ScanSnap S510M Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Scanner

I can only repeat what others have said: I love this thing. I looked at several other sheet-fed scanners from HP and others. Nothing seems to do what this does. It is very simple, very well designed, a very fast. My advice is to download the updated software on the support site - scanning profiles is a nice feature. Im a grad student who is overloaded with research and documents - this made it very simple to create pdfs and use spotlight to search for them when I need them.

after seeing the scansnap in action on a website, i must have spent a good months several pouring over the 10+ odd reviews on amazon for all the pros and cons. the possibility of going paperless was almost more than my inner productivity nerd could handle. so is it worth it? * initial impressions: i distinctly remember my impression the first time steve jobs demoed the iphone. o @#*$@#*$. watching the scansnap slurp in a stack of papers and output them instantly in pdf form produced a similar reaction. so FREAKING FAST. * as other readers have expressed, the ocr is slow. if you dont need to ocr everything you scan, youll be good. at this point, ive just decided that some things dont need ocr. * i heavily debated waiting for the upcoming s300m but ultimately decided to go in for the s510m. the dealbreaker was that the s300m does NOT come with adobe acrobat professional. in my opinion, this TOTALLY makes it the s510m worth it. the ability to optimize / compress / combine / split / adjust your pdfs is very very nice. * make sure to visit the fujitsu site for a $[...] manufacturers rebate. see the discussions on the amazon product page for the s510m more information. * this does photos, but my photo friend told me that the good quality 600dpi is going to give you fuzzy photos. i would imagine if youre not big on exact replication of your photos, youll be fine. in my experience with images + text, no problems. * document clarity is excellent as others have indicated. you can set it up to scan one side (simplex) by default, two sides (duplex), or auto-detect. and yes, it is stupid fast. * my only gripe is that there isnt a save as option right after you scan a document. you have to manually rename in finder. * you know things are different when you start conniving things that might need to be scanned so you can shred / throw them away. bye bye stacks of paper. the speed and ease of scanning is a game changer. there you have it. good stuff!

I bought this scanner from Amazon just before Christmas after reading many reviews. I must say it was hard to spend $495 on a scanner when you can buy a cheap one for $79. But wow, am I glad I spent the cash. This scanner rocks, especially with the bundled OCR software. Abbyy FineReader is a little slow, even on my dual-core 2.4Ghz MacBook Pro, but by that I mean it takes about 10 seconds per page to produce a fully-searchable PDF. The scanner itself rips through a page in less than two seconds (both sides!), so FineReader becomes the bottleneck if you you want to OCR a large number of documents. But its not like you have to stand there and supervise. Just dump a stack of papers in the feeder, press the button and walk away. If you value your time, buy this scanner. Some people have asked how well it scans photos. Great! The ScanSnap software includes the option to scan directly into iPhoto. Ive already scanned hundreds of old snapshots that have been sitting in boxes for ages because it was too much hassle to scan them one-at-a-time on my old flatbed scanner. Finally, I just want to mention something I havent seen in other reviews. The scanner is also bundled with CardIris business card scanning software. This software does an OK job of scanning and OCRing business cards, which you can then import into Address Book or pretty much any other contact manager or database/spreadsheet app. Unfortunately its a PowerPC app, but it runs fine on my Intel Mac. The OCR function is not as accurate as FineReader, but it allows you to edit each card before saving.

I found this scanner very easy to use with my Intel Mac. The Adobe Acrobat software is worth quite a bit, so as a whole this is good value for money. The Fine Reader software works well, and if you have a Mac, you cant buy it separately, it only comes with this bundle. The resulting, searchable PDFs, made with Fine Reader are a little bigger in filesize than I had hoped. That is the only downside. The scanner is neat, quiet, and easy to setup. The interface and software work well in a Mac environment. Theres also a document holder included for scraps of paper, so they dont get lost inside the scanner. All in all, this is a very good product.

This machine is a pretty good solution for Mac users whose desks (and sometimes floor) have gotten lost under towering stacks of paper. Scanning really is more snappy with the automatic paper/document feeder, one-button scanning and Fujitsus ScanSnap software that allows you to adjust controls for: - quality (normal=fast, better=faster, best=slow, excellent=slower) p.s. best is not actually the best. - color mode (auto-detect, color, black and white) - which sides you scan (duplex, single-sided -- if you choose duplex, it automatically deletes blank pages) Although scanning with this machine is normally a smooth process, paper jams do happen. The likelihood of a paper jam obviously depends on the documents paper quality. Clean and uncreased documents go through most smoothly. With these documents, you can practically walk away worry-free and come back when the scanning is done. For documents that have been stacked tightly together for some time, I do have to watch out for two sheets feeding through at the same time. For documents that tend to stick to each other, I have to smooth out dog ears and creases as best I can, cut off corners that have been stapled (not just use a staple remover), feed singly and/or watch over the scanner to clear any jams that reoccur. Clearing paper jams is extremely simple: use the grey latch (above the scan and power buttons) to swing open the front part of the machine, and pull out any paper. Other perks: The inclusion of Adobe Acrobat Professional helps justify the pricetag. The small size (and lack of bulk) makes it easy to carry or store. Downside: Besides the price, PC users cannot use this model of ScanSnap. Im not sure why Fujitsu has to have two separate models for Mac vs. PC users.

When I got lost one day in my labyrinth of stacked journal articles, receipts, photographs, and other paper detritus, I knew I needed help. While Timothy Ferriss, author of

This is a great machine. It works right out of the box. It is amazingly fast and simple to use. Quiet too. My old multifunction just cant compete. It is now in the basement. Installation is simple. Is much smaller than you would imagine and has a very small footprint. I use this in a home office to scan important documents, receipts, etc. One can actually imagine going paperless. Has a very solid feel. Simple and straight-forward design. One thing to keep in mind, to be able to use the auto-scan button on the scanner you need to have the scan manager software configured as a startup option, the auto scan button only works when the software is up and running. This is easy to do and only puts an icon on your dock. I wish all products were this well designed and useful. This is the Ferrari of scanners. Before I bought it I wondered about the comparatively high price, but after using it, Ive concluded it is actually a bargain compared to the alternatives. Well worth the money due to its speed, design, and quality of output (I havent tried it with photos, only text, magazines, and similar). Pros: simple installation speed small size solidly built good easy to use design high quality scans of documents Cons: One small software glich -- custom file naming is rudimentary and standard built in file naming options are limited. This could be improved.

I bought this scanner last month after reading many positive reviews on it by others. I use it to scan all of my clinical records into electronic format for long term storage. That is a very big job. so far, this scanner has certainly lived up to its positive reputation. it is very fast scanning and sending scanned files to the appropriate place is a breeze. It works very well now and I hope that it will continue to work so superbly in the years to come. It was rather pricey (>$400) but once again, it appears that you get what you pay for. I would buy one again in a heart beat.

A friend insisted that I upgrade to a ScanSnap S510....I didnt read ad carefully enough to note that scanner offered for sale was for a mac and not a windows pc.... but all was not lost. My daughter was pleased to get such a wonderful gift and loves it. Me..I went to the Amazon Market Place and purchased a Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 to work on my Windows system and I am very pleased. Anyone interested in a used Visioneer XP450 in great condition? I find that recently I have become long on scanners

If you are thinking to go paperless (or reduce the clutter) in your office or home and keep digital archives this is the product you need. I have it for 2 weeks now, I use it with an Apple computer and it works flawlessly. The installation is easy, the software is intuitive, comes with Adobe Acrobat and the machine is as simple as you can imagine. The quality of the scans is great. The paper feeding system works well. Sometimes the papers may get trapped in the rolling system but it is easy to resolve opening the front panel. The footprint of this scanner is very small (it will surprise you) so it sits well on the side of my computer without using much desk space. Something to remember ... once you do digital, be sure to implement a backup system that is automatic so you never loose these important documents. Second, implement an organization system for the files [..] and think about the need to encrypt some of the files that contain personal information ... so if your computer is stolen, you dont loose all the personal and critical information with it.