Full description not available
Y**X
TIME SAVER for book scanning
I do a LOT of document scanning for various purposes. From business docs, training material, books, and important, personal papers -- digitizing items AND make them searchable has been a great way to help me clear out the garage, book shelves, and more.Up until lately, I had been using two types of scanners: a portable one like the $260 Epson Workforce ES-65WR (which can scan one page at a time, although slowly) and a business-grade one that can read over 100 pages in just a few minutes at the touch of a button. The former is highly portable but VERY slow, and the latter is very fast but prohibitively expensive and stationary.At one of my video meetings with my counterpart in Japan, I saw a device behind him that caught my attention. He explained that it was an iCodis X3 scanner, and that he used it to scan some of the material he had previously sent me. I had never seen such a device in the USA before and started searching the web for any made by a recognizable brand name. There were shockingly none. I decided to give the latest iCodis X7 a try.PROS- Can scan entire books without having to take the pages apart- Auto-corrects page orientation, curvature, and defective parts (by filling the gaps accordingly)- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) in multiple languages, turning scanned text into searchable text. (Note: it does NOT translate scans. Choosing a language to scan in simply improves the OCR accuracy)- OCR was VERY accurate. Scanned HANDWRITTEN notes, English, and German documents well and exported them into searchable Word, Txt (Text), and PDF formats. Spreadsheets can be saved as Excel too- OCR can read barcodes and QR codes, extracting the hidden text into human readable text- Recognizes individual photos in an album, provided they are separated by a black background, saving each on an individual scan. Otherwise, it will scan all photos as a single page- Scans up to A3 pages (11.69" x 16.53" or 29.7cm x 42.0 cm)- Fast scan (page appears on the computer in less than 2 secs). I was able to scan an entire 600-page training guide in about 1 hour. I wish this scanner had an automatic page-flip feature! :)- Automatic scanning as you place a new page onto the scan surface. This REALLY saves a LOT of time without having to continuously push a scan button!- Manually start a scan with a wired puck- Folds away when not in use, though at 15" tall is not as ultra portable as my Epson- Single USB cable to scan and power the device with. This requires a computer with a USB port- Costs about the same price as my pricey Epson ES-65WR- LED lights illuminate the work area so you can work and scan in the darkCONS- Only works with Windows 8 and later. There is no support for Mac OS- No Wi-Fi capability- No mobile app. Scans only go to the computer, not directly to your smartphone- No travel bag to take the scanner on the road with- "Multi-Language OCR" could be a bit misleading: it does NOT translate scanned text. It merely allows you to choose the language for the scan so the OCR accuracy is more improvedX7 vs X3The new X7 model improves upon my coworker's X3 in the following ways:- "Flattening Curve Technology": automatically flattens a curved scan, making this ideal for scanning books. The X3 primarily is used to scan flat sheets- 15 Megapixel camera (up from X3's 8 MP), allowing for more detailed scans- More LED lights to help illuminate the work and scan area- External scan puck to manually start a jobThe X7 is slightly taller and wider, and about 1 lb heavier than its predecessor.TIPS- If you do not have a CD drive (as most, modern computers nowadays do not), you can download the scanner software by searching the web for "iCODIS MegaScan Pro X7"Overall, I am VERY happy with this scanner. It fills in a gap that was void: a fast way to scan books without taking them apart.If you found this review helpful, please click the "Helpful" button below to encourage me to write more. Thank you!
C**T
Didnt perform as expected
I wanted to like this document scanner but in the end it did not perform as advertised and I was unable to scan my documents. Here's why...Image sensor1.) The scanner is advertised as being a 15mp camera. This may be true, but I took some photos with my 12mp cell phone camera and compared side by side. The cell phone had clearer pictures with accurate color reproduction. The scanner would not show slight color variations such as grey shading on white paper. The scanner would blur barcode lines and cause weird unexplained yellowish dark regions on some pages.Lighting2.) I thought perhaps the poor image quality was due to bad lighting despite using the built in LED lights to illuminate the page. The LEDs built into the unit are not sufficient in the least. They seem to be installed as a gimmick to help sell the product. So, I shined a few 5500k "softbox" diffused lights onto my desk. This helped create a more even color on the page (no more dark yellow spots) but did not improve the clarity of the letters or barcodes on the page.Software3.) The software is basic but seems to work most of the time. A few times the program would freeze and require a restart. But, upon reopening it would ask to reload the previous scanning project so no images were lost. The manufacturer has a DropBox link to the "Cam Shop" software on the product page of their website. If desired you can download the scanning software before buying the scanner to preview it. Just scroll down and look for the DropBox link. The file is about 700mb. The program automatically opens the first time using Chinese language. Look for the little earth ball in the upper right corner of the software which is a drop down menu with other languages.Photos4.) If scanning text, this will indeed create a digital copy with searchable text. However, the text wont be clear and if there are any photos forget it. Your cell phone will take better pictures of photos than this scanner.Summary:If you're simply needing to scan a bunch of books for school this can be useful since you can create a searchable PDF document which would allow you to find specific words in a large textbook quickly. But if you are trying to create a clear, color accurate digital representation of a paper document you'll need to look elsewhere. Even with sufficient lighting this camera is a piece of crap. I actually found SEVERAL apps on the Android marketplace that allow me to use my cell phone to do EXACTLY what this scanner does (Microsoft office lens / Adobe scan). However, I require much clearer copies because I plan on scanning all our old family photos. I am returning this product to Amazon and will probably need to get a DSLR camera and 3rd party software to scan all my documents.
O**T
Some Thoughts
Overall this is a wonderful working tool. Works very well on books & documents printed on uncoated paper. With the built in LED light directly overhead, there are problems with coated or glossy paper --- the overhead light reflects directly back into the camera and results in a glare. This is easily overcome by either using ambient light or another light source at a 45 degree angle which will not reflect into the camera. Perhaps their future models will have a light mounted on the upright post which will not reflect into the camera. The software is reasonably intuitive. Their manual is in understandable English. Their customer service is responsive - got reply within a day. I've been using at home with my desktop PC, but can appreciate that it is easily portable to be used in a library with a laptop. Yes, a carrying case would be an enhancement. While there are options to permit automatic camera operation when the next page is turned, I am old and slow and prefer to manually activate the camera --- to make that easier I put the manual switch on the floor and activate it with my foot, which leaves my hands free to hold the pages open. Putting a glob of hotmelt in the hollow of the switch raises it enough to use easily as a foot switch. The pros are good enough for me that the few cons don't detract from a 5 star rating.
Trustpilot
2 weeks ago
2 months ago
