Scanning slabbed cards

[thecatspajamas]

I'm a little late coming to this thread, but I concur with the CCD vs. CIS/LED element as being the deciding factor. For whatever reason, the CCD allows a much greater "depth" to the material being scanned (to the point that, if I have the lid up on the scan and lean over, my face will show up in the background). I've got a Mustek (LED) scanner with a larger bed for scanning tabloid-size documents and 11x17 photos which is great as long as whatever you're scanning is perfectly flat and against the glass. If it has any "depth" to it at all though, the images come out blurry. I still stick with my Epson 3490 (CCD) as my workhorse though (even have a back-up in case this one konks out), and sometimes use a Epson 4990 (only when scanning negatives or transparencies), both of which give good "depth" to the scans. I've even seen some eBay sellers use them for "scanning" signed baseballs and bats (though I wouldn't recommend them for that purpose). Just my 2 cents.