Photo Review Reviews section
Lastolite Ezybalance
A portable calibration tool for photographers who want colour-accurate exposures.
GretagMacbeth Eye-One Display 2
The Eye-One Display 2 is an upgrade to an earlier GretagMacbeth colorimeter and the entry-level device in a complex suite of colour management products for calibrating devices such as monitors, scanners, printers, digital cameras and projectors. (We plan to review the top-of-the-range product in the next issue of Photo Review.) Compatible with both Windows and Macintosh systems, Eye-One Display 2 can be used for profiling most monitors and scanners and comes with an excellent software bundle.
Epson Perfection 4180 Photo Scanner
[ia] The Perfection 4180 Photo scanner has double the resolution of the 2480 model, and can be used for scanning medium format film frames as well as 35mm negatives or slides. Up to 12 frames of 35mm film, or up to four 35mm mounted slides and six medium format film frames can be accommodated in the transparency unit.
Epson Perfection 4990 Photo
Epson’s latest top-of-the-range flatbed/film scanner may be large and relatively pricey but you get plenty of bangs for your buck. The Perfection 4990 Photo combines 4800dpi resolution with a bit depth of 48, and Epson claims its high 4.0 optical density produces scans with smooth and accurate colour and subtle grey gradations. Features of the new model include a MatrixCCD scanning head with microlenses that ensure even light coverage. A blue-toned lamp compensates for the base masking in colour negatives, providing faster scans with better colour accuracy.
Epson Perfection 2480 Photo Scanner
Overall performance and image quality was high. Scanning times varied with image size, output resolution and processing applied during the scan. Our tests produced the following scan times:
Canon CanoScan 9950F
The CanoScan 9950F is ideal for photographers who want a flatbed scanner with high-resolution film scanning capabilities. It’s capable of scanning up to 30 frames of 35mm filmstrip, twelve mounted slides, and medium format and sheet film up to 5 x 4- inch size. The 9950F includes Canon’s Film Automatic Retouching and Enhancement (FARE) Level 3 technology, which removes dust and scratches and corrects fading, graininess and backlighting.
CanoScan 8400F
The supplied ScanGear CS software allows users to select scan or output resolutions and match scan resolutions to output sizes. However there is no facility for scanning to a fixed file size (eg; 10MB).
Epson P-2000 Multimedia Storage Viewer
Epson’s P-2000 combines personal entertainment with data storage in a portable device with plenty of appeal to photographers. It has the largest, best-looking screen we’ve seen so far. The display has VGA resolution and shows three colours per pixel image, at a density of 212 pixels per inch, which is double the resolution of most competing products.
