Better Buys for Business Names Four Panasonic Scanners 'Editor's Choice'.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

SECAUCUS, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 30, 2002

Better Buys for Business, a leading consumer guide to office equipment, has awarded a 2002 Editor's Choice to Panasonic in each of the four scanner categories it evaluates.

The scanner models and the categories in which they were selected are: KV-S2025C (Economy/under $2,000), KV-S2045C (Low Volume/$2,000-$4,000), KV-S2065W (Mid-Range Production/$4,000-$10,000) and KV-SS905C (High-End Production/over $10,000).

Better Buys for Business awards Editor's Choice honors to the products found to deliver the highest levels of performance and offer consumers the greatest value in a given price range. Comparably rated scanners from major manufacturers were evaluated to determine the strength of their features and specifications, and each was measured against its respective competition in each product category.

According to Better Buys for Business, the KV-S2025C ($1,799 MSRP(a)) and KV-S2045C ($3,799 MSRP(a)) are "two new scanners that deliver more performance and better features for lower prices than their competitors."

These color scanners, which have a duplex option and can handle business card to legal-sized paper at 600-dpi optical, are based on the same platform, with speed as the primary difference between them.

The KV-S2025C scans at 24 ppm/42ipm (binary) and 10 ppm/18 ipm (color); the KV-S2045C captures images at 43 ppm/76 ipm (binary) and 19 ppm/34 ipm (color). The other differentiating feature is the KV-S2045C's optional pre-scan imprinter. At 13.5"W x 11.7"D x 9.4"H both the KV-S2025C and KV-S2045C make an excellent selection for are excellent choice for desktop usage.

The KV-S2025C is priced at an affordable $1799.00 (MSRP(a)) and the KV-S2045C has an excellent price point of $3799.00 (MSRP(a)). Both come equipped with a range of features that set them apart from the rest of the pack, including a 4,000-page daily duty cycle, and a life cycle of more than three million pages, leveraging your purchasing power.

Better Buys for Business adds that the two scanners have "very good features," including a 100-sheet document feeder, deemed "better than the immediate competition."

Along with red, green and blue color removal, each of Panasonic's Editor's Choice recipients features Panasonic Image Enhancement Technology (PIE II), which can improve the quality of a scanned image beyond that of the original.

PIE II offers functionality such as Dynamic Thresholding (helps determine the borders of text and graphics, even in faded or difficult documents); White-Level Follow (color of background paper is set as white to save disk space and have the data more legible); and a host of other features to enable more accurate scans and enhanced image capture.

According to Better Buys for Business, technology such as PIE II is unusual in lower-priced models such as the KV-S2025C and KV-S2045C.

The publication goes on to state, "Panasonic has managed to pack very impressive speeds and features into this unit." As a result, Better Buys for Business reports the KV-S2045C "is more in a league of its own, particularly in duplex and color scanning and standard image-enhancement features."

With its Multi Stream(R) capability, the KV-SS905C ($34,999 MSRP(a)) allows for color and black-and-white documents to be loaded together and scanned without changing settings.

Along with all the performance you'd expect from a scanner in this high-volume class, Better Buys for Business notes that the KV-SS905C offers several special features. With multiple color dropout, the scanner can be set to drop out any color.

Once this setting is in place, a broad range of forms can be scanned more efficiently. Direct PDF conversion is built into the software, thus eliminating an extra step with each scanned page. And, with barcode recognition, scan profiles can be created to handle different page types more efficiently.

The consumer guide points to the fact that the KV-SS905C offers "significantly faster speed" over its closest competitor, i.e. up to 98-ppm (portrait) in simplex mode and 174 ipm (portrait) in duplex mode at 200 dpi.

Better Buys for Business also notes that the KV-SS905C features grayscale scanning, full-color scans on both sides of the page, built-in JPEG and PDF support so that scans can be compressed on the fly, and a 1,000-sheet document feeder to handle heavy-duty jobs.

The fourth Panasonic scanner to receive an Editor's Choice, the KV-S2065W ($9,499 MSRP(a)) is described by Better Buys for Business as "very speedy for the price range and well-suited to high-productivity scanning."

The KV-S2065W can scan documents up to ledger size (11.7" x 17") and has a 300-sheet document feeder. This award-winner scans at 62 ppm (portrait) in simplex mode and 116 ipm (portrait) in duplex mode at 200 dpi. Landscape speed at 200 dpi is 74 ppm in simplex and 136 ipm in duplex mode.

Additionally, the KV-S2065W can run at up to 76 ppm simplex in fast mode, where scans are initially processed at a lower resolution, then interpolated via software to a higher resolution. This technology is generally suitable for scanning clear, readable documents. And with Panasonic's versatile paper paths, extra-long or fragile documents are scanned slowly to ensure high image quality and reliable feeding.

The KV-S2065W offers other useful features as well, including standard color dropout and a wide range of scanning resolutions. An imprinter is also available, and it can be used for either pre-scan or post-scan imprinter requirements.

In the United States, Panasonic Digital Imaging Solutions Company (PDIS), a business unit of Matsushita Electric Corporation of America (MECA), markets a broad line of computer peripherals and office system products. Products available include scanners, electronic white boards, CD-ROM and rewritable drives, color laser printers, impact printers and DVD drives.

Headquartered in Secaucus, NJ, MECA is the principal North American subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (MEI) (NYSE:MC) of Osaka, Japan.

09/02

All brand names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Multi Stream(R) is a registered trademark of Pixel Translations, a division of Input Software, Inc.

(a) Manufacturer's suggested retail price. Resellers must decide for

themselves the prices at which our products are actually

advertised and sold.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

End users may obtain sales information by contacting Panasonic at 800/742-8086 or 201/348-7000, or by visiting http://www.panasonic.com/scanners. Please do not publish the editorial contact telephone number.

If you wish to review this or any other Panasonic document imaging product, please contact Chris Florentz or Charlie Sassaman at 215/592-8601, or at [e-mail] and [e-mail], respectively.

Product images are available on Panasonic's extranet site at b2b.Panasonic.com. Username: images; Password: images. Select Marketing Materials, "Select a Product Category" and click on Image Gallery.