Review of features of the Scanview Scanmate, flatbed scanner at the high end.

ScanView products are built with European precision.

ScanView was founded by the same individual who also founded Color Crisp (medium format digital camera used by Rolleiflex and others). ScanView is part of the same Danish tradition in high tech digital innovation that resulted in PhaseOne, which is the most prestigious large format digital scanning camera.

Basically you can be assured of a solidly constructed product at the cutting edge of technology from either ScanView, Color Crisp, and PhaseOne.

The FLAAR review editors (Nicholas Hellmuth and Andrea David) visited the ScanView headquarters in Copenhagen which is conveniently in the same industrial park as Color Crisp. Earlier that day we also visited PhaseOne and got a demo of their products.

A problem with any flatbed scanner is how to get your negatives or slides to keep from slipping and sliding all over the smooth glass surface, especially when you close the lid. The movement of air pushed out by the closing lid usually sends your negs and chromes sliding out of alignment.

Yet awkward magnet systems such as employed by an early model of the Polaroid 4x5 film scanner were a poor solution. Indeed our test staff said they were so inadequate and uncomfortable to use that they gave that Polaroid failing marks (besides, nowadays you can scan your 4x5 chromes better with an Imacon or obviously with a ScanView Scanmate as well).

ScanMate offers an EasyMount grid as a guide for lining up transparencies as well as pictures. The EasyMount also indicates which portion of the scanner bed gives the highest resolution (the so-called sweet spot down the middle). This is the kind of functional extra that you enjoy with a product made in Europe in general and Denmark in particular.

A year ago the ScanView web site was difficult to navigate and often gave blank windows (no text). In other cases entire navigation bars did not illuminate. Surely those have been fixed long ago. The web site of an even larger scanner company was even worse.

The ScanMate line of flatbed scanners was sold by Howtek. When you are faced with a flatbed scanner from a drum scanner manufacturer you need to do plenty of homework. Does the price reflect actual capabilities of the flatbed, or is the drum scanning company simply putting a high price because prepress companies are used to high prices? Thus about four years ago one flatbed scanner was priced at an excessive $15,000 even though it gave only a measly 1200 dpi.

The ScanMate flatbeds are not in this category, neither in performance nor price. The ScanMate is a superior product and has a corresponding price (which is considerably in excess of $15,000). Whether you purchase it from ScanView or Howtek it is basically the same quality Danish product.

There was a while when it seemed that Storm or other companies were also selling a ScanMate-like scanner. You can usually tell because the software is the same brand name as you would get direct from ScanView in Copenhagen.

Silver Fast scanner software from LaserSoft Imaging is available for two models of Howtek scanners but not yet for any of the ScanView line.

At DRUPA 2004 trade show we did not notice a single ScanMate scanner. The scanners we did see, and whose quality we can recommend, were from Creo , Fuji, and Screen.

Our review policy is to present the scanners that we ourselves use, since we have the most experience with a product that we use on a daily basis. The scanners we can recommend are the Heidelberg models (unfortunately no longer manufactured but ours is still working flawlessly after five years), Creo (especially the EverSmart Select and EverSmart Supreme), and the Cruse.

If you would like additional information on high-quality scanners for prepress, for scanning slides, or for scanning artwork, we suggest you contact Parrot Digigraphic. They work with universities, libraries, museums, prepress shops, print shops, giclee ateliers, and photographers: contact e-mail imaging@parrotcolor.com, fax (978) 670-7744, Tel (978) 670-7766