HP Scanjet 8200

WHAT'S HOT: The HP Scanjet 8200 is designed with offices in mind. Capable of scanning both reflective items and transparencies, the 8200 is equipped with an 8.5-by-14-inch scan bed, making it ideal for processing legal-size documents and other large materials. Workgroups that need to do lots of optical character recognition work can get an optional 50-page automatic document feeder for $500 more.

The 8200 is the first flatbed scanner in this market to offer a whopping 4800-dpi optical resolution. Such a high resolution would theoretically allow you to make a tabloid-size enlargement from an item as small as a postage stamp or 35mm slide, without any loss of detail. And unlike most scanners, which use a single CCD (charge-coupled device) or CIS (contact image sensor) for scanning, the 8200 uses three different CCD sensors--two for color, and one for monochrome--each of which is optimized for different scan modes and resolutions, according to HP.

In our performance tests, using its USB 2.0 interface, the 8200 earned top ratings for its zippy scans. It scanned a full page of black-and-white line art in just 11 seconds, for example--4 seconds quicker than the next-fastest unit. Among corporate scanners, the 8200 came in first on all but one of our performance tests.

Unlike previous Scanjet models, the 8200 has its control panel on its long side, and it contains many more buttons than most scanners. Among these are six shortcut buttons for common scanning tasks (including scanning, e-mailing, and posting images to a Web site) and photocopier-like controls for choosing color or black-and-white printing (and the number of copies) when scanning directly to your printer.

WHAT'S NOT: The 8200's image quality was a mixed bag. It earned the best score we've seen for a gray-scale photo, but received an average score for black-and-white line art. Its color scans (both on-screen and print) earned average or lower-than-average scores; colors often appeared more saturated than in the originals, such as in the too-red skin tones we saw. The color accuracy can be improved, however, by changing the scanner driver's default Color Adjustment setting from "Enhanced Color" to "Original Color." If you want to buy the optional 50-page automatic document feeder--which is a fast (25-page-per-minute) model--after purchasing this unit, you'll pay just as much for it ($500) as for the scanner itself. But if your OCR needs are less exacting, consider the $900 Scanjet 8250, which comes with a slower (15-ppm) 25-page ADF and costs $100 less.

WHAT ELSE: Like other models that have legal-size scan beds, the 8200 is no lightweight; at 22.6 pounds, it's not as portable as smaller units with letter-size scan beds.

One of the most useful software tools included with the 8200 is Iris's ReadIris Pro 8, a full-featured OCR program that provides functionality beyond what you get with the reduced-feature versions of OCR software bundled with most scanners. Another feature of the 8200 is the TWAIN driver HP Scanning, which provides a basic interface for novices and easy access to advanced features such as color and tonal adjustments. You also get HP Photo and Imaging, an integrated suite that includes tools for editing images, creating photo galleries, archiving images on CDs (viewable as slide shows), and printing photos with a wide variety of templates. The integrated image editor provides only basic tools, however, and lacks the more advanced features (such as photo composite tools and special effects filters) found in most standard image editors, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements.

The Scanjet 8200 is part of a document-oriented line of HP scanners that includes the $900 Scanjet 8250 and the $1500 Scanjet 8290, which has the faster 50-page (25-ppm) ADF and more software.

UPSHOT: The HP Scanjet 8200 is capable of handling documents, photos, and film, and is well suited for workgroups.