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 2100XL (AU$5,493) 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 slows throughput significantly, the 2100XL (and its smaller sibling, the 1100) delivers top-quality trouble-free, high-production scans.
The 2100XL accommodates originals up to 12 by 17 inches. A nonstop workhorse, it has a 3.3 dynamic range and is capable of scanning and saving images as 42-bit files. In line with most other A3-size scanners, its optical resolution is 800 by 1,600 ppi. The user must position originals in the middle rather than on the left or right corner.
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 2100XL is a SCSI device that comes with its own interface board. That's fortunate, because we were unable to get the scanner to work with our Adaptec 2940 UltraWide SCSI adaptor. According to Umax, UltraWide boards are too fast for its scanners.
Interface compatibilities aside, software installation on the scanner 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. The 2100XL's test scan exhibits accurate colours and fine detail and captures excellent edge-to-edge sharpness.
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 2100XL took an average of 47 seconds. This time is 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 2100XL
Company: The Printer and Scanner Place
Ph: 1800 008 899; Fax: 1800 621 722
Price: AU$5,493.
Rating: 4 Star
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