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Canon P-150M vs Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300


mlykke

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Hi

I've been using Evernote for a few years and I'm in the process of really cleaning up my life, which means I'm looking to go 100% paperless.

For that I need a documentscanner but unfortunately most of them are two expensive for my current budget so it seems I have narrowed it down to either the Canon P-150M(I'm a Mac user, hence the M version) or the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 - The price is almost identical in my country so thats not an issue.

I've read a few reviews on them but none of them are really thorough so the only thing i can conclude at the moment is that the Canon looks better when looking at the specs - Twice the scanning speed, TWAIN compatible, double ADF capacity, can scan a wider range of paperstocks but besides that I can't really figure out which one is the best so any input would be greatly appreciated.

I'm curious about the quality of the scans(Both for documents and images), the ease of use, how good the ADF is, the ability to correct crooked scans etc. Especially if there is something that indicates the S1300 to be the right choice - The specs says otherwise but the specs are only part of the truth :)

I've also just noticed the existence of the Epson GT-1500 in the same price range - Anybody have experience with that?

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No experience of the models you mention (sorry) but I do use a ScanSnap 1500, and I'd say the build quality and software integration is 100%. It scans everything from flimsy fax thermo paper to thick card without a hiccup. I'd be lost without it, and it gets more attention than the car these days - dusting the sensors, cleaning the optics, vacuuming the paper runs. (Old paperwork is dusty)

I wouldn't worry about big paper bins - you can always stack more on top of an ongoing scan, and there are going to be paper jams. Speed is going to be important if you do lots of pages, but other compatibilities are academic unless you need it for other uses. The only question is: will it scan to PDF and JPG? If it will, the output will go into Evernote.

Good luck with the scanning!

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Quality of the scans?

PC World did a review and commented: "The S1300 earned a Very Good rating for its overall image quality (using its default settings). It generally reproduced accurate color, monochrome, and grayscale documents with clear text and fine details in both shadows and highlights."

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Thanks for the replies so far ;)

Unfortunately the review PC World did doesn't really help in comparing the two devices :) Plus it mentions nothing about scanning images.

So I'm still interested if anybody has some experience with these two scanners - I'm sure there must be a lot of people on this forum who has :)

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No experience with Canon but I use the S1300. To your point:

Scan quality: 5 stars depending on the resolution you set

Ease of use: 5 stars. Set up is simple or advanced depending on what you want. It's very flexible and offers the ability of making unlimited profiles. So I have one that does single side, another for double side, another for direct to EN, another for higher res, etc, etc.

ADF: 5 stars. I use two hands to adjust the paper guides as sometimes the mechanism needs some help from the other side.

Realignment: 5 stars for all but the largest deviation

I also really like it's ability to scan an editable version to Word.

This video is what sold me:

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I use a Xerox Documate 510 on Big Dog computer. (I name our cars & my computers.) It's got a good document feeder. Although it's not duplex, the software that comes with it (Paperport) allows you to "scan the other side" & it assembles the pages correctly. It's a flatbed, so you can scan things like pages from a book. I recently upgraded from Paperport 12 (that came with the Xerox when I bought it in January, 2007) to PP 14 Pro & like it a LOT better.)

I use the Scantini (Canon P150 - the same one Jamie uses, only the Windows version) on Old Dog computer or with my netbook. It's got an ok document feeder & is duplex (scans both sides during a single pass.) But I find I often need to only load a few pages in the ADF b/c it's not the best. (The Xerox one can handle 50 pages.) This is not a flatbed scanner, so it will not scan pages from a book, unless you rip the pages from the book. Since Big Dog is my main computer, I have Old Dog save the scans into Dropbox so they are then auto xferred to Big Dog. I can then move them from Dropbox to the appropriate place on Big Dog and drop a copy into Evernote, too. (That whole redundancy thing.)

The Scantini folds up fairly compact (4 x 11 x 1 1/2 inches). Paired with a netbook, you have a fairly compact scanning solution, if you don't want to use a camera.

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Thanks for all the replies - I really appreciate your help :)

BurgersN -> Judging by your answer and some other posts I've seen, it seems like you own/have owned quite a few scanners - Do you have experience with the S1300 for comparison?

Whats your experience on the Canons feeder in relation to skewing? Does it easily skew documents(And what about receipts and business cards) or does it only happen rarely?

Does the Canon have the option of scanning each page into a separate file without doing it manually? So i can dump 10-20 documents and automatically get 10-20 PDF files without scanning one document at a time?

Just to clarify on my original post - I don't care about portability, weight, looks etc. I also don't care much about the ability to scan to Word or similar. My main use will be to go fully paperless and everything will be scanned to PDF, JPG or TIFF - So i don't care much about any document handling software included besides the actual scanning software.

So my main criteria is scan-quality - But since i will be scanning thousands of documents(5 big moving boxes filled with paper and then some) the speed is also a factor although quality is more important - And it doesn't matter that the Canon is twice as fast if it's ADF is vastly inferior to the Fujitsu.

I'm not planning to use the scanner to scan photos on a regular basis but a got a bunch of old photos that i would like to scan in a fairly good quality but i also got quite a few magazines that i want to scan - Which is why quality for images/photos is also a factor.

And as mentioned, the ADF is also fairly important due to the large amount of scans i need to do on the initial scan of all documents and the number of pages for a magazine. I don't mind a doublefeed once in a while but if it happens 1/3 of the time, then it becomes a pain.

My worry about the ScanSnap is also the fact it doesn't support TWAIN so i will be stuck with the included software which means it has to be very good for PDF, JEPG and TIFF scanning and handle all needed situations such as simplex, duplex, empty page skipping, scanning multiple pages to seperate files etc.

Sorry for the wall of text, but living in a country where no store has the products on display to investigate the matters myself doesn't help - And reading a handfull of reviews which doesn't compare the products doesn't make it clear which product is the best.

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BurgersNFries - Could you be persuaded to spend a few minutes shedding some light on my questions in regard to the Scantini? :)

Sorry, mylkke... I've been busy the past few days & must have overlooked your post. I do have, you could say, a fleet of scanners. :P I do not have experience with the S1300 or any Fujitsu, for that matter. I do use a Neatreceipts scanner (the "candy bar" one, along with the NR software) for thermal receipts from gas stations, grocery stores, Starbucks, etc. Of my fleet, this scanner is best for these things b/c the NR firmware modified the scanner so it doesn't cut off at 14 inches, which most scanners will do. So if you have a very long grocery receipt, you can get it all scanned in. An alternative, of course, is to use scissors & cut it up to fit onto a flatbed.

Anyway, regarding your other criteria, based upon my experience with the Scantini (P150) & the Xerox Documate 510, I would pick the Xerox in a heartbeat. I purchased this in Jan 2007 & it came with Paperport 12. I just recently upgraded to PP 14 Pro & it is SO MUCH better than PP12. Mostly b/c it previews the scanned pages. So you can see if something is muffed up & rescan it. It also allows you to rotate or delete any pages in the preview section. With PP12, I'd have to scan, then manually open the document & check all pages to make sure they scanned ok. Or if I needed to rotate any pages. (IE, sometimes a page or an entire document may have one end bent & the other end clean...so you scan with the "clean" end going first to avoid jamming the scanner.) This doesn't mean the Xerox is the best scanner out there b/c I've not kept up with scanners, since I'm not in the market for one. (Right now... :D ) But of the two "document" scanners I've got & given your criteria, I would go with the Xerox.

Also, one of my scanners is dedicated to photos, slides & negatives. BUT...I occasionally do use the Xerox to scan photos. Paperport 14 Pro allows that as a "profile". Another nifty thing about PP14 Pro is you can scan several photos kind of batch style & then name them. IE, one project I'm doing is scanning all the cards from my old Rolodex. :) I scan them as color jpegs. Scan one, remove it, add next one, scan, rinse & repeat. THEN, after I say I'm done, the dialog box will appear for me to name the files. So I after I remove the card from the scanner, I place it face down on my desk, on top of the previous card. When it's time to name them, I grab the pile, turn it over & know what I want to name the file. (Hope that makes sense...)

Anyway, please feel free to ask me any other questions regarding the scanners I use. I apologize in advance for any delayed response... We're hosting Thanksgiving & so I'm not always on top of the new posts like usual. :)

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Burgers -> No worries, i greatly appreciate the help :)

In my country the 510 isn't available but the 515 is - But that one is only a simplex scanner and then looses much of it's appeal. It's also pushing my budget a bit too much so I'm still left with either the ScanSnap or the Scantini.

In a previous post you mentioned that the Scantini's ADF isn't the best - Could elaborate a bit about what problems you have with it?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was about to order the Canon P-150 scanner but then I found out that Canon just recently released the Canon P-215 scan tini scanner. Any thoughts on the Canon P-215 scanner? It looks like it has similar features to the 150 but it has a built-in reader which I don't think I really need since I will be just using for personal use only. But I like the design of the 215 better but I don't know if it's worth the extra $40 or so.

Ben

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In a previous post you mentioned that the Scantini's ADF isn't the best - Could elaborate a bit about what problems you have with it?

Problems I regularly encounter with the ADF on the P150 are that it's not that great at separating pages. Sometimes it's fine. But most of the time, I try to only load a few pages, if it's a large document. Sometimes, even those are problematic. IE, you get a three page bill that's folded in thirds. I normally crease the folds the opposite direction to make them "flatter". (Hope that makes sense.) That will work perfectly in my Xerox ADF. But sometimes the P150 will grab 2 or all three pages as one page.

OTOH, the P150 seems to be better with thin pages than the Xerox. IE, if you're feeding in something such as a flyer that's printed on newsprint. Even then, I still only feed one sheet in at a time. Once it's started into the scanner, I will load the next sheet. But that's an example of a document that the Xerox ADF would totally muff up.

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