Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Scanner for PC

Pros: The S1500 is my 3rd scanner. I purchased it for faster scanning and duplex capability. Let me tell you… this scanner does NOT disappoint!! No TWAIN, but that is not missed at all. I used to have problems with TWAIN + ADF + Acrobat. Not any more! Everything JUST WORKS RIGHT, and I’m beginning to believe that TWAIN is more of a liability than an asset. The S1500 is super fast. I put a number of mixed documents onto the scanner, then press the lit (blue) button on the scanner. It pulled those pages through, scanning them all perfectly. No fuss, no issues. It comes with a clear “Carrier Sheet” if you need put feed through very small receipts or sticky notes which you fear otherwise might not feed well. The included ScanManager software is very good. Ther's also a full version of Acrobat 9 Standard, a business card scanning program (which I’ve not used) and ABBYY FineReader if you need to convert scanned images to MS Word, Excel, or Powerpoint. That works very well.

Cons: One of the disadvantages of using an ADF over a flatbed is that the ADF causes a bit more non-linearity. For example, I fed through a monthly statement that was mailed Z-folded in the envelope. Because it’s folded, as it’s fed through, it moves a bit. The lines on the edges don’t look 100% straight. It’s not significant for me enough to deduct an egg for it, but it’s just something I noticed because I used to do map scanning on my flatbeds which required very good linearity. If OCR is important to you (as it is to me), let me warn you that Acrobat 9 (and 9.1) has a serious bug with the OCR. The “OCR Suspects” features is completely broken in Acrobat 9. It’s always pulls up nothing, even if Acrobat completely makes a mess of the OCR. Very sad; I expected better…ADOBE FIX YOUR SOFTWARE!

Overall Review: Before I purchased this unit, I debated whether to get the slightly more expensive package which is bundled with V5 Rack2 Filter. If you are unsure like I was, I would recommend you download the demo software from the Fujitsu website. I’m glad I had a chance to play with it because after using it, I realized that it wasn’t going to be useful to me at all so I ordered the lower cost package without that extra software, saving me about $45.

Pros: Fantastic product. I pay the bills at my company. Bill comes in, enter in Quickbooks, scan with the ScanSnap, and throw away. Scanner produces a PDF. Software does OCR so the PDFs are searchable. Need the phone bill from four months ago? A few clicks with the mouse and there it is. I also have ScanSnap S510 at home. The S1500 does much better at feeding paper. The S510 will sometime pull two or three pages through at once but the S1500 does not. Also does much better at things like cash register receipts. I can scan 5 or 6 at a time no problem.

Cons: A dialog box comes up after each scan asking me what to do with it. Have not figure out how to alway save in the scan organizer software. The OCR program waits until system is idle before starting.

Overall Review: The scanner has gotten rid of tons of paper from my office and made my life much easier.

Pros: Very fast, great software, it detects jams, lets you start over or continue from that place. Now I scan, backup and shred. I wish I bought this years ago.

Cons: Don't scan picture unless placed in the enclose protective screen. Max width 1.5 inch.

Pros: Once you scan a lot you will realize the limitations of this little machine. When I had to scan 11x17 on a large copier, it was not easy to get it as clear or as simple to scan as with the S1500. Bottom line: if you need to scan lots of paper, this is way better than most current alternatives for the money.

Cons: It takes some time to learn to all options. Not enough automatic file naming options exist. It does jamb, but detects the jamb. It is not simple to determine if you can resume scanning as it is hard to tell which page(s) it misfed. I've managed to have it suck in a wad of about 5 pages. It detected it, but still annoying. Luckily, the machine opens up so jams are not an issue to get out. Paper guides need to be taller. The pages get sucked in and then tilt away from the shallow guides making the paper sometimes get scanned crooked. Guides move too easily. I get wavy lines on some scans, always on the same area of the page. Maybe something is wrong with mine. Auto sizing could be better, especially on the business cards, which are often not straight or fully trimmed. Cardminder is good, but it is amazing how many cards are poorly designed for scanning. Not easy to scan low contrast print. I tried all settings on the scanner, but a copy machine had no trouble

Overall Review: Autorotate only works properly about 50% of the time and often on only part of a document. Acrobat 8 Pro works without issue. Just install all the scanning software before plugging in the scanner. I think one button is a gimmick. I usually use the taskbar icon so I can adjust settings and pick simplex/duplex. That is faster than deleting extra blanks later. One button might work if you always scan the same type of documents or want to bother with the SnapScan Manager/Organizer each and every time versus bypassing it altogether.

Pros: Just works and fast. What else do you expect from a scanner? Doesn't get jam, does duplex and it generates a PDF file with only one click and automatically add the Generated PDF file as an attachment within your email client(outlook 2007/2010) Really high res scanner for documents Included Software(ScanSnap) is far better than Acrobat reader X pro Completely integrates with acrobat reader pro x. Comes with a full license of adobe acrobat 9 standard. Really Small

Cons: Look fragile and it's really petite. As long as it get the work delivered in time, who cares!

Overall Review: had a really hard time trying to decide which one of the fujitsu's should I buy. Well I'm glad I went with the cheaper one, it saved me 400 bucks. The more expensive unit Fujitsu fi-6130 should be an impressive high performance machine. At the end, you get what you pay for.

Pros: Fast, simple to use, the feeder is a wonder; I've only managed to confuse it a few times (and then with some pretty ratty/folded documents) in thousands of pages. Even then, it recovers nicely; tells you how far it got, lets you clear the jam and restart the scan from that point. While the docs suggest a reasonably hefty PC, I toyed with the idea of having a more portable "scan station" so as a test, installed the software on a Lenovo S10-2 netbook with 2gb RAM. Not the fastest thing going, but in most cases, it takes me about as long to prep the next batch of documents for scanning as it does this rig to scan the current batch. OCR would be faster on a heftier PC, but I scan a batch sans OCR then turn the OCR process loose on all of the scans and let it run while I go out or sleep or whatever. If you're not sitting there watching it, tapping your fingers, it takes no time. All is relative.

Cons: Docs are weak at explaining how the various provided programs work together and how to set up efficient workflows for various tasks. For example, it's not made clear that you don't really even need the included Acrobat to make and OCR PDFs. Luckily it's all pretty easy to work out with a few tests.

Overall Review: I got the scanner surprisingly quickly (NewEgg. I should've expected it.) Every day I've spent some time scanning batches of stuff; tech info, financial documents, checks, etc. In the two weeks I've had it, I've scanned enough paper to fill 3.5 file boxes and may be able to eliminate an entire file cabinet before long. One trick I found for saving disk space when scanning documents I intend to OCR and where the exact layout isn't critical: scan w/o OCR to PDF. Once I've accumulated a batch of PDFS, drag them to the ABBY PDF to Word conversion icon, let it make a Word file. Combine any of these I want to in Word, then use Word's Save As PDF to generate a final text-only, no-scanned image, lightweight PDF. Free The Terabytes! ;-)

Pros: I have put 6 vertical feet of paper through this scanner of all paper types. I even started cutting the pages out of old books I want to keep and running them through this scanner. I love the double feed sensor, it is foolproof. After massive use, no problems at all.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Get some cans of compressed air and spray it out after use, keeps it clear of paper dust and bits. This is an excellent product. I am an EE design engineer and I congratulate the engineers at Fujitsu for this design.

Pros: Very fast, duplex scan - color or b&w. Small footprint. Handles odd-sized documents easily. Basic software stores data files as PDF documents and is therefore easy to navigate without scanner software.

Cons: Sometimes includes a blank page when text bleeds through thin paper. Also gets landscape/portrait layout incorrect if there is sparse text (can't really fault the unit for either item). I would like the viewing/editing software to load a bit faster, but this is really a small nit.

Overall Review: I purchased this unit to go paperless (or at least paper sparse) in my home. So far I've scanned hundreds of pages - financial, work, insurance, car records, etc. I am very pleased with the speed and its overall fitness for document capture and retention. I haven't tried the OCR, so I can't really comment on that functionality. I'm so happy with this unit that I'm buying another one for my office paperwork!