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A3 scanners are usually hard to find and quite expensive, unless you're willing to look for industrial size scanners even for home use. The Mustek ScanExpress costs only $279.99, which is really a very competitive price for an A3 scanner that won't fall apart minutes after switching it on.
As mentioned in the name, the Mustek ScanExpress A3 2400 Flatbed Scanner scans at a resolution of 2400 dpi x 2400 dpi. Unless you're trying to scan absolutely minute detail, this is a superb resolution for picking up detail. The Mustek only has three settings of dpi, which equate to low, medium and high without explaining which setting has which resolution. This is quite unusual for a scanner, as most allow you to set your own resolution by choosing the dpi rather than preset values, and can be frustrating if you want to quickly scan a document on a very low resolution to create an image which takes up less memory.
Scanning doesn't take long depending on the resolution you use, but in my experience it never takes longer than a minute to scan something, and while it makes noise as it scans, it's not too loud or obtrusive. The ease of setting up the Mustek software depends on your experience with computers, but once it's installed you can activate the scanning program simply by lifting the lid of the scanner, which is a helpful little tool. There are functions to copy, fax and email, as well as the ability to convert your scans into a PDF document, which takes care of all the basic functions you could need for a home scanner.
The downfall of the Mustek is the software that they've chosen to offer with the product, which seems to be different from existing scanner software for the sake of being different, instead of trying to improve the experience for the user. It's compatible with the latest versions of Windows, but seemingly very little else. However, since most people work with Vista and Windows 7 already, this is the perfect product for you if you're looking for an affordable and reliable scanner.
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