Most users are perfectly content with an ultra- inexpensive flatbed scanner, but graphic artists and other professionals need high-quality, industrial-strength scans that require significantly superior hardware. The UMAX PowerLook 1100 (AU$4,194) is a heavy-duty, high-resolution device specifically designed for scanning drawings and photographs destined for print. Despite a somewhat tedious installation and a repetitive warm-up routine that slow throughput significantly, the PowerLook 1100 (and its bigger sibling, the 2100XL) delivers top-quality trouble-free, high-production scans.
A heavy device with a large footprint, the 1100 accommodates up to 8.5- by 11.7-inch originals. Its size and weight allow it to operate continuously in a 24-hour, 7-day professional production environment.
Under the hood is a 36-bit, 1,200- by 2,400-ppi device that uses firmware and software interpolation to boost colour-bit depth to 42 bits. (It can save images either as 24-bit or 42-bit files.) And the 10K trilinear-array CCD is better than that found in previous professional scanners that cost 10 to 15 times as much.
The 1100's impressive 3.3 dynamic range captures far more detail and subtle gradation in highlights and shadows than consumer-type scanners. Its scan engine works by moving the entire lens, CCD, and mirror assembly along a track.
In Quality Scan mode, the scanner has a built-in calibration window that reads the white point and black point while scanning and adjusts accordingly. Included on the interface is a visual calibration for manually adjusting your monitor gamma.
The 1100 connects to your computer via IEEE 1394 and has a second IEEE 1394 port for device chaining. UMAX doesn't provide a IEEE 1394 adaptor, so it's hit or miss whether the scanner will be recognised by your particular configuration. For instance, the scanner wouldn't work with the built-in IEEE 1394 ports on our Sony VAIO 505SX or Compaq Presario 5635, but we had no trouble attaching it to an HP Pavilion PC 8395 equipped with a SIIG NN2603 IEEE 1394 board. Besides being faster than SCSI, IEEE 1394 lets client computers use the scanner without going through the host.
Interface compatibilities aside, software installation was initially frustrating. The scanner driver location is not obvious or intuitive. Fortunately, we experienced no further software hassles once our test systems recognised the scanner.
The model we tested comes bundled with MagicScan 4.4, which can be operated as either a standalone program or a TWAIN interface (or a Photoshop plug-in for Macs). Scan quality is excellent. Using binuscan's Advanced auto-correction, the 1100 produced a bright and lively scan with good colours that were not overly saturated. There was slight clipping in the shadows, but also crisp detail.
In Quality Scan mode, the scanner has an unavoidable warm-up period prior to every scan -- even when repeating the same scan -- which greatly diminishes its overall scan speeds. Using MagicScan as a standalone, the 1100 scanned our 8.28MB test image at 200ppi in 29 seconds. This time was slow compared with the Epson Expression 1600's (IEEE 1394) time of 9 seconds and the Epson Expression 800's (SCSI) time of 12 seconds.
The scanner is available in a variety of hardware (transparency adaptor) and software configurations (Photoshop 5.5 for an additional AU$700 or OmniPage Pro 9.0 for an additional AU$100). Any model would fit right in with a professional graphics environment.
UMAX Technologies PowerLook 1100
Company: The Scanner and Printer Place
Ph: 1800 008 899; Fax: 1800 621 722
Price: AU$4,195.
Rating: 4 Star
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