Epson's new class of Perfection photo scanners offer trimmed-down cases and value prices. One example is the Perfection V100, which sells for around $100 yet offers high-end tools for you photo enthusiasts.

The V100's CCD imager produces resolutions of up to 3,200X9,600 dpi and 48-bit color depth, so your photographs will be captured accurately. The scanner also has Epson's Easy Photo Fix technology for restoring color brightness to old and faded photos, Digital Dust Correction for removing small particles from scanned images and Backlight Correction for improving poorly exposed photos taken with bright light in the background.

The scanner is just over 2 inches thick and weighs less than 6 pounds, so it's a lot slimmer and lighter than a traditional flatbed scanner. Epson designed the lid to fold back 180 degrees and rise up about 1 inch for scanning 3-D objects.

The scanning bed is document-size, so you can scan in your papers and letters in addition to photos. However, it's as an image scanner that the V100 excels. There's even a built-in transparency adapter that can scan 35mm film strips of up to six frames or four mounted slides.

Setting up the V100 is an easy task, as it connects via USB 2.0 and is plug-and-play. Using it is almost as easy, thanks to four quick-scan buttons that make it simple to scan to a printer for making copies or to create an Adobe PDF document.

Epson offers three different scanning modes with the V100. The Full Auto mode takes all the decisions out of your hands, as you just pop in your picture and press the scan button. Home mode has some preset recommendations, but it gives you more control. Professional mode opens up all the settings so expert users can fine-tune their scans. It's a handy way to build up your scanning skills.

A decent software bundle is included with the V100, including ArcSoft PhotoImpression 5 for image editing and ABBYY FineReader 6 Sprint Plus (for Windows; Mac users get FineReader 5 Sprint Plus) for converting documents to digital files, as well as Epson's own Creativity Suite for sharing and printing scanned-in images.

Epson's Perfection V100 is a great image scanner for photo enthusiasts on a budget.


Pros:  Nice price, good technologies built in
Cons:  Not as high-resolution as some other photo scanners

Warranty
1 year, limited