Epson Perfection 1250 Photo

The Perfection 1250 Photo is one of a new range of scanners Epson has launched for the small and home office market. The 1250 is a 1,200dpi USB model with 48bit internal processing and 24bit output; the more expensive 2450 benefits from higher resolution, a FireWire as well as a USB port and a better software bundle that includes Photoshop LE rather than ArcSoft PhotoImpression 3.

Scanners aimed at this market tend to be difficult to differentiate in terms of hardware specification and performance, and ease of use and functionality often count for more. The 1250 Photo does have a significant hardware edge - a transparency unit with slide holders for 35mm and 2.25in square transparencies is supplied as standard.

Setup is very straightforward and once the drivers were installed all we had to do was press the front panel scan button to launch the Epson Smart Panel. This applet provides access to all the many available scanning options including scan to application, scan to file, copy, scan to email, scan to web, and scan to OCR. Essentially it sets the scanning mode and resolution and decides on a destination for the file.

The Smart Panel provides guidance for each scanning activity and a 'verify assistant' gives you the opportunity to preview and rename, delete or make additional scans before moving on to the next stage.

The Smart Panel is simple and quick to use, although the 1250 isn't the fastest USB scanner we've seen - an A4 preview taking around 24 seconds and a 300dpi A4 scan clocking in at just over three and a half minutes.

The quality, however, while not justifying the Perfection title, is very good indeed.

While Epson doesn't provide the degree of control that some other manufacturers do - there's only one setting for descreening printed originals, for example - the results in terms of colour and sharpness leave little room for criticism.

Contact
Epson: 0800 220 546 www.epson.co.uk