Home >> Photography >> Digital
Epson
1200U Flatbed Scanner
Written
in 2000
 I’m
slowly building a home digital darkroom setup. Incremental piecemeal
additions instead of an all out blowout of the bank account allowed
me to build the kit with grudging approval from my wife. First step
was to buy a new scanner and I admit right off that I cheaped out
by buying the Epson 1200 scanner under review here.
The scanner is perhaps the most important
piece of the home digital darkroom and will represent the performance
bottleneck in any such setup. If I had the dollars then a Imacon scanner
would have been the choice or barring that then one of the other high
quality film scanners capable of handling 120 size film strips and
35mm slides and negatives. The Nikon Coolscan 45 and Minolta Scan
Multi are two that come immediately to mind. The third choice would
be a very high resolution flatbed scanner with transparency adapter
such as the various UMAX and Heidelberg scanners (apparently Heidelberg
scanners are actually UMAX scanners with the software tossed in favor
of Heidelberg’s superior versions). I did none of the three more acceptable
routes towards home scanning and instead bought the wallet friendly
Epson 1200. I couldn’t even afford the better Epson 1600 model, which
is quite a bit more expensive then the 1200.
The Epson 1200 is not all loser oriented
though. After installing the Epson Twain software, I was able to start
scanning my 120 chromes with ease (after some initial computer growing
pains detailed below). Since all of my scans to date have been for
my website I wasn’t out to max out file sizes for printing. This will
change though once my Epson 1270 printer arrives and forces me to
get over the digital learning curve with better scanning software
like Silverfast and with resolution increasing software like Genuine
Fractals. So consider this Part 1 of the report on the Epson 1200,
which is just about basic operation and web related scan quality.
Part 1
 The
version of the Epson 1200 I bought was the USB Photo kit that comes
with only a USB connection and the transparency adapter as part of
the package for a modest discount over buying the faster SCSI version
and tranny adapter separately. It’s quite a compact unit, much smaller
then the UMAX scanner I was using previously and much better in terms
of scanning resolution (600 dpi v. 1200). The small footprint is appreciated
on my tight computer table space and the only downside to it is that
I can’t scan legal sized documents. But since I didn’t buy this unit
for OCR word recognition and text scanning, I wasn’t overly concerned.
Before buying the Epson 1200 I had
attempted to scan on the cheap by using a portable light box as a
light source to try and scan some chromes with the old UMAX. The results
were dismal from a qualitative standpoint and practically speaking
it was a pain too. The lightbox just didn’t output enough light to
get a good scan and various artifacts showed up such as faint horizontal
lines running across the entire scan (60hz lines from the AC cord?).
The only way to get some images onto
my site was to use print film or have prints made from the chromes
for scanning on the UMAX. I did this for what represented my humdrum
gallery of images and looked longingly to the day that I could actually
scan slides properly. When Epson announced the 1200 scanner it seemed
like the one to buy. Other new 1200 dpi scanners also showed up on
the market at around the same time, the Canoscan 1200 and the Umax
Astra 4000 but both were quite pricey after the tranny adapter was
factored in. The favorable review in Shutterbug Magazine helped my
opinion along (but then again when was the last time Shutterbug trashed
anything they reviewed?). What really sealed it was when the price
of the Epson 1200 dropped another $100CAN since I first heard about
it earlier this year. I called up my bro-in-law who works in the biz
to order one for me. Boy was I excited!
To prepare for the new Epson 1200,
I had to upgrade the OS on my ancient Pentium 120 from Windows 95
to Windows 98, as the Epson 1200 will only work with this upgraded
OS despite Win 95 having a patch available to work with USB connections.
I started my upgrade and then found the upgrade to have stalled about
95% of the way to completion. Great, Microsoft strikes again. Various
attempts to get Win 98 working on the P120 failed and I had to call
in the expert, my brother-in-law to take the computer away and do
a full format C drive. Due to various issues concerning my decrepit
computer, I would have wait almost a week for the battery to drain
so that the password protected BIOS could be accessed. Then surprise,
surprise when Ben showed up only two days later with computer in tow
and said it’s up and running. Just one thing though, it wasn’t my
old P120 but a less old Pentium Pro 233 MMX.
What Ben found out was that the PCI-USB
adapter card I asked him to order for me was not compatible with the
P120 motherboard and it was corrupting my upgrade to Win 98. “Oh”,
said I and Ben was kind enough to give me his old computer no longer
used by him (not since his PIII upgrade purchase). It’s good to have
friendly family relations, so out with the old in with the new(er).
Finally, I was up and scanning and
boy was I liking it those first few scans with 120 strips. Bright
scans, I mean really bright scans that grabbed your attention with
the amount of color saturation seen in some chromes. I was mightily
happy so far but then I started scanning some 35mm slides and that’s
when the short honeymoon ended. As bright as the 120 scans were the
35mm scans seemed dismal and I despaired at the amount of manual adjustments
I would need to do to get a fair representation of the original slide.
Then I discovered Auto Levels in Photoshop
and goodness, gracious, great balls of fire! The Auto Levels stripped
the scans of 35mm slides of the hazy, blue-toned artifacts that was
prevalent in all of the scans I had been doing. But what Auto Levels
gave it also tooketh away as I saw the wonderful light and color saturation
in some of the 120 scans disappear BUT what resulted was more accurate
and true to the original chrome. In about 90% of the scans Auto Levels
provided a cleaner and truer look but 10% of the scans didn’t work
and I would still have to manually adjust contrast and brightness
to match the film.
After gaining some experience with
the Epson 1200 on a variety of scans I have found some disappointing
aspects of its performance. With very contrasty chromes with lots
of dark or shadow elements in a scene the Epson 1200 will fall down
and you will be hard pressed to obtain a scan you can live with. A
very noisy, grain like artifact found its way into most of my slides
and chromes with very dark areas. I should point out that the dmax
of the Epson 1200 is not particularly high at 3.0, which would account
for its lack of detail resolution in the shadows. I’ve taken to scanning
all my film at its full 1200 dpi resolution in order to maximize the
quality of the scan and then throwing away the extra resolution when
re-sizing for the website.
Other negatives about the Epson 1200?
The film holders are very cheap and flimsy and you must be careful
with their use to ensure a sharp scan. With 35mm slides, I just put
the slides directly on the glass and scan but with 120 film, I have
to use the film holder. As most would know, 120 and 220 rolls come
back to you in exactly that manner after processing, as large rolls.
This roll curls the film and after you’ve cut the film into strips
of three of four, the frames on the outside of the strip will always
be more difficult to keep flat then the inside frames. I’ve had problems
trying to get a sharp scan of some outside frames, as the film holder
does not hold the film very tightly. One user posted a fix of sorts
on the Medium Format Digest by using some kind of very thin adhesive
or foam that has very weak glue. The film sticks to the foam and stays
flat while keeping the film from touching the glass and causing Newton
rings to form. I’ll have to find my own fix to ensure that all strips
of film are held securely and flat for scanning.
So after becoming a bit better acquainted
with Photo Shop and reading up Michael Reichman’s Luminous Landscape
website on digital imaging, I have come to regard the Epson 1200 as
a killer scanner for web use. Even with the negatives regarding shadow
detail extraction and the film holders, if you just want to get your
images onto the web quickly and cheaply and you shoot a variety of
film formats, the Epson 1200 should do well for you.
After I try my hand at digital imaging
from scanning to printing, I will post my report here in Part 2 and
see how well the Epson 1200 fares for higher level scanning then web
site use.
Part II (this
was written about a year after Part I)
Part I dealt with the Epson 1200U flatbed
scanner as primarily a quick and cheap manner to scan film and reflected
media for web site purposes. Part II gets into how well this scanner
fares for quality scanning for outputting to photo-quality paper via
the Epson Stylus Photo 1270 printer.
Since I've already gone over the basics
of this scanner I'll just cut straight to the chase.
35mm Scanning
This scanner is not up to the job of scanning 35mm sized negatives
or slides and obtaining anything meaningful beyond a 5x7 size print.
Bi-cubic interpolation or Genuine Fractals will not save the scan
for even a smallish 8x10 size print. This is unfortunate, as I prefer
having at least 8x10 size prints for my personal album. In this situation
Genuine Fractals cannot rescue a so-so image and it appears that Genuine
Fractals requires the original image file to be excellent in quality
in order for it to be able to enlarge the file size in a meaningful
fashion. Essentially garbage in equals garbage out.
Images scanned at the maximum optical
resolution of 1200 dpi do not seem able to maintain the clarity required
of a photo-quality print from the 1270 printer. There are various
user comments on the newsgroups and mailing lists that decry the lack
of ability of the 1200 scanner for 35mm scanning for eventual printing.
You want 35mm scans at a high quality, buy a Nikon 4000 ED scanner
and receive the ability to print off a 13x20 size print without any
need for software manipulation to increase the file sizes.
Medium Format Scanning
This is the sweet zone as far as size is concerned for good scanning
results from the Epson 1200. 6x6 size chromes turn out fairly well
depending upon your software of choice. I use Epson's Twain driver
and edit via Photoshop as opposed to using a more technical and powerful
scanning software with minimal Photoshop editing. I would however,
like to have the ability to do multi-pass scanning, something that
Vuescan and Silverfast allow but Epson Twain does not.
Depending on your output resolution
you will obtain between a 9x9 to 11x11 sized print straight out without
need for software interpolation. This is certainly a good enough size
for proofing and will satisfy many people who want a scanner for this
purpose only. Since I'm not so rich as to be able to afford an Imacon
or even the future Nikon 8000 ED multi-film format scanner, I'm looking
to eke out some larger file sizes from this scanner via Genuine Fractals.
I've done a very brief amount of scanning
with 4x5 sheets with the 1200 but it's not something I would want
to do on a regular basis due to the rather thin and flimsy film holders
that come with the scanner (the one for the 4x5 is nearly useless).
The smaller film format holders are not too bad as they have enough
plastic content to actually hold a piece film relatively straight
but as you get larger in film size the less sturdy the holder is.
I was concerned enough with medium
format size scanning that I decided to mount my best images and simply
lay the mounted chrome on the glass bed for scanning instead of using
the film holder. The film holder works best for single frames or when
using strips of three or four frames, only the middle frame will retain
the best film flatness. The ends of the strips tend to have the strongest
curls and the film holder is not suitable for keeping those end frames
flat. Mounting does not result in a perfectly flat scan either but
it is far and away superior to the default film holder or the use
of adhesives that can mar the glass.
Reflected Media
For scanning photo prints, the Epson 1200 APPEARS to offer
its best performance. Auto settings for reflected media are quite
accurate to the original print and minimal adjustments are required
in Photoshop. The main editing is really just a bit of Un-sharp Masking
but a whole lot of Noise/Dust control or manual cleanup as scanners
have a notorious habit of accumulating dust. Even pressurized air
can't do the job at times and of course you have to be quite careful
when blowing original filmstrips. I've taken to using a fine-haired
brush to gently brush away problem dust filaments I can see but it
seems that I always miss the tiny ones that show up with alarming
clarity at 100% enlargement views. This dust control seems to be the
largest amount of editing work I do outside of Un-Sharp Masking (trying
to get the right combination of Amount, Radius and Threshold control).
Prints from 35mm
I say the reflected media appears to be the 1200's best performance
simply because it appears to be the most accurate as far as color
is concerned as seen on MY monitor. But scanning a 4x6 print
from a 35mm negative for enlargement purposes can also be fraught
with difficulties because when viewed at 100% the images just don't
seem to have enough detail and sharpness as a scan of an original
120 size chrome or negative would. It has been suggested that anything
beyond a 300 dpi scan of a print is wasting resolution because the
print is not capable of holding any more detail. I would tend to agree
and even if you scan at higher resolutions for a larger print size,
all you're doing is magnifying the lack of detail inherent in a scan
of a print. My experience has been that I have been unable to obtain
enough clarity and detail from a 4x6 print to even manage a good-looking
8x10 size enlargement unless the subject matter is devoid of very
fine detail.
Prints from 120
Scanning a print that was taken with a medium format camera
changes things a bit and does appear to offer slightly more detail
and clarity then a print from a 35mm negative. I was surprised to
note this, as I didn't think a 4x5 or 4x6 print would make any difference
since the 4x6 35mm print seemed sharp and clear enough. But I guess
just as a larger negative provides more data (or perhaps better smoothness,
especially in skin tones) for scanning so too does a print from a
larger negative. Note that I have not done that much reflected media
scanning, as this was not the purpose for which I bought the Epson
1200, but it's nice to have this ability.
A 1200 dpi scan of a 4x6 or 4x5 print
to allow for a large print size shows up the limitations of the photo
paper. Where I am able to view a scan from a 120 negative or chrome
to 300 or 400% with little loss of integrity, viewing reflected media
scans at just 100% on the monitor reveals much loss of clarity and
detail and what appears to be artifacts of the paper itself. Scanning
reflected media for website and email use is more than acceptable
but caution is required when scanning for quality print use.
On Twain Software
I have limited experience with scanning software so I can only
offer some rudimentary comments about the Epson software included
with the 1200U. You can get by with the Epson Twain but it does seem
much better for working with transparency film than for negative film
whether color or B&W. My brief exposure to Silverfast made me
appreciate the need for very good scanning software, especially one
that can enable multi-pass scanning. I would certainly love to buy
Silverfast but I'm going to bide my time in the short term and see
if a better scanner might be in the offing down the road, one that
might include Silverfast as the standard scanning software.
Final Thoughts
The Epson 1200 is not a long-term solution for my needs and I
shudder to think how much I have to spend in order to obtain the quality
I desire out of a scanner that can handle medium format size film.
The best choice at this time appears to be the coming Nikon 8000 ED
that can scan medium format sized film at 4000 dpi at a cost of $3000
US or close to $5000 CAN. Not a wife-friendly cost I can assure you.
Update May 30, 2001
Some recent scanning experiences lead me to believe that the 1200
scanner's performance with the transparency adapter falls apart when
left on for long periods of time. The heat build up and idling seems
to exacerbate the problem lines that show up from time to time. These
lines are very fine and would require near 100 percent magnification
in Photoshop to detect them but trust me, if you print a scanned image
with those lines, they will show up and ruin the print.
It seems that more than a few users
have complained about this problem of fine lines showing up in their
scans with the 1200. The short term fix would be to scan only two
or three images at a time so that the scanner and transparency adapter
do not get too warm. Keeping your scanning times short and sweet seems
to keep the lines in check but may not prevent them entirely.
It is unfortunate that the Epson 1200
should exhibit such a problem and I would hesitate to buy any Epson
scanner without a trial run through when the scanner is both cold
and warm. This is just another nail in the coffin of my disatisfaction
with the Epson 1200 and heightens my desire for a true film scanner.
Letter from a reader and user
of the Epson 1200 scanner about the lines that seem plague this units:
Saw
your mention of the coloured lines flaw on your Epson 1200 in your
Vuescan
review; from past experience with other
scanners this is likely to be a
dust issue;
flatbeds
are particularly susceptible to gaining specks of dust on their
mirrors,
which then result in brightly coloured
lines on scans (it will gradually
get worse
until
the lines are permanent, I assume from the speck attracting further
dust and
growing into a larger flaw). Expansion
of the mirror when the lamp has been
on
for
some time will also exacerbate any flaws.
I
have a 1200 and it has, so far, only suffered from the problem on
one
occasion, resulting in bright green lines on all
scans that day. A *gentle* shake
with the mechanism locked
and scanner off cured it. Out of warranty, taking it apart
and
a careful cleaning with a low-pressure can
of air in the mirror area may be
an idea. I've had to
do this with HP kit in the past, with mixed success - one
died
completely shortly after the cleaning, two others regained their
clean
scans for many months before a repeat cleaning
was necessary. The regularity of
this problem with HP
kit was instrumental in my resolving never to buy any
of
their stuff again, and switching to Epson for flatbed scanning.
Also,
dug through my bookmarks and found a useful link, though it's for
HP scanners not Epson ones, the principle is much the same: http://www.frontiernet.net/~willshak/scanner.html
Epson's
current 12xx range, incidentally, is far inferior to the old 1200
-
the current 16xx range is the real replacement.
Regards
Damien
Burke
Link to Epson
Scanners
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