Scanner: Epson Perfection 1650 PHOTO

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Epson Perfection 1650 PHOTO



Epson Perfection 1650 PHOTO USB 1.1 flatbed scanner for Windows XP Home/XP Pro/2000/ME/98SE, Macintosh iMac/G3/G4 with OS 8.5 to 9.x, Unix/Linux unofficially through Image Scan! and SANE

This is my first flatbed color image scanner, and I have 4 months of evaluation to share. So far, it has been a good addition to my SOHO workstation. Scans of color photographs are fast and high quality. It comes with a transparency adapter to scan slides or filmstrips (PHOTO version only).

Features and Specifications:

White cold cathode flourescent lamp

Photoelectric Device: Color MatrixCCD line sensor

Maximum Read Area 8.5" x 11.7" ( 21.6cm x 29.7cm)

Maximum Transparency Area 2.25" x 10.75" (5.8cm x 27.3cm)

Color Hardware Bit Depth: 48-bits per pixel internal, 48-bits per pixel external

Maximum optical resolution 1600 x 3200 dpi



Included software:

EPSON TWAIN Scanning Software and Smart Panel

NewSoft OCR

ArcSoft PhotoImpression 3 - basic photo editing - crop, rotate, add raindrop effects, fertilize, etc.

Adobe PhotoShop Elements - limited but still powerful version of PhotoShop, it includes image editing tools and filters such as layers, dodging, burning, color correction, and auto-contrasting, in an outstanding interface.

EPSON Film Factory Lite - organize photos into groups, make albums and greeting cards



Installation and Setup:

The scanner (mine came from http://www.mwave.com) comes with USB cable, a built-in 35mm film strip adapter, EPSON Quick Start Guide, and Scanner Basics Guide. The installation went smoothly. There was no problem with drivers or software installation in Win2K, and plugging/unplugging the USB presented no problems.



To initiate scans, there are 4 buttons located on the front of the machine. The Start button launches Epson Smart Panel by default. Epson Smart Panel is a main menu that directs the scanned images to software. It gives 8 options: copy, scan to email, scan to OCR, photo print, scan to application, scan for creativity, scan to web, and scan to file. The Start button (which is backlit green, with a glyph that looks spookily similar to Enron's corporate logo) can be configured to launch any of the 8 applets directly, so that you can quickly get to your most frequently used.



The Photo Print button scans directly to the printer, the Email button attaches images to emails, and the Scan To Web button uploads scanned images to Epson's photo-sharing website. In addition, the default installation places 6 shortcuts in the Windows Start/Programs menu that link to various applets directly.



Usage:

In general, the user interface of these applets tends to be a bit clunky, and perhaps unneccessarily complicated. For example, to scan to file,  you must first scan images sequentially. They are presented in a grid layout. Then select images to keep, rename images (unless you want to call them File0001, File0002,...), then choose save location (it lets you designate a default, which saves time) and format, then save.



At first, it wasn't clear what the difference between copy and photo print is. I tried both with a 8.5" x 11" color transparency, and found that while the copy utility worked OK, the photo print did not - it printed with a light blue background, with the size reduced (despite choosing "original size"), and the sides were cropped. An updated driver from the Epson website did not solve this. However, scans of color photos came out very well with the photo print applet.



Scan to mail scanned a 4x6 color print @150 dpi in about 9 seconds, and a print @300 dpi in about 13 seconds. Only Lotus cc:Mail 6.0, Qualcomm Eudora Pro 3.0, Netscape Mail 4.x, and MAPI Compliant Mail Systems such as MS Exchange, MS Outlook, and Outlook Express are directly supported. However, the applet lets you browse to the mail program of your choice, and will try to send the image to it. In practice, I found that scanning to Mozilla Mail resulted in opening the image in a browser window. This is tolerable though, just right click the image, and select "send image" from Mozilla's context menu. This opens an email window and includes the file as an attachment. Netscape 6 does not yet have this capability, but Netscape 7 soon should (it will be based on Mozilla).



The built in 35mm transparency strip adapter is well-designed. Up to 6 negatives or 4 slides may be scanned at one time, using the light source built into the unit's lid. Scans of 35 mm color negatives come out very well, requiring about 150 seconds at 300 dpi.



Usually, I like to Scan to Application (file format choices are .tif, .jpg, .bmp, .pcx, .pct) for further touch-up in Paint Shop Pro. Adobe PhotoShop Elements would work too, if that is your preferred image editor.



Scan for creativity sends the image to ArcSoft PhotoImpression 3, which is bundled with the retail package. This program allows for basic photo editing - stuff like crop, rotate, fertilize, add amber wavy effects, etc.



Scan to Web sends files to Epson's PhotoCenter. This lets you scan directly to their website (registration required), where you can store, organize, and share the photos in password protected online albums.



Film Factory Lite got a short trial, since I don't have many images scanned yet. This software is supposed to organize the images, but its utility seems questionable. The lite version has severe limitations: only .jpg and .bmp files are supported, a maximum of just 5 groups are allowed, no photo retouching, no export to web or email. This does not entice me to purchase the uncrippled "upgrade" for $29.95, especially when there are scads of similar apps available, many of which are freeware.



Documentation:

The 44 page "Scanner Basics" manual indeed dispenses basic scanner instructions. How to place documents, how to launch TWAIN for manual tweaking, how to send scanned images directly to various destinations (email, OCR, printer, Epson's PhotoCenter), and basic troubleshooting tips for installation, scanner, software, and image problems. There is additional help available in the HTML help files, except for the copy and photo print utilities. Epson's website offers even more troubleshooting documents, downloads, and FAQs.



Plusses:

smooth install

very good scan quality, detail, color accuracy and saturation

fast document scanning

transparency adapter to scan slides or filmstrips

excellent performance to price ratio



Minuses:

no power button, so the unit and green light on the front are always on

the user interface is a bit clunky

scan to email lacks support for Netscape 6 or Mozilla

Automatic Document Feeder not available

No Mac OS X support yet



To conclude, the Epson Perfection 1650 PHOTO scanner is a terrific midrange home scanning (non-professional) solution. For scanning photos and documents, the Perfection 1650's output is fleet and extremely high in quality. Scans of negatives are good, though not quite up to professional quality. Its affordable price makes it a very good deal.





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