HP Scanjet G4050

Pros: there is nothing good to say about this printer

Cons: software is crap, the scanner takes FOREVER to warm up, the slide attachment is a joke as this scanner cannot scan slides.

Summary: I bought this scanner because I wanted to scan my slide and negative print collection. So one of the key reasons for selecting this scanner was its claimed ability to scan slides. True it comes with a backlight feature (the illuminates the items from behind) and a bunch of plastic holders the help position the slides on the scanner table.

All this for nothing. The slides I scanned with this contraption were horrible! Resolution sucks big, and even the focus is off!

Plus you have to fight the software every step along the way.

I owned an HP scanner 4-5 years ago, and I remember that using it was fast and stress free. Now its a nightmare. Plus it crashes every now and then.

I find myself positioning the slides and then pressing the preview button. Then I have to wait forever for the scanner to warm up (for crying out loud, this is as bad as a 1950s radio with tubes). Usually I go and do something else and come back. By this time the scanner has read the preview image but if I want to the proceed with the actual scan I have to wait again for the lamp to warm up. In the end I get 1 or 2 collections of slides every day.

Now the software. CRAP! Its clever in a demented sort of way. It thinks it knows best and selects random rectangles from the scan area. NOT ONCE did the automatic selection pick want I wanted to scan. So I have to DELETE the useless rectangles and then select the area I want to scan. YOU CAN'T EVEN TURN OFF THIS STUPID FEATURE.

When to want to scan to PDF it assumes you want to OCR. BUT I DO NOT WANT TO OCR. Can I turn it off? NO! The stupid scanner knows best.

Sometimes even the manual selection of settings is reset (i.e. you can't turn off the AUTO settings). What kind of moron designed such a piece of crap.


I cannot but agree with a previous poster. This is just a $200 paperweight. Only I bought it in Greece so I paid far more.

Thanks for nothing HP. This is my LAST HP scanner.

**vp