Epson GT-15000

This A3 Epson GT-15000 flatbed scanner was purchased to compliment an older Epson GT12000 Scanner.

The initial setup was very straightforward, being both SCSI and USB, with the USB being the preferred method mainly for the convenience of being able to switch on the scanner without having to reboot the machine (which has to be done with SCSI if it wasn't on at bootup), and also not having to take the case off the PC to install a SCSI card.

It is also possible to connect it with an optional IEEE 1394 (Firewire) card, which can transfer data at up to 400Mbps, but I can't say how much it costs or if its easy to set up, apart from the fact that you have to remove the back of the scanner to insert the card.

Another optional extra available is an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), which allows you to scan in up to 100 sheets. The only downside is that it is quite large and therefore makes what is already a large scanner even bigger. Small price to pay though if you have lots of scans to do.

The software that comes with the scanner is very good,with full copies of Adobe Photoshop Elements (a cut down version of Adobe Photoshop), Scansoft Paper Port Deluxe (a very good program for storing and sorting files). You also get a copy of ABBYY Finereader 5 Sprint Plus (one of the best OCR programs available). You also get a copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader (a program that you can get from nearly anywhere).

The actual scanning software covers three different levels of complexity, from home ( with very basic functionality) through Office (more than good enough for the average scan jobs) to professional (with more options than office, covering things like descreening etc).

I have it connected to a 2.4Ghz PC with USB 2.0 ports, and the scanner is very quick, with a full A3 scan at 300DPI with lots of the post processing options turned on taking approximately 30 seconds.

The scan quality is very good, having a resolution of 600 dpi x 1200 dpi, but with software interpolation, it is possible to scan at up to 9600 dpi x 9600 dpi. Dont forget though, that with the higher resolutions, the file sizes shoot through the roof, and the time it takes to actually scan increases dramatically. The time it takes to do anything can also take forever (even on a fast computer). From experience, you would very rarely need to scan anything over 300-400dpi anyway.

The colour reproduction is one of the best I have seen from a flatbed scanner. With a bit of fiddling with the settings, excellent results are possible.

As for the price, they can be found from lots of different places on the web for around the £1400 price mark brand new, but there are regularly available on places like ebay for less than £500.

The only downsides I have come across so far are that the glass can get scratched quite easily, but that is common with all flatbeds, and that the scanner is quite heavy (13Kg), but after all, it is large being capable of A3 scans.