Spotlight (cont'd)
Editor's Picks
Photograph: Marc SimonOverall, we liked Canon's CanoScan 9900F Color Image Scanner flatbed and Pacific Image Electronics' PF3650 Pro3 slide unit the best. The 9900F had the easiest-to-use software and required the least effort to produce nice-looking photos; the PF3650 Pro3 scanned slides quickly, and its software controls provide a number of one-touch correction options.
Best Value
For our money, the $199 Epson Perfection 3170 Photo--despite a few limitations--is a first-rate deal. Our photos looked great without any adjustment, though the Epson Scan software has the tools to correct images without a hitch. Epson says the 3170's scanning utility is set to automatically adjust exposure, tonal levels, and color by default, which helps explain why its images impressed us right out of the box. You can use Epson Scan's Full Auto mode to scan slides or negatives, but you are more likely to want to use Home or Professional mode for more control.
Epson Scan's Home mode didn't have the tools we needed to bring out the dark areas of a very-high-contrast image, though Professional mode did let us make the necessary changes. The 3170 Photo comes with applications for more-general scanning tasks as well, including optical character recognition. This scanner has a smaller transparency area than the other two flatbeds, accommodating only 4 mounted slides or 12 negative frames at a time.
Best for Novices
Though the price may be a bit steep for scanning newcomers, the nod goes to Canon's $400 CanoScan 9900F. We saw pretty good results without having to make adjustments, and just a little bit of tweaking yielded very nice images. The 9900F has great on-screen documentation, with extremely thorough explanatory material and truly useful hyperlinked navigation. Most important, Canon's ScanGear CS software and CanoScan Toolbox quick-launch interface were our favorites to use--both for quick scans and for more extensive editing--because all the tools needed were readily accessible and clearly labeled.
As your expertise grows you won't feel held back by Canon's software: You can turn off all the default settings, such as Auto Exposure, in ScanGear's Preferences. Another utility, called ColorGear, lets you optimize your scan for either on-screen display or output to a printer.
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