Speed
Tests
Time is money.
We've all heard that phrase and where computers are concerned, that saying
rings loud and clear. The last thing I want from a new product is poor or
outdated performance. Aside from image quality, the table below denotes how
long each scanner and interface took to grab a standard 8.5" x 11"
@ 24-bit color cropped page.
|
Resolution
|
Visioneer
USB
|
Microtek
USB
|
Microtek
SCSI
|
|
100
dpi
|
13
sec
|
105
sec
|
105
sec
|
|
300
dpi
|
40
sec
|
110
sec
|
135
sec
|
|
600
dpi
|
120
sec
|
210
sec
|
135
sec
|
Oops, I think that factory
speed tests were never ran on the V6USL. Certainly the SCSI performance is
the most disappointing. The more than two year old Visioneer blew the Microtek
away in every category. Seriously, Microtek's engineers should look into the
unusually slow SCSI performance. The USB times are reprehensible in a newer
product. Over three minutes to scan a standard page at 24-bit color. If you
regularly scanned 20-30 of these per day just think of the lost productivity.
Noise
Usually, this isn't a
category where scanners are concerned as they have all been moderately to
extremely quiet. Not so with the V6USL as I thought someone turned on a gasoline
generator when I hit the scan button for the first time. I thought, "people
must hear this sound," so I recorded it and converted it to an MP3 file.
Click here to listen to the Microtek in action.
Picture Quality
Before you download the
scanned comparison images, don't forget to calibrate your monitor and video
card. Remember that 9300K color temperature is meant for fluorescent lighting
and 6500K is meant for incandescent lighting. If these are reversed, your
picture will be dramatically shifted into the red or blue range. One of the
best utilities I've found for proper monitor calibration can be found here.
|
Visioneer
|
Microtek
|
Negative
|
 |
 |
 |
I'll admit that the Visioneer
is low on gamma (color saturation) by about 5%. The Microtek is about 5-10%
over saturated. Microtek's negative quality is so low as to be unusable at
this time. FYI, the two leftmost WhiteHouse scans were completed at 180dpi
and the negative scan was done at 600dpi.
Conclusion
Quantity versus quality.
It's the age old conundrum that provokes many classic arguments. The V6USL
has the most features of any scanner I've ever laid eyes on but all that quantity
comes at a price: quality, or rather the lack of. This Microtek earns a 6/10
score due to mainly the long scan times and obnoxious noise levels. If Microtek
would fix the aforementioned problems and keep the price steady, then I could
easily see the V6USL's score skyrocketing past the 9 mark but as it stands,
I cannot recommend this unit at this time.
William
Yaple
10/15/00
