Epson Perfection 2450 Photo

With a plethora of trendy new interfaces, it's difficult to know which one to go for. USB is simple and easy, USB 2 is quicker but you'll need a new interface card, and IEEE-1394 has been established for longer. Luckily, Epson has made your life easier by providing compatibility with all three on the Perfection 2450 Photo, which gave us the chance to see the comparative benefits of each interface.

Any scans under 300ppi were completed in exactly the same time whatever connection we used, and it took a 300ppi 8 x 10in photo to start the push. This was completed in 15 seconds on both USB 2 and IEEE-1394, but took 20 seconds under USB. This difference is negligible, but you soon start to see the benefits when pushing the Epson to its limits. An 8 x 10in photo at 2,400ppi took 15 minutes, 23 seconds on USB 2, 16 minutes, 16 seconds on IEEE-1394, but 32 minutes, 16 seconds under USB.

So if you're looking at high-resolution scanning, you can save over half your time by using USB 2, which was also quicker than IEEE-1394. The difference is under a minute, though, so if you already have an IEEE-1394 adaptor, don't bother upgrading, but otherwise go for a USB 2 card.

To put these speeds into context, HP's USB ScanJet 5490c (see Reviews, issue 85, p170) took over an hour to scan the same photo at 2,400ppi, so the Epson is also fast in its own right. And that's not all, as the Perfection offers superb scanning quality too.

Our photo tests had all the necessary detail captured in light and dark areas, with rich and smooth colours that made the HP's results look slightly distorted. Where the Epson particularly excelled was in reds and skin tones, which it captured with depth and clarity. Comparatively, the HP struggled with red textures and fabrics, producing a flat colour that lacked the Epson's depth.

However, our scientific tests showed that, while the Epson captured most colours accurately, it struggled with cyan and blue hues. The rest of the scientific tests put the Epson in the top league, but not with any degree of distinction. The overall resolution result of 1.13 MTF (modular transfer function) is great, but not as sharp as the 1.24 from HP's ScanJet 7450C (see Reviews, issue 80, p162). Similarly, the signal-to-noise ratio of 95.72 is fine by any standards, but not quite the best.

None of this is any cause for concern, though. The Epson has proved itself to be a great all-round scanner in every area, and the real-world photo tests all looked fantastic.

There's also a transparency adaptor bundled, which can accept slides up to 4 x 9in in size or strips of 35mm film. The scanning quality of transparencies was also excellent, making the HP's colours look flat and slightly grainy once again. What's more, the TWAIN software will handily split up filmstrips into frames before you scan and is easy to use too.

Epson has also included Adobe Photoshop Elements, which makes this an impressive scanner bundle. At £255, it isn't cheap, but with its great all-round quality, fast scanning speeds, great software and choice of modern interfaces the price is more than justified.

Author: Ben Hardwidge