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July 17
Umax Offers 42-Bit FireWire Scanners
Entry-level model includes transparency unit

by David Nagel
Executive Producer
dnagel@digitalmedianet.com

Umax has announced two new scanners in its Astra line. The company's positioning the new Astra 6400 as the first FireWire scanners targeted toward consumers, although it does have a transparency option. The company also announced the Astra 6450, which comes with a built-in transparency unit. The transparency unit scans slides, film and negatives up to 4" x 5".

The Astra 6400 and 6450 scan images at 600 x 1,200 dpi with 42-bit internal color. They also provide image scalability, allowing the user to scan and enlarge a wide variety of media.

The Astra 6400 and 6450 Include Adobe Photoshop LE, Caere OmniPage LE OCR and NewSoft Presto! PageManager for managing and distributing images and documents. Also included in an e-book format is Scanner Solutions by Winston Steward.

The Astra 6400 and 6450 are plug and play with Mac OS 9.0 or later. They connect to the host machine through the hot-pluggable FireWire interface. A FireWire/1394 card is also included for machines that don't have built-in FireWire. Both models are single-pass, flatbed, color CCD scanners featuring 600x1200 DPI resolution and a 14-bit per channel analog to digital converter for 42-bit color output. The suggested retail price for the Astra 6400 is $249; the Astra 6450 with built-in transparency unit has sells for $299. An optional transparency unit is available for the Astra 6400 for $69.

The scanners should hit store shelves in about a week. For more information, visit http://www.umax.com.

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