Epson PERFECTION 1670 PHOTO SCANNER 1600X3200 DPI 35MM SLIDE BUILT IN (Epson-B11B162101)

Epson Perfection 1670 Photo Review

by Richard Jantz

- WHAT'S HOT: Epson's Perfection 1670 Photo has a transparency adapter built into its lid, so it can scan both opaque and transparent media. It was a fast performer in our tests, earning an overall score that placed it just behind HP's front-running Scanjet 5500c and 5550c. In scanning a page of black-and-white line art, for example, the 1670 Photo took a brisk 18 seconds, a little more than 1 second longer than the HP Scanjet 5500c required to complete the same test, and faster than the 5550c. The Perfection 1670 Photo took 12 seconds to scan a color photo at 100 dpi, 6 seconds faster than the other small office scanner we tested in October 2003. Epson Scan, Epson's TWAIN driver for this line has been updated. It now has an automatic color restoration and dust removal feature called Easy Photo Fix. We tried out the feature using some old photos with faded colors and color-cast problems. Epson Scan did an admirable job of restoring the images' original colors. The dust removal feature also functioned well, though it works only when scanning transparencies, not prints. Epson Scan now includes Color Smoothing, which gives images a posterized look, like many of Andy Warhol's prints.