Epson Perfection 1200U - nothing short of perfect
Written: Nov 03 '99 (Updated Mar 15 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast, very high quality optics and scanning.
Cons: Would have been nice to have a larger read area than the standard 8.5 x 11.7 inch.
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| payman's Full Review: Epson Perfection 1200U Flatbed Scanner |
I recently bought the new Epson Perfection 1200U color flatbed scanner. This is the successor to the highly rated Perfection 636, and goes for around $200 here in the States.
I did extensive research on scanners prior to buying - the most useful sites are the well known ones: www.pcmag.com, www.computers.com, and www.scantips.com. PC magazine even has an interactive advisor that lets you judge and rate the scan quality of each scanner they have reviewed, and select what you think looks good to your eyes. I consistently chose the Perfection 636, and so when its upgrade, the Perfection 1200 came out, got that instead.
The Perfection 1200 has some very nice features, and at least one is the first ever for scanners in its price class. This is the true 1200 by 2400 hardware resolution, which is twice the scanning power of conventional 600 dpi scanners. Not that you need 1200 dpi scanning all the time, but you will notice the difference in capturing fine details and skin tones on your photos, especially if you do desktop publishing.
The scanner comes in three formats: with a USB connection (1200U), with a SCSI connection and card (1200S), and 1200 PHOTO with a transparency adapter for 35 mm slides or 4" by 5" transparencies. My experience is that the 1200U (USB version) offers very high speed and unless you do high-volume scanning, this will be way more than good enough. In other words, save your money and don't get the one with the SCSI connection. You will hardly notice the speed difference. With a USB connection, you can connect the scanner to both Windows 95/98 machines, as well as the iMac or USB-ready Macintosh G3/G4 systems.
As for the scanner's imaging system, here you have a true 36-bit color/12-bit grayscale system for color accuracy (more than 68 billion of them!) and high quality images and halftones. Epson's optics are by far the best in its price class and the scanner's hardware processing results in speedy performance as well. My results have been consistently and remarkably sharp with accurate and true to life colors, shadings, and halftones, both on color and black and white photos and drawings.
Setting up the scanner was a breeze. You simply connect it to your USB port and proceed to driver and software installation. The scanner comes with Adobe PhotoDeluxe and other useful packages (Presto! PageManager, Printshop PressWriter, and ArcSoft PhotoPrinter). There is a little card in the scanner box that you can mail in for two additional free software titles from a selection of publishing software, photo editing software, games, and reference software (such as Corel Draw, Paint, or Grolier's Encyclopedia or Rand MacNally's Road Atlas).
Once connected, you place whatever you want to scan on the scanner, press the start button on the scanner, and you are done! A window will pop up asking you where you want to import the photo to. If you have an application open (like photoshop or other), it will list these for you, and let you pick where you want the scanned photo to go to. The scanner will then scan it in preview mode, you can then agree with it and click to make a final scan, or go into the software and make as many changes as you want (you have a lot of control here) and then click to final scan. The whole thing from start to finish is amazingly fast.
What else? The scanner comes with its own USB cable, and has a one year warranty. Its scan area is the standard US 8.5 by 11.7 inch. I am very pleased with its performance, both in terms of quality and speed. I have an eye for detail, and detail is what this machine provides in its scans!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
payman
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Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 4 members
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