15 minutes.

Scan settings are managed by an intuitively designed software package that allows you to adjust your scans for speed, output size, and color accuracy. The results of our scans were very good, with the exception of those created using the transparency adapter; its performance was inferior to adapters in a comparable category.

The software package includes Adobe Photoshop Deluxe and ScanWizard 5, a new version of Microtek's award-winning scanner controller software, so you can reliably produce images from photos or enlarge them from postage-stamp size to full-page size without losing detail. The software's automatic color calibration also provides true-to-life color reproduction. And its simple and straightforward approach to navigating through your scanning tasks makes editing and enhancing images elementary. OCR (optical character recognition) software further assists in reading scanned texts. You can also scan positive 35mm slides using the included slide adapter and then, with one mouse click, deliver your edited scanned image to e-mail or a printer. --David Greenberger

Pros:

Scans up to legal-size documents
Includes slide adapter
Good, crisp, quality color scanning

Cons:

Large footprint
Few printed reference materials
Transparency adapter delivered inferior results

Amazon.com Product Description

Microtek's ScanMaker V6UPL is a legal-size, 42-bit, color flatbed scanner. It offers an optical resolution of 600 x 1,200 dpi, which gives you enough detail to enlarge a postage stamp to full-page size, and automatic color calibration, which provides true-to-life color reproduction. Other features of the V6UPL include Plug and Play installation, 42-bit color, fast pre-scan, and a maximum interpolated resolution of 9,600 dpi. In addition, the V6UPL has a button that activates ScanWizard 5, a new version of Microtek's award-winning scanner controller software.

Suited for both home and office use, the Microtek ScanMaker V6UPL features both a universal serial bus (USB) and a parallel port connection, allowing you to conveniently use the scanner with parallel-port laptops and desktop computers or USB systems such as the Apple iMac, G3/G4 systems, and PCs equipped with Windows 98. This unit also lets you scan positive 35mm slides using the included slide adapter.

Customer Reviews:

NO SUPPORT FOR WIN XP PRO.......2003-05-04

I've recently upgrated from ME to XP Prp and found that this scanner is not working (not recognized) under Windows XP. Microtek doesn't seem to have specific drivers fron WIN XP, only for WIN 2000, 98, and 95. Although I did purchase this scanner about 2 years ago, I never had problems with it under Win ME.

Junk.......2003-02-26

I purchased 3 of these scanners because it received such a great review. I can only describe the product as junk. To attempt to use it I had to "rig" the scanner by disconnecting and connecting it before using it and sometimes during use because it would freeze. Also the sound card had to be removed from the computer.
Assistance from Microtek was of no use and they themselves did not know how to deal with the problems.
If the scanner could actually work without all the hitches then the quality of scanning and the various programs that it came with would be of great use. I only know this as a result of using another scanner with the software that the Microtek came with.
The 3 Microtek scanners are now serving as a paperweights after 3 months of trying everything short of magic to get them to work on various computers in the office.

Junk.......2003-02-26

I purchased 3 of these scanners because it received such a great review. I can only describe the product as junk. To attempt to use it I had to "rig" the scanner by disconnecting and connecting it before using it and sometimes during use because it would freeze. Also the sound card had to be removed from the computer.
Assistance from Microtek was of no use and they themselves did not know how to deal with the problems.
If the scanner could actually work without all the hitches then the quality of scanning and the various programs that it came with would be of great use. I only know this as a result of using another scanner with the software that the Microtek came with.
The 3 Microtek scanners are now serving as very expensive paperweights after 3 months of trying everything short of magic to get them to work on various computers in the office.

Junk.......2003-02-26

I purchased 3 of these scanners because it received such a great review. I can only describe the product as junk. To attempt to use it I had to "rig" the scanner by disconnecting and connecting it before using it and sometimes during use because it would freeze. Also the sound card had to be removed from the computer.
Assistance from Microtek was of no use and they themselves did not know how to deal with the problems.
If the scanner could actually work without all the hitches then the quality of scanning and the various programs that it came with would be of great use. I only know this as a result of using another scanner with the software that the Microtek came with.
The 3 Microtek scanners are now serving as very expensive paperweights after 3 months of trying everything short of magic to get them to work on various computers in the office.

One of my Worst Experiences.......2003-01-08

I purchased the scanner new. After installation I could make 2 scans and then the scanner (or software) would lock up and my coputer could not find it. I sent emails to tech support and followed all their instructions and the result was always the same. They then sent an email saying to call tech support. I called (a toll call, not an 800 #) and it took 10 min b4 someone answered and said I needed to be xferred to the advanced consulting group. After being xferred I was on hold for 1 hour b4 I gave up. The only thing worse than this scanner is their custtomer support. It seems to me that support of a new purchase should have 800 service. I wouldn't recommend another Microtek product to my worst enemy!

Electronics:

Electronics

Electronics