Czur ET24 Pro first impressions
Posted: 15 Aug 2022, 11:05
I bought a Czur ET24 Pro from Indigogo after hearing good things about them.
Setting up the scanner was easy and it was well presented in the packaging. Software installation went smoothly.
I started with a paperback of nearly 200 pages. Results were terrible. After some experimentation I got the lighting in the room right so that the scanner would filter out the black mat they give you to scan on. Even so, using the finger cots the software would often detect my hand and fail to crop the page properly.
Scan quality was poor. The book's paper was slightly shiny so sometimes got reflections off the ET24's light. You really need separate lighting for this kind of paper. Even when it did work, the image was often distorted and poorly cropped. The software also fails to properly rotate some pages, leaving them a degree or two off. You can only rotate by increments of a degree, not really fine enough.
I tried some manual editing to improve it, and in some cases could. In other cases it was beyond saving. I gave up and moved on to a hardback with a little under 1000 pages.
Initial results were better. Often pages come out well cropped and with good image quality. I found it really helps to have something under the slide of the book that is raised up by the spine for the first pages where the spine makes it hard to lay flat. Even so, the image quality was less than satisfactory in some cases. At least the cropping was mostly good.
I think the scanner would benefit from a V shape stand here.
Unfortunately after a few dozen pages I gave up. The software is unstable and crashes every few minutes. I send reports to Czur, I'll see if they can fix it. My PC is stable and I tried another machine just to be sure, with the same result. I'm running Windows 8 and 10. Maybe it's better on Linux.
Speaking of the software, it's a bit awkward but functional. It's a shame it can't auto detect the divide between pages, you have to manually align them. That would be a huge time saver.
If they can't fix the software I'll return it or sell it, and stick with destructive methods.
Edit: Here are some example images.
First, a book cover showing uneven lighting.
Shine from the scanner's lights.
Wonky, didn't remove the finger cot very well, and didn't crop the page properly. The tools in the software to correct this are inadequte.
Using the finger cot the cropping is wrong and includes my arm. This happens a lot. The cot removal is also pretty poor.
What ISN'T wrong with this? It's wonky, none of the text is straight. The bit where it says "Drive Letter" near the top is actually white text on a black bar background, and the software screws it up.
Another cover, but not straight again. The rotation tool steps too far with each adjustment to fix this.
Big fonts like where it says "MICROPROCESSOR SYSTEM DESIGN" result in uneven blacks. Cropping at the top is bad too.
More text at weird angles.
Crops in my arm which was using the cots again, and the photo looks really bad.
Wonky and a weird texture. This texturing problem happens on all pages with big diagrams.
This diagram is completely wrecked. The boxes at the top labelled D0 and D1 should be shaded grey, as well as several other boxes. Sometimes a bit of shading survives, but mostly it gets removed. At least it's not got that weird texture I guess.
Sometimes pages that don't even have diagrams get the weird textures.
Setting up the scanner was easy and it was well presented in the packaging. Software installation went smoothly.
I started with a paperback of nearly 200 pages. Results were terrible. After some experimentation I got the lighting in the room right so that the scanner would filter out the black mat they give you to scan on. Even so, using the finger cots the software would often detect my hand and fail to crop the page properly.
Scan quality was poor. The book's paper was slightly shiny so sometimes got reflections off the ET24's light. You really need separate lighting for this kind of paper. Even when it did work, the image was often distorted and poorly cropped. The software also fails to properly rotate some pages, leaving them a degree or two off. You can only rotate by increments of a degree, not really fine enough.
I tried some manual editing to improve it, and in some cases could. In other cases it was beyond saving. I gave up and moved on to a hardback with a little under 1000 pages.
Initial results were better. Often pages come out well cropped and with good image quality. I found it really helps to have something under the slide of the book that is raised up by the spine for the first pages where the spine makes it hard to lay flat. Even so, the image quality was less than satisfactory in some cases. At least the cropping was mostly good.
I think the scanner would benefit from a V shape stand here.
Unfortunately after a few dozen pages I gave up. The software is unstable and crashes every few minutes. I send reports to Czur, I'll see if they can fix it. My PC is stable and I tried another machine just to be sure, with the same result. I'm running Windows 8 and 10. Maybe it's better on Linux.
Speaking of the software, it's a bit awkward but functional. It's a shame it can't auto detect the divide between pages, you have to manually align them. That would be a huge time saver.
If they can't fix the software I'll return it or sell it, and stick with destructive methods.
Edit: Here are some example images.
First, a book cover showing uneven lighting.
Shine from the scanner's lights.
Wonky, didn't remove the finger cot very well, and didn't crop the page properly. The tools in the software to correct this are inadequte.
Using the finger cot the cropping is wrong and includes my arm. This happens a lot. The cot removal is also pretty poor.
What ISN'T wrong with this? It's wonky, none of the text is straight. The bit where it says "Drive Letter" near the top is actually white text on a black bar background, and the software screws it up.
Another cover, but not straight again. The rotation tool steps too far with each adjustment to fix this.
Big fonts like where it says "MICROPROCESSOR SYSTEM DESIGN" result in uneven blacks. Cropping at the top is bad too.
More text at weird angles.
Crops in my arm which was using the cots again, and the photo looks really bad.
Wonky and a weird texture. This texturing problem happens on all pages with big diagrams.
This diagram is completely wrecked. The boxes at the top labelled D0 and D1 should be shaded grey, as well as several other boxes. Sometimes a bit of shading survives, but mostly it gets removed. At least it's not got that weird texture I guess.
Sometimes pages that don't even have diagrams get the weird textures.