By William LaMartin, Editor,
Tampa PC Users Group
lamartin@tampabay.rr.com

My HP ScanJet 5370 Cse scanner totally died toward the end of January, right when I needed it to scan in the material for the “Looking Back to 1994” article from the 10 year-old newsletter. However, I need a flatbed scanner for much more than that. I use it to scan photos and negatives (35 mm and much larger ones). I also use it to copy and fax documents. So a new one was in order.

Not another HP this time. I have owned three HP scanners. Unfortunately the 5370 had more than its share of problems in the three years I had it. Here is a bit of its history:

• For my original review of the scanner in January 2001, go to http://www.tpcug.org/newsletter/nl_2001/january2001/ScanJet5370%20Cse.htm.
• For my first problem with it as a USB device, go to http://www.tpcug.org/newsletter/nl_2003/january2003/usb_woes.htm.
• For the death of the 5370’s negative scanning feature, go to http://www.tpcug.org/newsletter/nl_2003/february2003/more_woes.htm.

Time to give Epson a chance. I know most people wouldn’t consider paying over $100 for a flat bed scanner, but since I intend to use it to scan large negatives I need a scanner that would not only have the negative scanning ability but also would give quality results. The Epson Perfection 3200 Photo scanner fit the bill. I am quite happy with it when scanning both printed material and large negatives.

It will also scan 35 mm negatives and slides. In fact, I am scanning in color slides as I write this. I had planned on continuing to use my HP PhotoSmart photo scanner for that. But the HP PhotoSmart scanner started acting up by kicking the slide back at you. Then the HP scanning software started crashing--probably because of the hardware problem with the scanner. So it was time to totally switch to the new scanner for everything.

The Epson seems to give results just as good as the PhotoSmart scanner for slides when scanned at the same resolution of 1200 dpi that I usually use for slides. The PhotoSmart scanner only goes to 2400dpi, while the Epson goes to 3200. Now there is all this stuff about color depth, etc. that a dedicated slide and film scanner is supposed to beat a flatbed on, but the reviewer in the review I mentioned in the next paragraph seems to think that the new Epson can hold its own in this area.

I could write a long review of this scanner but could not begin to touch the review that is already available on the web at http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Scanners/Epson_3200/page_1.htm. This review with many, many images is about the most complete such review I have ever seen. It is also very complimentary of this Epson scanner. So I will just spend a little time relating my impressions of the scanner and accompanying software.

The scanner has a resolution of 3200 x 6400, quite a jump from the HP 5370 with a 1200 x 1200 resolution. It can accommodate negatives from 35 mm to 4” x 5”. It connects to your computer with a USB 2.0 connection (but will use USB 1.1 if that is all you have). It comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0, SilverFast negative scanning software from LaserSort Imaging, and Epson Scan scanning software.

Presto! OCR software is provided. Additionally, if you have either OmniPage or TextBridge OCR software installed, the scanner will use those OCR engines if you wish. The scanner is priced right at $400 at CompUSA, and when I bought it there was a mail-in rebate worth $100.

I installed the Epson Scan and the SilverFast software both as a Photoshop plug-in and a TWAIN plug-in. If I am scanning a photo or a document, I use the Epson Scan software. If I am scanning a negative or slide, I use the SilverFast software. You can use the Epson Scan software to scan negatives and slides, but the SilverFast software is specialized for this and gives you more options, including scratch and dust removal options.

Here is how the scanning works for slides; negatives are done in a similar manner. First I put four slides in the slide holder on the scanner glass. It is very important to make sure you have the arrow of the slide holder pointing to the upper right-hand corner of the scanner or you will waste an hour as I did one evening trying to figure out why your scans are mainly bright light. Apparently the scanner needs markings on the slide holder to tell it what it is scanning. If it can’t find those markings, things come out very bad. I tried all sorts of setting changes to try and make things work before I noticed that I had the holder upside down. Once oriented correctly things worked beautifully as they had a few days earlier.

Next I open Adobe Photoshop Essentials 2.0, click on File | Import and select the SilverFast plug-in. When SilverFast opens, I first do a prescan. That shows me thumbnails of my four slides. If I have scanned in slides before, I have four frames outlining the thumbnails. I click on the first thumbnail to enlarge it, readjust the frame to exactly position the image, auto adjust the exposure and then scan. This returns the scanned slide to Photoshop where I rotate it if necessary, make minor exposure corrections and save the file to my hard drive. It takes about eight minutes to scan four slides using this procedure. The result is an approximate1550 x 1050 pixel, 4.6 MB file good for printing something like an 8 x 10 photo of good quality.

If you push the one button on the front of the scanner you are presented with the Epson Smart Panel from which you can do all sorts of quick scanning. The options include:

• Scanning to file
• Scanning to OCR
• Scanning to Application
• Scanning to Email
• Copy

And others.

It is a very nice scanner, and I highly recommend it.

The Picture below is a beach resort scene scanned with the Epson scanner from a small photo taken in the New York City area in the 1920’s. Does any know if it is Coney Island?  u