Image Access WideTEK CIS scanner Contex large format scanners

AWARDS:

BERTL Four Stars - the New Scanner Average!

BERTL 4 Star Rating
BERTL's Four Star Rating

Anyone interested in large format scanning cannot fail to have noticed a spate of BERTLŪ Four Star Ratings announced recently in the press by grateful recipients. With so many wide format scanner manufacturers and OEMs receiving BERTL's Four Star Rating you can be forgiven for wondering what's going on.

Do all these wide format scanners deserve four stars? Is BERTL's evaluation process flawed?

This is a time-dated list of the BERTL Four Star Rating announcements.

  • 25th Jan 2008 - Image Access GmbH - WideTEK 36
  • 29th Jan 2008 - Paradigm Imaging - EIS Supra
  • 11th Feb 2008 - Graphtec USA - CS500 and CS600
  • 12th Feb 2008 - VIDAR - Various 600 series
  • 13th Feb 2008 - Paradigm Imaging - Graphtec CS500 and CS600
  • 16th Feb 2008 - IDEAL.com - Various Contex G600 series

First, the timing of these announcements is simply due to BERTL (Business Equipment Research & Test Laboratories) being new to wide format scanner evaluations. They have a substantial backlog of large format scanners to review. We know that Henrik Vestermark, BERTL's Director of Wide-Format Analysis, has been hard at work on this project. The timing of these announcements simply means he has gotten on with the job and that he is now making his findings known.

Second, and more important, do all all these large format scanners deserve four Stars?

Probably yes! BERTL obviously think so and we tend to agree, with some reservations. We have for some time been saying that with the exception of the innovative Image Access WideTEK 36, wide format scanners are generally much-of-a-muchness and there is little to choose between them except price and software.

BERTL's Four Star Ratings offer little satisfaction to the suppliers of the more expensive large format scanners. The losers are Contex, IDEAL and Vidar who really need Five Stars if they are to to justify their much higher prices. The big winners are Graphtec and Image Access who went into this as underdogs or unknowns and came out, if not on top, the equal of the Big Boys.

How BERTL award Four Star Ratings

BERTL will argue that their ratings are awarded on a scientific, not subjective basis. Their analysts test wide format scanners on their performance in different technical areas and award points for each function. These are multiplied by a price factor to get a price / value ratio.

BERTL has four levels of product ratings.

***** Five Stars: Exceptional
This is reserved exclusively for devices that deliver an outstanding range of business-critical features / functions, are innovative, easy to use, well-designed and represent exceptional value for the money for their target user base.

**** Four Stars: Highly Recommended
This rating is strictly reserved for devices that deliver a range of business-critical features / functions that are above average and provide potential buyers with a good return on investment (ROI).

*** Three Stars: Recommended
This is given to those products that BERTL believes meet most buyers' expectations with a set of features and functions that can stand up well against competing devices of a similar type. The Three Star device must be solid in construction, have no major design or performance flaws, be easy to use, meet the "average" needs of the office user or buyer and be competitively-priced.

Worth A Look
This is reserved for devices that are considered to deliver a number of competitive strengths versus alternative devices (of the same or similar type) and/or may provide particularly strong attributes in some areas.

NOTE: With regard to Four Star Ratings, Scanners4CAD would like to point out with some degree of mischief and amusement that with all products to date having received a "Four Stars: Highly Recommended" rating, none of these products can be described as "above average". Right now, Four Stars is the average!

Wide format scanning products awarded a BERTL Four Star Rating

Image Access WideTEK 36 Large Format Scanner

Image Access WideTEK 36
Of all the products evaluated by BERTL the Image Access WideTEK 36 is undoubtedly the most innovative. It is an OS independent scanner that will run straight out of the box on your network. It is the fastest scanner we have seen and which BERTL has tested, and it is aggressively priced. When we saw the WideTEK its software was good but not great. It now has new Scan2Edit software which we have not yet seen. The WideTEK 36 thoroughly deserves its Four Star Rating.

EIS SUPRA MFP System

Paradigm Imaging EIS Supra
The Paradigm EIS Supra is a colour MFP scan-to-copy system rather than a standalone wide format scanner. It comprises the superb Graphtec SK200 600 dpi optical, 36" CIS scanner and the acclaimed Canon iPF imagePROGRAF 710 printer. Its ImageFLOW software supports over 550 printers. According to Paradigm, "BERTL recommends the Supra for the facility management, CAD/GIS and reprographics markets". The EIS Supra is a great value scan-to-copy system for those markets but in our view neither its ImageFLOW nor Scanning Master 21 software are ideal for scanning technical drawings for any purpose other than copying.

Graphtec CS600 Large Format Scanner

Graphtec America - Graphtec CS500 and CS600
Graphtec wide format scanners produce the sharpest scans we have seen. (See our article Do the large format scanners with the highest advertised resolutions have the best resolving power?). Their CIS technology makes them especially useful for scanning technical drawings. In our opinion, Graphtec's great weakness is their scanning software. Despite their poor software, we believe these scanners' image quality deserves a Four Star Rating.

Vidar Atlas 600e Large Format Scanner

VIDAR Atlas, Spectra and Surveyor 600e series and Select 600
Vidar large format scanners are Contex-built systems. Other than the Vidar name, price, software and colour of the scanner they are the same product. The Vidar Atlas 600e, Spectra 600e and Surveyor 600e series and Select 600 are the equivalent of the Contex Chroma, Crystal, Cougar and Chameleon G600 series. We have no direct experience of Vidar scanners but our experience of Contex scanners shows them to be well built, producing results with technical drawings that are not markedly better or worse than any of the other devices which BERTL have reviewed. Although too expensive for many cost-conscious CAD users, Contex / Vidar deserve their Four Star Rating.

Paradigm Imaging - Graphtec CS500 and CS600
Paradigm are the US distributors of Graphtec large format scanners. Their press release followed the one by Graphtec America. Unlike the situation in the UK where Graphtec GB struggle to get resellers interested in their CS scanners, Paradigm have put Graphtec on the wide format scanning map in the USA and by default worldwide as well. The fact that Graphtec CS scanners sell at all is due largely to the enthusiasm that Paradigm have for the product.

Contex Crystal G600 Large Format Scanner

IDEAL
IDEAL are the US distributors of Contex scanners. The four scanners evaluated - the Chroma, Crystal, Cougar and Chameleon - are the Contex equivalents of the Vidar scanners given the same rating.

Who will receive the first BERTL Five Star Rating for a wide format scanner?

We wonder where this is leading. Who will receive the first BERTL Five Star Rating for a wide format scanner?

In our opinion, given BERTL's findings to date, there is no large format scanner on the market at present that has the combination of innovation, image quality, software and pricing to meet their Five Star criteria.

Besides Vidar, Contex scanners are also OEM'ed by HP, Océ and Calcomp. As a result we think it is reasonable to expect to see their equivalents of Contex Chroma, Crystal, Cougar and Chameleon G600 series receiving a Four Star Rating shortly, software and price permitting.

Other scanners that have not yet been reviewed (or whose review results have not yet been published) include the Contex Hawk-Eye G36, the Contex Puma G600 iJET and Colortrac's SmartLF Cx 40 and Gx 25 / 42 scanner ranges.

We have evaluated all of these scanners, their software and scans made by them. As a result of this and given BERTL's findings to date we would expect the aggressively priced Colortrac SmartLF Cx 40 and Gx 25 / 42 scanner ranges with their excellent ScanWorks software and the Contex Puma to receive Four Stars - if the Puma's very high price does not push it into the Three Star category. We feel that the Contex Hawk-Eye's low optical resolution compared to the scanners already awarded Four Stars and its relatively high price will give it a lower than Four Star Rating.

Perhaps BERTL's first Five Star scanner will be a new, innovative scanner released later this year? We look forward to finding out!