VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand Portable Scanner

I love this product! It's easy to use, so handy, seems well made. Of course, it is an electronic gadget, so I have been handling it with care and put it away in it's case as soon as I am finished with it. I have used it to scan a few hundred pictures so far, and the picture quality is excellent (for my needs, it's clear enough to see detail and read text) in both low and high resolution. Took me just a few scans to guage how quickly to move across a page. If the page is too large to do in one swipe, simply do it in two or three overlapping passes. You could stitch it together if you had to, but I have found it to be sufficient to have multiple images rather than spend time putting them together. I then hook it up to the pc (included usb cord), it is recognized as an external storage device, and the images are quickly transferred to my computer. I have used my Picassa photo software to crop the edges neatly, but you don't have to. Currently I am trying to figure out what I'd like to do with my kitchen, so I have been scanning pictures of ideas from books, magazines etc, and saving them to a file on my computer. I can use this anywhere for that! I'm using the files on my computer right now, but am getting an e-tablet soon, so will be able to have the files with me when i am out and about. I will also be using this to organize receipts, warranties, etc. And, since we homeschool, I can see this coming in handy to scan and organize co-op notes, schedules, all sorts of things. I love this so much I don't even mind I paid $20 more for it a few weeks ago, than it is now. My friend has gotten them for herself and siblings because of mine, and I think I am getting one for my sister for a gift, too.I highly recommend buying the extra storage case, I can't imagine throwing this wand into a backpack or purse without it. And you will want to get rechargeable batteries ( I recommend the hybrid kind, they hold a charge much longer), and keep spares with you if you're out of the house or at the library with it.I only cannot comment fully on the included software, it is supposed to allow you to convert text in the picture to 'useable' text, I haven't messed with it enough to be able to give an honest report.I've got an 8gb micro card for it, the most pictures I've had on it at one time was 139, of high resolution, and it wasn't full....I didn't think to check and see how much room was left.I do have a desktop scanner, and I found it to be quite a pain to sit at the desk and try to put a book in there the right way, it was so nice to sit at the table and scan that way! I'll still use it as a copy machine, or for quick flat scans, but my go-to scanner is my magic wand.Oh, another recommendation, if you have younger children you may not want to call it a magic wand, mine have been having Harry Potter fantasies about mom's new gadget!I think this would be an excellent gift for students, craftspeople.......

It has been way too long since anyone made a really usable hand scanner. I've been looking for one for years. So I was very excited when I saw a review of the 'Magic Wand' on one of my news feeds.This product does the trick. You have to be fairly slow and steady to get a good scan, but hey... it's a hand scanner! So no surprise there. The scan quality is quite acceptable for a device of this type. Not what you would get from a flatbed scanner, but hey... it's a hand scanner! Print is readable, photo quality isn't fantastic but might improve as my scanning skills get better.The scanner is bundled with 'ABBYY Screenshot Reader', which extracts text from an image. ABBYY is one of the major producers of optical character recognition (OCR)software. I have a document scanner that came with and ABBYY OCR program. But I have never seen a screenshot reader before. This product allows you to select an area on your computer screen, and it will extract text from that area and put it in your clipboard.So when you scan an image with the 'Magic Wand', you can connect the scanner to your computer with a USB cable (included); open the image in a picture viewer; and use Screenshot Reader to capture the text.You will probably have to do a bit of touch-up after you paste the text into another application. I have yet to see an OCR program that does perfect text conversion. One trick that helps a lot is to zoom in on the text to make it larger. OCR programs work better with larger text.I am very pleased with the 'Magic Wand'. I keep it next to my laptop in the living room (yeah, I'm a multi-computer geek, and I do "side surfing" while I'm watching TV) so I can quickly scan things out of magazines or books. And it's small enough to toss in my computer bag when I'm on the road. Along with my Planon Printsitk portable printer (Planon Printstik PS950ME Label Printer - Monochrome - Direct Thermal), I've got a complete office in a bag!

The product performs well and is relatively easy to use. You do have to purchase an SD card to store the images (MiniSD). The scanner can be a little wobbly to use while 1 hand is holding down a loose piece of paper in order to get a clear scan. My biggest pet peave? The scanned images are in LARGE JPEG format. It would be a perfect product if it gave the option to scan to PDF (and auto compressed the image to fit in a printable field).On the go, it is a great way to scan just about anything that fits in the field of the beam, and the images can be set to high-res, color or B&W. Functions as an External Flash when connected to USB without the need for drivers.I scan a TON of documents and it is a bit of a drag to have to convert the images to PDF later, but other than that in a pinch it is durably built and VERY portable! I still recommend it. For the price, it should have the PDF option.

It gets annoying to clear a large a flat surface area to scan a paper. Specially, when you have to scan it manually, it often does not scan from one edge of the paper to the other as you expect it to when you upload the file on your computer. At age 21, with so many practice run, sometimes, I still have difficulty scanning a paper good enough so that I wouldn't scan part of table which I am scanning the paper on.It get tiring and frustrating when you have to scan multiple pages and then have to use the USB to connect to your computer.When you scan multiple pages, you cannot organize them in order to your PDF or what ever your using. The Abbe software wont allow you. Even, when you re-arrange them according to their name.Magic wand might be useful when you might want to scan a book, but honestly how often would one use this for.Currently I still have this product, but I have purchased a brother scanner DS 620, which I love.