As if its sheer size wasn’t impressive enough, the i700 is also beautifully finished, with turned metal knobs, chromed allen screws and buttons, transparent covers and a multi-tone silver finish. However, looks can be deceiving.

In spite of the dual USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces, the i700 isn’t exactly fast. Preview time for a reflective scan from the generously proportioned 216x356mm (8.5x14in) platen is a reasonable eight seconds but, in our tests, scanning a 6x4.5in photo took a massive 33 seconds. This is slow by modern standards and, while the time shrinks to a more respectable 16 seconds in successive scans, if you leave the scanner for more than a few seconds, the lamp warm-up cycle begins again and you’re back to the longer scanning time.

The i700 is smart enough to detect the sort of document in the scanner and adjust itself accordingly. This doesn’t seem to work when you switch from reflective to transparency scanning, as the software assumes you’ve put a grey-scale document on the platen. This means you have to run the preview twice and, once you get into 35mm mode, things go even slower, with a preview time of at least 38 seconds. It’s upwards of 76 seconds for a single 35mm transparency.

In its favour, the i700 has an excellent range of transparency holders for strips of 35mm film and up to eight mounted slides, as well as holders for medium and large format film. Couple this with the detachable transparency adaptor cover in the scanner lid, and the i700 is a joy to use from an ergonomic point of view.

Crunch time comes in terms of image quality. Colour rendition is accurate and tonal range is good, with accuracy in highlight and lowlight areas alike. However, there’s more than a hint of noise in dark areas, especially in blue skies. Switch the automatic image enhancement on and the picture becomes marginally sharper, but the noise level gets much worse. The i700 might have the latest Digital ICE built-in, to fix scratches, wrinkles and creases in photos, as well as the likes of Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 and Silverfast Ai advanced scanning tools in the software bundle but, ultimately, the picture quality is a letdown considering the price.
Matthew Richards