| Epson Perfection 1640SU Photo Scanner I have an old and trusty Nikon 1000 scanner that has done its duty by me for many years. However, I do a lot of medium and large format work and regret not having a more versatile film scanner. Unfortunately, the big scanners vary in cost from a bit too much to near extortion. Since my flatbed scanner was old and horrible I decided to look into buying one of the better scanners with a transparency head. After a great deal of dithering I settled on the Epson 1640 SU. Drivers are available for Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000 and NT 4.0 I installed into my Win 98 machine with minimal effort, using the USB interface. I went from box to up and running in less than a half hour. The transparency head comes in it's own storage case with a set of film holders for standard film sizes (35mm, 120mm and 4x5, and another for doing Epson instant photo prints). It rests on the scanning glass, so it takes all of 5 seconds to install. Accompanying Epson software includes TWAIN drivers, Smart Panel (an easy scan and save interface), and Film Factory Lite (home photo management software). Also included are Adobe PhotoDeluxe and Photoshop 5.0 LE. Since I have the Adobe profession products on my system I did not load these, but they are accepted standards. I did load Scansoft TextBridge Pro, a very nice optical character recognition package. Also included are some ArcSoft utilities and a special offer for Monaco Systems color matching software. This makes a package deal which is only exceeded by HP's top of the line scanner, which costs almost twice as much and has less scanning power. I used a negative from my old Hasselblad with a 150mm lens. I scanned the entire negative at 3600 dpi at the 14 bit black and white setting. File size was 98.87mb and it took about 2.25 minutes to scan. I scanned the image directly into Photoshop 6.0. Resolution and image tonal range was excellent, and extreme enlargement showed image breakdown to be very slow. For my kind of work, the digital image was nearly equivalent to a photographic image. I would rate this as excellent, unexpectedly good for a general purpose scanner. 35mm slide scanning is not as good though. The thickness of the slide makes focus a bit softer and there is no holder for slides. I recommend removing the slide from the paper mount and putting it in the 35mm film holder. Then remount the slide in a plastic, reusable mount. Scanning this way, you get an image that is every bit as good as the 120 image. 4x5 scanning is also great, but you need to watch your file size. Use the provided film holders whenever possible. They take a lot of the trickiness out of the process. The TWAIN interface is a bit complicated. They have taken the liberty of simplifying operation for the photographer or home user who is uncomfortable with scanning technology. This is all well and good, but once you've got your feet wet and are ready to take direct control the interface feels a bit clumsy. Don't get me wrong, you can do just about anything you want at the scanning point, just expect to have to spend a bit of time with the advanced manuals on the CD. This scanner is perfect for the amateur or professional photographer who has high standards but lacks the budget for exotic equipment. It is extremely well built and easy to use. With its high resolution it should perform satisfactorily for many years to come. |
