Microtek's latest flatbed scanner, the AU$399 ScanMaker V6UPL, is a fast and flexible unit ideal for users seeking an easy way to scan colour images and slides. Its OCR capabilities, on the other hand, leave much to be desired.
The V6UPL measures 54.6 x 29.9 x 8.1 cms (HWD), weighs about 5.2 kgs, and scans in documents of up to 8.5 x 14 inches, as well as 35mm slides (using the included slide adaptor). A charge-coupled-device image sensor provides up to a 600 x 1,200-dpi optical resolution and 36-bit colour depth (up to 9,600 dpi with data interpolation).
The V6UPL features both a USB and a parallel-port connector; we used the USB port for our tests. The bundled software includes the scanner's TWAIN driver, Microtek's ScanWizard 5 interface, Ulead PhotoImpact 4.2, Caere OmniPage LE, Caere PageKeeper Standard, Adobe PhotoDeluxe 2.0, and Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.
A single Go button on the scanner permits one-touch scanning into almost any application, with a choice of an advanced or standard preview-and-control dialog window launching first. We scanned in a 4x6-inch colour photo, which took about 42 seconds using a 36-bit colour depth at 300 dpi. The resulting image was nearly identical to the original in colour and brightness.
It took only 22 seconds to scan our newsletter at 300 dpi and 12-bit grey scale, and an additional 10 seconds to convert the document into text. The resulting document contained 34 errors and did not replicate the original's multicolumn format. Also, you can't use the ScanWizard interface to scan in documents for OCR; rather, you need to scan directly into OmniPage. A Microtek representative says an improved OCR engine will be included in the next (though as of yet unscheduled) release of ScanWizard.
With the exception of its limited OCR capabilities, this unit excels. With its swift scan speeds, sharp image quality, USB interface, and slide adaptor, the Microtek ScanMaker V6UPL is a versatile image scanner.
Microtek ScanMaker V6UPL
Company: Magnafield
Ph: 1300 369 985; Fax: 1300 369 890
Price: ERP AU$399.
Rating: 3 Star
