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Product Review: Page (1) of 2 - 12/06/05

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The first scanner I reviewed fresh out of journalism school was a Microtek ScanMaker III, a SCSI-based 600dpi color scanner with a bulky transparency adapter that I think shipped with the full version of Adobe Photoshop 3.0. That was in the mid 1990s. Scanners of this caliber cost upward of $1000, and required SCSI interface cards. Today, those scanners have come way down in price and can be plugged into your computer via a USB connection. The Microtek ScanMaker i800, priced at $399, is the latest scanner in the ScanMaker line. It is a 9600 x 4800dpi hardware resolution scanner that features an 8.5-inch x 14-inch scan area, high speed USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 connection capabilities, and a built in 8 x 12-inch transparency adapter.

The ScanMaker i800 also ships with EZ-Lock film holders that keep film materials flat on the scanning bed. They come in sizes that can house 35mm slides, 35mm filmstrips, 4 x 5-inch film, and medium format film. Bundled software used to interface with the scanner includes Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 and MicroTek's ScanMaker 5 scanning software, as well as a host of other applications, including  Adobe Photoshop Album SE (PC only)
Microtek ScanWizard Pro, Microtek Scan with ICE, Scan to file, Copy, Email, OCR, Scan-to-PDF utilities, Microtek LAN Wizard network software (PC only), ABBYY FineReader Sprint OCR, Kodak Digital Science Color Management, Ulead Photo Explorer, and Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Within the scope of this review, we'll scan a few photos and slides and see how they look. We'll also go over the ScanWizard 5 software, which is the easiest way to start scanning with the ScanMaker i800.

Advanced ScanMaker control panel.

Microtek ScanWizard 5 offers two modes in which you can work with the scanner, Standard mode, which is a basic mode ideal for those new to scanning, or for those who don't want the complexity of scanning software to interfere with the scanning process, and a more advanced mode, for thosewho wish to fine tune their scans.

Standard ScanMaker control panel

Standard Control panel features a preview button in which you can preview what you've placed down on the glass; a scan to button, which enables you to determine where you want the scanned image to go; Original, which determines what you will scan, such as photograph, text document, illustration, printed material (magazine, art magazine, newspaper), or positive and negative film such as slides; Scan type, which includes true color, web color, gray scale or black and white; Purpose, (onscreen viewing, inkjet printing,  laser print standard, laser print fine, fax, OCR text or custom. What you choose under the Purpose button determines how many DPI the scanner will scan at.  

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