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(More customer reviews)In interests of full disclosure, I was only interested in using the scanner to scan family slides, and I returned the scanner after one week.
On the positive side, installation was a breeze in Windows XP. Epson includes a high-speed USB 2.0 cable, which was a nice extra, as most companies skimp here. I was also intrigued by the "touch up old faded photos" software. I have had great experiences with Epson scanners before: in the past I have found Epson scanners to be among the fastest and most accurate, and they have, in the past, included the best OCR software free. I was disappointed that this scanner included ABBYY's OCR software, which is inferior to the OCR software Epson included with last year's scanners. (See CNET's reviews of OCR software.)
After hooking up, I scanned a photo using the included software and automatic settings. The scan went well. I was a little surprised that the automatic settings default to 300 dpi scanning (whether for photos or slides), but higher settings produce images so large in (initially uncompressed) megabytes as to slow down my relatively new Dell computer with 128 meg RAM. Scanning the photo went quickly.
Things did not go as well with the slide scanning. While the software is quite easy to manage, whether in automatic or manual settings, a few annoyances interfere with what could otherwise be quite a successful suite. First off, the scanning software uses overlapping windows for such (simultaneous) windows as the preview window, the scanned pictures window, and the manual settings window, but none of these have separate tabs or "buttons" in the Windows XP taskbar, so it is difficult to move each out of the way to find the other ones. I'm unsure how they even accomplished this, as I've never used a program in XP that didn't produce a button on the taskbar corresponding to an open window. At first this was an annoyance, but after three days, it was crazy infuriating, as it makes it difficult not only to deal with the scanner windows themselves which keep hiding each other, but it also makes very cumbersome to multitask with any other programs. When the scanner is scanning, its software window sometimes will not hide, and then when you do hide it, you can't bring it to the fore again without minimizing the other programs' windows, or it will bring to the fore the wrong window. How Epson can commission an expertly performing software application, but have it without corresponding window-tabs, is typical of today's rush-to-the-market user-unfriendly software. I suppose it doesn't matter when scanning the occasional piece, but it certainly ain't fun when you're scanning the family photo album.
But the final straw was that after hours of scanning various slides at different resolutions, I could not produce a scan that was not SLIGHTLY blurry. Since some of my slides were taken by professional photographers and look crystal clear on the wall, I scuttled my project and returned the scanner. Why spend a week converting the family slides for permanent sharing and archiving, and getting a blurry scan? I have read that this is a common problem with inexpensive scanners: I suspect that if you take the slide out of its white cardboard frame, so it can lay perfectly flat, they might be in focus, but I don't want to ruin my slides. Seems to me that if they can put an autofocus mechanism in extremely cheap cameras, they could have figured out a way to autofocus the slides in this slide-scanning scanner.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Epson Perfection 1670 Photo Scanner
The Perfection 1670 from Epson is a flatbed color photo scanner with a number of useful features and a reasonable price tag. With a 1,600 x 1,200 dpi maximum optical resolution and 48-bit color depth (16-bit grayscale), the 1670 delivers crisp, accurate, and true-to-life images perfect for a wide variety of home and home office uses.
Scanning speeds are as fast as 7.68 msec/line at 1,600 dpi and 5.12 msec/line at 600 dpi, while one-touch scan, copy, scan to e-mail, and scan to Web buttons help you automate these frequently utilized features. The included 35 mm transparency adapter accommodates both negatives and slides (up to three negatives or two slides), while the 8.5-by-11.7-inch scanning bed supports originals up to letter size.
Easy Photo Fix Technology Designed with photo and slide restoration in mind, the 1670 comes bundled with a variety of software applications designed to help you get the most out of your scans. Titles include Epson Scan with Easy Photo Fix Technology, ArcSoft PhotoImpression, Epson Smart Panel, ABBYY FineReader Sprint OCR, and NewSoft Presto! BizCard.
Weighing just 6.8 pounds, the 1670 has a small 10.8-by-16.5-inch footprint and connects to your computer via its USB port. The 1670 utilizes a white cold cathode fluorescent lamp and Epson's MatrixCCD line sensor and consumes 17 W of power. PC and Mac compatible, the 1670 also comes backed with a one-year limited warranty on both parts and labor.
What's in the Box Epson Perfection 1670 Photo Scanner; 35mm transparency adapter (built into scanner lid); 35mm film holder for slides and film strips; CD-ROM with Epson Scan Software, Creativity and Productivity Software, and Electronic Reference Guide; USB 2.0/1.1 cable; AC adapter and power cable; scanner setup poster; warranty information
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