Richard Jantz

HP Scanjet 3570c

The 1200-dpi HP Scanjet 3570c can produce respectable images from both reflective and transparent materials. In our print tests, the 3570c earned the best score among small-office scanners for its accurate reproduction of gray tones and details in a 4-by-5-inch black-and-white photo, scanned at 600 dpi. However, in most of our other image-quality tests, the 3570c posted mediocre results--at least when using the scanning software's default settings. For example, color photos (both on-screen and printed) looked suitably bright and sharp but too saturated in some areas--such as skin tones, which appeared ruddier than the originals. But when we changed the Color Adjustment setting from the default Enhanced Color to Original Color, the color accuracy improved greatly. The 3570c comes bundled with HP Photo and Imaging software, a suite of integrated applications developed exclusively for HP scanners, digital cameras, and photo printers. If all of your imaging hardware is from HP, you'll only need to learn this one application to work with all of your equipment. That could be a significant ease-of-use benefit, especially for casual users. The suite has modules for editing images, annotating documents, creating photo albums, burning CD slide shows, and printing photos using a broad selection of predesigned layouts. HP has also enhanced its TWAIN scanning driver (now called HP Scanning), streamlining the basic interface while also providing easier access to advanced features, such as color and tonal adjustments. It also provides a built-in optical character recognition engine (powered by IRIS's OCR technology) for turning a page of text into an editable file.
The Scanjet 3570c's main weakness is its sluggish performance. Even though it uses a USB 2.0 connection (which is also backward-compatible with USB 1.1), it was the slowest of all USB 2.0 small-office scanners we've tested to date. For instance, it took the 3570c nearly twice as long (99 seconds) to scan a 2-by-2-inch print at 1200 dpi as it took Canon's CanoScan D1250U2F--the next slowest USB 2.0 scanner--to complete the same test (51 seconds). And although the 3570c was faster than the D1250U2F at a couple of lower-resolution chores, it still garnered only a Fair performance rating overall. Another drawback is that the 3570c's warranty and free technical support last for only 90 days (other, more expensive HP scanners offer one-year warranties). After the first 90 days have elapsed, telephone support charges are $25 per incident. No automatic document feeder is available for this scanner, which means you can't scan legal-size documents or stacks of documents for OCR.
The Scanjet 3570c provides four handy push buttons: Scan, E-mail, Scan to Web, and Scan to CD. The transparency adapter, which is built into the lid, can hold as many as three 35mm slides (or one negative strip) at a time. But the TWAIN software lets you scan only one slide or frame at a time--you can't select and scan multiple images, as you can with some other small-office units (such as the Epson Perfection 1660 Photo). Other bundled software includes Hemera Greeting Card Creator and HP Memories Disc Creator, a useful tool for archiving images to a CD using a CD-RW drive. Your images on disc are viewable as a slide show, with titles and background music. You can view the slides on a computer monitor, or on a TV screen using any DVD player that reads CD-R/CD-RW media and supports Video CD format. HP has opted to provide image editing, OCR, and some document management features in the form of its Photo and Imaging application, rather than bundling stand-alone applications with the scanner. Some users may prefer full-fledged programs for these purposes, and HP's integrated image editor lacks more-advanced features (such as photo composition tools and special effects filters) found in Adobe Photoshop Elements and other third-party image editors.
The Scanjet 3570c offers a transparency adapter and easy operation at a reasonable price, but it's quite pokey, and the image quality is nothing to write home about.

Buying Information

HP Scanjet 3570c USB 2.0 and USB 1.1, 1200 by 1200 dpi, 19.7 by 11.8 by 3.4 inches (width by depth by height), 7 pounds, 8.5-by-11.7-inch scanning area; includes transparency adapter; no automatic document feeder. 90-day warranty; 90 days free technical support (16 hours on weekdays, 7 hours on Saturdays; calls are not toll-free). $ 150 USB 2.0 and USB 1.1, 1200 by 1200 dpi, 19.7 by 11.8 by 3.4 inches (width by depth by height), 7 pounds, 8.5-by-11.7-inch scanning area; includes transparency adapter; no automatic document feeder. 90-day warranty; 90 days free technical support (16 hours on weekdays, 7 hours on Saturdays; calls are not toll-free). http://www.scanjet.hp.com 800/722-6538