Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 Deluxe Bundle Sheet-Fed Scanner Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased this scanner as a first step in creating an electronic filing system for a home office. As I accumulated 20 filing cabinet drawers of paper documents going paperless seemed to be an answer.
Purchase of the Fujitsu S1500 was based on the numerous 5 star reviews. I am reasonably tech literate and have used the scanner for about 2 weeks. Here are my initial impressions:
Pros -
1. Speed: This scanner seems blazingly fast. Not a resource hog. Will scan duplex 20-25ppm at default settings on Win2K/1.8mhz/1gb platform.
2. Scan quality very good at all settings.
3. Size and looks: Small desk footprint. Looks great open or closed.
4. Excellent paper feeding as long as documents are same size and 20# or greater paper weight.
Cons -
1. NO TWAIN DRIVER. I knew this going in but did not appreciate how much this would cripple the device in day to day use. Let me explain. I had envisioned creating a virtual file cabinet in my computer using Windows Directory/Folder/File system then scanning my paper documents into this system as pdf files. The problem is that the native Fujitsu software does not let you append an existing pdf file!!!
As an example take a file for utility bills. D:/Home Expenses/Utilities/Gas_Electric.pdf. You can easily scan in all prior bills(limited by 50 sheet ADF)and a pdf with one page for each bill will be created. But if you had more than 50 prior bills or when next months bill comes then the next scan you perform to include these new documents will create a new pdf and does not allow the option of appending this more recent scan to the existing pdf. As you can see one could easily end up with 1000s of individual pdf documents in your filing system. The work around is to launch Adobe Acrobat (not reader) and use it to open the old composite pdf and use Acrobat to append the newly created pdf to the prior file. This work around takes longer than scanning in a 30 page document. Twain based scanners easily work with existing windows file structure and allow you to append an existing pdf without invoking Acrobat.
2. Paper catch tray very fragile and ADF paper support does not stay up (also reported by other reviewers).
3. Double feed sensor: stops scan and reports. This is good. However you cannot retrieve the double fed sheet and place it back in proper order because the next sheet is already in the scanner and cannot be backed out. You have to either cancel the scan and start over or put the unread sheet back in out of order and then use Acrobat to rearrange the pages in the resultant pdf document. If you choose to cancel the scan the document that is halfway into the scanner will not be ejected and you need to perform an new scan to retrieve that sheet.
4. A scanning run will only handle one size document at a time. In my experience if you have a mix of paper sizes you will need to do a scanning run for each paper size. Each run will generate a separate pdf file with you will then need to deal with.
5. I paid extra for the scanner bundle with Rack2File software thinking it would help me create the filing system I envisioned. After loading and spending several hours with this software I don't understand how it works or what it is supposed to do. I consider the extra $30 dollars I spent for the "bundled" scanner money poorly spent.
6. Other minor annoyances are:
While the scanner and snapscan software will run on older platforms the bundled software Rack2file and Acrobat require XPpro SP3 or newer. This is not clear from specs.
ADF will hold 40-50 sheets but output tray will start to jam after 20-25 sheets.
Documents printed on less than 20# paper and with printing on both sides the back side printing will show up on the front side scan. Many commercial invoices are printed both sides on thin paper.
Cannot set several default scanning profiles. You need to reset the scanner parameters each time you want a different profile.
Bottom line:
This would be a 5 star low end document scanner if it only offered a twain driver. As it is I can recommend it only to prospective buyers who understand the full implications of this limitation. I thought of returning this scanner and getting one of the twain based models like the Epson GT S50 but at this point I have learned enough of Acrobat to quickly append my pdfs retrospectively.
I strongly recommend avoiding the "bundled" product since I don't see what added value the Rack2File software brings.
I considered giving the scanner a one star review just to get people's attention but the hardware is so good 3 stars seems about right.

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With the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500, organizing your home or office is as easy as pushing a button. With a scanning speed of up to 20 pages per minute, the S1500 can quickly reduce paper clutter without sacrificing document quality. The smart scanner detects document size and coloration to ensure that your digitized copies are true to the originals. An added bonus, the scanner's included software bundle allows you to export, manipulate, and file your documents with ease.
Intelligent Detection Means Efficient, High-Quality Scans The ScanSnap S1500 offers resolutions of up to 300 dpi--color or grayscale--without sacrificing speed. With the touch of a single button, you can scan up to 20 double-sided pages per minute.

You won't need to do a thing to ensure that your scans look their best, because the S1500 comes equipped with paper-feed detection to monitor page size, as well as color and black-and-white detection. Better still, the scanner automatically rotates, crops, or de-skews documents.

If a small document (such as a receipt or business card) is mixed in with a stack of larger documents, the ScanSnap S1500 can be set to automatically increase the resolution of the small document to help ensure that finer print is discernable. What's more, an interactive interface allows you to choose to easily and quickly bypass double-feeds such as taped-receipts on expense reports.

Four Software Packages Included for Document Organization and Protection When it comes time to manage your digital files, use one of the four software packages included with the S1500. View, manage, and edit PDF and JPEG files using ScanSnap Organizer 4.0. Or, to do more than just view and print PDF versions of your documents, try Adobe Acrobat 9 Standard. This package allows you to create digital IDs and implement password protection to keep confidential documents safe.

To convert your paperwork into editable text, try ABBYY FineReader for ScanSnap 4.0 PC Edition. Alternatively, use CardMinder 4.0 to quickly scan business cards, extract the contact information, and place it into editable fields that can be exported to Excel, Outlook, and other contact managers.

What's in the Box Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 Scanner, A/C power cord, and software bundles (Adobe Acrobat 9 Standard, ScanSnap Organizer 4.0, ABBYY FineReader for ScanSnap 4.0 PC Edition, and CardMinder 4.0).

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Pentax DSmobile 600 Scanner Review

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(More customer reviews)We use this scanner to digitally file our statements and bills. It scans quickly and quietly, without the need for an adapter and without taking much space on one's desk. It partners well with Adobe Acrobat -- we have Acrobat Professional which allows us to crop document edges if the original is less than 8.5 x 11 -- and I've seen no software compatability issues with Windows XP Home or XP Professional. It also allows you to continuously scan multiple page documents (as opposed to scanning each page as its own PDF file).
The one criticism that I have has to do with the software that accompanies the scanner. It does not apparently remember the last settings (e.g., resolution, color vs B&W, and destination directory) so you have to re-enter all of these each time you sit down to scan.
We haven't tried using it for any graphics purpose, but from what I can tell, it's not likely to perform like a flatbed scanner for this purpose, at least for serious graphics work. For a casual scan of a photo for a document or a webpage, it would probably work just fine.
Absolutely satisfied!

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Weighing in at less than 12 ounces and measuring just 11 inches wide, the Pentax DSmobile lets you carry around all you need to scan everything from a business card to an 8.5 by 14 inch document. The scanner draws power from its USB interface so no clunky AC adapter is needed. Bring it along with you and you can instantly transmit a printed page via email, fax, or the web. The scanner has a hardware optical resolution of 300 dpi and the included OCR software automatically converts the document to editable text.
The scanner uses a Contact Image Sensor (CIS) to achieve its smaller volume and lighter weight, and also requires less power consumption and lower maintenance than a traditional CCD. The DSmobile has few moving parts, which promotes high reliability and nearly maintenance-free operation. It consumes only 0.2 watt of power in standby mode and a maximum of 2.2 watts of power when scanning. The Pentax DSmobile 600 Scanner is compatible with Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. It is backed by a 1-year warranty.
What's in the Box DSmobile 600 scanner, leather case, 35-inch USB cable, user's manual, instllation guide, software CD, calibration card, and two 5x7-inch photo-scan sleeves.

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Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 Deluxe Bundle 600 DPI x 600 dpI Scanner (PA03603-B015) Review

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(More customer reviews)The S1300 is definitely expensive, and it may seem unnecessary given that there are a lot of multifunction printers out there. I have to say though, that the software for it is awesome and that it has been an *incredible* time saver.
To give you a little background, I use to have a multi-function HP printer that had a flat-bed scanner attached. It had the potential to be decent, but the software SUCKED.
Every time I loaded a page on to my old multi-function printer, it would first have to take a test scan, then I'd have to preview the scanned page, and only then could I scan the document for real.
Each scan took about 10 seconds... It was agonizingly slow. So 10 seconds for the preview, a minute or two to change some settings, and then 10 seconds for the actual scan. I'd have change the settings for each page too. It was a serious pain. To scan a 10 page document would take about half an hour. Once the scans were done, I'd have to occasionally touch some of the images up in photoshop. That could take even longer.
Also the HP software runs a lot of useless background processes that steal RAM even when your computer isn't scanning stuff. It noticeably slowed down my CPU.
I can't speak for all the different brands out there, perhaps it was just HP. But unless you have a document feeder on your multifunction printer, you are going to be scanning one page at a time, and its going to take a while to get through something as short as a 10 page document.
My other beef with multifunction printers is that they often don't function well as printers either. The ink for the inkjet kinds are expensive, and I've never owned an inkjet printer that lasted more than 3 years.
I've found that laser printers last a lot longer, and their toner is cheap, but to get a multi-function laser / scanner with a document feeder, you are looking at spending a LOT of money.
Anyway, this scanner on the other hand, chews through documents. I put the 10 page document in the scanner, and press the "SCAN" button. That's it. From the moment I press the "Scan" button, to the moment that I have a useable, scanned pdf, it takes about 90 seconds.
The Fujitsu software automatically boots up (I don't have to actually run the program at all) and as I scan the documents it asks me where to save the file. The files are automatically adjusted for contrast and brightness (its not perfect, but its pretty good) and are saved as pdfs.
Another really cool feature is that the Fujitsu software can automatically convert scanned images with text into SEARCHABLE documents, something completely outside of the capabilities of my old scanning software. I open up the Scansnap program, type in a couple key words, and very quickly find the documents that I'm looking for. The search functionality was in the end what convinced me to buy this scanner.
Because of this scanner I don't ever fax things anymore. Its quicker to scan and email documents now, which saves a lot of time, and also makes it much easier to keep track of my correspondence with people.
The only downside to this scanner is that it quite obviously can't scan images from a book per say, like a flat bed scanner can. It can only scan loose paper.
I haven't found that to be a major downside yet, as over the past several months I haven't actually needed to scan an image from a book. I can see how for certain people (someone writing a dissertation), a flatbed scanner would be essential.
The one other thing I would mention is that I don't think that the Rack2file deluxe bundle is worth it. A friend of mine has the S1500 and it doesn't really seem to add a lot of useful functionality. If you're good with computers, know how file paths work, and have your own system of organization, you don't really need it.

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NeatDesk Desktop Scanner and Digital Filing System Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased a NeatDesk scanner awhile ago to answer a growing need at home for more robust scanning. I'm one of those people that needs to have everything neatly filed away even though I will probably never see it again. I also religiously enter all my personal receipts and track my personal finances in detail. This seemed the perfect product to answer both needs.
I was used to the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 that I have at work, but in addition to an arm they also wanted a leg. The price of the NeatDesk is substantially less (about 40% for what I paid), and the promotional material for the scanning software was really sexy. So I clicked buy.
After a few days, my conclusion is that although it could be an outstanding product with a couple of tweaks, it's just not ready for primetime. This may be the case of a small company working on tight margins with a product that got too big too fast. It remains to be seen whether or not they can keep up with their new-found popularity.
Here's the dirt:
Hardware:
Good Stuff
- Attractive design.
- You can click the hardware "Scan" button all day, but you don't have to file your scans until you want to.
Bad Stuff
- No adjustable paper guide. Unless you hold it as it's sucked in, every single document is crooked.
- Not enough paper support. Creased documents (like a bill) flop back and aren't grabbed properly.
- I found the slot for receipts and documents to not match any receipt or document I had... Nice slot for business cards though.
- The output tray is not attached to the scanner body. Huh?
- It came with the grim spectre of having to clean and calibrate your scanner. You don't have to clean or calibrate the ScanSnap, although the ScanSnap does include "consumables", so maybe it's a tie.
Software:
Good Stuff
- Recognizes dates, subtotal, sales tax, and credit card used. This alone almost makes the product an overall winner and definitely put it on top for scanning receipts.
- As mentioned above, you don't have to file away your scans until you want to.
- Extremely fast search.
- It's pretty--yeah, that's important.
Bad Stuff
- Always takes the scan from the front but from the sheet in the back, which may be more intuitive for the beginner, but also means that a stack of double-sided sheets will go into the software backwards (page 2, 1, 4, 3, etc.) so you'll have to sort your document before and after scanning. Maybe I just haven't figured this one out, but it does seem like they emphasis multiple single-page documents vs. one multiple-page document.
* UPDATE: I figured out that you have to put the document in face up and everything is scanned in from the last page to the front. Your physical document will come out sorted, and the software will reverse the order of the scanned pages for you so the electronic document is correct.
- Does not auto-rotate to fix crooked problem caused by not having adjustable paper guides.
- Does not do auto-color detection--it's either all black-and-white or all color and you must choose. Those "Scan" and "PDF" buttons on the front are great, but you have to go into the Quick Scan application to set up how everything will be scanned first, defeating the convenience.
- Viewing the documents that are in the library is difficult. Should have a simple hand-tool for dragging and allow multiple documents to be open at one time.
- Moving data around the library is laborious.
- Software installs SQL Server Express, which takes up system resources and at least for me causes the program to not want to start up (try again message a couple of times before starting). Sure the search results come back very quickly, but at what cost? As a developer, I actually already had SQL Server Express installed, but it went ahead and installed another instance... Not very nice.
- Lots of opportunities to categorize data, but searching for the categories is difficult. For example, to see what you marked for follow up click "Advanced Search", click "Looking at..." and select "Action Type", click "Selected in the List", click and check box that says "Follow Up". It's more work finding out what's marked "follow up" than to actually follow up.
- The heavy emphasis is on recording receipts for expenses that will be reimbursed by your employer or be tax deductible. So what happens when I have a pay stub for consulting work? I have to file it as a document where I can't tag it's dollar amount, can't tag it as 1099 income, and it can't be exported to Quicken. That's one of the main reasons I got the scanner.
- Categories for receipts are very limited. Need a split? You'll have to do it yourself when you get to Quicken if you can remember what the receipt was for. Sales tax is always exported as an over-generalized "State Tax".
How it Could (Easily) be Made Great
- Package in or sell another paper guide that is adjustable. You can use the same snap-in style that is used for the receipt/business card guide.
- Add one inch to the pull-out paper support.
- Update the software to take scans from the face down position first on double-sided scans. Take the scan from the face down position only in single-sided scans.
* UPDATE: Even though this way seems more intuitive to me, the way the software does it is okay (see update above).
- Add in auto-color detection and auto-rotate so that scans always come out right. If Neat Co can do awesome text-detection, they could do this.
Conclusion
Seems to be an innovative company so I'll keep it in anticipation of at least the software updates.

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Scanner,Neat Receipts Desk,USB 2.0

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