VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand Portable Scanner

If all you want is to scan an article or recipe, where the quality of the scan isnt so important, this would be a useful product. I purchased it to scan images from antique books that would be damaged if placed on a flatbed scanner. I found the product extremely disappointing, for the following reasons. 1) The scanning portion of the wand is recessed at least 1/2 inch at the end of the wand, which means that if youre trying to fit it against the inner margin (gutter) of a book, youll end up losing much of your image. Basically your margin has to be about an inch wide for it to work. You can try rotating the wand, but if you scan over a surface that is not COMPLETELY flat (e.g., an open book), youll get distortions. 2) Distortions. Again, if the surface isnt completely flat, if you dont scan completely straight, if you jiggle the scanner at all, youll get distortions. If there are curves to the surface of your page (again, common in an open book), theyll show and distort the image. Youll find that a square picture will come out skewed. So if an EXACT reproduction of a page or image is what youre after, this isnt going to do the job. 3) Going off the edge of a page... This scanner works pretty well if you can scan a flat document on a solid flat surface (e.g., a single piece of paper on a tabletop). But if youre scanning a large book, you have the problem of the scanner dropping off the edge once you reach the bottom or side of the book. You may not have reached the end of the portion you wish scanned when the scanner itself runs out of room. 4) No ability to remove screening. If youre scanning photos or color illustrations from a book or magazine, there is no mechanism to get rid of the moire patterns that result from scanning a screened image. Most flatbed scanners have a descreening option that enables you to get rid of this. Since its just about impossible to get rid of a screen moire AFTER the fact, this greatly reduces the scanners usefulness. 5) No ability to view the image as it is being scanned. If you want to see how it came out, you have to stop work, plug it in, go look at the picture, then click on the remove device icon to remove it, go back, scan again, and so on... It would be helpful if you could plug this directly into your computer and see the scans as you make them. I havent quite decided if Im going to keep this product or just give up and try to resell it (the return-by date being long gone), but again... it depends on what you want it for. If youre a student and you just need to be able to scan in material to study, but it doesnt have to be a perfect reproduction (just readable), I think this would be very helpful. But if you need a high-quality image, its going to be very, very frustrating.

This portable scanner is very convenient and has been great in helping me get rid of the amount of paper I keep. However, the quality of each individual scan depends completely on how smoothly & straightly you slide the device over the paper. Because of that, a lot of the documents I scan have a weird warped appearance to them where the scanner started to slant while I was sliding it. Its not terrible, but depending on what your intention is for scanning the documents, it may be unacceptable. For example, I wouldnt recommend it for photos. If you use it for typed text, you will still be able to read it, however one end of a line of text may be normal sized while the other end is a little squished, for example. Again, for convenience, this is a great device, and its simple to use. Note that the default setting is Low Resolution, so hit the DPI button each time you power it on if you prefer the higher resolution. It saves nice quality jpeg images onto a MicroSD card (not included, so be sure to add one to your order, as well as whatever adapter you need to plug the microSD card into your laptop). You also have the option of plugging the scanner into your computer via a USB cable, but I have not tried that yet. Also, it comes with a nice microfiber bag to store the scanner in. Nice touch.

I am in the midst of tracing my family tree and was looking for something like this that I could pass over a delicate document without worries of having to try to feed it through a regular portable scanning device. Plus, there are so many things that you just cant feed through or lay flat on a scanner. This tool is perfect for the day when I can go to a historical archive and need to scan a document. That said, this scanner did not come with very good directions - in fact it came with hardly any directions at all. It came furnished with batteries (but not the microSD card - youll need to supply your own). I thought the batteries were dead because when I clicked the power button nothing happened. It took a few minutes for me to figure out that you have to hold the power button down for 3-5 seconds to turn it on and to turn it off. Youll also need a paperclip to put in this teeny tiny hole near the microSD card slot so you can format the card the first time you use it. After I figured out how the scanner worked I scanned two items (I posted both in the pictures section - an image of Time magazine that came out really well on the first try, and a scan of the directions that came with this scanner - printed matter doesnt seem to scan as easily as pictures do). They were automatically saved in .jpeg format, which is great because you can edit what you scan later. For example, in the genealogy field, you may scan more of a page than you need - many archived documents have references to more than one family that you can edit off the document, saving only the portion you want to keep. On the whole, I am really pleased with this scanner. It has little rollers on it that roll smoothly over the surface youre scanning. It was easy to upload the images I scanned onto my computer using the USB cord provided. It came with a pouch to store it in and a fine cloth to clean it with. The lack of directions would be my only complaint. I was able to figure things out, but it might be a little harder for someone who is not as comfortable with this type of technology to set up on their own. So if you arent very tech savvy, still buy this gadget, but have a tech savvy friend help you set it up. (see my two scans in the pictures section above)

I love this product! Its easy to use, so handy, seems well made. Of course, it is an electronic gadget, so I have been handling it with care and put it away in its case as soon as I am finished with it. I have used it to scan a few hundred pictures so far, and the picture quality is excellent (for my needs, its clear enough to see detail and read text) in both low and high resolution. Took me just a few scans to guage how quickly to move across a page. If the page is too large to do in one swipe, simply do it in two or three overlapping passes. You could stitch it together if you had to, but I have found it to be sufficient to have multiple images rather than spend time putting them together. I then hook it up to the pc (included usb cord), it is recognized as an external storage device, and the images are quickly transferred to my computer. I have used my Picassa photo software to crop the edges neatly, but you dont have to. Currently I am trying to figure out what Id like to do with my kitchen, so I have been scanning pictures of ideas from books, magazines etc, and saving them to a file on my computer. I can use this anywhere for that! Im using the files on my computer right now, but am getting an e-tablet soon, so will be able to have the files with me when i am out and about. I will also be using this to organize receipts, warranties, etc. And, since we homeschool, I can see this coming in handy to scan and organize co-op notes, schedules, all sorts of things. I love this so much I dont even mind I paid $20 more for it a few weeks ago, than it is now. My friend has gotten them for herself and siblings because of mine, and I think I am getting one for my sister for a gift, too. I highly recommend buying the extra storage case, I cant imagine throwing this wand into a backpack or purse without it. And you will want to get rechargeable batteries ( I recommend the hybrid kind, they hold a charge much longer), and keep spares with you if youre out of the house or at the library with it. I only cannot comment fully on the included software, it is supposed to allow you to convert text in the picture to useable text, I havent messed with it enough to be able to give an honest report. Ive got an 8gb micro card for it, the most pictures Ive had on it at one time was 139, of high resolution, and it wasnt full....I didnt think to check and see how much room was left. I do have a desktop scanner, and I found it to be quite a pain to sit at the desk and try to put a book in there the right way, it was so nice to sit at the table and scan that way! Ill still use it as a copy machine, or for quick flat scans, but my go-to scanner is my magic wand. Oh, another recommendation, if you have younger children you may not want to call it a magic wand, mine have been having Harry Potter fantasies about moms new gadget! I think this would be an excellent gift for students, craftspeople.......

I am a doctoral student in Italy, and the university libraries here do not loan out their books, so this scanner is a real game changer for me. Ive used a DocuPen RC-800 scanner in the past, but the VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand works much better for me, especially since I use a Mac. Let me give a little comparison of my impressions of these two devices: The DocuPen is only slightly Mac compatible; the software it uses to integrate with my Mac has almost no options, and is quite cumbersome to work with (the PC version of the software is much better). It is very slow to download the scanned images to my computer, and just as slow to erase the originals from the scanner. In high resolution mode, you have to drag the scanner quite slowly and carefully, or it will mess up the image. The scans that it makes are are decent, but somewhat uneven and grainy. The VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand is better in every way. It has a longer scanning surface, so you can easily scan bigger book pages. You can drag it across the page at almost twice the speed as the DocuPen, and the image still comes out great. Downloading and erasing the originals is a snap. The scanner saves each image as a .jpg file, and when I plug it into my Mac via the USB cable, my computer basically recognizes it as a camera. It automatically opens iPhoto and downloads a whole load of images in a matter of seconds, and then I can delete the originals from the scanner even faster than that. This is a VAST improvement over the DocuPen. Here are a few other helpful hints: When scanning from a book, take a thin sheet of white cardboard (I use the back cover of a spiral notebook) and place it underneath the page youre scanning, all the way up to the spine of the book. Make sure the scanning surface begins as close to the spine of the book as possible, and then drag the scanner from the spine outward. Perfect scans every time! Once my scans are in iPhoto, I drag the whole batch to an empty folder on my desktop. Then I select the entire batch, right click (or control click) on the entire batch, and tell it to open with Adobe Acrobat Pro (you will have to purchase this program, obviously. Its not too expensive if youre a student). When Acrobat opens, it asks you if you would like to turn all of these files into a single PDF. Just click yes, and your whole document is brought together. Then just use Acrobat to do an OCR conversion, and you have a beautiful, searchable PDF of your source document. This collation and OCR process takes a bit of time for the computer to process, but its worth it.

For letter or legal size paper that is perfectly flat, without tears, creases, staples, etc., The VuPoint MagicWand Portable scanner does a good job scanning. However, it doesnt do very well on paper that has been folded and thus contains creases. It also doesnt do very well with books. Since my primary purpose for purchasing the The VuPoint MagicWand Portable scanner was to scan deeds at the courthouse, it should perform well, although I havent yet tried it. I research deeds in my genealogy research. The deed books are designed to opened so that individual pages can be photocopied. Previously, I placed each sheet on the table and photographed them with my digital camera, which worked pretty well but I feel that a scan would produce better results. These sheets of paper are flat and without creases or folds, so they should scan perfectly. When you are rolling the scanner across a sheet of paper (yes there are rollers on the bottom) and it hits a crease, the error light comes on and that spot will be distorted and, sometimes, the scanner stops and closes the file at that point with a partial scan. The bottom line is that IF you are going to scan letter or legal size flat sheets of paper, then this scanner should work well for you. With books or other less than flat pieces of paper, your results will be mixed, at best. By the way, this scanner works perfectly with Linux. You plug the cable into a USB port and it is detected as a camera. You may then move or process the jpg files as you would with any camera. Of course the Windows OCR software included on a CD in the box is of no value to a Linux user. It is a shame that they advertise the device as compatible with only Windows and Mac when the only thing incompatible with Linux is the software CD, which is superfluous anyway. Linux already has tesseract as a perfectly OCR solution and even Windows has alternatives which many users will probably already have installed.

THE SCANNER I GOT WAS USED ONCE OR TWICE. IT WAS ALL I COULD AFFORD. I HAD LIKE THE PRICE. I RATHER HAD ONE I COULD GOT BETTER BUT YOU HAVE TO GET WHAT YOU HAVE TO GET. THE SELLER SAID CAME WITH THE CABLES, SD CARD, AND A COVER BUT NO CLOTH, NO NEW BATTERIES. THE BATTERIES WERE DEAD. THERE WAS NO DVD , NO INSTRUCTIONS, NO WAY TO TELL HOW TO USE IT. IT ARRIVE ON TIME BY THIS SELLER AND IT WAS IN GOOD SHAPE. ONLY THE BATTERY NEEDED TO BE REPLACE. THAT WAS NOT SUCH A BIG DEAL. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND SO MUCH BUYING THIS BUT IT WORKS AND IT DOES NOT WORK BECAUSE IF YOU HAVE OLD PICTURES FROM YOUR MOMS HOUSE YOU WANT TO SCAN YOU NEED TO FIND A GOOD FLAT SURFACE AND FIND A LITTLE PIECE OF TAPE THAT IS NOT SO STICKY THAT WILL DESTROY THE PICTURE. IT WILL WORK THAT WAY SOME. YOU ALSO NEED TO TRY NOT TO SHAKE YOUR HAND TOO MUCH. I ALMOST THROWED THIS MACHINE OUT THE WINDOW TRYING SO MANY TIMES. BEST THINGS SCAN SAME PICTURE A FEW TIMES AND GET THE BEST ONE OUT OF IT. THE CABLES CAME WITH IT DID NOT WORK, I HAD TO USE THE PLUGABLE HIGH SPEED USB 2.0 CARD READER THAT I ALSO GOT FROM AMAZON. I KNEW ABOUT THIS BECAUSE MY FRIEND HAD A CARD READER LIKE THIS. IT HAS THREE SLOTS FOR DIFFERENT CARD SIZES. THIS WAS THE ONLY WAY I COULD SEE MY PICTURES CABLES DID THAT CAME WITH IT DID NOT . I DONT KNOW WHY MAYBE ITS MY COMPUTER. IF I COULD I WOULD OF BOUGHT ONE BETTER BUT IT WILL DO FOR A START BETTER THAN A DIGITAL CAMERA THAT I HAD THAT DID NOT WORK SO WELL ON PICTURES. THESE SCANNER PRICES ARE VERY HIGH. YOU CAN TRY TO USE THIS FOR SOMETHING IMPORTANT BUT A OFFICE SCANNER WOULD BE MORE SUGGEST ON BUYING. THIS PORTABLE SCANNER WELL THE VUPOINT IS GOOD IF YOU HAVE NO CHOICE. I HAD TO FIND MY INFO ON THE INTERNET THROUGH WEBSITES AND YOUTUBE SINCE SELLER GAVE ME NO INSTRUCTIONS. I DID MY HOMEWORK BEFORE BUYING BUT THIS WAS THE CHEAPEST I COULD AFFORD TILL I CAN GET A BETTER ONE IN FUTURE. WHEN YOU CANT BRING YOUR BIG SCANNER THAT IS ON YOUR DESK THIS IS BETTER A PORATBLES SCANNER IF YOU NEED GO MOMS HOUSE WHEN YOU KNOW YOU CANT TAKE HOME THOSE OLD PICTURES BECAUSE SHE HAS NO EXTRA COPIES. I SAY ITS LONG ENOUGH FOR A NOTEBOOK SIZE TO SCAN. I WOULD GIVE MORE STARS BUT SELLER LEFT ME IN THE DARK BUT I GUESS I READ NO INSTRUCTIONS WITH IT SINCE IT WAS NOT NEW. LIKE I SAY IT WILL WORK BUT IT CAN BE FUSTRATED JUST PUT A LITTLE TAPE NOT SO STICK, A GOOD, AND A FLAT SURFACE AND IT SHOULD WORK SOME . THIS SCANNER PRICE SHOULD BE MORE LOWER.

My intention in purchasing this magic wand scanner was to get a good reproduction of a pinball playfield so I could create a vector file and reprint the art. Unfortunately, this is not the tool for my job. The package contained the wand, a cloth sleeve to store it, and a USB cable to hook up to a PC. A Micro SD card is not included in the base model, so that will need to be purchased separately as there is no on-board storage. I eagerly brought this out to the shop where the pinball machines are kept. I wanted to get a proportional scan of the entire playfield art of a pinball machine to reproduce it. Unfortunately, it was impossible to take any scan and get the image to come out with no distortion. Any small imperfections in the movement of the scanner will throw off any consistency in the image. This could come from minor imperfections in the surface of the image being scanned (bumps etc) or issues with the guide wheels not properly moving in sync with each other. In the end, trying to stitch multiple scans together into a single image was impossible due to flaws in the scans. My use was very specialized and it didnt work out for the use I needed. That being said, the color reproduction and the resolution was actually quite excellent. Using this to scan photos or documents would be a no-brainer. I would highly recommend this for scanning items that fit within the 8.5 parameters and do not require absolute perfection. I still plan on keeping it for those purposes.

It has been way too long since anyone made a really usable hand scanner. Ive been looking for one for years. So I was very excited when I saw a review of the Magic Wand on one of my news feeds. This product does the trick. You have to be fairly slow and steady to get a good scan, but hey... its a hand scanner! So no surprise there. The scan quality is quite acceptable for a device of this type. Not what you would get from a flatbed scanner, but hey... its a hand scanner! Print is readable, photo quality isnt fantastic but might improve as my scanning skills get better. The scanner is bundled with ABBYY Screenshot Reader, which extracts text from an image. ABBYY is one of the major producers of optical character recognition (OCR)software. I have a document scanner that came with and ABBYY OCR program. But I have never seen a screenshot reader before. This product allows you to select an area on your computer screen, and it will extract text from that area and put it in your clipboard. So when you scan an image with the Magic Wand, you can connect the scanner to your computer with a USB cable (included); open the image in a picture viewer; and use Screenshot Reader to capture the text. You will probably have to do a bit of touch-up after you paste the text into another application. I have yet to see an OCR program that does perfect text conversion. One trick that helps a lot is to zoom in on the text to make it larger. OCR programs work better with larger text. I am very pleased with the Magic Wand. I keep it next to my laptop in the living room (yeah, Im a multi-computer geek, and I do side surfing while Im watching TV) so I can quickly scan things out of magazines or books. And its small enough to toss in my computer bag when Im on the road. Along with my Planon Printsitk portable printer (

I like it, but it does NOT last long on batteries. Even after re-charging after downloading images scanned from a 32GB SD card, I can barely get another 12 images from the yearly Calendars Ive bought. I forgot to do this for 2016 and will be scanning them in 2017. I will try scanning while usb is plugged into an outlet on computer, but I bought it to scan on the road also. It needs NEW batteries after about 30 scans. How ever at least you provided software which my Poloroid scanner also did but stopped working and I got NO help trying to get software upgrade which stopped with Windows 10, which I hate this software. Be that as may, if this scanner could scan 17 inch by any length, and more battery back-up or re-charging a built in lithium battery, I would buy again at even more expensive because I could go into ANY library and scan ANY book or map I wanted. One of the benefits of this type of wand scanning is that you do NOT have to destroy a document to scan it, like most other hand scanners that you feed a page into a scanner means you MUST tear the page from the documents, books, magazine, maps etc. This hand wand works for what I generally wish to do, but if you built one where the scan size was 17 to 24 inches wide by and length and added better battery, Id pay another $200 for one.