Fujitsu ScanSnap s500

Reviewed by: ChristmasB

06-30-07

Duration of ownership: 5 Months

Strengths: Fast and virtually flawless.

Weaknesses: None now that the Vista driver is out.

Overall Evaluation: My only frustration was the lack of a Vista driver. Today it was posted and I installed it without a problem. (http://tinyurl.com/2by5h6) It seems to work just fine. For personal use, this unit may seem expensive, but the speed and efficiency with which it works means that you can: 1) Convert just about everything in your file cabinet(s) to electronic and discard the originals; and 2) Keep the unit on the desk and scan stuff in as you receive it, then toss it. It also allows easy sharing of all sorts of things via email. You will feel very good about this purchase.

Reviewed by: thomasebellamy

04-19-07

Duration of ownership: 1 Years

Strengths: Very quick and easy to scan documents. We even have some scan directly into a shared folder for many users to access. Scans quickly into pdf format, front and back scans at the same time.

Weaknesses: The software is limited, but if you are looking for the basics as we are it didn't matter to us.

Overall Evaluation: We started with one in our office to quickly scan and send documents. One quickly turned into several and now every office and work center has one. This really is a great simple product that every office should have.

Reviewed by: kludas

04-03-07

Duration of ownership: 6 Months

Strengths: OS XP this is a very fast reliable scanner. I may convert my new notebook from Vista to XP pro just to be able to use this device.

Weaknesses: Warning No Vista Drivers. Due April 07 now pushed to June/ July 07 No notation of this in the PCWORLD review.

Overall Evaluation: If you have XP this is a great scanner. No excuse for Vista drivers not being ready. This is why the one star / poor rate. Sometimes pages stick together on fresh printed documents. I need to bend the pages different directions then restack and feed in the scanner.

Reviewed by: Anonymous

Updated: 28-May-07

Strengths: Simple to use.Different sized papers all go in in one stack. We have a $30,000 copier that can't do this.

Weaknesses: None - For this price, the quality is exceptional.

Overall Evaluation: Saved me money - Took client's tax papers, Small W2 and 1099 papers, and large sheets of various sizes. They all scanned in without a problem, at the same time. By reducing the time to scan (feed the pages through) I get to spend more time on my clients work which gets me paid more money.The OCR reading is great with 750 pages scanned an not a problem. This saves me more time/money as I can now index all the OCR converted pdf documents using Windows Desktop Search.

Reviewed by: ua2000_25

Updated: 19-Apr-07

Strengths: Fast, simple, efficient, ADF works nearly flawlessly, jams are simple to clear, everything is automated and searchable

Weaknesses: It is pretty expensive for personal use. Wish it would accept up to 11"x17" without having to use carrier sheet.

Overall Evaluation: This scanner has finally let me get organized! Everyday I bring home a briefcase full of papers that I have collected, spend a few minutes scanning, and toss them in the garbage. I'm now virtually paperless! Also great for keeping track of bills, etc at home. I was amazed with how quickly this machine scans...even double sided and color. Be warned though...using the option to make searchable PDF's will take some processing time (50 pages took ~5-10 minutes).

Reviewed by: Anonymous

Updated: 21-Mar-07

Strengths: quite compact, very fast, the bundled software works very well, this is what document scanning is meant to be!

Weaknesses: occasional ADF misfeed, there is a little bit of a learning curve of setting a stack of paper in but generally works very well

Overall Evaluation: I've used brand H flat bed scanners for years with quite some frustration, especially the suitability of the software for bascially turn pages of paper into electronic format (preferrably pdf). The bundled Acrobat is worth half the price of the unit. The Abby fine reader and the front end software work well for quickly and easily scanning documents. I like the fact I can control the settings to get the result I want (like turning a bunch of old yellow thermal faxes) into a text searchable pdf file in 1 or 2 minutes. The files are also reasonably compact, my old brand H version you could scan to pdf, but a simple page of B&W text could end up being 1-2 megs, instead of a more reasonable 40-80 kb. I am going to recommend this to my tax guy so he can turn a complicated tax return with odds and ends of reciepts and statements into one nice compact pdf file. If you go to the Fujitsu webstie, their video demonstration is, I think, an accurate representation of using the product. ...

Reviewed by: kaval

Updated: 01-Mar-07

Strengths: A very fast DUPLEX sheetfed scanner. Wonderful for scanning odd sized documents.

Weaknesses: No twain scanner.

Overall Evaluation: This is a compact desktop duplex sheetfed scanner excellent for scanning multiple sheets. It is very ergonomic. You will almost certainly require a second scanner if you want to scan photographs. The software took a little while to install and recognize the device, but once this was accomplished it worked extremely well on windows XP. I would recommend this scanner for rapidly converting papers to pdf format.

Reviewed by: scotte9999

Updated: 18-Feb-07

Strengths: Very small footprint, and works with Linux/BSD!

Weaknesses: ADF occasionally multi-feeds, bundled Windows drivers are so-so.

Overall Evaluation: This scanner is much smaller than I expected, and also a lot faster! I have it connected to my NetBSD system (using SANE), and all the computers on my network are able to scan (in duplex!). The scanner is VERY fast, especially at 300dpi (it maxes out at 600), so no complaints about speed at all.I tried the bundled drivers for Windows, and was not very happy with what they offered, although the bundled Acrobat is a nice extra. Using the Unix drivers (with SaneTWAIN for Windows compatibility), this scanner is awesome.