Epson Perfection 1240U Photo

Being a master of all trades isn't easy, and many flatbed scanners excel in one area only to fall down in others. But most people are more concerned with good all-round quality than sacrificing resolution for colour accuracy, and no-one wants to wait ages for results either. Epson's Perfection 1200Photo (see Labs, issue 66, p128) managed great all-round performance, and remained on the PC Pro A List until it was eventually discontinued. Now it's been renamed and updated, with a new case.

This, apart from the revised TWAIN software, is the only obvious change. The 1240U retains its predecessor's lid-mounted transparency adaptor and 1,200ppi optical resolution. At this resolution, the 1240U was expected to fare well in our resolution tests, and the score of 1.00 is only just behind the 1200's 1.02, with an equal 0.5 on both horizontal and vertical measurements. However, the results fall behind recent scanners such as Canon's FB1210U (reviewed issue 71, p178), with a 1.13 MTF measurement.

In our last group test (see Labs, issue 66, p116), the Perfection 1200 impressed us with its clean signal-to-noise ratio. The end result of 169.72 was far ahead of the opposition, with the nearest competitor being the AcerScan Prisa 620UT on 90.41. We expected a similar showing from the 1240U, but the final score of 91.44 was a disappointment. The 1200's comparative failure was colour accuracy, but with an imperceptible error rate of 4.71 it held its ground. The 1240U fared less well, with an overall rate of 5.33. Most colours were reproduced faithfully with a negligible error rate, but blue and cyan hues were troublesome, with error rates of 14.69 and 12.96 respectively, causing an otherwise exemplary score to increase dramatically.

Where the 1240U comes into its own though is in its sheer speed. It's the fastest 1,200ppi scanner we've tested by a long way, taking just six minutes, 34 seconds for an 8 x 10in photo at 1,200ppi. And if the job you're doing can bear a slight drop in clarity, take note that it only took one minute, 39 seconds to scan the same photo at 600ppi.

Transparencies were scanned similarly quickly, taking one minute, 14 seconds for a 40 x 40mm transparency. And with its 3.2D optical density rating the results are of exceptionally high quality.

As with the 1200, the 1240U is slightly outperformed by other scanners in every area except speed. But despite falling short of its predecessor's results, it still offers the best all-around solution available. All of the quality tests produced respectable results, and while competitors' models may supersede it in some areas, for outstanding all-round performance the 1240U can't be beaten. At £195 it may be expensive, but as it comes with Adobe Photoshop 5 LE and a transparency adaptor, and given that the performance it offers is so impressive, it's worth paying that bit extra. It's just a shame it couldn't quite live up to the 1200's exceedingly high original standards.

Author: Ben Hardwidge