Portable scanners - Are they really THAT bad?

What happens if you try and use the scanner to scan the space around you like a camera? Will it work?

Why am I watching this ?

I'D LIKE YOU TO SCAN AN LP ALBUM COVER BOTH FRONT AND BACK and a 45 cover or an ep...since they are 12 x 12 and not covered fully on a scanner

I have the exact same scanner in my closet. I haven used in years. However, the sound it makes while scanning is unmistakable.

Use a Japanese branded scanner instead of a knock off subpar chinese brand; Problem solved

These are like modern miracles compared to the hand scanners of the 90s. Flatbeds were crazy expensive back then and so the average enthusiast could only afford a hand scanner, to which even those cost several hundred dollars. But the hand held ones were so sensitive to motion that you had to perfect moving the scanner down the page as even a sudden small jerk ruined the whole thing. I figure these modern hand held ones have quite a bit of digital signal processing to compensate for all that.

that smartphone looked straight out of my highschool era!
anyways, when I was a kid I was super into doing art, for the longest time I couldn't afford a flatbed scanner, one of those would make my eyes shine like a diamond, until the dissapointment hit with the woes of scanning things using my child steadiness

Hi Nice video

I used one of the very early isa ones that resembled a modern day bar code reader of that ultrasound device at the doctors

typically you may fit a normal pare in 2 swipes - left and right, then help the software line up left and right and the overlap and the software would actually "stitch it together"

Auto stitching helped except in say a pattern or crossword puzzle ( even a photo of a woman wearing a dress / jacket ) where it should make a wrong guess and left and right does not line up


I am suprised today at the quality of office 3 in one photocopiers, most A4 pages are about 5k - quite legible and i can sent a 20-100 page document in a email ( Cannon and fuji / zerox do a great job )


Best was a flatbed scanner, the first one @ 1998 was very heavy

I spend 3 sunday afternoons in @ 2000 using win98 scanning all of my parents photo albums, they were fine some have errors and early 70's photos have that orange haze - photoshop fixes it a bit
This was scusi or usb i dont recall - BUT it was a 3 pass scanner - each page took 2 minutes, scan 1, scan 2 , scan 3 - then wait for the software to merge it all, then press save - that was another 2 minutes



Later i purchased a XP era usb one, single pass luckily i still have it but the mira scan software only works under XP - so that can only be used on my Toshiba laptop

Best was all mums black and white photos late 50's and all 60's, i have hi res originals, normal res and also a set of them colourised using free online facilites

she noticed one photo and said "you never had a red and white jumper " , also dads car was 2 tone white and light grey, but the colourised has is as sky blue and dark green

Oh - in 1992 i wanted my wedding photo plus a photo of both children at a car show, i was quoted $50 by a photo developer to do it - a scanner cost @ $1000 then

I bought the PanDigital photo scanner after seeing this video, though I haven't tried it out yet.

The worst thing is if a scanner has an automatic colour correction.

i had one of the very first mobile handheld scanners in the nineties, it actually worked quite well (after i finally managed to install all the drivers)

That flatbed at the very end!!! AFGA?

Im not sure if it's a common feature, but I love my Epson ES-50's ability to scan arbitrarily long documents (like up to several metres long!). Not great image quality, but excellent for receipts

Can you scan War and Peace for me, and deliver it to my father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate place?

How many years your phone haves lg doesn't produce smarphones since like 3 years ago

I don't know which thrift store you go to but it seems they sell some awesome stuff, pity i live on the opposite side if the globe so I'll never be able to make a visit

It's a very cumbersome solution.

I have that Pandigital scanner and the only problem I had was which way to scan 35mm negatives.

I have one of these wand scanners and it works great. You don't need to tape down the document, neither you need to push that much on the paper while scanning. If you gently move it from top to bottom, it scans perfectly, no wrinkles or other side effects.

As I understand, the handheld scanner does not have any sensors to the wheels, for example, so if you move it across the picture in an uneven speed or not in exactly the straight angle, you tilt it slightly to a side, you always end up with a kind of distorted image, right? I always wondered about that and your picture at 3m49s confirms that. The sheet feeder scanner unfortunately does not allow you to scan thicker and larger objects, so the flatbed are still the best.

Oh hey I'm pretty sure I have one of those pan digital scanners branded as pixie or something like that that I got at Goodwill. I love your videos and your sense of humor and every once in awhile your voice sounds enough like mine that when I'm listening at work I think "am I listening to one of my videos?" for a split second 😂

wow

I just use my phone and that works for me. But the video was good thanks

This is Hilarious I recently got a Pandigital scanner at a Yardsale that is like those two combined it has a motorized cradle that allows for document feeding up to 8.5 x14 with a power cable but you can remove the photo sensor unit and wand it over magazines etc and it take 2 AA batteries it also goes up to 600 dpi, I only really use it to scan my drawings so that edit and color them in Clip Studio Paint and since they are mostly Pencils art, it is good enough for that but I would not claim it has great image quality or anything and the feeder can pull the paper in slanted so I have to be quite careful when loading it for it will crinkle the page and the scan with come out janky

For me? For the most basic of basic office use? ANY of these would work.

I drive a school bus, so the stuff I would scan? It's probably just a "route sheet" or something that doesn't really have anything in the way of detail. Or a signed contract of some sort. Or a receipt.

Kevin, I'm noticing a Volkswagen theme in this video... what's going on? 😆

I thought the title said “Portable Scammers” Lol!

Oops, should have watched the whole video. Perhaps make a wider scanner and place larger rollers off to the sides bracketing the scanner face.

...
for the handheld ones

It would be helpful to have rollers on these, as long as they find a way to place them away from the scanner face.

iPhone and iPad have a built-in document scanner that you can access with the Notes or Files app. It works really well. Developers can even add the scanner to their own apps using the VNDocumentCameraViewController API.

Any of these beats when I had to use a camcorder feeding a Hauppauge TV card in order to put a "photo" into an email. I did pick up a Mustek scanner with a parallel port interface soon after. Since it and my printer mainly got used as a copier my next purchase was an all in one MFP.

I recall handheld scanners that looked like a squeegee. An optional extra was a tray which would drag the scanner along making it more like a flatbed.

P.S. Just before you started looking at the cat photo our cat decided to jump on my lap. Then he was staring at the screen.

The Pan Digital scanner seemed to introduce scratches and/or lines in the scans. Am I correct thinking that? Or was the original photos damaged in some way? I can imagine that pulling the photo through the scanner would introduce the possibility of dirt getting stuck before the pulling motor, and thus scratch the photos...

I seem to have that exact same scanner as that Brookstone, but it's branded "VuPoint Solutions" and "MAGIC WAND". The only difference is that instead of a "C/BW" button, it has one labeled "JPG PDF". Of course, one would expect Brookstone products to be rebrands.

I encountered the same issues with scanning actual paper. There isn't really a good substitute for the old-school flatbed scanner with a heavy lid that presses the paper flat on the scanning glass.

If you need to tape down the edges of the page you wanna scan, even only while getting used to this device, it has already lost in any office environment since this doesn't provide any time or process related advantage over a traditional flatbed or even a ADF System

That's funny. I work with an organization that has a receipt printer it has a micro USB port in a DC Jack guess what it doesn't charge over USB so when I found a USB cable in the box recently with it I instantly knew that the battery was gonna be dead because somebody plugged in with the USB cable and not the actual power cord. PS you can get USB boost converters and wire that to a jack or even in some cases a cable that will input 5 V and output 6V, 9V, 12V etc.

Somehow standalone scanners have become kind of a niche thing.

It's a lot cheaper to buy an all-in-one and use it exclusively for scanning than it is to buy a modern flatbed scanner.

I use mine to scan objects for 3D modeling, since regular cameras distort perspective.

I have one of these "feed through" scanners, a Brother DS-620 which has a 600dpi resolution if my memory serves me correct. Had it for ages and it does the job quite well for my purposes. Plus it saves space as it is a bit limited for me, i can easily tuck it away in a drawer while not in use. Though i need to hook it up to my PC using a (very dated looking) software to run it.
For cleaning mine i can actually flip open the feed through-house to clean off the rollers and scan sensor, which is pretty neat.
The only annoying thing is the USB connection is located on the back, right where the paper comes out, and will (ofcourse) get stuck if you're not observant enough. The way it's connected on the side as on yours would've been much better. I've also noticed the surrounding light can leak through and cause some weird effects so i use to cut my quite strong LED desk light out while scanning.

To make it easier to scan using the portable wand you can put the thing to scan between two transparencies (such as those used for an overhead projector in schools and colleges). Then you have a more solid article to scan. (Portable photo scanners use these too, when cut to the correct size - they take in the item you are scanning automatically, with a bit of assistance. They are not very good though, as they often take more than one attempt to scan an item. Often they stretch the image as they get stuck - or go askew; at least in my experience of using them).

Re the paperless society, many official government agencies absolutely demand all documentation in original form, and will not accept even downloaded and printed pdf files such as bank statements, so beware of this, because it can land you in a lot of trouble with the authorities if you do not have the originals, or only have digital, online versions. This is still true now in 2023! Always demand paper, and file it carefully, the old-fashioned way. I write from personal experience.

I still use an Epson flatbed scanner I bought in 2003, it was a very expensive model at the time. I think I've also still got a wand scanner somewhere, it's very like the one here - maybe the same item with a different maker's name on? Anyway, I found it a PITA to use.

lost 70 USD with this piece of crap many years ago.

Apart from the considerations... do you remember the SCSI flatbed scanners that played music if turned on without any connection?
I was able to see and listen to an HP one, here in Italy, because of a friend of mine owning a professional model 😉

For the Pandigital, you should have used a portable power supply capable of 6V output.

I don't know why but V's New Jersey accent really started coming out when be was talking about the cleaning stick haha

I was first introduced to computers in 1979, and even then I heard my computer teacher saying they would lead to the paperless office.