FLATBED SCANNERS are more versatile than their film-scanning cousins. But if you need to scan photographs as well as slides, you face an expensive decision: Buy a second scanner or add a transparency adapter to your flatbed scanner.
Agfa's new DuoScan offers a third alternative. Thanks to Agfa's TwinPlate technology, the DuoScan can scan both reflective and transmissive art without the addition of a transparency adapter. The 36-bit-color unit offers a resolution of 1,000 x 2,000 dpi (interpolated to 4,000 dpi) and a dynamic range of 3.3 -- all at an impressive price of $5,500.
Unlike flatbed scanners equipped with transparency adapters, the DuoScan has two separate scanning beds, each with its own lamp. As with a standard CCD-based flatbed scanner, photographs and other reflective materials are placed on a top platen. As with a slide scanner, 35mm slides and negatives as well as medium- and large-format transparencies (2 1/4 x 2 1/4, 4 x 5, and 8 x 10 inches) are loaded into a holder that slides into the bottom of the unit.
Because it illuminates transparencies from the bottom and directs light upward through the emulsion layer to the lens, the DuoScan has fewer layers of glass -- and thus produces less optical distortion -- than conventional flatbed transparency scanners, the company says.
The DuoScan ships with Adobe Photoshop and a trio of Agfa applications: the FotoLook scanner driver, FotoTune color-management software, and FotoFlavor color-correction filters. 508-658-5600.
