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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 24 reviews
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Product summary
The good: Fast; USB and SCSI built-in; includes film scanner; lots of software; automatic document-feeder option.
The bad: Middling quality on some image types; switching from flatbed to film scanner is inconvenient; support period is exceedingly brief.
The bottom line: This scanner has the speed and connectivity to satisfy a busy office, and it scans well; only its support policies fail to measure up.
Specifications: Type: Flatbed scanner - Desktop ; Optical Resolution: 2400 dpi x 2400 dpi ; Scanner interface type: USB ; See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 07/01/2001
With its long, narrow bed for scanning legal-sized documents and a jutting prow arrayed with buttons that send scans to specific applications, the ScanJet 7400c looks a bit like a lavishly customized stretch limousine--and its 23 inches definitely take up more than one parking space on your desk. But in CNET Labs' timing tests, HP's double-sensor design drove the 7400c like a sports car past the competition.With its long, narrow bed for scanning legal-sized documents and a jutting prow arrayed with buttons that send scans to specific applications, the ScanJet 7400c looks a bit like a lavishly customized stretch limousine--and its 23 inches definitely take up more than one parking space on your desk. But in CNET Labs' timing tests, HP's double-sensor design drove the 7400c like a sports car past the competition.
Raise the checkered flag
The $499 ScanJet 7400c's imaging optics have two sets of sensor arrays: one for low-resolution scans up to 600dpi and a second for capturing finer details up to the 2,400dpi maximum. As a result, HP claims, low-res scans don't bog down trying to process 1,200dpi or 2,400dpi worth of information. The theory seems to hold water: In CNET Labs' tests, the ScanJet 7400c captured 150dpi grayscale scans in less than 7 seconds, whereas the same operation on Canon's CanoScan D2400UF ran 24 seconds. The ScanJet 7400c captured a 150dpi color image in less than 18 seconds, 25 percent faster than the CanoScan. And to capture slides at 600dpi, the HP averaged 25 seconds, whereas the Canon averaged 68. (Note: Scanner test times do not include lamp warm-up, which can add quite a delay.)
Scan quality comes in second
The ScanJet 7400c has the specs to produce great color. It can capture scans at 48 bits (16 bits each for the red, green, and blue that make up an image) and unlike less expensive 48-bit scanners, it can send all 48 bits of color to a computer that can take it--specifically, Macs. For Windows PCs, which don't support 48-bit color, it distills the image down to 24 bits. Also, note that the scanner captures 48 bits only when scanning film, not opaque media. When examining the actual scans, however, we found a few flaws that resulted in slightly lower overall ratings for the ScanJet compared with those of the CanoScan. The ScanJet's captures had a slightly soft-focus look at ordinary settings. Colors, though beautiful, looked a bit less saturated than we'd hoped for. Grayscales had an attractive, realistic feeling, but when we zoomed in for a closer look, some finer details were missing.
Scanning, both easy and clunky
Initiating a scan is easy: The ScanJet 7400c has preset buttons marked E-mail Photo, E-mail Document, Fax, Copy, File, OCR, and so on, plus an LCD where you can set details such as how many copies to make. Click a button and the scanner starts whirring, while HP's main interface, PrecisionScan Pro, pops up onscreen in case you want to change the presets, such as which OCR application to use or whether to crop photos automatically before e-mailing them. PrecisionScan Pro has a few simple controls for adjusting midtones, highlights, and shadows or choosing how to mix the color channels when converting an image to grayscale. But for serious photo-correction chores, you'll probably want to switch to Photoshop or one of the ScanJet's bundled software offerings.
Film scanning is a bit clunkier, unfortunately. To scan slides and film, you first have to lift or remove the lid, place a black plastic mask on the glass, and attach a backlight that rests over the mask and shines onto the scanner's sensors. Compared with the simplicity of the CanoScan D2400UF, the ScanJet's process is inconvenient. HP includes templates that snuggle into the hole in the mask for 4x5 transparencies, mounted slides, and 35mm film. The company thoughtfully provides masking to block open areas when you don't fill all four slide slots or when your filmstrip is short.
Office-ready
Although the HP's scan quality and design fall a bit short compared with that of the CanoScan D2400UF, in other ways, it's much better suited for the offices that will use it. For one thing, HP builds a SCSI port right into the ScanJet, so you can connect it to older PCs or Macs that may not have USB ports. To suck stacks of papers into the digital world, $250 buys a 50-page automatic document feeder. The scanner also takes legal-sized paper, whereas the CanoScan is limited to letter/A4.
HP supplies separate Windows and Mac CDs with lots of software (the Windows' Typical Install floods your system with half a gigabyte of programs), though the bundles differ. For Windows, you get Corel PrintOffice 2000, which includes PrintOffice 5 and PhotoHouse 5; ScanSoft's forms manager OmniForm 4; and the OCR package ReadIris 6 with CardIris, a utility that analyzes scanned business cards and chops up the data into fields in a contact database. The package also has Web site creation tools: Boomerang's design tool WebShop 2000 and Anark's Emotion 3D Web Edition 1.5 for creating those annoying animated doodads. The Mac bundle comes with Corel's PhotoPaint 8.0; ReadIris 6; ScanSoft's PaperPort 5.5 document-archiving database; and a fax utility, SmithMicro's FAXstf 6.
The ScanJet 7400c's documentation and support is a mixed bag. HP doesn't provide a printed manual, only a poster that shows you how to set up the scanner. The CD has a brief manual and some videos covering the basics, but for deeper questions, you have to go to HP's Web site, which has an Ask Jeeves knowledge base and an archive of hints and FAQs. For the software applications, you refer to manuals in Adobe Acrobat format. The mere 90 days of tech support is the most disappointing aspect of this scanner's service policy; for $499, you think the company'd extend it to the full year of the warranty. Phone calls are on your dime, too, but at least the hours are long: 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. MT weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. The Web site can accept e-mail to HP support technicians or direct you to telephone support.
Offices that need a decent color scanner will appreciate the HP ScanJet 7400c's combination of good overall scan quality, fast speeds, and versatile USB/SCSI connectivity and paper handling. Although the film scanner is a bit awkward to use, the drawback that office users definitely won't like--especially considering the price--is the brief support period.
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- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 24 reviews
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