Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/02/11/fujitsu-scansnap-ix1500-bes.html
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I’ve got the s1300. While it’s been a fine scanner, they’ve stopped supporting it in software, and I get dire warnings that the software needs to be updated to stay compatible with my Mac (and the software they do provide is not great).
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Saving one’s important documents in a third party’s cloud service has got to be the dumbest idea ever, (no offense of course.)
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My experience with my Fujitsu has been similarly frustrating. It’s a decent, no, it’s a good piece of hardware, but any upgrade to Windows entailed massive downtime while waiting for compatible drivers from the mfg. I switched to a Brother ImageCenter ADS-2800W. Been pretty happy with it. Price moves around a lot; check camelcamelcamel and strike when it seems appropriate.
How is this with photos? I purchased a similar style scanner (made by Kodak) and the drag of photos against one another created a static charge that left visible streaking. If I can find a good batch scanner for photos, at a decent price, I’ll be over the moon.
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As a former loan officer assistant from 2004-2007, I can confirm ScanSnaps are boss. At least… they were head and shoulders above the competition at the time.
Being able to slap down 40+ pages of varying size, hit the Go button and walk away stress free was just not a common feature (or even readily available) for scanning hardware at the time.
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I was first clued into Fujitsu scanners when I took notice as to the scanner used by my county clerk.
I’m a big fan of the s1500. Scanned literately millions of pages with few troubles. I love that you can include OCR into the scan process.
I accidentally dropped my first one on a tile floor from counter height back in 08’ and it’s still going strong.
My transition from Win 7 to 10 with drivers and scansnap (their software) was seamless & hassle free.
I picked up 35 of these from a DHS auction a few years back, they sold like hotcakes. You can get a s1500 used on auction sites for around $100.
The rollers are changeable for like 30 buck, but they have a service life of several hundred thousand pages.
As for the photo question. Will it scan photos? Yes…but it’s not ideal. you basically have to hand feed them and this type of scanner is really made for documents. However, the FUJITSU ScanSnap SV600 is much better for doing a bunch of photos all at once. You lay out your photos on a black mat and the software crops them all out and scans them individually.
This is my concern. I probably wouldn’t save anything to a cloud service, but if I’m able to scoot these scans directly to my Mac Mini on my home network that would be better than a filing cabinet full of paper I never look at.
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I’m good on the hardware, for my needs - any suggestions for software?
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I’ve got a LOT of photos and I’ve been trying to find a document-feeding scanner for photos. Still, if the SV600 can do multiples at once and keep them straight? That might be the way to go.
I have an iX500 scanner for my small office; it will scan 20ppm on both sides, auto-rotate inverted pages and is a pretty handy beast.
I had the previous model Scansnap that worked even better but didn’t have drivers that would work on my new Win 10 PC.
I too have the ix500 at the recommendation of my brother-in-law. I second the recommendation for this machine although I haven’t scanned everything yet. I started scanning bill statements etc but then Windows 10 dropped HomeGroup and it seems other networking; so I can’t scan them and put them in a location where my wife can find them. I also didn’t rename all the files so she could identify them and even though the OCR is great it didn’t seem to pick up the word from the larger logos of the companies involved so if you had a bill from Comcast, say, a search for “Comcast” couldn’t find it. Admittedly this might be something I’m doing wrong rather than the software, but it has put that kind of scanning on hold.
Another thing it does well that many haven’t mentioned (that I’ve seen) - set the profiles to scan to JPG, stick in a stack of those old 3 x 5 or 4 x 6 photos you have in a shoebox, and it will create one file per photo in no time. I wish it would do the same for slides!!
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I’ve used my to scan stacks of photos - when setting the output to JPG it creates one file per photo. It was pretty great.
How’s their Linux support? If there is, which distro?
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I have a SV600. It is an odd beast,
so how do you get the whole book? Do you have to turn it around and start from the back again?
The virtual platen is slightly more than A3 size. If it’s a smaller book, such as a textbook, the book scanner can photograph both pages at once, and can even correct for the page warping at the gutter. Yes, you do sometimes have to hold the pages down, but the software (which doesn’t use TWAIN) can get rid of fingers automagically (which is to say that easy cases are easy, hard cases remain hard). If, however, you are scanning books sidewise, one page at a time, the included software gets pretty confused.
Lately, I’ve been scanning to JPG, and leaving the whole ocr/pdf thing for later.
The included OCR software isn’t as good as finereader pro
It’s not as good as an A3 flatbed but it’s faster, and poses less chance of harm to the actual book.
The whole indexing receipts thing doesn’t really interest me.
But, I found a great deal, and have a lot of antique A3 sized magazines.to scan.
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Looks like you can pick up 90+PPM Canon DR and IR scanners on Ebay for less than $400. They are built like tanks, have 500 page feeders, and last years (decades even)
We have several here in the office and they are amazing.
Tried the Samsungs but they are too fragile and slow for us.
Most of these scanner companies recommend scanners tuned for photos (usually flatbed, one image at a time) over their document scanners.
If you already have a good digital camera, it might be better, faster and cheaper to set up some lights, a tripod and take pictures of your pictures. I’m sure there are youtube videos on DIY setups. I’m currently transfering slides to digital using a macro lens and a slide holder attachment that screws to the front of the lens.
Eh. Just make sure that you really need it before scanning it, or you’ll never be rid of it short of a catastrophic storage and backup failure.
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