Think of the Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 5470c as the Merv Hughes of desktop scanners.
The scanner looks ominous with a big 57.2 x 33cm footprint and a pile of hardware attachments, including a slide/transparency adaptor.
It's ready to cut down the competition with its 2400 x 2400dpi (dots per inch) resolution, 48-bit colour, strong output quality, mile-long list of software, and some of the fastest scanning speeds we've ever seen. All this, with its modest AU$599 price tag, makes the ScanJet seem like a clear-cut bargain.
Installation is a simple but time-consuming task with the HP, which is compatible with Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, and NT 4.0, plus Mac OS 8.6 and higher. The box is packed full of extras, including both USB and parallel cables-a nice touch.
Surprisingly, there is no printed manual, which may leave you staring blankly at all the extra hardware attachments. Only after you install your software will you find an electronic (PDF) manual that's a bit light on scanning techniques (such as making the most of your colour-negative scans or troubleshooting potential driver conflicts), but it's enough for most people to get started.
Once the scanner is up and running, it works like a dream. A small army of buttons and an LCD screen on the front panel let you perform a number of scanning tasks without once touching the mouse.
The Applications button lets you scroll through a choice of destinations for your impending scan. Photo Reprint dictates the number of printouts you want of a particular scan.
And, with the Options button, you can set output quality on the fly. Other buttons make quick copies or scan directly to your e-mail program.
In our tests, the 5470c cranked out the fastest scans we've seen to date in this price range, ripping through a full-page colour document at 150dpi in less than 15 seconds, even beating out the HP ScanJet 7400c.
On average, the 5470c scanned greyscale documents in just more than 14 seconds. In slide and negative scan tests, it was also consistently at, or near, the front of the pack.
Despite its fast work, the 5470c still managed to produce good output quality. Colour and greyscale scans looked crisp and clear, and the scanner captured the slightest shading and subtle contrasts.
However, the HP had slight problems matching oranges and reds; images came out a bit too light in our tests, and absolute blacks appeared a bit blotchy. Scanning colour slides, the 5470c continued with its colour confusion and blotchy blacks, and negative scans exhibited significant colour mismatching and a loss of detail.
The good news? All scans (regular flatbed, slide, and negative) look significantly better at higher resolutions. With a max of 2400dpi, there's plenty of room to crank it up for the more important scans. For the price, the included software bundle is downright impressive.
Kicking it off is HP's PrecisionScan Pro 3.1, an all-business utility devoid of intrusive and time sapping wizards-a real timesaver if you have a bunch of images or documents to scan.
Beyond the various scanning duties, PrecisionScan handles light image editing, colour correction, and OCR translation. Corel Print Office 2000 5.0 handles all your photo editing and document layout tasks, balancing handholding with some fairly powerful features.
HP Photo Printing 2.6 covers similar tasks but focuses more on print layouts.
The remaining applications help you with a wide variety of office-oriented tasks. You can create photo databases with ACDSee 3.1, EFax Messenger Plus 2.0 turns the scanner into a send-only fax machine, and with NetObject NetFusion 5.0, you can build Web sites without knowing a lick of HTML.
Finally, you can use IRIS Cardiris 2.5 to scan business cards and create a simple, electronic, Rolodex-type database. Despite the few overlaps, it's an outstanding bundle, which takes up a drive-squeezing 370MB if you choose to install all of it.
HP's technical-support site offers a hefty and searchable knowledge base, as well as FAQs, tips, and a driver database.
If it weren't for its problems scanning slides and negatives, the HP ScanJet 5470c would be a near-perfect scanner. For most other office scanning tasks however, it's a great buy, offering power, speed, and useful extras for a reasonable price.
| Product: | HP ScanJet 5470c |
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| Price: | AU$599 |
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| Vendor: | Hewlett-Packard |
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| Phone: | 13 23 47 |
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| Interoperability: |  Windows 95, 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000 Professional; Mac OS 8.6 to 9.1. |
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| Futureproofing: |  If it weren't for its problems scanning slides and negatives, would be a near perfect scanner. |
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| ROI: |  A great buy for most small office tasks. |
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| Service: |  One-year warranty, online trouble shooting guide and electronic support via Web, 30-day free phone support on 13 23 47. Customers can buy a three-year warranty with express repair pack for an extra AU$179. |
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| Rating: |   |
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6%
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