Epson has announced two new scanners: the US$449 Perfection 4870 Photo and the $599 Perfection 4870 Pro. The former is targeted to graphic arts and advanced amateur photographers; the latter is built for advanced amateur photographers. Both offer flatbed single pass operation; 4800 dpi optical resolution; 4800 x 9600 dpi maximum hardware resolution with the Epson Micro Step Drive; 12800 dpi maximum interpolated resolution; 48-bit color scanning with 3.8 dynamic range for transparencies; 16-bit internal/external; and 16-bit grayscale scanning. Both include LaserSoft Imaging SilverFast 6.0 SE, Adobe Photoshop Elements 2, ABBYY FineReader Sprint OCR and Epson Easy Photo Fix software. However, the pro model also comes with Monaco EZColor and ArcSoft Suite applications. Both scanners offer USB 2.0 and FireWire connectivity and are compatible with Mac OS X 10.2 and higher.
