Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Scanner for PC
by Fujitsu Imaging
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List Price: Our Price: $414.49 You Save: $80.51 (16%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $360.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Scanner for PC
Customer Review: Worth every penny
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this scanner after reading many positive reviews. Even with my expectations set high, the scanner exceeded all my expectations.
The scanner design is nothing short of slick and innovative. The ingoing and outgoing paper trays fold over each other and use magnets to hold them in place. When folded, the scanner has an extremely compact footprint and keeps dust from piling up.
The installation was very straightforward. You first install the software and then plug in the scanner. ( I chose not to install the ScanSnap Organizer and I use windows directories instead.) The ScanSnap Manager works extremely well. You load your documents into the feeder, press the Scan button on the scanner and the magic begins. The pages zoom through the scanner, the software prompts where and how you want to save the scan, and when they say 20 pages (both sides!) in one minute, they are not exaggerating.
The business card software works very well. You fire up the software, load in your cards, hit Scan (I found that more than 10-15 were too many at one time) and the cards scan. The ocr then pulls the data into the correct fields. The card ocr is not foolproof and all cards should be viewed to ensure the info is correct, as businesses cards - especially specialty ones - don't always convert properly.
The scanner automatically removes blank pages, which is a necessity when scanning in one-sided documents. It also cleverly rotates the scanned image if it was fed lopsided or if it was scanned upside down.
If there is one word to describe this scanner, it is "Smart." While $425 may be pricey for home use, any businesses that wants to go paperless will find that this pays for itself over and over. We spent one day scanning and shredding our file cabinet. What amazes me most is that the scanner is considerably faster than our shredder!
This is the first review I ever wrote on Amazon.com but I was so impressed that I was inspired to write one. As you can tell, I'm a big fan of this scanner!
Customer Review: fast, reliable, extremely easy to use... works with both Mac and Windows
Summary: 5 Stars
[review updated March 2011] We have had six of these scanners in use in a busy office and warehouse environment for more than 18 months, and they have performed great. The speed is phenomenal -- really just a second or two to scan a double-sided page perfectly.
Highlights:
very fast
reliable paper feed for 25+ pages at a time
reliably feeds paper of all kinds/sizes
incredibly small desktop footprint
very good scan quality
Some things to be aware of:
This model is actually cross-platform: it works with both Windows and Mac OS X. Fujitsu sells two different models, specific to Mac and Windows -- the only difference between the two is the software that ships with it (and the color of the unit). So, you can use it in a mixed-platform office or home.
If you're scanning mixed paper sizes in a single batch, you may need to adjust the scanner's settings for auto page size detection. Some reviewers mentioned problems with mixed paper sizes; from what they wrote, it sounds like they didn't have the software settings correct.
Creating a .pdf file takes just a second or three (depending on the speed of your computer) -- but, creating a *searchable* .pdf file will take longer. That is, if you want the software to detect and recognize text and create a .pdf you can be found by searching for text that is in the contents of the file (not the file name), it takes longer. Each page is processed by OCR software; the speed will depend very much on the speed of your computer. I don't think there's anything out there that will do this faster than these little Fujitsu gems, but it's something to consider if you're planning to go paperless.
This scanner is has no ISIS or TWAIN drivers; you cannot use it from within another application. You have to use the software that comes with it to do the scanning. For most people this is no problem, but again, something to be aware of for those who need ISIS or TWAIN functionality.
Customer Review: Among the Best Hardware I Own (Even if Software is Lame)
Summary: 4 Stars
To give you some idea of what great product this is, I would like to mention that after experimenting with the first one I bought, I ordered a second one so that I now own one for home and one for work.
This scanner is smaller and lighter than it might appear in its photos, about the size of a loaf of bread. It has only one button, "scan," and it can handle a large fairly messy stack of differently-sized documents, newspaper clippings and so on rested into the auto-feeder chute without a hiccup. It scans quickly and I have only had it jam on me only once or twice since I bought it several months ago and I have used it almost daily. Even if a document gets run through crooked, the scanned image comes out straight.
By default it scans in duplex mode (both sides of any document you feed into it) and the included Adobe Acrobat software lets you remove pages you decide you don't want after the scan and/or addend pages from other files even if they are of different file formats (e.g. you can add a multi-page Word document to a multi-page PDF).
The file management software that it comes with is counter-intuitive at best. I am pretty smart and I can't make heads or tails of most of the functions available in the "ScanSnap Organizer." The included electronic manual is almost no help at all and when I experimented on my own, the ScanSnap Organizer software made all these extra little particles worth of strips of parts of the scanned image... ? What?! So after scanning a document, I just save the document to a well-named folder of my choice on my computer's hard drive and organize all scanned documents, thus, "by hand."
I do recommend this product. I awarded four stars rather than five for the crummy software. But I've made it work for me quite well and am glad I own it. Definitely worth the price several times over.
Customer Review: Almost a great scanner...
Summary: 2 Stars
The fujitsu s1500 is close to be a very good product except for a few very significant issues --
manual changing of image quality / color module for some (or maybe most) scans lead to reduce image quality (and not better image quality). This is where the scan is more blurry than what it would normally be if the scan was done at auto image quality / color. Additionally, I noticed that one side of the duplex scan is consistently of lesser quality than the other side.
For the person who is not serious about their scanning this may not be a terribly big issue. At least -- this is what Fujitsu customer support/technical assistance ardently asserted when dismissing samples / and detailed correspondence from me regarding this issue. Multiple contacts @ fujitsu claimed implied that most users of the their fujitsu scanner s1500 would not notice or take issue with the lack of image quality of manual scans since most users were not likely to use the more advanced options.
For anyone who would like to duplicate this issue here are the step:
1. obtain a document with fine images or detailed text or spreadsheet (in small font) on both sides
2. first scan document with auto image quality and auto color
3. perform second scan with excellent image quality
4. compare results from first and second scan
For my part, I will try to be doubly sure before I purchase any fujitsu product in the future.
Also -- the rack 4 filer application, which comes with the s1500 scanner combo, is not a very sophisticated application and also seems to be more of a headache than a solution.
Customer Review: Pretty Amazing Little Device
Summary: 5 Stars
I have had the ScanSnap S1500 for about a month, and am very impressed. I am using it in an effort to reduce the clutter on, in, and around my desk at home. It performs admirably in this function. I debated, and read reviews in several places, before settling on this scanner, without the more expensive software package. So far no regrets.
Best feature: Speed. Incredibly fast - scans both sides of a page in about 1.5 seconds. So that big stack of bills, statements, etc., disappears quickly. Paper handling overall, though not flawless, is excellent.
Second best feature: Automatically arranges scanned pages with correct orientation, seemingly every time! Impressive.
Third best feature: Compact. Takes up relatively little desk space.
Worst feature: The software takes a little while to learn, e.g., where things are in the menus, etc. Still haven't figured out exactly how to merge documents, though it apparently can be done within the full version of Acrobat. Seems like it should be easier. Still, for my purposes, the filing system is straightforward, and allows me to sort things into appropriate "filing cabinets." I'm hopeful that over time, I'll have an easier time searching my hard drive than a real filing cabinet.
Second worst feature: The time it takes to convert pdf's to searchable pdf's. Considering that I'm doing this on a quad-core CPU with 8GB of RAM, it seems rather slow. Still, searchable files are a plus. Just have to leave the computer on at night to plug away at this task.
Overall, though it's bit pricey compared to my all-in-one printer/scanner HP, it's speed and convenience make it a winner.