Scanner Reviews

I got the NanoScan N656U Scanner thinking that it was the way to go. Not having to worry about another power cord to keep track of and to find a open power socket to plug into. But after installing it on my eMachine that has Windows Me on it, I was able to get it to preview, but when I tried to scan even on the lowest dpi setting of 75 dpi it would freez up the scanning TWAIN program giving me a errar with a code 30e (I think). I was not sure if it was the eMachine or Windows Me which I have grown to hate both for their cheap parts and constant bugs. I called Canon who was helpful. The 30e code means that the scanner is not getting enough power to complete the scan. At the Canon's personale's advice, I tried it on another computer. I found I could scan at up to 180 dpi with the USB cord provided, I got worse resaults with another USB given with another type of hardware, but I did get better results with a brand name USB cord getting up to 300 dpi scans completed successfully. Canon did suggested that if the problem continued that I could contact them again to get a free replacement or other approvable action. I decided to send it back and got a Visioneer 8???? scanner with USB and two parralel ports and a power cord for around [price] and have had no problems.

Those looking for an inexpensive but versatile light-duty scanner need look no further than this CanonScan N650U device.

Some time back, I had been looking for just such a scanner for "occasional" use, and comparisons among those available were easily narrowed down to this unit.

The CanonScan 650U is a "universal" (PC/Mac) device using the now-ubiquitous USB interface. The bundled software (on CD-ROM) is easily installed, and provides a great deal of flexibility to how the scanner is used, the image-file formats in which scanned images may be saved, and the color (or gray scale) depth, resolution and sharpness of scanned images. The menu-driven features are largely intuitive for anyone not a total "newbie" to scanners, but the bundled software also includes very detailed and comprehensive documentation (in the form of Adobe Acrobat pdf files).

Results, in the form of scanned (and printable and/or transmittable) images, are superb, with excellent detail and resolution and accurate rendering of tonal and color scales. The design of the cover, with its clever "Z" hinge, permits scanning of pages of fairly thick books, if need be. A button on the front of the scanner, when pressed, will automatically launch the program so that a scan (or a "preview") can be made; alternatively, the program can be launched manually using a desktop alias or shortcut.

The image-manipulation menu allows for a very wide degree of control over how the scanned image can be "finalized." Tonal and color scales and image contrast can be extended or compressed, or distorted for special effects. Sharpness (separate from choice of resolution, in pixels) can be enhanced by degrees, or even thoroughly "customized." (A mild word of caution for those using these enhancement features when scanning half-tone images: It IS possible to create Moire patterns [fringing] if some of these adjustments are overdone. Some practice may be required, and then the best results saved as a template for future use.)

I wouldn't necessarily characterize the CanonScan 650U as a "frequent-duty" scanner. It is likely to be too slow for professional use. It is hardly as quick as a photocopier. But, if you, like me, need such a device only for occasional use and moreover need the image-manipulation capabilities that only a full-featured software program can provide, I can recommend this unit highly. It is very inexpensive for what it does and for the features it provides.

All of the above is provided in the context of Macintosh installation and use. Results for PC platform use should be expected to be the same, but installation and access and use of the features may differ slightly. I suggest that PC users interested in the CanonScan 650U read other reviews on this product page for a sense of what PC users have to say about this scanner.

I got one of these for Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

Setup was easy, but the scans are a bit slow. It does a good job of scanning photos for me.

The OCR output is about 93%+ for most documents. Books with tight bindings are sometimes difficult to scan accurately, but I haven't found any thing that does a better job in these situations. The image quality is very good, so it is generally easy to make out the correct 'reading' when the OCR can't make out the source. The OmniPage OCR is perfect for my purposes.

I love this thing, but I hate its connectivity! Which is mostly either lacking or an immense aggravation. So, be very careful about how you plan to download your data, or you will end up owning a very nice and advanced piece of techno-junk.

Getting the hang of the way to scan with C-Pen takes about an hour's practice, but it is well worth it. At first I couldn't get the C-Pen to read anything and I thought I had just thrown $200+ down the drain. Then I learned a few key things: if you are right handed, scan from right to left---don't worry, the pen will automatically transcribe from left to right. Also, I needed to develop a feel for when the automatic trigger was properly depressed, how to keep the eye flat on the page while moving the pen, and the necessity of making sure the page is flat (something of a bother at time with, for example, fat books.) I still have occasional mishaps, but the edit function makes quick cleanup and re-read easily possible.

The OCR is as good as I get from my HP flatbed and I have absolutely no complaints, reading from a variety of texts ranging from early 19th Century texts to inkjet documents. Like all OCR products, one sometimes gets amusing results. If one is merely taking notes, fine. If one wants clean text, some editing will be required.

But --- oi-v-voi --- the download problem is major. The factory product (I got mine straight from the USA distributor) will not work with Windows XP. The system simply does not recognize the pen's existence. Technical support (Sweden) advised me to download a patch from their website. My desk top twice aborted attempts to download this patch in mid-installation.

Likewise, the C-Pen and my Palm Tungsten C are from different planets and will not connect via infrared. The factory's not very helpful advice was to please be sure that I had the C-Pen oriented in the right direction. Duh-uh! I have no idea what to do about this glitch, which is a major aggravation.

I am saved by the fact that my office operating system is the old Windows 98 and I was able to connect via cable. Throught hat connection I easily and quickly download my scans into Word documents. The downside is that I do most of my work OUT of my office, either at home or elsewhere and it is an incovenience and delay to have to come in here to hook the Pen up.

The bottom line is that --- knowing what I know now --- I probably would not buy this pen unless I were sure I could sucessfully download from it. I was accidentally saved from owning apiece of useless junk.

When the people at C-Pen say their product is "a stroke of genius" they do not exagerate. Since I bought my C-Pen 800C a couple of months ago, it has become a permanent companion in my academic activity. Two of its functions are particularly impressive, namely "Notes" (the scanner) and "C-Dictionary". Once you get the hang of it, "C-Write" is also very good (though I would have preferred it if they had adopted the Palm graffiti alphabet, so as not to make palm users like myself spend extra time learning the new alphabet). Of special interest for academic use is the possibility of storing the notes you have taken in different files and folders, thereby helping you organize the information gathered.

The precision of C-Pen 800C's OCR is excellent, not only when reading texts written in English, but also in other languages (though I must concede that my experience has been reduced to texts in Spanish, German and French).

Synchronization with the PC is very easy and the use of C-Direct, by means of which we can scan a text directly into the computer, is easy and precise. As for the remaining utilities (address book, calender, etc.) I have nothing to say, since I have not tried to use them.

To wrap up, I simply want to say that this is a great instrument for academic use. Once you've learned to use it you won't understand how in the world you could ever have done research without it in the past!

As a research historian preparing for law school I found the C-Pen 800 invaluable. The only thing better than the pen itself was the customer service and care from the folks at Solutionworks. Especial thanks to Kevin for all the tech support for someone who is a technological barbarian (that would be me!)

The pen itself takes a bit of getting used to. At first I tried scanning very slow and deliberately; this was a mistake. The C-Pen likes a faster scan rate across the page.

Using yellow highlighter actually seemed to help, as did the calibration feature.

I personally preferred using the manual rather than the automatic trigger due to the curviture of the page in thicker books. In the automatic mode if the trigger lost contact with the page part of a word would be broken off. In manual mode I seemed to have greater accuracy. Likewise I found using it without the cord, and then transferring data to be faster. The cord always seemed to be in the way, and at the speed that the C-Pen likes for accurate scanning it was a nuisance.

For someone who needs to extract key pieces of information quickly and conveniently this is a great tool.

Doug

I just boxed up my Epson 3170 to send it back. I had it one day, during which time I was able to coax some very nice scans from some old color negatives.

I say "coax" because my unit quickly developed a problem where it would intermittently emit a high-pitched squeal and the red trouble light would flash. Sometimes powering the unit off and then back on would fix the problem, more often it would not. I described the problem to Epson support and they advised one possible fix (working the transport-lock lever back and forth),
which had no effect.

So it was a faulty unit. Fine. I would have ordered a replacement, except that Epson's scanning software really is as awful as any I've seen running under Windows XP. I did several cold starts, a full uninstall of the scanning suite, then a reinstall of just the basic "Epson Scan" software. After that it seemed to work, although it's an awkward design at best.

I really like Epson's design when it comes to handling slides and negatives of various sizes, but given my experience I can't really recommend the 3170.

Was a little nervous that I would encounter software problems after reading reviews, and, at first, I was experiencing difficulties--scanner would often stall on preview. Sent an email to Epson, received back a very prompt and detailed response. My mistake was running Classic (OS 9) simultaneous to OSX. That was confusing things.

Once I made sure OS 9 was off, everything since has been smooth sailing. I haven't really used the Smart Panel, so I can't comment on that, but the scanner works well with Adobe Photoshop. It feels fast, even on hi-rez scans. The quality looks great to me. Really like that I can do multiple scans at once. Someone above advised going to Epson website to download drivers. A good idea, which I also recommend. I give it two thumbs up.

Not sure what problems "A PC Hardware Fan from Fort Collins" had, but I did a test.

I scanned a 4x6 color photo at 3200 dpi on a Dell computer running XP Pro. The machine has 512MB of memory and an 80GB hard drive. I started the scan with about 256MB of free memory.

The actual scan took 4 minutes and 20 seconds. Saving the HUGE 629MB file to disk and loading it into PhotoShop Elements took about another 15 minutes. Not sure how long as I had a cup of tea.

FYI, that single image is so large it nearly fills up an entire CD-ROM!

Anyway, the scanner works as advertised. Make sure to download the latest version of the scanning software (v1.25A) from Epson's website :)

Killer scanner!!!

I am very satisfied with the print quality, borderless on photo paper is just stunning.
As a scanner the printer is really hampered, on Mac OSX, by the supplied drivers: The installer crashed a number of times, the "Smart controller" often unexpectedly quits.
Also, the screens in the "scan and save" function have many field that I just can't edit, for example the Format where you could choose between PDF, JPEG is stuck at JPEG, a real bummer. The resolution field is also unmodifiable.

The software is obviously a bad port from windows, as it does not obey the most basic keyboard shortcuts (cmd-W to close a window does not work, cannot tab between fields etc). The "Smart panel" is laughable, especialy its "advanced settings" that's totally useless.
If I had known this I would not have bought the printer.

And yes, I went to Epson site to get the latest drivers&software.

Ok, I got this printer after much pressure for printing photos. Got a little patience? Good...because this will push your buttons to oblivion. Im not saying this multifunction is bad, it just has a little kinks to be worked out. (Ok Epson?)

Printing: nice and quiet, and fast. Nothing wrong there.

Scanner: ok too, but it takes a while to get the commands to the scanner. (Or maybe that was my computer, who knows?) The first time I used it, I scanned the same photo twice, because I didnt think it was already scanned. However, I think their software should have a little more umph to it, Im not thinking Adobe Photoshop, but close.

Copy: well, its ok, if you are only copying paper to paper, but if magazine to paper, this is where they get you. I copied an article but the print came out so small, I was very unhappy. So I scanned, zoomed, cropped and printed. Then I felt satisfied.

Card Print: Havent used it yet, waiting for a digital camera...hint hint.

I bought this printer a little over a month ago, and I am completely satisfied. I used the card reader for photo prints for the first time last week and I really liked the process. Prints came out very nice. Comparable to an HP photosmart printer, but I feel like the epson prints were much nicer because you don't have to wait for ink to dry. Colors are just as vivid as an HP photo printer. But I do suggest that you buy DuraBrite Photo paper. This optimizes the photos appearance.

The printer is very easy to set up, Nice speed and very quiet. This is a great value for anyone looking for a quality multi-function printer. Especially with the great rebate Amazon is offering at the moment. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because it is a little bulky. But that is expected from a multi-function printer. I would LOVE for these to shrink a tad bit!

My first film scanner was the HPS20. It "did okay", and that's the best I'll give it. Basically, if your'e at all serious about film scanning, you MUST go to something better, and yes, that means spending a bit more money. I went up to the far, far superior Nikon Coolscan 2000, and might try the 4000 soon, and my results were out of this world better. In todays market, I'd look at doubling my investment and get maybe the Nikon Coolscan IV or find a used Coolscan 2000 or something. The major problems with the HP are color correction on chromes, low dynamic range, it gathers dust like a maids broom, and the shadows are definitely noisy. For the once in a while amateur who just wants to move a few slides or negs to digital and absolutely doesn't expect to get "into" digital darkroom work, then it's probably a steal for the money. But be warned, if you even think there is a slight chance you might move onward to more digital darkroom work, skip this entirely and get something real the first time out, and you'll save the money over the long haul. Recommended with definite restrictions.

This is, without a doubt, one of the coolest, most-used computer gizmos I've ever owned. HP has a great reputation for making quality products, and the PhotoSmart scanner doesn't disappoint.

I love shooting photos with my digital camera, but there are just some situations where "old fashioned" is better (unusual lighting situations, manual adjustments, special effects filters). Most inexpensive scanners either lack the ability to scan negatives/slides, and/or the resolution to make them look good once reprinted. This scanner does both, and more, and does them extremely well.

Setup was, as with most HP products, quick, easy, and painless. The scanning software included is probably more than adequate for most users, but hard-core amateurs and pros will want to use a higher-end image manipulation package to acquire and tweak photos.

When you combine the ease of use and resolution with a reasonably-good photo printer, you just can't beat the results (and the price!).

I am not rich and I paid a lot of money for this product.

Thankfully, it was worth every penny and I have been using it happily for over 3 years.

There are better scanners out there, but for the dollar, this is a fabulous machine: thus, the five star rating.

That said, please note that this unit ***DOES*** in fact work with Windows XP. At one point I thought it did not work either, but it does. HP released an XP driver/software for it.

At 70 MB, it's a hell of a download, but worth it for those of us that have moved into the 21st century.

You can download it from the HP website.

- Go to HP.com.
- Select 'Home & Home Office.'
- Type 'S20' into the Search field.
- The HP Photosmart S20 and a photo will appear.
- Select 'Download drivers & software' from this screen.
- Select 'Microsoft Windows XP.'
- Select 'PhotoSmart Scanner (SCSI) and S20/S20xi Photo Scanner (USB) Software.'
- Click 'Download now' to being downloading ps804en.exe.
- Follow instructions (or common sense) to install the software.
- A Windows-based message will appear during installation that recommends stopping installation because the HP Photosmart software has not passed Windows Logo testing.
- Despite your usually better judgement, ignore this and click 'Continue Anyway.'

I was terrified to do this, but I called and e-mailed HP directly and was told in both instances that HP had tested and verified compatibility of the HP Photosmart software with Windows XP.

My Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart S20 scanner now works like a charm on my Windows XP.

Hooray for HP.

There is much to like about the Epson Perfection 1650 scanner. What sets this one apart from others I have used is the truly excellent supporting software that is included. You get your choice of scanning applications, including some one-button jobs that you might find entertaining. YOU will want to ease into manual mode, called Epson Twain, where you get exquisite control of all the scanner settings, with very fine adjustments possible. Figure it all out, experiment with it, and get very high quality scans, just the way you want them, with little or no Photoshop tweaking necessary.

Native resolution is said to be 1600 dpi, but in reality the sharpness maxes out at 800 dpi, apparently limited by the optical system. Best results are at submultiples of 1600. Going from 800 dpi to 1600 dpi gets you a file four times the size, with no additional detail. For most scanning, this is not a problem. If you are a philatelist scanning itty bitty stamps, you need a better scanner.

I bought the accessory 4x5 transparency unit, as I shoot some photos in that format. Strangely, the cosmetics of the transparency unit (beige) do not match the scanner (two-tone grey.) There are holders for a 35mm strip, and for 120 and 4x5 formats. Unfortunately, there was no 35mm mounted slide holder. You just lay them on the glass. Scans from film are quite good, but limited in resolution. They look soft compared to a dedicated film scanner, but then, there is a huge difference in the price.

OCR software is included. I gave it a really unfair test, scanning a fuzzy, distorted printout from a library microfilm reader. Astonishingly, it read every word correctly, except for one drop cap at the beginning of a paragraph.

This scanner is an excellent value in its price range, with the best software support I have seen to date.

This is a perfect scanner for the home user. The software is simple
to use, you have a choice between automatic scanning and manually
scanning.

However, I was disappointed with the descreen feature (which
doesn't seem to work) and Epson seems to have forgotten the
option to scan from newspaper or magazine -> and yes, this
does make a difference :) if you're specifically looking
for these options.

But if you're looking for a fast, quality scan from photo
quality or original prints, whether you're output is a laser
printer, inkjet or a website, this is a great machine.

I really like this machine.... It warms up in less than 20 seconds and prescans in about 5 seconds -- so it doesn't take long to get started. The Epson TWAIN 5.51A software offers 10 choices of image type: Color Photo (48-bit), Color Photo, Color Document, Black and White Photo (16 bit),Black and White Photo, Black and White Document, Illustration, Text/Line Art, Text (Background Removal) and Copy and Fax. One can preview the prescanned image in each by simply selecting each in the dropdown menu. It is simple to preselect the area to be scanned, and the file size under each image type shows on the "target" line. If the file size is too large (or you can handle a larger than indicated file size), you can adjust the DPI in the following increments: 50, 72, 96, 150, 200, 240, 266, 300, 350, 360, 400, 600, 720, 800, 1200, 1600, 3200, 9600, and 12,800 dpi. (Again, these options are all drop-down so they don't clutter the interface.) Changing this option dynamically alters the "target" preview file size. --- Scanning is a one-click process, and when finished one is taken from the TWAIN to a preview screen where one can rename the scanned file, and either scan more documents or exit into a third screen where one can (if saving to a drive) select the file path, and type of image file format: PCX, TIF, BMP, JPEG or PCT. If you save to JPEG you can select the image quality (high, medium, or low). This is my first scanner, but I can't think how it could be easier to use. I am still exploring the more esoteric features (aka bells-n-whistles), but the operation is simple and the quality of the images is fantastic. Between this scanner and my Paint Shop Pro software, I've been able to do anything I can imagine in the way of imaging. I'm not surprised at the high rankings that this machine has earned in a number of publications.

I got the system two days ago and have not got it fully working yet. First, the Setup Guide does not match the software came with the machine, not even close! Since their customer service hour is 9-5, so if you buy the machine for home use, and you work at daytime, you can only write email to Tech. Support since they want you to work on the machine with them together, although I can tell them all the error messages.
There are some major bugs in the firmware. Factory default I got would not work out the box. It took me 2 hours to get it work for printer, copier and fax function. Brother's hardware tech. Support is real useless. I found the solution myself even it is not documented.
I still couldn't get PC software, Brother Pro Suite to work since it crashes the Window as soon as I try to run the Remote Setup. Still working with them by emailing. Software Tech Support did not read my whole email and just give me some related information to fix half of the problem.
By the way, I am an engineer experienced in both software and hardware development. I have had a Brother MFC 4550 Plus for 5 years and this is a replacement. I am not a first time to use Brother's software and setup. With my background, I have problem to setup this one. Can not image if I am not an engineer!
I am using it with Window Me.

Good design, performs as expected, but:

1. Do not plan on using it through a parallel port. After you restart your computer, the first print job comes out as a bunch of unintelligible characters on top of each page, and the pages just keep coming out until you pull out the paper tray and disconnect the printer. It appears that you can go through an entire paper ream if you send a job to the printer and go to get a cup of tea. You need to reset the printer after each computer restart. After I connected the machine though a USB port, the problem disappeared.

2. The machine is a power hog. Lights dim when it starts printing. Does Brother use all this power to provide fast printing? Apparently not -- the machine takes about 15 seconds to start the printing process. In comparison, my five-year-old Xerox P8 starts printing in about half the time, and without dimming the lights.

3. According to an email I received from Brother, you cannot have more than one Brother MFC connected to the same computer. But I was able to get the MFC 9700 and my old MFC 3100 (inkjet but with color capability) to work from the same PC, just not at the same time.

4. Brother phone support takes forever, occasionally disconnecting you after the longest time on the phone. Email response took 2 business days.

5. Otherwise, a great, fast printer, and a good scanner, copier, and fax. Also, printing is inexpensive, with the high-yield toner cartridge costing less than the cartridge for my Xerox, while providing more toner.

I needed to replace my HP OfficeJet 710 that was loud and aging. I didn't plan on spending quite this much, but the features that you get with the Brother MFC 9700 makes it a bargain. Yes, the laser printer is quiet and fast. The sheetfeeder operation is smooth. No jams anywhere so far. The flatbed cover hinges raise over 1 inch for book scanning. Stand-alone fax is fast and sends very legible docs. Copier is one-touch and output looks great.

It's little bonuses that please me too like the caller-id display, print driver options for manual two-sided printing and watermarks, fast warm-up time and one-touch fax receive mode selection.

I miss color printing, but I wouldn't return to InkJet for it. Laser is sharper than InkJet, more professional looking and doesn't ever smear. Another bonus: though the laser is b&w, the scanner is 24bit color up to 9600x9600 - also has grayscale and b&w scan settings. Color scanning from photos is accurate to my eye.

My laptop connects to work over VPN from my home office, so there is no way to setup network printing that lets my laptop print after VPN disconnects it from my home LAN. The big bonus for me is that I can have my home Win98 system print to the MFC 9700 over USB at the same time as my WinNT laptop prints using its Parallel Port. Perfect solution.

I needed a scanner mainly for scanning my old prints, negatives and slides. Initially I was going to buy a cheaper photo scanner (Epson 1250), but was disappointed by its poor quality.

The 2450 has exceeded my expectations. From prints or negatives, it is producing superb quality scans, and it does it FAST. A few comments from my experience so far:

- The scanner comes with an excellent bundle of software. TWAIN is a great product - very user friendly UI for all types of scans (scan to file, print, email, post to the Web). Not too happy with SilverFast though (bad UI and unstable). Photoshop Elements, although a learning curve is needed, is excellent photo editing tool.
- Unless you have to print a HiRes photo over 8x10's, use 300dpi: you'll get the same results as higher resolutions, and is much faster (scanning a color print at 300dpi is ~30sec, compared to over 5min at 1600dpi.
- If you scan at 1600dpi/48bit, be prepared for huge amount of computer resources for processing the image, both by TWAIN and Photoshop. I have a 2.2GHz P4, 1GB memory, and when I tried to scan a large photo at 1600dpi, about 500MB of memory was used (good thing TWAIN displays how much mem is needed prior to the scan). Photoshop's performance was also degraded.
- After some experimentation, I'm getting best results by making some pre-scan enhancements via TWAIN (mainly Gamma & Color adjustments), and add final touches with Photoshop. Assuming you have the time to spend, this will be a fun thing to do, and will feel great when you see that with a decent photo printer you can produce better photos than your originals!
- The scanner works fine with XP. Its drivers are not certified by Microsoft for XP, (which means you have to manually install the drivers that come with the scanner), but so far I had no problems.

I think this is one of the best buys I made. The only concern I can think of, is its size compared to other scanners (shouldn't be a problem to most of you, unless you live in an apartment in Manhattan as I do...). You can get a scanner at half price or less, but if you need to digitize your photos and slides, this is the way to go.

I needed a higher resolution than 1200 dpi for scanning 120 film, and I am glad I finally decided to go get this one after reading so many reviews at so many websites on this wonderful scanner. Epson must have thought of us serious but non-professional photographers who want great scans to produce sharp (if need be) and excellent quality prints but can not or will not shell out [the money] for a medium/large format film scanner.

I venture to say this scanner is fine for professional use also. Epson's smart panel software is fine, pre-scan editing features are many and quite useful, especially the color cast tool for negative film. There is a gamma set slider, brightness and shadows sliders, and you can save any settings for film used on a regular basis, or for batch scanning, especially 35mm slides and negatives.

You can make a mask out of flat black matting or mounting board if needed for different templates for batch scanning 2.25 sq film or 6x7, 6x9. The area for film scanning is 4"x9". The scans may seem a bit soft at first, but my scans have responded well to unsharpmasking once I got to Photoshop. My first A3 size print on heavyweight matte with my Epson 1280 came out razor sharp. ...

This scanner comes with Photoshop Elements-the advantage over PS 5 LE is the history palette-very useful for undoing a certain step if necesary. Photoshop 5 LE has a curves graph, something missing from PS Elements. This scanner picks up shadow detail very well; at 100% magnification, the detail is there to see. I have had very little noise with only one scan, and that can be fixed in your editing software (try gaussian blur w/ the magic wand tool).

I am simply amazed and very happy at the image quality from this scanner, and 48 bit scans, at that. I have a 4000dpi scanner for 35mm, but this one does quite well for getting 8x10 inch prints from 35mm scans (at 360 print resolution-larger at a smaller print resolution), and is convenient and fun to use. Silverfast also comes with this, and if you upgrade to Silverfast HDR you can edit in 48 bit mode also-keep all that detail!

If you are looking for a great medium format scanner, you do not have to pay a small fortune-it is all right here. With a fine pre-scan software package, 48bit scans, Silverfast AI and Photoshop Elements, warm up Epson's 1280 printer for some nice 13x19" prints and VOILA! You ARE there! ...

This review can be quite short and make all the relevant points.

* This scanner is FAST (using IEEE 1394)
* This scanner does an incredible job on transparencies.
* The included software (Epson Twain 5) is really nice.
* Did I say it was fast?

Don't even think of using this scanner with USB. Get yourself a IEEE 1394 card and put it in your machine. This scanner makes USB look like the dark ages. IEEE 1394 is THE reason to buy this scanner to me. I did a quick test and it made the final scan with IEEE 1394 seem like the pre-scan on USB.

The included transparency adapters are kind of flimsy, but I keep them in a safe place. You can scan 4 slides without adjusting anything...it scans them in sequence at the quality level you want.

I'm scanning 120 negatives as proofs and it's done away with my need for any kind of contact sheet/4x6 proof of my shots. I can make darkroom enlargement decisions right on the PC. My clients can get a very good idea of the tonal quality and composition without me going through the expense of printing ANYTHING in the darkroom.

For reflective media, this Scanner is incredible. I've never seen scans like this with such speed. The copy function is great - hooked to a Lexmark Z52 on draft mode, and it makes really, really fast copies.

I found myself feeling like I was working an enlarger in a darkroom rather than a PC and Scanner. I was digging up old negatives that were never printed just for the fun of it. Turn the scanner to its maximum resolution and it slows down some but the results are suprisingly good for flatbed! I made a 11x14 print from a 120 negative and it looked really good. Dare I say ready to exhibit?

Now I'd like to have a $3000 film scanner for my 120 work (donations accepted) but until then, this is doing great for me.

After working with this gadget on four business books, I concluded that the downside outweighed the upside.

The upside:
When it worked, the scanning mode that transferred text directly into a WORD-document saved a lot of time.

The downside:
(1) The text still needed editing since the C Pen misread letters and commas in every other sentence. (2) Most functions of the C Pen were very cumbersome for someone who is used to the convenience and user-friendliness of a PC or laptop. After an initial try at writing with the C Pen or copying my address book from a PDA to the C Pen, I gave up on these functions. (3) After about an hour of constant use, my C Pen tended to "hang up"; the scanning device in the tip of the pen simply continued to light up without scanning anything. (4) The C Pen needed a lot of power: After four books I had to replace the two AAA batteries in the pen.

The bottom-line:
A good product idea in search of a reliable and user-friendly technology.

The C-Pen is simply the best tool I ever came across for any kind of writing from research to novels to what ever your needs will ever be in the future.

The days of being at the Reference section of any library and copying and retyping are over. One swift use of the C-Pen and your in rewrite heaven with easy citations. Ever read an article in a magazine or newspaper and want to comment on it, just use the C-Pen, you got the exact quote and can respond in kind! See a specific piece of research you want to quote, scan it in line by line with the citation. The Business card scan with C-Pen is easier and faster than rewriting it on palm pilot!

I read how you must get use to using this device. I found no such problems. The text need only be put on a surface to steady it, then scanning line by line so long you keep your hand steady and straight makes it quite easy! The only one drawback is scanning underline text, but I found that to be a minor problem compared to the overall great benefits.

What I really appreciated was the easy installation. The OCR is simply amazing and works in Microsoft Word with absolute ease and speed. This is especially gratifying because I expected complications and found none!

I loaded the software and called Technical Support to make sure this was the latest device on the market! I was at first disappointed I was unable reach a real person, but within a half an hour they called back and walked me through it! When I found out the newer model holds more with a bigger dictionary, I was still satisfied with the 600-C. Depends on your needs whether you want to spend the extra cash on the 800-C model. The booklet is like a Car Manual, but if you take the time to read it, you will never read it again!

I made only one big mistake, I did not check Amazon.com first and saw the price is about $40.00 under retail prices at all stores I checked everywhere! I was unable to take back the device without a re-stocking fee so don't make my mistake, buy it from Amazon.com.

In closing, you will never regret buying this device and using it often for your purposes. It is simply the easiest and best product I have ever used and seen in quite awhile! It is every writers, businessperson, lawyers and research educators dream!

As a foreigner going to north america for student exchange, I found this pen indispensable. The pen proved itself already on the flight over the pond; the man next to me got curious about my device and the following conversation ended with a business card and my first contact on the scary continent. I especially use the pen for translation and am more than happy with its use. The only thing its lacking is an easy way to build a list of words I've looked up; I'd like to save all the words I've looked up in a special file for further repetition and learning. It takes some time to get use to scanning text but once you get the hang of it C-pen is just great. A definite buy for anyone who uses a dictionary frequently. C-direct, the function that lets you scan text straight into the cursor's position (in a Word document e.i.) is also usable. Of little use is the address book. There is no need to have your address book in Outlook, cell-phone, PDA and C-pen. If you need more than one dictionary (I could need one English-Swedish-English plus one English-English)you need to get the C-pen 800 (has more RAM). But with the 800 you also get (and thus pay for) some other useless functions such as SMS and fax.

I did a lot of due diligence before buying the IRIS Pen II Executive Scanner, including all the other pen scanner products on the market. I was initially a little put off by the fact you had to attach it to a computer via a USB cable to work. FWIW, I am using it with MacOS X 10.2.6 and a iBook.

I have had it for over a month now, purchased in July 2003, and I LIKE it. I have primarily used it to scan text from photocopies of journal articles. These are clearly not the highest quality text material from which to scan, but nevertheless, the IRIS pen handles them acceptably. By that, I mean, I get around 85% accuracy. This clearly means, I have to go back and retype things, but still, I am able to capture large quanities of text to use *in a very rapid fashion*. Like one of the previous posters, I do tend to use it like a highlighter.

As a word of instructive advice...it may be difficult to figure out how to hold the pen. Just try different positions and your hand will develop 'memory' in holding it correctly, such that it captures text.

I guess my overall experience is neither the 100% success that others have had, nor the despair that a few have faced. I would certainly buy this product again.

This is not so much a review as a heads up to the reviewer (Roy Herron) who said it was useless to him because he scans on colored backgrounds. You can adjust for background color on the Executive model just for this purpose. You said you bought from a seller, so I'm guessing that you didn't get all the documentation with your purchase. So, call ReadIris Tech Support (1-(561)-921-0847) and they can tell you how. I use mine for scanning barcodes when packing books. Makes it easy to keep track of what's in each box.

If you're looking for a fast and accurate handheld scanner, I strongly recommend the IRIS II Executive.

I first bought the Quick Link Pen from Wizcom and got incredibly frustrated by that product's slowness and ridiculously poor accurary. I ended up returning my Quick Link Pen and getting the IRIS II Exec instead.

The Iris II Exec is incredibly fast and more importantly incredibly accurate. I can scan faster than I would with a highlighter and I rarely get mistakes. I'm a Biochem Grad Student and I scan a lot of words that wouldn't seem easily recognized, but the IRIS II works like a champ.

Even though, the Iris II Exec is not portable, it's accuracy and speed make up for it in leaps and bounds. The company's claim of 99% accuracy is pretty on the money. I type 80 wpm and scanning with this pen is far faster than typing.

If you're looking for a Handheld Scanner, this is by far the best choice.