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For its low price, the Umax Astra 6700 flatbed scanner wields a somewhat impressive set of features. Beginners and budding imaging buffs might find it of value in their pursuits, but more advanced users will take issue with some of its limitations
With its svelte 10.71"x18.82"x3.43" proportions, finding it a home at your workspace shouldn't be such a challenge. Aesthetically, the Astra 6700 looks sharp with its smoky gray and silver exterior. Conveniently located on the front of it are a set of customizable one-touch scan function buttons that help to simplify everyday donkeywork--simple scans, copying and scanning to email--into an effortless, touch-of-a-button routine. By now, these tedium-busting presets are a must-have on any scanner. Another scanner prerequisite the Astra 6700 has covered is its transparency media adapter, which brings slide and film scanning capabilities to the table.
The Astra 6700 utilizes a cold cathode florescent lamp and CCD scanning element to bring printed images into the digital realm. Its hardware enables it to capture scans at a maximum resolution of 2,400x4,800 dpi. Through interpolation, images can be scaled as high as 19,200x19,200 dpi, but with noticeable artifacts and noise. On the plus side, thanks to its USB 2.0 connection (another feature we deem necessary), even big scans come through quickly.
Along with the Astra 6700's propensity for producing less than perfect scans, another drawback was its lack of photo restoration tools. Similarly priced units, like Epson's Perfection 2580 Photo ($150; www.epson.com) and Canon's CanoScan 8400F ($150; www.canon.com) come bundled with applications that detect and remove dust and scratches from prints and film, as well as automatically make adjustments to restore faded color. Also missing from the Astra 6700 bundle was an OCR application (text recognition) for Mac.
We found that the Astra 700 worked best when scanned images were of equal or smaller size than their original. Scaling, or blowing images up, proved to be a bit of a challenge for the scanner. As a rule, it's true of all scanners: the bigger you go, the more image quality you sacrifice. However, some scanners fare better than others, and the Astra 6700 was one of those others. As we increased the size of our scans, the aforementioned artifacts and noise became more prevalent. Details like lines and edges grew fuzzier, and color accuracy tended to slip noticeably.
When it came to testing the Astra 6700's capabilities with film and slides, things didn't improve. Again, most flatbeds with transparency film adapters come through with middling results when scanning 35mm slides and film. In most cases, you need to tweak the sharpening/unsharp mask function either in the scanner's driver or after the fact with an image editing application like Photoshop to coax passable results. Keep in mind that as you sharpen an image, lines get fuzzy and noise increases. When your scan already has pronounced problems in these areas, fine-tuning it only exacerbates the flaws in the images. This is precisely the quandary we found ourselves in with the Astra 6700.
One major plus for the Astra 6700 is the inclusion of LaserSoft's Imaging SilverFast SE 6. This comprehensive scanning utility works as an ueber-driver, and caters to every level of user from newbies to seasoned pros. At its most elementary level, SilverFast, with its Scan Pilot, will walk you through all the steps necessary for eking out the best possible results from your scanner. For more advanced users, it provides tremendous and far reaching control over things like exposure, sharpening, descreening and dynamic range.
The Astra 6700 might make a perfect scanner for beginners, if better units from other manufacturers weren't available at lower prices. All in all, the Astra 6700 didn't win us over. Its spotty performance, skimpy software bundle and limited Mac support left us longing for more.
-COLLIN KEEFE
Astra 6700: 
Umax | www.umax.com | 214-342-9799 | $150
Pros: Flatbed scanner with transparent media adapter for scanning film and slides, scans images up to 2,400x4,800 dpi resolution or 19,200x19,200 dpi interpolated, USB 2.0 connection, includes LaserSoft’s Imaging SilverFast SE 6 scan application.
Cons: Tendency to produce scans laden with noise and artifacts, especially when scaling images, poor color accuracy, no OCR software.
Requires: G3 or better, 256 MB RAM, OS 10.1 and higher, USB 2.0
macHOME recommends: A better scanner
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