Epson Expression 12000XL-PH - Review 2022

The broad-format Epson Expression 12000XL-PH ($3429.99) is the professional photographers' version of the Expression 12000XL-GA, an oversize professional graphic artists' flatbed scanner. Substantially, these two machines are the same, except that the PH version comes with a transparency unit for scanning slides, transparencies, and negatives. While yous can buy the scanner itself and opt for the transparency unit subsequently, purchasing them together, in the same box, saves you almost $130. Either way, its price is substantial for a flatbed scanner, but graphic artists, photographers, and desktop publishers volition observe the 12000XL-PH a highly accurate and quality tool for digitizing not only slides, transparencies, and film, merely also photos and artwork upwardly to tabloid-size (11 by 17 inches).

Big and Formidable

Because the 12000XL scans up to tabloid-size pages (or, precisely, 12.2 past 17.2 inches), the scanner's platen (glass scanning area) is twice the size as the i on a standard-size scanner. Without the transparency unit installed, the 12000XL measures half dozen.two past 25.8 by xviii inches (HWD) and weighs 31.5 pounds. With the transparency unit installed, it's almost 3 inches taller and effectually 14 pounds heavier. In other words, unless your desk is exceptionally large, you'll need to detect another place to put information technology—perhaps on a countertop or equipment demote, abreast your wide-format professional photograph printer.

The maximum resolution is 2,400 by iv,800 dots per inch (dpi), and its command panel consists of a single Scan push and 2 condition LEDs, Prepare and Error. Everything else is handled from the bundled software, discussed in the next section. In addition to the transparency unit, you get several adapters, or holders, that hold up to 30 slides, 48 frames of 35mm negatives, 8 frames of four-by-5-inch transparencies or six medium-format transparency strips up to vii.one inches (18 cm) long. With a few pocket-sized adjustments (removing the transparency guide—a very small piece, not the entire transparency unit—and inserting the document matt), the 12000XL-PH will proceed to scan not-film or non-transparency originals.

The scanner deploys Epson's ColorTrue 2 imaging system, which combines Epson MatrixCCD scan technology with an LED calorie-free source. Because the 12000XL'south light source is LED-based, different the more conventional cold cathode fluorescent lamps, it'due south mercury free and has no warm-up time. The scanner connects to your PC or Mac via an included USB 2.0 cable.

Installing the Transparency Unit/Software

Whether you lot buy the PH version or buy the scanner and transparency unit separately, y'all must install information technology earlier you can browse slides, transparencies, and negatives. The process, which is well documented on Epson's site, entails unlocking the transportation lock on the transparency unit of measurement, removing the scanner'due south lid, replacing information technology with the transparency unit, affixing the transparency guide, and connecting the unit to the back of the scanner.

This may seem complicated, but I establish it quite simple, and finished the process in just a few minutes. All that'southward left to do is download (Epson doesn't include install disks with its scanners anymore) and install the drivers, and so lay out the media you lot want to scan in the holders. In addition to the drivers, Epson includes LaserSoft Imaging's SilverFast Ai IT8 (a pared down version of SilverFast Ai Studio 8) and IT8 Target for calibrating colors (these are included on a disk in the box), and Epson Browse 2, a download from Epson'southward site.

SilverFast is a sophisticated scanning interface program that provides intricate controls for setting upward and enhancing the quality of your scans, and Epson Browse 2 is Epson's proprietary scanner interface, which is also a capable product. In improver to providing scanning features, Epson Browse 2 also has optical character recognition (OCR) routines for converting scanned text to editable text.

Awesome Scans, Some Waiting

I tested the 12000XL-PH with the transparency unit installed using both SilverFast Ai IT8 and Epson Scan 2 from our standard Core i5 testbed PC running Windows 10 Professional. My test media included photos and illustrations ranging in size from 2 by 3 inches to 11 by 17 inches, as well equally several 35mm slides and negatives and a handful of 4-by-5-inch transparencies, at resolutions ranging from 200dpi to 2,400dpi.

No thing what yous're scanning—positive photos and illustrations or negatives and slides—y'all tin can place multiple items on the platen, and the software will observe and create separate files for each one. I've seen many college-finish scanners, merely seldom do they reproduce colors and detail as accurately as this one, and the software transformed negatives to vibrant images, out of the box, without a lot of fussing with settings. (I did, of class, take to tell both Epson Browse 2 and SilverFast the type of media I was scanning.)

How fast the 12000XL-PH scans and saves to a useable file, of course, depends on several factors, including resolution, the size of the media existence scanned, and file format. In my testing, Epson Scan 2 averaged just 24 seconds to prescan and afterward scan an viii.5-by-11-inch photo at 300dpi, and an 11-by-17-inch illustration in 33 seconds. When scanning a 4x-6-inch print to a 300dpi TIFF in SilverFast, it averaged 43 seconds, and an 8-past-x-inch photo averaged 51 seconds.

Slides and negatives are typically scanned at much college resolutions than photos and graphics, and depending on what yous're scanning, y'all can lay several types of media at various sizes on the platen at the aforementioned fourth dimension. The more than objects you place on the platen, the longer the scan job takes. Epson says that the 12000XL-PH volition scan a 35mm slide at 2,400dpi in 51 seconds, which is well-nigh what I averaged during my tests, give or have a few seconds, depending on the slide. Y'all can place upward to 30 slides on the platen at one fourth dimension.

You become the idea: How long it takes depends primarily on resolution and the number of items. What resolution you should scan at depends on how you plan to apply your scans. I scanned one frame of film at 2,400dpi in 41 seconds, and a 4-by-v-inch negative at 2,400dpi in just under two minutes. My betoken? Scanning these types of media takes a while, and the Expression 12000XL isn't particularly faster than its competitors. What y'all exercise get with the 12000XL that you lot don't with most other high-end photo scanners is the 11-past-17-inch scanning area, which not only allows yous to scan wide-format photos and graphics, but also, as mentioned, lets you lot place several more items on the scanner bed at one time.

Big Bang, Large Bucks

The Epson Expression 12000XL–PH is the photographers' version of the 12000XL-GA, a tabloid-size graphic artist scanner. The PH iteration differs from the GA version in that it comes with a transparency unit and adapters for scanning slides, film, and transparencies. The PH model costs more than $3,000, but saves you more than $100 when you purchase the scanner/transparency unit package. Either version scans exceptionally well and relatively fast depending on the media.

When combined with the arranged SilverFast software or the downloadable Epson Scan 2, you tin scan multiple items at the same time, and each one becomes a separate file. At nearly all resolutions, and even the default settings, scans of graphics and photos come out looking terrific, and the Epson Scan ii software supports OCR, should you lot ever need to digitize business documents. Granted, this giant, heavy beast of a scanner isn't for everybody, but for those graphic arts and design environments that need to scan slides, film, transparencies, and oversize artwork and photos—and tin can beget it—the 12000XL will make a valuable add-on to your design, layout, and/or photography studio.