Ammon News - By Jean-Claude Elias

Printers and scanners are among the most hard hit computer peripherals in terms of sales figures. Not that they are completely on their way out, but new ways of working with the technology are creating a scope of work, an environment where we simply need less of them. It is obvious why our printing needs have diminished: the trend is to go green! No extra comment required here. But why less scanning, after all it does not consume any paper or ink?

Though it started in the early 1990s, the scanners market really boomed some 15 years ago. The first models were expensive and exhibited poor technical performance.

Circa 1995-2000 the devices became affordable to the masses and quality of scanning reached a satisfactory level. One of the most popular applications of the machines was to scan existing collections of transparencies, both negatives and positive slides, and of photo prints.

Collectors loved it, at last they could digitise existing personal photography and store it on hard disc for the generations to come to enjoy. Exchanging the digital files via email and Internet was not a minor benefit. Moreover, in those days digital photography also was in its infancy. People would first shoot in the good old analogue format, make prints at the lab and then scan the prints.

Today most everybody has scanned their pre-2000 photo prints, slides or negatives, and digital cameras have overwhelmingly replaced analogue models. Who then still needs a scanner? I went through an experience last month that gave me more proof that digital cameras are pushing scanners out.

Since I work in the IT field I happen to own a professional Epson flatbed scanner; a real beauty capable of making scans that are so good that you would have hard time distinguishing them from the originals. Unfortunately this scanner of mine is limited to the ubiquitous A4 format and cannot take larger originals. When a client gave me a rather large painting to scan, I first thought of going to someone who had a scanner with a larger flatbed, or to a printing press that uses what is called a drum scanner,?industrial grade equipment that costs 10,000 to 30,000 dinars and that practically is not limited in size.

Then I remembered that I also had a professional digital camera, my trusty Nikon D300. I fitted a prime 85mm Nikkor lens and just took a high-resolution shot of the painting, using a tripod for an absolutely in-focus, blur-less, no shake at all picture. The professional RAW mode of the Nikon generated a huge 40MB file but the result was a peerless “scan”, done without a scanner. The camera, which actually is one form of scanner technically speaking, allowed me to give my client a digital file of the painti?g, without having used a traditional flatbed scanner. Size limit was overcome.

Today, at home or in the office, most people keep a regular flatbed scanner. From very affordable to not-really-expensive, prices range between JD100 and JD400. Quality of scanning is excellent, but in 99.9 per cent of the cases the size is limited to A4. Going up to A3 and bigger drastically increases the cost and makes the operation not really feasible for small enterprises or home users. Epson and HP first, then Canon and Fujitsu, have been the undisputed leaders on the market for years now.

Among the best and affordable A4 models now on the market: Epson Perfection V600, HP Scanjet G4050, Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 and Canon imageFormula P-150 Scan-tini, a basic, small scanner but with a long name!

The A4 size is not the only limitation. Another, more frustrating one is the speed of scanning film at very high resolution. With any of the models in the above mentioned affordable series, be prepared for scanning times that can be as long as 3 to 4 minutes per picture if you are scanning film or transparencies at 4800 dpi, with some of the advanced features turned on, like for instance sharpening filters and de-screening. If you are planning to scan a large collection say of hundreds of slides, this can ?e frustrating.

Often scanners in a small office are used as a photocopier. Using them this way is very convenient though it is not exactly as fast as operating a real photocopier machine. Because simple office A4 scanners are inexpensive, you find them everywhere, even if they are not as frequently used as before. Again, since consumables are not involved, like it is the case with printers, you can just keep the scanner on the desk and forget about it until that day when you need it.

* Jordan Times