The key feature is that the scanner technology needs to be CCD, not CIS. The CIS is only good for flat images -- ie that sit flush with the screen, while a CCD scanner head has a longer depth of focus that will accomodate some element of 3D images -- such as cards within holders that sit slightly raised off the glass.
Personally, I didn't have the desk space to accomodate a seperate scanner unit. I already had a personal laser printer as well as a color inkjet all-in-one, which I mostly used for copying, faxing, and the occasional scanning or color printing. The AIO though had a CIS sensor and therefore scanned holdered cards very blurrily (cause of the short focal depth). So when I realized that I needed to improve my scanner in order to scan holdered cards, I struggled to find a machine that could fit all those needs. For the most part, AIOs of the inkjet variety, are all CIS sensors. I think there was either a high-end Canon or Epson unit that had a CCD sensor, but had no fax nor advanced paper-handling capability (eg duplex scanning or printing) and was really intended as a photo printer. After searching extensively I ended up with the HP CM2320 -- it's a color laserjet all-in-one with a CCD scanner head, and has been working very well for me. Another alternative is the Brother MFC-9840 -- I actually purchased them both, set them up side-by-side, and used them both for a week. I found the Brother's construction to be rather shoddy (which I find typical of Brother devices) and print quality was far far inferior to the HPs -- although it did have the benefit of true automatic duplex scanning of documents (the HP can copy both sides of a two-sided document automatically, but it can't scan it similarly) and the scan quality between the two was similar.
Hope this helps.
--S
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12-12-2010, 04:01 PM
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