you've almost certainly heard of six-color printing, with the extra ink colors making it easier to print at true photo quality. but i'll bet you haven't heard about six-color scanning . that's because the scanners you're used to all use three colors for scans.

Six-color scanning yields excellent color quality; Scans photographic prints and film; Can scan up to 16 slides at once

Scan software is cumbersome in some ways and sometimes slow to react to a command

HP's G4050 flatbed scanner employs a novel two-pass technique to extract maximum detail.

Build quality; fundamental scan quality is good

Speed; poor control software; large design

In summer of 2007 HP introduced the Scanjet G4050 as an extremely low-priced flatbed scanner with integrated transparency unit to the market. The scanner can scan not only impinging light content but also slides and negatives up to a size of approximately 20x30 cm.

The theory is that the usual source of white light used for scanning doesn't offer full-spectrum illumination, so a separate pass with a separate light source and some extra sensors can fill in the gaps and produce a more accurate result.

Pros: Good colour quality; reasonable build quality; decent support at the price for a wide range of different slide formats

Cons: Can be slow at higher resolutions; slight softening on both paper and slide scans; drivers and software need to be streamlined and simplified

According to HP, the main problem with conventional scanners is that the white light leaves significant gaps in the colour gamut, creating significant colour distortions. The company's solution is to add a new light source that fills the gaps.

Better colour accuracy; Reasonable looks; Good range of supported slides

Dodgy drivers; Very slightly soft focus; Can be slow

The HP Scanjet G4050 is a solid dual-lamp scanner that could use a driver overhaul and a better means of handling slides.

Excellent scans; especially of very saturated originals; Very nice industrial design

Only supports sRGB colour space; Random colour registration problems on slide scans; Weak driver; Many operations are very slow

It's becoming rarer for home users to want separate printers and scanners, primarily because of the space each one uses, which is why multi-function devices are popular.

Hot on the heels of the Epson Perfection V700 and V750, which lured customers with the promise of not one but two lenses (reviewed by PC Advisor 's sister website Digit here and here ), comes this ambitious six-colour scanner from HP.

Superlative quality is let down by slow scan times and unintuitive driver software.

The Negatives to computer prints are washed out on some. may be the negatives. the photo scans are excellent. It's not a speedy scanner, but I was looking for quality and it has excellent quality scanning old photos.