HP Scanjet 3570c

The Scanjet 3570c's lid heralds a new era - at last, an HP scanner that doesn't look like a paving slab. Instead, the lid resembles a sheet of bubble wrap glazed in turquoise glass. Not only that, but its 1,200ppi optical resolution theoretically gives you high-quality scanning for just £101.

Okay, so 1,200ppi isn't the highest around, but it's as high as you can go with a basic CCD. The 1,600ppi and 2,400ppi scanners use two rows of staggered pixels to create the higher resolution, and our scientific resolution tests often show little difference between 2,400ppi and 1,200ppi, except a quadrupling in file size.

The Scanjet 3570c is no exception, and our final MTF result of 1.26 (0.73 horizontally and 0.53 vertically) is ahead of all the scanners in our recent Labs, including the A-Listed Epson Perfection 2450 Photo (see Labs, issue 95, p77). The Scanjet is great for capturing fine detail, and this was borne out in our real-world photo tests - a quick zoom-in revealed fine sharpness, while the Epson was comparatively smooth and blurry.

Depending on your preference, this can be altered with a quick visit to a photo editor, but it could be trickier to adjust the Scanjet's annoying amount of digital noise. The scientific signal-to-noise ratio result of 27:1 is bad enough, but this is an average of light and dark results, and the latter was an appalling 6:1.

The noise was also evident in all our real- world photo tests, with obvious multicoloured dots scattered in dark areas, as well as a scratching effect. The colours were also overly harsh, particularly the reds and yellows, which lacked the warm variation of the originals and the Epson's results. Our transparency test also suffered from noise - zooming in on skin tones showed obvious red, green and blue dots instead of the simple and smoother dithering seen in the HP 5490c's results (see Reviews, issue 85, p170).

However, the transparency adaptor is a great inclusion for the money. Integrated into the lid, it can scan two slides or two frames of 35mm film. It can't scan larger transparencies, but it's all you need for basic photography. To use it, you just plug it into the back and select Slides or Negatives from TMA in the TWAIN software.

It's also good to see that HP has improved its TWAIN software. Instead of the previously conservative layout, it now strikes the perfect balance between simple aesthetics and advanced options. You preview your scan, which only takes four seconds, make any adjustments, which include resolution, gamma, descreen and sharpening, and click Accept. Simple, and you can even save your presets.

Like the Epson, the Scanjet 3570c also features USB 2, although it couldn't keep up with the Perfection 2450 - an A4 scan at 300ppi took 44 seconds, compared to the Epson's 15. Similarly, the HP took seven minutes, eight seconds to scan an 8 x 10in photo at its full 1,200ppi resolution, while the Canon CanoScan D1250U2F SE (see Labs, issue 95, p77) took three minutes, four seconds.

The HP 3570c is, however, fast enough for the money, and value is its best selling point. It's good to see a big-brand 1,200ppi scanner with a transparency adaptor for just £101, and the new styling and revised TWAIN software are welcome improvements. However, with its poor signal-to-noise ratio and overly harsh colours, you'd be better going for the £112 Epson Perfection 1650 (see Labs, issue 95, p77) instead.

Author: Ben Hardwidge