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| 1Scan Purchased Kodak's s1220 Scanning System Eastman Kodak Company announces that 1Scan, a specialist provider of photograph, slide and negative conversion services, has purchased its s1220 scanning system to offer fast paper to digital scanning of print photographs so that high resolution digital image libraries can be created for its customers. The Kodak s1220 system was bought through online reseller, BMI Solutions. 1Scan offers consumers a one or two day service where paper-based pictures are converted into 600 dpi JPEG files for just 10 pence per scanned image. Jeff Underwood, 1Scan's founder, explains, "We've been scanning negatives and slides for people for some years but, at the outset, couldn't really provide a service for actual print scanning at a price point people would find attractive. Purchasing the Kodak s1220 system has enabled us to change this and offer a 10p-a-go service because of the volumes which can be handled." Normally people send 1Scan a whole stack of pictures for scanning so they can be uploaded to Kodak Gallery, Flickr or Facebook, put on computers or emailed to friends and family. The use of digital photo albums is becoming increasingly popular as it is a simple way of showing hundreds of shots - pictures which would otherwise have just remained in shoeboxes or dusty photo albums. Typically 1Scan processes between 200 and 300 paper prints per scanning job. Underwood says, "There isn't another scanner on the market which could do what I wanted which is the fast bulk scanning of prints where the actual cost of the scanning device was affordable. The roller feed is phenomenal and means we can motor through stacks of prints and therefore keep costs down." The Kodak s1220 scanning system handles up to 30 photos per minute, coping with mixed paper weights and colours as well as random orientation, all of which can be handled automatically by the system as pictures are fed through by the feeder. The s1220 comes with Kodak Photo Scanning Software, Kodak Capture Software Lite (for scanning documents where necessary) and TWAIN driver. It features duplex technology meaning that both sides of paper prints are scanned in one pass which is key for 1Scan as many people scribble notes on the back of their photos - dates, locations and the individuals in the pictures for example – which is just as important to keep. Featuring Perfect Page imaging features, the software allows both colour and black and white image enhancement so that, very often, the digital images returned to 1Scan customers are better than the originals. When 1Scan first started photo scanning services using a traditional flatbed scanner it would take two weeks to process 1,000 pictures. Now the company can do the same amount easily in a day. Currently 1Scan handles around 10,000 paper prints per week, with aspirations that this will increase to between 50,000 to 100,000 in the near term. 1Scan runs the Kodak software on Windows Vista-based Acer PCs, with CD/DVD burners then used to produce image discs for clients. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Computing News :: home page |