The mechanical section of the devices features the proprietary Micro Step Drive sub-scan technology that’s responsible for high-precision movements of the carriage. Thanks to that, the mechanical resolution that corresponds to the number of steps of the scan carriage is 6400ppi for the Perfection 3170 and 9600ppi for the Perfection 4180. By the way, the scan carriage in the new scanners is moving from the end of the bed towards its beginning, so the original should be placed on the glass at the end of the bed, rather than at the beginning. I also found that the acoustic noise from the mechanism was rather loud. It is even annoying with the Perfection 4180, grating on your ears at medium and high frequencies. I suppose this loudness is due to the metallic chassis that acts as a kind of resonant amplifier. The noise is louder during the pre-scan process, but diminishes when you’re scanning in a high resolution.

Package contents

The scanners come with similar sets of accessories. The user is going to find the following in the package of either of them:

• Scanner;
• Power cable and power adapter;
• USB cable;
• Holders for transparent originals:
• Slide holder for four slides of 35mm format;
• Film holder for two six-frame stripes of 35mm format;
• Transparency holder for two medium-format stills.
• CD with exclusive software pack from Epson:
• Epson Scan;
• Epson Smart Panel;
• FineReader 5.0 Sprint Plus;
• Presto! BizCard;
• Scanner Reference Guide;
• Epson Online Registration (for the 3170 model only);
• Adobe Acrobat Reader (for the 3170 model only);
• Epson EasyPrintModule (for the 4180 model only).
• Additional CD with Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0;
• Quick Start Guide.