A new scanner from Epson America announced yesterday is loaded with features to make a photo snapper smile. The Perfection V500 Photo scanner ($249.99) uses LEDs instead of fluorescent lighting to illuminate its scans so not only is it more energy efficient, but you don't have to twiddle your thumbs waiting for the lamps to warm up before you do a scan. Here are some of the features of the new scanner.

• Maximum resolution of 6400 dots per inch and 48-bit color depth.
• DIGITAL ICE technology for automatic removal of scratches and dust.
• Built-in transparency unit, for scanning multiple 35mm negatives, slides and medium-format film.
• ReadyScan LED technology that completely eliminates warm-up time both when turning on the scanner and when switching back-and-forth between reflective and film scanning. It also adjusts the color of its light based on the type of original being scanned-white light for positive film and blue light for negative film.
• Epson software that restores faded color photos, slides and negatives back to their original brilliance.
• Automatic Document Feeder for quickly scanning multiple documents.

The unit is compatible with all forms of Microsoft Windows, including Vista, and with Macintosh computers running OS X 10.2.8 or later.