Under Scrutiny: Four 1200 dpi Scanners
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If you take a look at how a scanner works, you'll realize that nowadays there is no justification for buying the most expensive model. Here are four of the most recent ones:
The CanoScan D1250U2 is the first scanner for general use that is compatible with the new USB 2.0 interface. In North America, this model is sold as D1250UF, which includes a USB 2.0 PCI card and an adapter unit for scanning transparencies. The Epson Perfection 1250 is the successor to Perfection models 1240 and 640. The 640 is still considered by many to be the best in its class. The ScanJet 4470C is marketed by HP as a "reliable and affordable scanner, as simple to configure as it is to use." It is supplied with a module for scanning slides and transparencies. The Umax Astra 4500 claims to be a speedy workhorse at a very low price. Certainly it was the least expensive model in our selection.All four of them share an optical resolution of 1200 dpi and 48 bit color-coding, and all are USB compatible. In other words, all of them ought to be capable of producing good-quality scans at low resolution (website images) and at high resolution (retouching and enlarging photos).
In order to compare them, we timed them on the following tasks:
pre-scanning an A4 page scanning a 10 x 15 cm photo at 72 (or 75), 300, 600 and 1200 dpi scanning a photo from a magazine at 300 dpi scanning a postage stamp at 1200 dpi and 2400 dpi (an interpolated resolution in this case) scanning an A4 photograph at 300 dpiThe test for quality consisted in comparing all the previous results, as well as:
evaluating the color rendering of the optical system, based on our test patterns considering the scanners' ability to scan 3D objectsSponsored
