Epson Perfection V30

Product Survey: Scanners

The V30 is a CCD scanner with a maximum optical resolution of 4800 dpi. Compared to CIS scanners, CCD models have the very small advantage of being able to capture raised details on the surface of a document. The embossed cover of a book jacket would be a little blurry on a CIS scanner, but looks perfect on a CCD scanner. That can be useful if you want to use your scanner as a way of taking photos of objects you want to sell online, but any digital camera will perform exactly the same function. On sale at the same price as the Canon LiDE 700F, the V30 can't scan negatives. It also requires a separate power supply, as well as the USB connection to the computer. (Canon's scanner only uses the latter). To compensate for the loss of these two features, we were expecting that Epson's scanner would produce more accurate colours, especially after we found several problems with the 700F's colour handling. The scanner has a reserved look, with four buttons on the front giving fast access to certain features, such as scanning a document and e-mailing it directly as an attachment.