Sheet fed duplex scanners in late 2012

golfgirlgolf · Nov 22, 2012

I'm looking to go paperless next year and want something that can handle small volumes of (2 sided) work in a home environment with light office. Below are a few that pop out - but one thing seems to be consistent among most of the comments I read - software for scanners is super outdated or doesn't work at all.

Fujitsu ScanSnap often comes up -
S1500M (Mac only model) $415 - 50 sheet ADF
S1300i $260 - 10 Sheet ADF...if it only took 20.

The direct competitor to S1500 is -
Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S50 $330 - 75 sheet ADF

1500M supposedly might come with Adobe Acrobat but a version so old it's maybe for Leopard or something. Useless.

1500M has a limit of 14" length for scanning a document and cannot handle different sizes in one batch.

GTS50 can go up to 36" in length and is less prone to jams or double feeding, and can adapt to different sizes in one batch.

There's lots of individual reviews out there, but I'm wondering SPECIFICALLY about the usability of the software for the MODERN OSX - Lion and beyond in current scanners on the market - while staying in a realistic consumer level budget.

nuckinfutz · Nov 22, 2012

Owned the Epson GT-50 and sold it. Scanner hardware was solid other than it could never seem to deskew the pages well. Dealbreaker on the Epson was the horrible software. Didn't compare at all to Scansnap software.

Thought I got a great deal on a Neat scanner but it doesn't play well outside of Neat softwares ecosystem and I'm not just feeling them as a company. Will be selling it.

What I want is the model that replaces the S1500m. The S1500 line has been out now for a couple of years. I'm not sure what Fujitsu's cycle is like but i'm hoping we get refreshed model like the 1300i in 2013 so I can finally go paperless.

My ordeal has been painful. Should have just bought the Scansnap from day 1 .

spacepower7 · Nov 22, 2012

I have the Scansnap 1300.

I'm still new, trying to be consistent, with the whole paperless methods.

I suggest reading the MacSparky "Paperless" book in the iBooks store, assuming you have a device that can read that. I think it has something close to 30-40 hours of video and screencasts.

David Sparks is a lawyer and Mac nerd who contributes a lot to the Mac community. He has a blog at MacSparky.com He has a lot of great free advice.

My opinion of the Scansnap 1300 is overall positive. It comes with a limited (only works with Scansnap scans?) version of ABBY OCR software which costs about $100 for a full version but is one of the best OCR software available.

Every once in a while I have to rescan things, but mainly because the paper has many creases/folds. The scanner intake feed can input the scan unevenly sometimes but not enough to be troubling.

I guess that the best way to summarize .....

The S1500M is old and needs to be updated. When I checked it out the included Adobe Acrobat was 1 or 2 versions behind, and not sure about software upgrade pricing. The Mac version usually costs $100-200 more than the PC version when on sale.

The S1300 works with both Mac and PC.

I think the Scansnap is solid enough that I would consider updating (got boxes of work paper of scan) from the S1300 to the S1500M replacement. But not the S1500M, it's been around for years.

No experience with the Epsons

glenthompson · Nov 22, 2012

I bought the Scansnap 1500m. Been very happy with it so far (3 months). The 50 sheet limit is optimistic. If you put much more than 40 sheets there's a greaterchance of jamming. Keep the feeds to 20 to 30 sheets and it rarely jams. Acrobat is version 9 which is more than adequate for my needs. You can upgrade for $199.

golfgirlgolf · Nov 23, 2012

Thanks - it sounds like sticking with the ScanSnap is the way to go.

Now - I have a line on a $300 refurbished S1500M - the age of this box and the bundled software concerns me a bit. It is also missing Acrobat 9.

Or just go with the S1300i for $260 new and figure to resell it if I decide I need more scanning power (which should be easy as it is a current model).

It's not like we're a law office or real estate firm or something with tons of paperwork - just a home office that needs to eliminate paper mail and bills.

We just took 10 bankers boxes of old docs to the shredders - that was from nearly 10 years of saving stuff though. We probably only will shred (and scan) 1 bankers box per year based on this. Thinking aloud - the S1300i might just be fine.

BUT the higher level S1500M for just slightly more is tempting - albeit a much larger footprint.... hmmmm.

golfgirlgolf · Nov 23, 2012

Decided to go with the S1300i - smaller footprint, portability, simplicity and in reality the thing that takes the longest on these is OCR - that's not different between the two. Plus it's a more up to date model. If I find we need more speed down the road the timing should be good for whatever S1500M replacement comes out next.

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Sheet fed duplex scanners in late 2012

golfgirlgolf

macrumors regular

nuckinfutz

macrumors 603

spacepower7

macrumors 68000

glenthompson

macrumors demi-god

golfgirlgolf

macrumors regular

golfgirlgolf

macrumors regular

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