Scanjet G4050

According to HP, the main problem with conventional scanners is that the white light leaves significant gaps in the colour gamut, creating significant colour distortions. The company’s solution is to add a new light source that fills the gaps. Since you can’t scan with two light sources at once (though we’re not sure why not) HP uses a two-pass scanning process that combines six channels into a 48-bit RGB file.

The G4050 and its cheaper G4010 sibling are the first examples of this new technology. The G4050 adds a transparency holder in the lid, with suitable trays, and a smarter textured finish over and above the more basic G4010. The good news is that the new process really does produce some extra colour depth. When we tried comparing three and six-colour scans, yellows were slightly more accurate and blues slightly more saturated. Colour scanning of black-and-white photographs was also significantly more accurate, with much less evidence of a colour cast in the six-colour scan.

Unfortunately for HP, the drivers and associated software are a big let down. They’re overcomplicated, and it’s not always clear what the options do. During our tests, settings didn’t always save between sessions, and batch scanning sometimes didn’t work.

Speed is the real issue here, though. A 300dpi paper scan takes 30 seconds or so, and at reasonable resolutions of 4,800dpi optical, one slide can take more than three minutes to scan. With everything turned on to full, including the hardware dust and scratch removal, we gave up after 15 minutes.