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If you're looking for a photo scanner that's fast, energy efficient and economical, Epson America's new Perfection V300 Photo may fulfill your wish list.
The new $99.99 scanner uses LED technology instead of the typical fluorescent lamps used by many copy boxes. Not only does that technology speed up the scanning process--Epson says warm up times for the unit are virtually zero--but it cuts down on the unit's power consumption, too. What's more, no fluorescents means no mercury to worry about when its time to send the device to the scanner graveyard.
Designed to meet photographic needs, the unit has a maximum resolution of 4800 x 9600 dots per inch with 48-bit color scanning and a color slide dynamic range of 3.2. In addition, it has a built-in transparency unit for scanning slides and negatives. Moreover, it has a 180ยบ high-rise lid for scanning 3-D objects, a feature scrapbookers might find useful.
Epson is attempting to span a wide market segment with this scanner. The unit has four modes--Full Automatic for the press-a-button-and-forget-it crowd; Home Mode for menu followers; Professional Mode for users who know the meaning of histograms, tonal curves, color palettes and densitometers; and Office Mode for lense jockeys with business needs.
Along with its hardware, Epson is including of package of software goodies--Easy Photo Fix for automatic color restoration of faded photos, dust removal from images and grain reduction in photos; ArcSoft MediaImpression for managing digital media and producing creative projects; and ABBY FineReader Sprint Plus OCR for turning scanned text into computer text.
The V300 works with both Windows and Macintosh platforms and supoports TWAIN.
